Thread by @bellingcat

The Comité International Pour La Protection Des Droits de L'homme (CIPDH) bills itself as a human rights group with headquarters in Paris. But as @elisethoma5 discovered, this was far from the whole story … bellingcat.com/news/2021/04/1…

@elisethoma5 CIPDH, it transpires, has exaggerated an apparent relationship with the UN, issued what the European Commission describes as “fantasy passports” and even misappropriated the identity of several prominent individuals

@elisethoma5 Until last year, CIPDH stated on its website that it partnered with more than a dozen UN agencies. Yet not one of those agencies said they had heard of CIPDH when contacted by Bellingcat

@elisethoma5 CIPDH has also used number plates on vehicles that appear to mimic those used by the UN. News reports from Spain and Kazakhstan in recent years have detailed how CIPDH vehicles bearing these number plates had been stopped by police cabar.asia/en/investigati…

@elisethoma5 CIPDH’s website states it has members in countries across Europe, Africa and North America. While it is registered in Paris, a huge compound in Accra, Ghana bears its logo

@elisethoma5 Although it doesn’t appear to have offices in Australia, it appropriated the images of three Australian politicians to burnish profiles on the staff section of its website

@elisethoma5 CIPDH also produces its own passports, which it appears to have distributed to members, although IT acknowledges these aren't official documents. The European Commission has included the CIPDH passport on a list of 'fantasy' documents

@elisethoma5 Despite the activities detailed in this thread, articles and images on the CIPDH website show members meeting with high-profile politicians such as President Faustin-Archange Touadéra of the Central African Republic

@elisethoma5 How such meetings were secured is unclear. As is what CIPDH hoped to achieve through the activities and practices it has employed

@elisethoma5 A number of people associated with CIPDH have also reportedly been accused of criminal activity, with one even having his CIPDH documents confiscated in Serbia last year

@elisethoma5 In response to this article CIPDH stated it seeks permission to use CIPDH license plates, that its relationship with the UN is “our matter” and that members that broke its rules would be warned or expelled from the group

@elisethoma5 It said that profiles that used misappropriated images had been added by its partners without verification. Although that didn't explain why nobody had noticed such images depicted the profiles of senior figures such as its chief legal officer

@elisethoma5 The actions and activities certainly raise a wide variety of questions, far too many to include on one thread.

For more, read the full article here: bellingcat.com/news/2021/04/1…