NGO Campaign to Remove Libya welcomes new EU draft

NGO Campaign to Remove Libya welcomes new EU draft

But to stop atrocities, victims need No Fly Zone and concrete measures

For Immediate Release

GENEVA, February 24, 2010 - UN Watch, which heads the Global NGO Campaign to Remove Libya from the UN Human Rights Council, welcomed a new EU draft for tomorrow's meeting that calls for suspension of the Qaddafi regime from the world's top human rights body. Click here for text of EU's new draft resolution.

"The original draft ignored the fact that Libya's council membership is a moral obscenity that must be rectified immediately," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights group, and an international lawyer who represents Libyan torture victims. "After our objections were widely published, the EU thankfully revised their draft. We're also grateful that that our other demands were met -- for a special session, an international inquiry, and required follow-up at the March and June sessions."

The revised EU draft resolution now "recommends to the United Nations General Assembly, in view of the gross and systematic violations of human rights by the Libyan authorities, the consideration of the application of the [membership suspension] measures." The African Group, China and Cuba objected to the provision during public consultations today, but it remained unclear if they would vote against it tomorrow.

"Because the council can do no more than call on the UN General Assembly to effect the suspension, we now urge the US, the EU and other states to convene the New York plenary to suspend Libya."