In a shocking turn of events, the United Nations has this week fired Ms. Reilly, an Irish human-rights-lawyer, and a whistleblower at UN Human Rights Commission. Her dismissal raises serious questions for the free world leaders.
In 2013 Ms. Reilly alerted her immediate supervisors at UNHRC that some officials had handed over to Beijing the names of Uyghur and Chinese dissidents planning to attend a meeting in Geneva. Dolkun Isa, the current President of the World Uyghur Congress, was among those that had their names handed over.
Since 2013 Ms. Reilly has had an ongoing dispute with the UNHR. Many prominent human rights defenders such as Maajid Nawaz of UK-based LBC media have highlighted her case. Last year Ms. Reilly sent an email to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleading with him to intervene.
According to her recent Tweet, Ms. Reilly has gone through a lot: ‘[They have] defamed me in a press release – fired a judge to stop him ruling in my favor – sent armed Swiss police to invade my home – shut down audit of UN whistleblower policy – ignored official recommendations for my protection – fired me’.
The UN bureaucracy has a system meant to protect whistleblowers. However, in Ms. Reilly’s case, the UN chose to protect China’s interests instead.