Published by unwatch – at August 9, 2013
GENEVA, August 8 – The non-governmental advocacy group UN Watch welcomed reports that Britain and Canada will not be sending any representatives to a global UN tourism conference being hosted by Zimbabwe later this month.
“Amid reports of election-rigging and ongoing human rights abuses, Zimbabwe is the last country that should be legitimized by a UN summit of any kind,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.
“The government of Robert Mugabe has brutalized human rights activists, crushed democracy dissidents, and turned the breadbasket of Africa into a basket-case. The notion that the UN should now spin this country as a lovely tourism destination is, frankly, sickening,” said Neuer.
Over the past decade, UN Watch has brought numerous Zimbabwean human rights activists to testify on the sidelines of UN conferences.
Over 500 diplomats and dignitaries from 150 countries will be attending the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) 20th General Assembly at Victoria Falls starting 26th August.
“UN Watch applauds Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird for taking the initiative last year to pull out of this misguided venture and spotlight the grossly inappropriate UN honor to Mugabe,” said Neuer.
UN Watch documentation of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe:
Testimony of human rights dissident and victim Jestina Mukoko, Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, at UN Watch’s 2012 Geneva Summit for Human Rights
Testimony of Dewa Mavhinga, human rights lawyer and activist from Zimbabwe, at UN Watch’s 2010 Geneva Summit for Human Rights
CNN Debate featuring Zimbabwe’s UN Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku vs. UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer
Video: UN Watch Confronts Zimbabwe in UN Plenary, debate on 2012 UPR report
UN Panel Debate on 2008 Zimbabwe power-sharing accord, with Arnold Tsunga, International Commission of Jurists; Hillel Neuer, UN Watch; Daniel Molokele, Global Zimbabwe Forum; and Katinka Ridderbos, International Monitoring Displacement Center
via UK, Canada protest Mugabe’s UN tourism summit at View from Geneva.
COMMENTS
the UN is digging its own grave. To hold any UN sponsored event in Zimbabwe today can only further undermine its already questionable credibility. They should hold the summit in neighbouring Botswana, a country of immeasurably greater standing and a human rights record that should be the envy of the region.
To even consider participating in this farce is ludicrous. What’s next? A tourism summit in North Korea? Or Equatorial Guinea, while we’re at it. Zimbabwe is run by a gang of criminals who justify their looting of the entire country with tirades against “settlers” and “colonialists”. Look no further than Zimbabwe for a 21st century example of a fascist regime. What ZANU-PF wants is a controllable, ignorant and disenfranchised populace that “legitimise” its rule at the end of every term and otherwise watch the kleptocrats rob them blind without tangible objection. Complicit foreigners, especially those who do dirty deals on ZANU’s behalf in the Congo and elsewhere are also welcome, alongside our Chinese friends from the “Look East” policy. And some of these charming “businessmen” are indeed involved in the tourism industry!
What a destination for a tourism summit.
Britain and America boycott my foot. Who cares if they do not participate. It’s their loss
Nosense just failing to accept defeat.Asijiki Its now for Zanu pf not Baba Jukwa. Muchakaura. Mindabtakatora ndeyedu . Zimbabwe will never be a colony!!!!.
Open your eyes, China is well on it’s way to colonising Zimbabwe.
What more can you expect from enemies of the Zimbabwean People. Soon you will hear Australia and new Zealand do the same
swopping a white boss for a yellow one!