Archives
See what's in?

Subscriptions
Subscribe to CC

Advertising
Want to Advertise in CC

Hot Topics
Cast your vote,
Make a difference.

Campaign
Raise your Voice,
Let others hear you!

Testimonials
What others say about us

Sabrang Team
Meet those talented people 
of Sabrang

Our Activities
Activities carried out by Sabrang

Letters to Editor
Send your letters to 
the Editors

Contact Us 
Umh!, Whats this?

Get FREE E-mail.

VHP seeks special UN status

The outfit best known in India fore inciting hatred against minorities wants to be recognised as global ambassador for peace. Campaign against it.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad  (VHP)— best known for its  role in the mobilisation for,  and the actual demolition of  the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992, and for its hate campaign against Christians in the last two years — has applied to the United Nations Economic and Social Council for ECOSOC consultative status as an NGO. It claims to be an NGO “located in New Delhi, India, that works for the total welfare of humanity.” 

A well–placed source told Communalism Combat that the application by the VHP for consultative status with the UN NGO Committee also states: “While it has taken on the responsibility of representing and promoting the welfare–related activities of Hindus, it also, without discrimination, promotes moral and ethical education, provides medical aid for the needy, relief to the poor, advances general public utility and pursues socio–religious, scientific and general research.”

For the moment, the UN has deferred any decision on the VHP’s application. Ironically, the only objection so far received on the VHP’s application is from Pakistan that has submitted that the VHP has been at the forefront of attacks on Christians. It even quote the VHP leader Ashok Singhal’s reaction to the rape of four nuns in MP two years ago justifying the crime as “people’s anger against conversions”.

To gain such consultative status with the UN, an applicant has to go via the “NGO Committee” which is a UN committee of government representatives. The current members are: Algeria, Bolivia, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Ethiopia, France, India, Ireland, Lebanon, Pakistan, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey, USA.
A consultative status allows the NGO to attend UN meetings and make written statements and in some cases oral presentations.

One of the principles relied on for granting of ‘consultative relations’ is that “the aims and purposes of the organisation shall be in conformity with the spirit, purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations”. This limitation has not, however, proscribed other fairly dubious organisations from gaining a consultative status. It includes apparently the National Rifle Association in the USA which advocates allowing teachers to carry guns in order to deal with the increase in school shootings in that country!

With the application of the VHP has been currently deferred thanks to an intervention by 
Pakistan, there is time for individuals and groups to flood the United Nations with strong protests against such status being accorded any time in future to the VHP.

When Pakistan raised objections at the United Nations recently, the Indian representative on the committee claimed that the NGO had already answered the questions being raised.
Incidentally, here is what the Preamble to the UN Charter says:

“WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED
to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
and for these ends to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and
 to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,

HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS
Accordingly, our respective governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organisation to be known as the United Nations. 

The words and deeds of the VHP and its youth wing, the Bajrang Dal, in the last several years (reports in the current issue document many recent instances) are ample testimony to how their aims and objects conform to the “spirit, purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations”.

Address your objections to:
Office of High Commissioner  for Human Rights
World conference secretariat
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
e–mail: [email protected]
Development and Human Rights Secretariat
United nations, Room S-1040, 
New York, NY10017, USA
e–mail: [email protected]