NEWS
House Foreign Affairs Committee
U.S. House of Representatives
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chairman

CONTACT:    Brad Goehner, tel:%28202%29%20225-5021 \t _blank (202) 225-5021 
                        Alex Cruz (South Florida press), tel:%28202%29%20225-8200 \t _blank (202) 225-8200
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/ \t _blank http://foreignaffairs.house.gov
 

For IMMEDIATE Release – May 18, 2012

Reappointment of Anti-Israel UN Rights Chief Problematic, Says Ros-Lehtinen

Urges Administration to Strongly Oppose in General Assembly
 

(WASHINGTON) – U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the following statement today regarding the proposed reappointment of the notoriously anti-Israel United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for a two-year term by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.  The reappointment must be approved by the UN General Assembly.  Ros-Lehtinen intends to send a letter to the Obama Administration urging it to oppose Commissioner Navanethem Pillay’s reappointment.  Statement by Ros-Lehtinen:
 
“The UN is poised for two more years of sham human rights protection, with the proposed reappointment of a High Commissioner of Human Rights who has remained silent in the face of oppression while relentlessly criticizing the democratic, Jewish State of Israel.  This reappointment reflects the deep flaws plaguing the broader UN system, where the Human Rights Council adopted five anti-Israel resolutions in its most recent session just days after an onslaught of missiles and rockets were launched from Gaza on Israeli civilians
 
“High Commissioner Pillay endorsed the Goldstone Report and still endorses that anti-Israel screed.  She also was the secretary-general and top defender of the UN’s anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, anti-freedom Durban II conference.  She publicly criticized the U.S. and other nations who boycotted Durban II, but almost never publicly criticized the rogue regimes who hijacked Durban II.  She also dismissed objections to Durban II as ‘ferocious, and often distorted, criticism by certain lobby groups focused on single issues.’
 
“Under her watch the UN’s human rights office took three months to speak out after Iran’s brutal crackdown on protestors after the June 2009 faux elections.  It failed to speak out in protest of Assad’s human rights violations until the regime began murdering innocents in the streets.  
 
“The Obama Administration must publicly and strongly oppose this reappointment and launch a public campaign to defeat it at the UN General Assembly.”
 
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