UN Acting Against Human Rights Advocates
 
Contributed

On November 5, the Security Office of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon forcefully stripped Anne Bayefsky of her credentials after she spoke out against the UN's anti-Israel and pro-Hamas Goldstone Report resolution. Bayefsky had long been one of the few genuine critics and watchdogs inside the building, often eliciting anger because for her vocal support of Israel and her opposition to General Assembly resolutions outlawing criticism of extremist Islam.

As Director of the Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust at New York's Touro College, Bayefsky heads a US NGO entitled to access at the UN. Now she is waiting on the UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), a committee chaired by Sudan, a human rights abuser, to decide if she will be allowed future access to UN proceedings.

Her original “violation” has yet to be clarified, ranging from “the Palestinian Ambassador is very upset at the statement you made” to pretexts about the credentials of her assistants.

President Obama has promised to “engage in the work of improving the UN human rights system.” But instead of fighting for free speech and access for American NGO's, the State Department and US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, have allowed Bayefsky's status to remain in limbo while a group chaired by Sudan decides her fate.

Nobody, especially, Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, should sit silently by while the few genuine human rights advocates in the UN are silenced. The CJHS has urged action on the demand for Bayefsky’s immediate reinstatement. The US Congress and especially members of the Committees on Foreign Relations charged with overseeing the State Department and the US’s UN mission must be involved and act quickly. Time is of the
Essence and there must be a forceful response in support of Bayefsky and in defense of free speech.

It’s unacceptable for America to sit on the sidelines while anti-American, anti-Israeli regimes decide whether our NGOs can enter the United Nations building. The US State Department must take a strong moral stand on this and other issues affecting free speech and the violation of human rights in countries that are now heading and are members of the UN bodies.