Asma
Jahangir Had
Place in Sri
Lanka Probe
&
Criticized
Attempts to
Silence By the
UN, SG Here
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 11 --
In the hours
following the
death of Asma
Jahangir,
tributes and
memorials have
been published
but some
aspects of her
interactions
with and at
the UN have
not been
touched -
including many
hours later
still when
Secretary
Antonio
Guterres
issued a
statement,
below. In
2014
Jahangir was
named, by
then-leaving
UN Human
Rights
Commissioner
Navi Pillay,
to a panel on
war crimes in
Sri Lanka,
here along
with attempts
within the UN
to cover up
the crimes and
the housing of
Sri Lanka's
figure Palitha
Kohona:
With
Navi Pillay slated to leave as UN High
Commissioner on Human Rights on August 31,
on June 25 she made an announcement about
the HRC Panel on Sri Lanka...Some in the
UN even tried to censor
Sri Lanka coverage, here. Here's
from Pillay announcement:
"Three
distinguished experts have agreed to
advise and support the team set up to
conduct a comprehensive investigation of
alleged human rights violations in Sri
Lanka, as mandated by the Human Rights
Council in March:
Ms Asma Jahangir, former President of
Pakistan’s Supreme Court Bar Association
and of the Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan, previous holder of several
Human Rights Council mandates and member
of a recent fact-finding body into
Israeli settlements."
It was about a past financial
relationship between Kohona and
the president of the UN
Correspondents Association, who
then agreed to an UNCA screening
of a Rajapaksa government movie
denying war crimes that UNCA
tried to censor.
Jahangir
opposed these
things. As
Inner City
Press
reported,
Jahangir was
in the running
to succeed
Pillay - but
Prince Zeid of
Jordan, now
himself to
leave, was
handed the
post. Who will
follow Zeid?
(Jahangir had
also been in
the running in
2012 for the
UN's Children
and Armed
Conflict post,
here).
Antonio
Guterre issued
this: "We have
lost a human
rights giant.
News of the
death of Asma
Jahangir today
is echoing
within her
native
Pakistan and
across the
world. She was
a tireless
advocate for
inalienable
rights of all
people and for
equality –
whether in her
capacity as a
Pakistani
lawyer in the
domestic
justice
system, as a
global civil
society
activist, or
as a Special
Rapporteur. Asma
was brilliant,
deeply
principled,
courageous and
kind. I convey
my heartfelt
condolences to
Asma’s family,
friends and
colleagues,
including in
the United
Nations and
civil society
within which
she was such a
leader. Asma
will not be
forgotten." In
October 2017
Inner City
Press asked
Jahangir about
a stand-off
between
representatives
of Syria and
Saudi Arabia
during her
presentation
on Iran to the
UN's Third
Committee.
Alamy photo here.
She called
it
“disappointing,”
see here along
with account
of censorship
in the UN, in
the midst of
this
chronology: During
the UN Third
(Human Rights)
Committee's
presentation
on Iran by
Special
Rapporteur
Asma Jahangir
on October 25,
Saudi Arabia
complained
that Syria was
talking about
it, and not
Iran. When the
chair of the
committee
asked Syria to
"focus" on
Iran, the
Syrian
representative
began to
contest if
Saudi Arabia
had
appropriately
made a point
of order.
Things grew
heated and
soon the
Syrian
representative
had his
microphone cut
off - leading
him,
predictable,
to speak
louder - and
face a threat
that UN
security would
be called.
Finally the
meeting was
suspended for
ten minutes.
Inner City
Press, which
due to UN
censorship had
to get a UN
minder to
reach the
meeting it was
covering on
the second
floor, could
due to the
same
restrictions
not get down
to the Third
Committee
right away.
When it did, this Periscope
video from the
photo booth
shows the
scene. On
October 26,
Inner City
Press asked
Asma Jahangir
what she
thought of
what happened.
She said she
was
"disappointed,"
that the UN is
a "house of
diplomacy."
Well, the UN
is willing to
physically
remove the
investigative
Press and
throw its
files out onto
First Avenue,
here. When UN
Special
Rapporteur
David A. Kaye
held a short
press
conference at
the UN on
October 25, he
called for the
UN to
institute an
access to
information
policy. Inner
City Press
asked him to
specify what
the UN
Secretariat of
Antonio
Guterres can
and should do
on its own,
without
waiting for or
blaming the
General
Assembly.
Inner City
Press also
asked him
about the UN
new October 20 threat to
review its
accreditation,
including for
ill-defined
violations on
an unspecified
date on the
UN's 38th
floor. Video here.
Rest in peace.
***
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