Speaker - Hillel Neuer

Geneva Summit Speaker - Hillel Neuer

Hillel Neuer is the executive director of UN Watch, a human rights non-governmental organization (NGO) in Geneva, Switzerland. He has written on law, human rights and international affairs for the International Herald Tribune, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Commentary magazine, The New Republic Online, South Africa’s Sunday Times, and other publications. Neuer appears regularly before the United Nations Human Rights Council, intervening for the victims of Darfur, the rights of women, political prisoners in Zimbabwe and Cuba, and the cause of Middle East peace. Neuer is regularly quoted by major media organizations including the New York Times, Die Welt, Le Figaro and Reuters. He has debated U.N. and human rights issues on CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and FOX News. Neuer taught international human rights at the Geneva School of Diplomacy, and in 2008 was elected vice-president of the Conference of NGOs' Special Committee on Human Rights in Geneva.

Prior to joining UN Watch, Neuer practiced commercial and civil rights litigation at the international law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Active as a human rights defender, Neuer was cited by the Federal Court of New York for the high quality of his pro bono advocacy on a precedent-setting First Amendment case for prisoners’ rights and freedom of religion, as reported in AIDS Litigation Digest and the New York Law Journal. Originally from Montreal, Neuer served as a law clerk for Justice Itzhak Zamir at the Supreme Court of Israel. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and Western Society and Culture from Concordia University, a B.C.L. and LL.B. from the McGill University Faculty of Law, and a LL.M. in comparative constitutional law from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Neuer is a member of the New York Bar and the author of several legal publications.

Hillel Neuer's banned U.N. speech from March 2007 became the most viewed and written-about NGO speech in the history of the United Nations.

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