Press Release on the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society and the United Nations

April 7, 2004

Contacts

Warren Lusk:           613-549-4000 ext. 2634 (Kingston, Ontario) luskwa@ene.gov.on.ca

Randy Watters:       (310) 545-7831 (California) Randy@freeminds.org,

Summary

While 1,000s of JWs were being killed, imprisoned and brutalized for their political neutral stances over the last 70 years, their own leadership quietly had a serious political partnership with the United Nations from 1992 until it was exposed in 2001.  Since 2001 the UN and the Watchtower have confirmed the political partnership but both sides have refused to release valuable documents in their files that explain and quantify their actions. 

How could a leadership partner with a political group while watching its flock get killed and imprisoned for refusing political associations and seek money from a Holocaust fund?  How could the UN who has a special committee set up to assess non governmental organizations allow the Watchtower into the UN when the Watchtower was calling for and even printing public pictures of the destruction of the UN?  Did the Watchtower falsify documents to be accredited as an “associated non governmental organization” with the UN or was a UN committee asleep at the switch at the UN?

Due to a lot of public pressure on the UN by 1,000s of exJWs, JWs and others, the UN released a letter on its public Internet site regarding the Watchtower in March 2004.  But, even though the UN requires its partners to be transparent, it again provided no documents and as little information as possible of its or the Watchtower’s actions.  Now concerned advocate groups are trying a letter campaign to the UN’s Deputy Secretary General to appeal the UN’s recent decision. 

Why is it Newsworthy?

Those 1,000s of JWs around the world who have been brutalized by dictators for following their JW leadership’s political neutrality stance and the 1 million JWs in the USA should have the right to know what their organization has done.  Also the millions of taxpayers in the United States who financially support the UN with billions of dollars deserve the right to know why UN bureaucrats are withholding documents and not protecting the UN from organizations who actually teach and support the literal destruction of the UN.  A solid news article could bring attention to the issue of hypocrisy, hold people accountable for their actions including drawing pictures of blowing up the UN building and maybe help make the UN become as transparent as it requires from the non governmental organizations that partner with it.

Background

Jehovah’s Witnesses must stay neutral in political affairs including not supporting charters/constitutions/wars, or risk excommunication and shunning by the congregation. This is taken so seriously that many thousands of JWs have been brutalized and killed by dictators over their neutrality stance such as in Malawi.  The JW leadership has gone so far as to view the United Nations as the Bible's "evil scarlet colored wild beast" (similar to how Catholics view the Antichrist). In fact their literature is filled with pictures of  the UN building being completely destroyed in their upcoming Armageddon.   The JW leadership has even made a claim to obtain funds for the JW Holocaust victims who survived Hilter in World War 2 ( http://www.swissbankclaims.iom.int/English/who_e.htm ).

Yet in 2001, the United Nations confirmed that the JW leadership, through its parent Watchtower Corporation, had been in a quiet, 10-year, political partnership with the UN.  A partnership that required the Watchtower to voluntarily approach the UN, support the UN’s Charter, disseminate pro UN information and in effect support UN war actions such as the 1991 Gulf War.  The JW leaders quickly quit the UN partnership after the public exposure in October 2001.  I wrote about this and published it on an internet site with many references at this location: http://www.geocities.com/osarsif/un.htm . Many other places on the internet also deal with the scandal: http://www.freeminds.org .

Many advocates have been trying to get all of the facts out of the United Nations and the Watchtower with respect to this partnership.  Neither organization wants to release their files or even a list of public documents that the Watchtower apparently disseminated on behalf of the UN.  The UN refuses to budge and there is no UN "Freedom of Information Act" to uncover even redacted file documents.  This is especially troubling since the UN makes it a criteria that groups are to be transparent if they want to partner with the UN as an “associated non governmental organization”.  Recently due to public pressure, the UN has issued a public letter dated March 4, 2004 on the issue (http://www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/doc.htm ) but still refuses to release any original documents such as the Watchtower’s original application to the UN or the UN committee’s notes supporting and accrediting the Watchtower’s partnership with the UN.  Advocates have started a new writing campaign where we are appealing to the Deputy Secretary General of the UN to release the UN files on the Watchtower ( http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/68188/1066030/post.ashx#1066030 ).  

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