www.sourcewatch.org wrote:UN Watch is a non-government organisation based in Geneva.
Its mission-statement is "to promote the balanced, fair, and non-discriminatory application of the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, and to encourage respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, gender, culture, language, or religion".
A January 2001 media release from the American Jewish Committee describes UN Watch as having been established in 1993 by Morris Abram, the former U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva and Honorary President of the American Jewish Committee.
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Since the creation of UN Watch, much of its efforts has focused on monitoring the continuing discriminatory treatment of Israel in the UN system and attitudes toward Jews in the world body, as well as those matters which concern American interests. UN Watch has also tackled such issues as reform, gender equality, protection of religious liberty, and promotion of tolerance," the media release stated.
Un Watch was established with "with the generous assistance of Edgar Bronfman, President of the World Jewish Congress"In 1999 "the American Jewish Committee and the World Jewish Congress reached an agreement, approved by the international board of UN Watch, to transfer full control of the organization to AJC, an agreement that went into effect on January 1, 2001," the media release stated.
Many Web Directories have UN Watch wrongly listed under United Nations Organizations. A contributing factor for this could be that UN Watch and its members continously portray their organization as if it were part of the United Nations itself. Thus, it's former Executive Director Andrew Srulevitch on the 10th of November 2003 wrote in the Jerusalem Post: "As the only nongovernmental organization exclusively mandated to monitor the integrity of the United Nations, UN Watch will gladly pick up that gauntlet. The UN Charter requires UN officials to have "the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity." [UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter] Hansen fails this test, having demonstrated his pro-Palestinian bias on several occasions." link Original Article (
http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/pu ... 014271.htm)
Although UN Watch is part of the American Jewish Committee, UN Watch's website (
http://www.unwatch.org) does not say so, although it has last been updated in March 2004.
UN Watch has an active role in providing articles and 'analysis' to pro-Israel organisations around the world, although mainly focused in Israel and the US.
Personnel
The current [July 2004] Executive Director of UN Watch is Hillel C. Neuer, a Canada based lawyer and writer on political affairs. This position has previously been held by Michael D. Colson, a Canadian-born attorney [1997], and by Andrew Srulevitch [2002].
David A. Harris is the current Chair of UN Watch. Mr Harris is also Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee [ACJ].