Watchdog Accuses UN Human Rights Office of Targeting Whistleblower, Revealed UN Ties to Detention of Chinese Human Rights Defender

"The Government Accountability Project (GAP) has learned of a third whistleblower from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) of the United Nations in Geneva. In addition to Anders Kompass and Miranda Brown, a Human Rights Officer with the Human Rights Council reported in March 2013, to the then-High Commissioner that a senior staff member, Eric Tistounet, had given the Chinese government the names of Chinese human rights defenders planning to attend a session of the Council in Geneva. Emma Reilly, the whistleblower, believed provision of this information would endanger Chinese human rights defenders by giving the government the information needed to stop the dissidents from appearing.

No other government was given the identities of their dissident nationals prior to the sessions.

In fact, in September 2013, six months after Ms. Reilly's first report, a Chinese human rights defender, Cao Shunli, was disappeared from the Beijing airport on her way to attend a Council session in Geneva. She subsequently died in detention.

Nonetheless, Ms. Reilly's 2013 report does not appear to have received a response from the Office of the High Commissioner. On the contrary. Each year, the practice of supplying the Chinese government with the names of dissident nationals scheduled to participate in sessions of the Human Rights Council continued, and Ms. Reilly continued to report it. In July 2015, Ms. Reilly reported it directly to the current High Commissioner, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein. He apparently took no action. In March 2016, she reported it to the current Deputy High Commissioner, Kate Gilmore, but she appears to have taken no action, either.

The practice only came to an end after Ms. Reilly reported it externally to the Irish government, and the Irish ambassador intervened in 2016.

Meanwhile, for Ms. Reilly, life became increasingly difficult at the High Commissioner's Office. Retaliation largely took the form of harassment, exclusion and abuse of authority...

This case has disturbing parallels with the Anders Kompass case, and shows the extent to which this High Commissioner's motivation with respect to the protection of human rights is inconsistent. Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, the High Commissioner, requested that Mr. Kompass be investigated for giving the names of human rights abuse victims to the French government for the purpose of protecting them. In Zeid's view, apparently, this is misconduct. However, when Mr. Tistounet, another staff member, gave the names of dissidents to a government, potentially exposing them to abuse, Zeid did not react..."

The Office of the High Commissioner has rejected the GAP report that it endangered the life of Chinese dissidents or that it has retaliated against Ms. Reilly.

For more on the UN Human Rights Council's response to Ms. Shunli's detention by China, see here.