U.S. urges UN to fire outspoken investigator

Last week, Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, launched a blistering attack on UN Watch, a Geneva based non-governmental organization which monitors the UN, accusing the group of “demeaning” and “defaming” his character.

Mr. Falk made the com- ments in his annual report and called for the UN to investigate and shut down the organization.

In response, the U.S. envoy to the UN human rights council, Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, demanded Mr. Falk resign.

Closing a UN-accredited NGO could “threaten the independent voice of civil society at the United Nations,” she said.

Ms. Donahoe said, “Mr. Falk’s most recent statement, which he dramatically and recklessly included in an official UN document, is characteristic of previ- ous reprehensible comments and actions he has made during his tenure as a special rapporteur. It once again starkly demonstrates that he is unfit to serve in his role as a UN special rapporteur.”

In a statement, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said, “We call on UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon to denounce Richard Falk’s McCarthy-style attempt to have rogue regimes conduct a retaliatory ‘investigation’ of UN Watch, as a punishment for successfully exposing his gross misconduct.