This week, Nathan Chicheportiche and Benjamin Carroll attended the 25th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council to speak on behalf of the European Union of Jewish Students during Agenda Items 7 and 9.
Nathan Chicheportiche, EUJS Executive Director, delivered a speech on March 24th under Agenda Item 7 questioning the existence of Agenda Item 7, which deals with the “Human Rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories” as a preliminary attack against the State of Israel.
“This council prides itself on recognizing the violation of all Human Rights across the globe. However, when discussing the State of Israel, the council consistently fails to address the topic in an unbiased manner. This is epitomized in the continued existence of Agenda Item 7 – a debate devoted entirely to scrutinizing, and often unfairly criticizing, the human rights record of Israel. This session continues to be the only permanent agenda item solely dedicated to discussing the affairs of one country”, Chicheportiche said.
Earlier, EUJS joined NGO Monitor in a statement about the danger that the BDS – « Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions » – movement poses for the peace process and the spread of hatred, violence and anti-Semitism in Universities around the world.
On March 25th Ben Carroll, a Glaswegian student at the University of St Andrews, spoke on behalf of EUJS under Agenda Item 9, which deals with racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance, about the importance of commemorating atrocities such as the Holocaust.
“While our newspapers continue to be dominated with reports of Human Rights atrocities, such as discrimination against Uganda’s homosexual community and intimidation of Ukraine’s Jews, the international community, and especially those present in this chamber, must realize they now have an added responsibility in the battle against human rights atrocities. With the passing of Holocaust survivors, we must now work even harder to combat the violation of human rights”.
