[Kizzy]

The UN’s human rights chief has attacked the Sun newspaper for publishing an article by columnist Katie Hopkins, branding her use of the word “cockroaches” to describe migrants as reminiscent of anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda.

In a scathing and extraordinary intervention, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, points out that the word “cockroaches” was used by both the Nazis and those behind the genocide in Rwanda, and urges the UK government, media and regulators to respect national and international laws on curbing incitement to hatred.

“The Nazi media described people their masters wanted to eliminate as rats and cockroaches,” said Zeid.


“This type of language is clearly inflammatory and unacceptable, especially in a national newspaper. The Sun’s editors took an editorial decision to publish this article, and – if it is found in breach of the law – should be held responsible along with the author.”

But such language, he added, was typical of “decades of sustained and unrestrained anti-foreigner abuse, misinformation and distortion” when it came to the reporting of migrant and refugee issues in the British media.

On 17 April, Hopkins – a columnist for the Sun, Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper – wrote that she was resolutely unmoved by the plight of those risking their lives by crossing the Mediterranean.

Zeid said Hopkins’ column was far from an isolated incident, accusing the British tabloid press of consistently attacking and vilifying migrants.

“This vicious verbal assault on migrants and asylum seekers in the UK tabloid press has continued unchallenged under the law for far too long,” he said.

“I am an unswerving advocate of freedom of expression, which is guaranteed under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), but it is not absolute. Article 20 of the same covenant says: ‘Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.’”

The commissioner also accused the Daily Express of seeking to whip up anti-foreigner prejudice.

“To give just one glimpse of the scale of the problem, back in 2003 the Daily Express ran 22 negative front pages stories about asylum seekers and refugees in a single 31-day period,” he said.

“Asylum seekers and migrants have, day after day, for years on end, been linked to rape, murder, diseases such as HIV and TB, theft, and almost every conceivable crime and misdemeanour imaginable in front-page articles and two-page spreads, in cartoons, editorials, even on the sports pages of almost all the UK’s national tabloid newspapers.”

But many of the stories, said Zeid, had been “grossly distorted” or subsequently revealed to be “outright fabrications”.

Although he conceded that “a similar process of demonisation” was taking place elsewhere in Europe, he said it was “usually led by extremist political parties or demagogues rather than extremist media”

He also highlighted the fact that both the ICCPR and elements of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination – both of which have been ratified by the UK and other European countries – had sprung from a desire to avoid a repetition of the Holocaust.

“History has shown us time and again the dangers of demonising foreigners and minorities, and it is extraordinary and deeply shameful to see these types of tactics being used in a variety of countries, simply because racism and xenophobia are so easy to arouse in order to win votes or sell newspapers,” he said.

While there was a valid public debate to be had on migration and refugee issues, he said, the discussions had to be based on facts rather than “fiction or blatant xenophobia”.

Zeid added that twisted and prejudiced reporting was sapping compassion for those fleeing conflict, human rights abuses and economic deprivation, as well as those now drowning in the Mediterranean.

He said the “nasty underbelly of racism” now characterising the migration debate in more and more European countries was even skewing the EU response to the crisis.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-de...s-commissioner

[Crimson Dynamo]

should he not be concentrating on the human rights of people in war torn countries more instead of having a go at one woman in england?

i am amazed he has the time

[Kizzy]

It's the newpaper that appears to be at fault here in the main.

[Crimson Dynamo]

The Sun will love this

[bots]

So the UN human rights spokesman is attempting to censor the freedom of the British press ... that is bound to be received well

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

So the UN human rights spokesman is attempting to censor the freedom of the British press ... that is bound to be received well

“I am an unswerving advocate of freedom of expression, which is guaranteed under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), but it is not absolute. Article 20 of the same covenant says: ‘Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.’”

[Livia]

I agree with him.

[Z]

I agree with him. Hate on Katie Hopkins all you want but these people are giving her a platform. The media are able to create and portray any propaganda they so wish - it's nothing short of a horrific tragedy that thousands of people would rather go in a rickety boat and risk drowning en masse than staying where their homes are and so many are dying. We need to do something.

[Pete.]

Don't they have better things to do?

[Samuel.]

Originally Posted by Petemitch

Don't they have better things to do?

Zeid said Hopkins’ column was far from an isolated incident, accusing the British tabloid press of consistently attacking and vilifying migrants.

This is a much larger issue than being annoyed by a Katie Hopkins article

[Mystic Mock]

I do agree that the British Media are insighting hatred towards foreigners, but in my heart I can't agree with forcing the Media to stop doing it because even though I disagree with what they're doing it is a free country at the end of the day, and the people need to stop being like Sheep or Drones and actually think for themselves for a change.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Z

I agree with him. Hate on Katie Hopkins all you want but these people are giving her a platform. The media are able to create and portray any propaganda they so wish - it's nothing short of a horrific tragedy that thousands of people would rather go in a rickety boat and risk drowning en masse than staying where their homes are and so many are dying. We need to do something.

Indeed

[Marsh.]

Why is someone like that even wasting a second on a nobody like Hopkins?

[kirklancaster]

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein is one of the few political statesmen who I truly revere. He is honest, sincere and genuinely impartial and equitable. Here is an excerpt from his opening statement in Geneva. READ IT:

Opening Statement by Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights at the Human Rights Council 27th Session

Geneva, 8 September, 2014

"Here I would like to make a simple point: courage is the first human virtue, revered the world over, the very virtue we value the most as human beings. The courageous individual is not he or she who wields great political power or points a gun at those who do not – that is not courage. The courageous individual is he or she who has nothing to wield but common sense, reason and the law, and is prepared to forfeit future, family, friends and even life in defence of others, or to end injustice. In its most magnificent form, the courageous individual undertakes this exertion, without ever threatening or taking the life of someone else, and certainly not someone defenceless.

As the Viennese thinker Stefan Zweig wrote, after having lived through one world war and fled another, "Our greatest debt of gratitude is to those who in these inhuman times confirm the human in us." Human rights defenders are such courageous people, and we must do everything we can to protect them, and celebrate them. The UN is often slow to recognise this. Captain Mbaye Diagne of Senegal was probably the most courageous man who ever served with the UN, but until recently was never recognized by the UN headquarters for his sacrifice. He saved possibly a thousand people in Rwanda in the spring of 1994, and lost his life doing so, and never hurt anybody.

By contrast, the Takfiris who recently murdered James Foley and hundreds of other defenceless victims in Iraq and Syria – do they believe they are acting courageously? Barbarically slaughtering captives? What virtue are they demonstrating exactly? They reveal only what a Takfiri state would look like, should this movement actually try to govern in the future. It would be a harsh, mean-spirited, house of blood, where no shade would be offered, nor shelter given, to any non-Takfiri in their midst. In the Takfiri world, unless your view is identical to theirs – and theirs is extremely narrow and unyielding - you forfeit your right to life. In the Takfiri mind, as we have seen in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Kenya, Somalia, Mali, Libya, Syria and Iraq, and throughout the world where they have attacked innocent people, including on 9/11, there is no love of neighbour -- only annihilation to those Muslims, Christians, Jews and others (altogether the rest of humanity) who believe differently to them."

[empire]

yet britain can't deport preachers, who support isis, and brain wash people into going to syria, to throw gays off high buildings, because of their human rights, and what about the 27 refugees who where thrown off the boat because they where not part of islam, yet the un wants these people in your country, human rights should be put into the bin, because it only protects thugs,low life scum bags,yet the human rights dimwits, think hopkins has down far worse, than what those refugees had done to those 27 souls,