Fake Reports on Human Rights Council Website Place Voluntary Contributions at Risk

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Mike Buchanan

Telephone: +44 7967 026163

Fake Reports on Human Rights Council Website Place Voluntary Contributions at Risk

July 26, 2023 – The Human Rights Council website features a series of articles that contain serious errors, which serve to invalidate the report’s conclusions. The most recent example of these fake reports, posted on July 3, discusses the problem of missing persons in Mexico (1). The report makes numerous claims, but does not cite any sources or links to support its statements.

A search of the relevant government sources reveals the following:

The National Registry of Disappeared and Not Located Persons (RNPDNO) is the Mexican database that tracks persons who have disappeared or are not located (2). The registry reports on the sex of the 110,886 persons who have not been located to date:

Male: 75.6%
Female: 23.8%
Unknown sex: 0.6%

Among the persons who were later located, the vast majority – 93% — were later found to be alive. Among the persons who were later found to be dead, 85% were male and 15% female.

On July 3, the Human Rights Council posted an article titled, “’We’re Here to Tell It:’ Mexican Women Break Silence Over Femicides” (3). In sharp contrast to the facts presented by the Mexican government, the HRC report focuses only on missing females. The HRC report also misleads the reader by saying these incidents often lead to “femicide, kidnapping, and human trafficking” – a claim that is not supported by the RNPDNO numbers or any other known source.

The missing persons article is not the first fake report posted on the HRC website. In April the Human Rights Council website posted, “Custody, Violence Against Women and Violence against Children” (4), which was later denounced as being filled with “misleading statements and blatant misinformation” (5). In response, the Council declined to approve the controversial document at its recent 53^rd session.

Another HRC article, “Gender Bias in Custody Battles Places Women and Children at Risk” (6), was criticized for making false statements about sex bias in custody decisions and for inverting the truth about family court response to abuse claims (7).

Other stories posted on the HRC website reveal a disturbing sex bias. UNESCO reports that 89% of journalists killed in 2021 were men (8). But a May 3 report on the website focuses only on female journalists (9). The one-sided HRC article raises a troubling question: Does the Human Rights Council care less about journalists who are killed in the line of duty if they happen to be male?

These flaws raise concerns about the commitment of HRC staff to balanced and fair reporting, and to the pursuit of human rights for all. Such concerns inevitably affect the ability of the Human Rights Council to attract voluntary contributions from HRC Member States (10).

The Domestic Abuse and Violence International Alliance calls on the Human Rights Council to promptly remove the fake reports from its website, and implement quality-control measures to assure such problems do not occur in the future.

The Domestic Abuse and Violence International Alliance – DAVIA — consists of 103 member organizations from 34 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, and North America. DAVIA seeks to ensure that domestic violence and abuse polices are science-based, family-affirming, and gender-inclusive. https://endtodv.org/davia/

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