Testimony at the UN

UN-believable! UN-thinkable! The UN is really a bunch of Unwanted Nobodies, Undesirable & Nefarious. This is no longer Human Rights, this is Human Wrongs, where principles are up for auction and languages are being distorted to placate the vilest possible creatures alive today, just because they have the 30 pieces of silver to buy off un-officials. Yuck!

Human Rights Nightmare
Speech before UN Human Rights Council 4th Session23 March 2007
Delivered by Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch

Mr. President,
Six decades ago, in the aftermath of the Nazi horrors, Eleanor Roosevelt, Réné Cassin and other eminent figures gathered here, on the banks of Lake Geneva, to reaffirm the principle of human dignity. They created the Commission on Human Rights. Today, we ask: What has become of their noble dream?
In this session we see the answer. Faced with compelling reports from around the world of torture, persecution, and violence against women, what has the Council pronounced, and what has it decided?
Nothing. Its response has been silence. Its response has been indifference. Its response has been criminal.
One might say, in Harry Truman’s words, that this has become a Do-Nothing, Good-for-Nothing Council.
But that would be inaccurate. This Council has, after all, done something.
It has enacted one resolution after another condemning one single state: Israel. In eight pronouncements- and there will be three more this session- Hamas and Hezbollah have been granted impunity. The entire rest of the world - millions upon millions of victims, in 191 countries - continue to go ignored.
So yes, this Council is doing something. And the Middle East dictators who orchestrate this campaign will tell you it is a very good thing. That they seek to protect human rights, Palestinian rights.
So too, the racist murderers and rapists of Darfur women tell us they care about the rights of Palestinian women; the occupiers of Tibet care about the occupied; and the butchers of Muslims in Chechnya care about Muslims.
But do these self-proclaimed defenders truly care about Palestinian rights?
Let us consider the past few months. More than 130 Palestinians were killed by Palestinian forces. This is three times the combined total that were the pretext for calling special sessions in July and November. Yet the champions of Palestinian rights - Ahmadinejad, Assad, Khaddafi, John Dugard - they say nothing. Little 3-year-old boy Salam Balousha and his two brothers were murdered in their car by Prime Minister Haniyeh’s troops. Why has this Council chosen silence?
Because Israel could not be blamed. Because, in truth, the dictators who run this Council couldn’t care less about Palestinians, or about any human rights.
They seek to demonize Israeli democracy, to delegitimize the Jewish state, to scapegoat the Jewish people. They also seek something else: to distort and pervert the very language and idea of human rights.
You ask: What has become of the founders’ dream? With terrible lies and moral inversion, it is being turned into a nightmare.
Thank you, Mr. President.

REPLY BY U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL PRESIDENT LUIS ALFONSO DE ALBA:
For the first time in this session I will not express thanks for that statement. I shall point out to the distinguished representative of the organization that just spoke, the distinguished representative of United Nations Watch, if you'd kindly listen to me. I am sorry that I'm not in a position to thank you for your statement. I should mention that I will not tolerate any similar statements in the Council. The way in which members of this Council were referred to, and indeed the way in which the council itself was referred to, all of this is inadmissible. In the memory of the persons that you referred to, founders of the Human Rights Commission, and for the good of human rights, I would urge you in any future statements to observe some minimum proper conduct and language. Otherwise, any statement you make in similar tones to those used today will be taken out of the records.

Watch the videotaped address right here:
http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=bdKKISNqEmG&b=1313923&ct=3698367

Now I wonder, could this Luis Alfonso de Alba be a direct or indirect descendant of the infamous Don (my foot) Fernando Alvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, third duke of Alba, alias the Iron Duke?

In 1567, Philip, who was a zealous persecutor of Protestants, sent Alba into the Netherlands at the head of an army of 12,000 men, with unlimited powers for the extirpation of heretics. When he arrived he soon showed how much he merited the confidence which his master reposed in him, and instantly erected a tribunal which soon became known to its victims as the "Blood Council," to try all persons who had been engaged in the late commotions that the rule of Philip had excited. During the six years of his governorship, thousands of people were executed. Dutch accounts refer to 18,000; while in Spanish history only a few hundred are mentioned. About 6,000 casualties can be considered as the most accurate estimate[1]. He imprisoned Lamoral, Count of Egmont and Philip de Montmorency, Count of Hoorn, the two popular leaders of the dissatisfied Dutch nobles, and had them condemned to death even though they were opposed to the Protestants.
His attempt to raise money by imposing the Spanish alcabala, a tax of 10% on all sales ("tenth penny" tax), aroused the opposition of the Catholic Netherlands themselves. The exiles from the Low Countries, who called themselves Geuzen (French gueux, "beggars"), encouraged by the general resistance to his government, fitted out a fleet of privateers, and after strengthening themselves by successful depredations, seized the town of Den Briel (Brielle). Thus Alba by his cruelty became the unwitting instrument of the future independence of the seven Dutch provinces.
On August 22, Alba, accompanied by a body of select Spanish troops, made his entry into Brussels. He immediately appointed a council to condemn without trial those suspected of heresy and rebellion. On June 1, 1568, Brussels witnessed the simultaneous decapitation of twenty-two noblemen; on 6 June followed the execution of the Counts of Egmond and Hoorne. The "Council of Blood" was the popular designation of Alba's tribunal.
The fleet of the exiles, having met the Spanish fleet, defeated it, and reduced Holland and Mons. The States-General, assembling at Dordrecht, openly declared against Alba's government, and marshalled under the banners of the prince of Orange.
Alba's preparations to oppose the gathering storm were made with his usual vigour, and he succeeded in recovering Mons, Mechelen and Zutphen, under the conduct of his son Don Fadrique. With the exception of Zeeland and Holland, he regained all the provinces; and at last his son stormed Naarden, and massacring its inhabitants, proceeded to invest the city of Haarlem, which, after standing an obstinate siege, was taken and pillaged. Their next attack was upon Alkmaar; but there they were met with such desperate resistance that they were constrained to retire.
(courtesy of wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Alvarez_de_Toledo#Alba_in_the_Netherlands)