As Richard Falk, the controversial and widely criticized special rapporteur on the situation of the Palestinians is preparing to step down in few weeks, the United Nations Human Rights Council has decided to ignore the recommendation of its vetting committee and appoint someone with a stronger anti-Israel pedigree.
According to UN Watch, that person is going to be Christine Chinkin, law professor at the London School of Economics and co-author of the discredited Goldstone Report.
In February, a vetting panel recommending the successor to Falk disqualified a number of anti-Israel candidates and instead recommended American law professor Christina Cerna for the job. UN Watch expressed concern about some of Cerna’s views but observed “the panel gave special weight to the fact that Cerna, unlike the others, has ‘not previously taken public positions on issues relevant to the mandate.'”
Chinkin was one of four investigators who wrote the infamous Goldstone report about Israel’s Operation Cast Lead which was launched in late 2008 in response to sustained rocket fire from Hamas ruled Gaza. The Goldstone report was plagued with problems of credibility and bias. Judge Richard Goldstone, the lead investigator later disavowed the findings in an op-ed in the Washington Post observing that in response to rocket fire Israel had “the right and obligation to defend itself and its citizens against attacks from abroad and within.”
In contrast, Israel’s right to self-defense is not something acknowledged by Chinkin. At the outset of Cast Lead, Chinkin signed on to a letter that asserted, “The rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas deplorable as they are, do not, in terms of scale and effect amount to an armed attack entitling Israel to rely on self-defence…Israel’s actions amount to aggression, not self-defence.” Despite having declared Israel guilty before any investigation, Chinkin did not recuse herself from the investigation contributing to the report’s credibility problems. Ironically, the Arab group’s letter demanding Chinkin’s appointment praises her as having “shown a high level of impartiality and objectivity.”
UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer, in a blog post in the Times of Israel, calls on the United States to force a vote on Chinkin. Neuer argues, “Because the UN desperately seeks to make such appointments by consensus, the president may change his mind if he knows in advance and for certain that the U.S would challenge” controversial nominations.
Neuer cited a number of human rights experts who criticized Chinkin for failing to avoid the “appearance of bias,” by participating in a fact finding mission about which she had expressed a judgment.
Chinkin, by her conduct during and after the Goldstone commission demonstrated that she, like Richard Falk, has already made up her mind about Israel.
Chinkin isn’t the only troubling appointment to be made this week. Richard Falk’s wife, Hilal Elver, who holds many of the same controversial opinions as her husband, is likely to be appointed the next UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on the right to food.
Earlier, it was reported that Makarim Wibisono, an Indonesian diplomat with a record of anti-Israel comments, was to be appointed as Falk’s successor. Aside from his views about Israel, Wibisono has praised the genocidal government of Sudan.
In the September 2013 issue of The Tower Magazine, Ben Cohen maps out the UN’s double-standards on Israel.
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