Radio Recap: ACLJ Takes On Christian Persecution at the UN

By 

Jay Sekulow

|
August 27, 2019

3 min read

Persecuted Church

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We’re not just talking about issues. The ACLJ is fighting for persecuted Christians at the United Nations TODAY.

On today’s broadcast, we discussed our efforts to protect Christians around the world, specifically our five person team of lawyers and government affairs professionals that we just deployed to the United Nations. We also discussed the most recent Monmouth Poll and analyzed the state of the Democrat Primary.

Our team was at the United Nations in New York as we were on the air. Led by ACLJ Director of Government Affairs Thann Bennett, our team submitted reports on human rights situations in Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, and Myanmar (Burma). This deployment is the culmination of a year’s worth of work and an expansion of our efforts to protect persecuted Christians all around the world.

What is occurring is the 74th Session of the U.N. General Assembly. In a couple of weeks, you will see all the world’s leaders having their debates on the resolutions that are put forward this session. Delegates from the respective countries are drafting these resolutions right now. And we are right there giving our input through our international affiliate the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), which has consultative status as a NGO with the U.N. 

We had to fight hard to get that status but because of that we can shine a light on human rights abuses against persecuted Christians. Otherwise those important issues might go ignored at the U.N.

Our team had five confirmed meetings today, but possibly will have had as many as fifteen meetings with various Ambassadors and Deputy Ambassadors. Through our ECLJ office and our domestic government affairs team, we make sure that those Ambassadors and members of the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) pay attention to our issues and reports. 

President Trump rightly withdrew the United States from the HRC, so the ACLJ is essentially serving as a voice for the American people as well.

For example, one of the things that we actually pointed out in a report, which cites another report directly from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, that ISIS continues to commit systematic abuses of international humanitarian and human rights law and has even engaged in genocide. 

That’s just in one country – Iraq.

When we deploy our team to New York, there is an incredible amount of research and analysis beforehand so that they are fully engaged and ready to go. Our team employs a “DC style” of in person advocacy, something that is both effective and unusual at the U.N., as sadly much of the meetings and decisions that happen at the U.N. often happen in secret. 

If a report is merely submitted, it is likely to get lost in a sea of reports. We’ll also be following up in Geneva in just a matter of weeks. Not only do we meet with representatives and present reports, we participate in oral interventions before the U.N. Human Rights Council. 

Along with our office in Jerusalem, we are also there fighting the rampant anti-Semitism within the U.N. to defend our ally Israel. 

Our team in NY is defending persecuted Christians and Israel today. Tomorrow we are in the New York administrative court defending life. That’s the work of the ACLJ.

You can listen to the full episode, complete with the latest analysis of the Democrat primary here.