Thread by @HillelNeuer

1/ On this 9 years ago, we finally got the Libyan regime of Col. Muammar Qaddafi expelled from the U.N.'s highest human rights body. Here's the story of how we did it — and it matters because we're about to do the same to the narco-criminal tyranny of Venezuela's Maduro.

2/ May 2010 - UN Watch leads 37 NGOs to oppose Libya’s election to the UNHRC & with Freedom House hosts dissident Mohamed Eljahmi—whose brother was jailed, tortured & killed by Qaddafi—at UN press conference. “Libya does not belong on the UNHRC,” he said.
unwatch.org/issue-229-un-w…

3/ Our appeal to oppose Qaddafi was widely reported. @jkirchick @NYDailyNews: "It speaks volumes about the integrity of the 'international community' that it would choose a terrorist-celebrating murderer to sit in judgment of the world's democracies.
nydailynews.com/opinion/dare-l…

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews 4/ Before the election, we examined Libya's credentials: "Libya is ranked Not Free & was one of only nine countries to receive a worst possible score of a 7 for both political rights and civil liberties in 2009, qualifying it as one of the “world’s most repressive societies.”

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews 5/ The UN knew the facts. Yet they elected Libya by a landslide of 155 out of 192 UNGA votes. I warned on Swiss TV: Qaddafi’s government is a “murderous and racist regime.” Not a single country in the world spoke out against Libya’s candidacy or election.

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews 6/ "My brother Fathi Eljahmi was murdered by the Qaddafi regime because he called for democracy. Electing Libya to the UN Human Rights Council is wrong. It provides legitimacy to Qaddafi, bruises the Council’s credibility and insults the Libyan people." libya-watanona.com/news/n2010/may…

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews 7/ September 2010: Libya takes its seat at the UNHRC. UN Watch launches a global campaign, supported by 30 NGOs, and victims of Libyan abuses, to remove the Qaddafi regime.

unwatch.org/issue-251-un-w…

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews 8/ "The election of Libya to the UNHR is an outrage We call on the international community to invoke Article 8 of the aforementioned resolution, which provides for the suspension of membership of states that commit systematic violations of human rights..."
unwatch.org/global-ngo-cam…

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews 9/ We brought Kristyana Valcheva, a Bulgarian nurse tortured by Libya, to testify at the UNHRC. Libya interrupted her, backed by Iran, China, Cuba, saying: "The statements we heard today contained allegations and lies which are very far from the truth."
unwatch.org/bulgarian-nurs…

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews 10/ We brought Bob Monetti to the UN: "My son was a 20-year-old Syracuse U. student. Sadly he was a passenger on Pan Am Flight 103 when it blew up over Lockerbie Scotland in December 1988. Why would the UN let Qaddafi judge other countries on human rights? unwatch.org/at-the-un-vict…

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews 11/ We brought Libyan victim Ashraf El Hagoug to address the UNHRC, and at a break-out session. He spoke about his suffering with the Bulgarian nurses. They were framed, imprisoned and tortured over false charges of infecting 400 children with HIV.

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews 12/ "In 1999 I was arrested under false charges, with the 5 Bulgarian nurses. An arbitrary death sentence was imposed. I was tortured to extract confessions. We were detained under inhuman conditions & suffered physical, sexual & psychological torture." unwatch.org/un-human-right…

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews 13/ We brought Mohamed Eljahmi to the UNHRCi: "Why is Qaddafi's Libya, which tortured & killed my brother, now an elected member of the UN Human Rights Council?"

Libya: "Mr. President, we would like the interventions to be deleted from the record."

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews 14/ Libya: "The Libyan Arab Jamahariya under Muammar Al-Qaddafi was honored to be elected to the UN Human Rights Council, and the positive role of Libya was estimated in Africa and throughout the world with a view to strengthening human rights." unwatch.org/libya-clashes-…

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews 15/ U.S. Senator Bob Menendez supported our campaign to expel Qaddafi from the UNHRC: “The election of Libya to the United Nations’ group that promotes human rights around the globe is deplorable.” unwatch.org/us-senator-men…

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews 15/ @VOANews: "A global coalition of human rights groups launched a campaign to remove Libya from the UN Human Rights Council. A coalition of 27 non-government human rights groups, joined by victims of Libyan human rights violations, are protesting..." voanews.com/africa/effort-…

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews @VOANews 16/ @afp: "A coalition of rights groups launched a campaign to remove Libya. 'Libya has the biggest record of human rights violations in the world and should be the last to enter the UNHRC,' said UN Watch.Several victims of the Libyan regime were present at the news conference."

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews @VOANews @AFP 17/ "La Libye détient le plus grand record de violations des droits de l'homme dans le monde et devrait au contraire être le dernier pays à entrer dans le Conseil", a expliqué Hillel Neuer lors d'un point de presse..." unwatchenfrancais.blogspot.com/2012/03/droits…

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews @VOANews @AFP 17/ October 2010: Sweden’s Neo magazine @paulinaneuding devotes cover article ("Dictators’ Paradise") to UN Watch’s clash with Libya. UNW: ‘Tyrants were never improved by membership on the UN Human Rights Commission. They use it to shield their abuses.’”

magasinetneo.se/artiklar/dikta…

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews @VOANews @AFP @paulinaneuding 18/ The Neo essay prompted an unprecedented debate in Sweden on the UN’s actual record on protecting human rights, and on the pernicious role played by dictatorships. This led to editorials in the Swedish press citing UN Watch and its victim testimonies. varldenidag.se/debatt/fn-en-l…

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews @VOANews @AFP @paulinaneuding 19/ @sydsvenskan called the UN Human Rights Council a “Playhouse for dictatorships.”

sydsvenskan.se/2010-10-30/lek…

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews @VOANews @AFP @paulinaneuding @sydsvenskan 20/ Svenska Dagbladet oped: The Council has become another arena in which dictators express their political interests dressed in fancy words on human rights. Keep that in mind the next time you hear of a resolution or a condemnation from the UNHRC.” varldenidag.se/debatt/fn-en-l…

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews @VOANews @AFP @paulinaneuding @sydsvenskan 21/ Swedish Radio featured a debate —opening with UN Watch’s testimony delivered by Libyan torture victim Kristiyana Valcheva—with Neo editor @PaulinaNeuding & Jan Eliasson, the former Swedish foreign minister who oversaw the 2006 creation of the council.

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews @VOANews @AFP @paulinaneuding @sydsvenskan 22/ November 2010: Libya’s abysmal human rights record is addressed under the UNHRC’s universal review procedure (UPR). UN Watch renews its call for the Qaddafi regime to be removed, reported by Germany’s @dpa, @swissinfo. Yet the UN council and its member states stayed silent.

@jkirchick @NYDailyNews @VOANews @AFP @paulinaneuding @sydsvenskan @dpa @swissinfo 23/ February 21, 2011: UN Watch spearheads international appeal by 70 human rights groups to remove Libya. The plea is covered around the world. The EU requests a special session of the Human Rights Council, but fails to contest Libya’s council membership. unwatch.org/urgent-appeal-…