GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – US Ambassador to the UN Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe used unusually strong words in a statement issued Friday 8 July to suggest that UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk should step down, saying that “his continued status as a UN mandate holder is a blight on the UN system”.
The US and Falk have tangled several times over his stance on Israel and Palestine, but Chamberlain Donahoe’s criticism Friday focuses tightly on Falk’s personal blog, which has been under fire for an anti-semitic cartoon. “I am repulsed by the recent cartoon posting to the personal blog written by Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on ‘the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.’, the ambassador’s statement says. “Mr. Falk’s continued comments and postings to his personal blog are deeply offensive, and I condemn them in the strongest terms.”
Falk for his part says he was unaware until it was pointed out to him the anti-semitic nature of the cartoon, which he then removed from his blog.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Homosexual marriages were made legal in New York Friday 24 June, sparking citywide celebrations. The move comes just days after the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva approved a South African resolution covering homosexual rights that was strongly supported by the US.
US Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe said in Geneva 17 June “You’ve just witnessed a historic moment at the Human Rights Council and within the UN system with the landmark resolution protecting the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. This resolution is important because it underscores the most basic human rights principle, that all people are endowed with universal human rights. This resolution reinforced the most simple and yet elegant idea that no person should be targeted for attack or violation because of who they are or who they love.”
Escalating violence by Syrian government against its citizens drawing sharp rebukes
(video) Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The United States Wednesday 27 April in Geneva initiated a special session of the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Syria. France announced that it has called in the Syrian ambassador for an explanation of his government’s attacks on its own citizens, along with four other European governments: Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Late Wednesday news agencies received a statement that 30 members of the ruling Baath party in the city of Banias, scene of protests, have resigned over deaths this week and the violence used on protesters.
Syria was accused by US ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, representative to the UNHRC in Geneva, of “the killing of hundreds of civilians in connection with peaceful political protests last week.” Donahoe stated, in initiating the special session, that “we strongly condemn the killing, arrest and torture of hundreds of Syrians by the Syrian authorities. It is entirely appropriate that the Human Rights Council condemn willful government violence against peaceful political protestors. At the Special Session we expect Human Rights Council members to call on the government of Syria to meet its responsibility to protect its population and stop these attacks.”
Geneva international press, briefed by US Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe at UN Thursday
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The UN Human Rights Commission took a step in a new direction late Thursday when the Geneva-based body agreed to establish a special rapporteur for Iran.
This is the first single-country investigation into human rights abuses since the organization was set up in 2006, although Iran has come under review in the context of regular reviews called the Universal Periodic Review, to which all countries are subjected.
The motion passed with less than the majority voting in favour: 22 voted for the resolution, 7 were against and 14 abstained. A significant change from the past was Brazil’s vote in favour.
The US, which submitted the resolution jointly with Sweden, Zambia, the Republic of Moldova, Panama, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. US Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe told journalists afterwards that “today, what we have just witnessed is a seminal moment for this body, the Human Rights Council, with the establishment of a special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran. It is the first new mandate that is country-specific that has been created at the Human Rights Council since the creation of this body in 2006, so it’s a very important moment.”
She pointed out that country-specific actions by the council have generated “a lot of resistance in the past. Today we’ve seen the Council able to respond to a chronic, severe human rights violator which is Iran.”
Links to: UNHRC resolution on Iran 24 March, US Mission, Iran Human Rights
Geneva NGO representatives at the US Mission in Geneva listen to Hillary Clinton
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The group of 25 representatives from Geneva’s NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) cheered as Hillary Clinton took her first question from them 16 February.
The video conference question-answer session was part of a new US initiative by US Secretary of State Clinton called “strategic dialogue with civil society”.
The first session was held with 50 US diplomatic posts from around the world, including Geneva, participating long-distance, while about 1,000 people participated in Washington.
NGOs and US diplomats consider how to best work together in Geneva
Clinton said she hoped that regular contact between civil society groups and US officials will help to build “habits of cooperation”,
increase understanding to produce practical results, share insights and make it easier to identify common problems and interests.
“Our work together on women’s rights, corruption, religious freedom and other issues is just as important as anything we do with governments,” Clinton said.
The Geneva group included NGOs that work in several fields, including human rights, environmental protection and conservation. They met with US diplomats, including ambassadors Betty E King and Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe.
One participant noted afterwards that several NGOs were positive about US efforts to have the Human Rights Council “establish the first-ever Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association”.
Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, US ambassador
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The US Senate has approved two more nominations by President Barack Obama for ambassador posts in Geneva: Laura Kennedy as Ambassador and Representative to the Conference on Disarmament, and of Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe as the United States Representative to the UN Human Rights Council, with the rank of Ambassador. Betty E King, who heads the US Mission in Geneva, was approved in February by the Senate and presented her credentials to the UN 3 March.
Michael Punke’s nomination as Ambassador to the World Trade Organziation is still pending.
Ed. note: photo of Laura Kennedy not yet available, but we will add it once it is.
Background on Kennedy and Chamberlain Donahoe nominations, GenevaLunch
Link to US Mission, Geneva with biographies of both new ambassadors
Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe (image: Cisac, Stanford University)
Update 18:50 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - US President Barack Obama has nominated two more women for key posts in Geneva. Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe is nominated as US ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, as a member of the US Mission to the United Nations. Her name had been circulating earlier in the year as a possible candidate for the post of US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, and thus head of the US Mission, but Obama 24 October nominated Betty King for that post.
Laura Kennedy has been nominated as US ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament (CoD), as part of the Department of State, but the CoD is based in Geneva. The Conference has 65 member nations, and it famously ended a 12-year stalemate in May 2009 with a new work programme. The new agenda’s priority work is to develop the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty, which would end production of fissile materials for use in atomic bombs.
The two nominations, as well as that of Betty King, are subject to review by the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, which then makes recommendations to the full Senate, and it votes on each appointment. The process normally takes two to three months.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - An empty desk in Geneva is receiving more than normal attention: that of the US ambassador, whose unwieldy title is US Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organizations. The post has been empty since January 2009 when Warren Tichenor left. Tichenor, a Texan and George W Bush appointment, may not have been a household name, but the new US ambassador could well quickly become one, thanks to sharper interest in how the US will work with other countries on several issues, many of them through international organizations based in Geneva.
This is the era of the Obama administration, with its promise of new relationships, and the period of Hillary Clinton at the helm of the US State Department, re-booting the Start talks with her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Geneva in March 2009. Obama told a group of ambassadors in Washington Wednesday 29 July that “I came into office with a strong commitment to renew American diplomacy, and to start a new era of engagement with the world. This must be a moment when we engage on the basis of mutual interest and mutual respect, so that we can build new partnerships for progress.”
Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe (image: Cisac, Stanford University)
One name being bandied about for the Geneva ambassador’s job is that of Obama fundraiser Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe. Le Temps wrote some weeks ago that she will be named, basing the information on “sources close” to President Obama, and IP Watch, an intellectual property industry newsletter, named her as the likely candidate in a 29 July article.
