Israel Matzav

Obama finds a diplomat

It appears that there is at least one real diplomat in the Obama diplomatic corps. he is David Killion, who is Obama's ambassador to UNESCO. On Wednesday, Killion blasted the organization for naming Syria's Assad regime to two of its 'human rights' committees.

David Killion, U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO, in response today to a question by UN Watch, said that >“the Syrian regime’s actions are an affront to the dignity and human rights of the Syrian people, and it is not fit to sit on this body.”

Ambassador Killion reaffirmed the U.S. government’s strong objection to Syria’s participation in the UNESCO Committee on Conventions and Recommendations stating, “It is indefensible for the Syrian regime to be allowed to stand as a judge of other countries’ human rights records while it systematically violates the human rights of its citizens, commits acts of sexual violence against women and children, and murders its own people.”

UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer saluted the U.S. for speaking out, and urged France, Germany, the UK, and the EU to similarly condemn Syria’s “obscene” membership on the committee, and to take concrete action to remove it. Neuer also called on UN chief Ban Ki-moon and UNESCO director Irina Bokova “to use their moral voice to spur action.”
“Now that both the OIC and the Arab League have removed Assad’s regime from their organizations, there is simply no longer any excuse — morally or politically — for UNESCO to insist on keeping Assad’s regime on a human rights committee that is charged with helping victims worldwide. It’s time for UNESCO to stop legitimizing a government that mercilessly murders its own people,” said Neuer.

Ambassador Killion also told UN Watch that “The Assad regime has repeatedly acted to silence the voice of the Syrian people and to repress independent media attempting to report on its misdeeds. The regime’s brutality has sparked a humanitarian crisis, causing innocent suffering and senseless tragedy. This is a regime willing to exact collective punishment on innocent communities, import fighters from Iran and Hizbollah to help carry out its evil deeds, and destroy the country and its heritage for the sake of its own survival.”

After UNESCO elected Syria to its human rights committee in November 2011, UN Watch launched a campaign to reverse the decision, prompting the US and Britain to initiate a March 2012 debate at UNESCO. However, while a resolution was adopted censuring Syria’s violations — a welcome first for UNESCO — the promised call to oust the regime from UNESCO’s human rights panel was excised.

Isn't it a pity that no one spoke out until Syria was expelled from the OIC and the Arab League? Isn't it a pity that no one spoke out while there was still to make sure that the Syrian uprising would be secular and not Islamist? Too little, too late? Well, yeah, but better late than never.

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Syria, Syrian uprising, UNESCO

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:22 PM