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Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts) Fri Oct 2, 2015, 05:24 AM Oct 2015

Wikileaks Exposes Secret Deal to Get Saudi Arabia on UN Human Rights Council

September 30, 2015

United Kingdom — Two years after the controversial appointment of Saudi Arabia to the U.N. Human Rights Council, leaked diplomatic cables have revealed the U.K. was a key player in the election of the Gulf State ─ despite the Saudis’ appalling human rights record.
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) is tasked with the promotion and protection of human rights throughout the world. What’s remarkably under-reported (yet unsurprising) is the claim that notorious human rights abuser, Saudi Arabia, pledged $1 million to UNHRC prior to winning the blood-stained seat.

What is surprising is the next chapter in the farcical saga.

In a classic case of you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours, the leaked cables ─ translated by U.N. Watch ─ allege that a secret vote trading deal was made by Britain and Saudi Arabia to ensure both countries were elected to the council.

Passed to Wikileaks in June, the classified files refer to Saudi talks with British diplomats prior to the November 2013 vote in New York.

One read: “The delegation is honoured to send to the ministry the enclosed memorandum, which the delegation has received from the permanent mission of the United Kingdom asking it for the support and backing of the candidacy of their country to the membership of the human rights council (HRC) for the period 2014-2016, in the elections that will take place in 2013 in the city of New York.”

The leaked files then elaborate on the trading of “support” between the two countries:........... more

http://theantimedia.org/wikileaks-exposes-secret-deal-to-get-saudi-arabia-on-un-human-rights-council/

3 replies

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Wikileaks Exposes Secret Deal to Get Saudi Arabia on UN Human Rights Council (Original Post) Ichingcarpenter Oct 2015 OP

Buy enough London real estate and Typhoon fighters, and we'll throw in Westminster Abbey. Deal? leveymg Oct 2015 #1

And then you can behead, crucify, bomb Ichingcarpenter Oct 2015 #2

Saudi Objections Halt U.N. Inquiry of Yemen War Ichingcarpenter Oct 2015 #3

leveymg

(36,418 posts)

1. Buy enough London real estate and Typhoon fighters, and we'll throw in Westminster Abbey. Deal?

Reply to Ichingcarpenter (Original post)

Fri Oct 2, 2015, 08:15 AM

Oct 2015

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)

2. And then you can behead, crucify, bomb

Reply to leveymg (Reply #1)

Fri Oct 2, 2015, 08:33 AM

Oct 2015

And deny women human rights or whoever you like and be on the human rights board

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)

3. Saudi Objections Halt U.N. Inquiry of Yemen War

Reply to Ichingcarpenter (Original post)

Fri Oct 2, 2015, 08:55 AM

Oct 2015

GENEVA — In a U-turn at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Western governments dropped plans Wednesday for an international inquiry into human rights violations by all parties in the war in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians in the last six months.

The change of direction came as the Netherlands withdrew the draft of a resolution it had prepared with support from a group of mainly Western countries that instructed the United Nations high commissioner for human rights to send experts to Yemen to investigate the conduct of the war.

That proposal was a follow-up to recommendations by the commissioner, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, who detailed in a report this month the heavy civilian loss of life inflicted not only by the relentless airstrikes of the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia but also by the indiscriminate shelling carried out by Houthi rebels.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/01/world/middleeast/western-nations-drop-push-for-un-inquiry-into-yemen-conflict.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=%2AMideast%20Brief

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