Initiatives for China/Citizen Power for China joins with Top EU Legislators and NGOs to Appeal Against UNHRC Candidacies of China, Cuba, Russia, Saudi Arabia

Appeal Against Unworthy UN Human Rights Candidacies

Excellency,

 

We, the undersigned members of parliament, human rights activists and non-governmental organizations, call on you to publicly oppose the candidacies of Algeria, China, Cuba, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, for seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council, elections for which will be held on November 12, 2013. We urge you to take action to defeat these manifestly unworthy candidacies, which threaten to cast a shadow upon the reputation of the Council-and of the United Nations as a whole.

 

Candidates for the UN Human Rights Council, according to General Assembly Resolution 60/251, are supposed to be countries that “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights.”

 

Yet it is widely recognized that Algeria, China, Cuba Russia, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam fail to meet these basic membership criteria. They have poor if not abysmal records on human rights protection at home, and on human rights promotion at the UN.

 

Rather than giving these non-democratic governments influence over vital decision on human rights, we urge you to introduce resolutions at the United Nations to hold these nations accountable, and to condemn their gross and systematic human rights violations.

 

Silence is complacency. For the sake of millions of victims worldwide who need a credible and effective international human rights body, please do not be silent.

 

Sincerely,

 

Edward McMillan-Scott, MEP
European Parliament Vice-President for Human Rights & Democracy

 

Elmar Brok, MEP
Chair of Committee on Foreign Affairs, European Parliament

 

Guy Verhofstadt, MEP
Leader of Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE)
Former Prime Minister of Belgium

 

Baroness Deech
Member of the British House of Lords
Academic, lawyer, bioethicist, former Principal of St Anne’s College, Oxford

 

Baroness Ludford
Member of European Parliament, UK
Nonvoting member of the House of Lords

 

Honourable Irwin Cotler, MP
Member of Canadian Parliament, Liberal Party Critic for Rights & Freedoms, International Justice
Former Justice Minister & Attorney General

 

Emanuelis Zingeris, MP
President of the Parliamentary Forum for Democracy, Lithuania

 

Matyas Eörsi
Secretary General of the Parliamentary Forum for Democracy, former MP, Hungary

 

Frank Heinrich, MP
Deutscher Bundestag

 

Dr. Mantas Adoménas, MP
Lithuania

 

Michael Danby, MP
Australia

 

Egidijus Vareikis, MP
Lithuania

 

Bi-khim Hsiao
Member of the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan

 

Hans van Baalen
Member of the European Parliament, Netherlands

 

Hannu Takkula
Member of European Parliament, Finland

 

United Nations Watch
Hillel Neuer, Executive Director
Switzerland

 

Human Rights Foundation
Thor Halvorssen, President

 

Initiatives for China/Citizen Power for China
Yang Jianli, President

 

Council for a Community of Democracies
Robert LaGamma, President

 

The Gulf Institute
Ali AlAhmed

 

Mothers and Women against Repression, M.A.R. Por Cuba
Sylvia Iriondo, President

 

Viet Tan
Do Hoang Diem, Chairman

 

Cuban Democratic Directorate
John Suarez, International Secretary

 

United Towns Agency for North South Cooperation
Simonne Piazzini, Secretary General

 

Associated Country Women of the World
Sharon Hatten, UN Committee Chair

 

Gram Bharati Samiti (GBS)
Bhawani Shanker Kusum, Executive Director
India

 

Christian Coalition
Charles Mwape, President
Zambia

 

TicinoTibet
Tashi Albertini, President

 

Gender Empowerment and Development (GeED)
Tilder Kumichii, Programme Coordinator
Cameroon

 

Consorcio desarrollo y Justicia
Carlos E . Tinoco
Venezuela