US ‘withdrawal’ leaves vacuum at rights forum

‘Big bang’ disappoints allies

GENEVA, June 21, (Agencies): China, Britain and the European Union lamented on Wednesday Washington’s decision to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council as Western countries began looking for a substitute for the coveted seat.

The United States withdrew on Tuesday from what it called the “hypocritical and self-serving” forum over what it called chronic bias against its close ally Israel and a lack of reform after a year of negotiations.

Washington’s retreat - officially notified to the world body on Wednesday - is the latest US rejection of multilateral engagement after it pulled out of the Paris climate agreement and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The US delegation’s seat was empty and the nameplate removed at the end of the day.

“It is bad news, it is bad news for this council, it is bad news I think for the United Nations. It is bad news, I think for the United States, it is bad news for everybody who cares about human rights,” Slovenian President Borut Pahor told the 47-member forum in Geneva where the US seat was empty.

The European Union, Australia and Britain echoed his

Haley

comments.

“We have lost a member who has been at the forefront of liberty for generations. While we agree with the US on the need for reform, our support for this Human Rights Council remains steadfast, and we will continue to advance the cause of reform from within its ranks,” Britain’s ambassador Julian Braithwaite said.

Bulgaria’s Ambassador Deyana Kostadinova, speaking on behalf of the EU, said the United States had been a “strong partner” at the talks. Its decision “risks undermining the role of the US as a strong advocate and supporter of democracy on the world stage,” she added.

China’s foreign ministry expressed regret, with state media saying the image of the United States as a defender of rights was “on the verge of collapse”.

Diplomats have said the US withdrawal could bolster Cuba, Russia, Egypt and Pakistan, which resist what they see as UN interference in sovereign issues.

The Tibet Advocacy Coalition, whose activists seek to raise attention to the situation in the autonomous region, said in a statement the US decision “will allow China much more room to obfuscate and undermine the UN human rights system”.

Now the Trump administration has formally sent notification of its decision, the UN General Assembly will organise elections for a replacement to assume the US term through 2019.

The Western group of countries in the council is expected to discuss the issue at their weekly meeting on Thursday, diplomats said.

When the council was created in 2006, US President George W. Bush’s administration shunned the body.

New Zealand, which stepped aside to allow the United States to win election to the Council in 2009 under President Barack Obama, may be a good choice as a replacement, two diplomats said. “There would be a certain symmetry,” one told Reuters.

Stepped

Canada and the Netherlands were other possibilities, although no country has stepped forward yet, they said.

The UN’s Human Rights Council resumed work Wednesday after a US pullout that one Western diplomat called a “Big Bang” for the Geneva body, as Russia blasted the move by the Trump administration and key allies expressed disappointment.

Critics and friends alike read the latest Trump move to snub yet another international institution as a sign that US was jettisoning its reputation as a key defender of human rights and self-inflicting a blow to its international image.

They expressed support for the council, flaws and all, and vowed its work will go on.

Russia blasted the US decision, calling it “boorish” and saying Washington had “inflicted a powerful blow to its human rights reputation.” Russia’s UN mission said in a statement that the US exit from the Council reflected Washington’s unilateralist approach to global affairs.

The US withdrawal is unprecedented in the 12-year history of the 47-member council — no country has ever dropped out voluntarily. Libya was kicked out seven years ago.

The US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, announced the pullout Tuesday, calling the body “a hypocritical and self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights.”

Human

Haley said the US had given the human rights body “opportunity after opportunity” to make changes. She criticized the council for “its chronic bias against Israel,” pointing out that it includes accused human rights abusers such as China, Cuba, Venezuela and Congo.

Defending the move, US national security adviser John Bolton said Wednesday “we don’t need advice by the UN or other international bodies on how to govern ourselves.”

Bolton told Fox News the decision was made by President Donald Trump weeks ago.

The US pullout leaves the council without one of its traditional defenders of human rights. Just two days ago, American representatives were still taking part by condemning issues like constraints on civil society in Egypt and curbs on a free press in Bahrain.

One Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said the US was notably absent from an informal back room meeting in Belarus that it might normally have attended. He said the US walkout could be a “big bang” to help prod reform at the council.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called the US decision “courageous,” saying it was “an unequivocal statement that enough is enough.”

In Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticized what she described as Washington’s “boorish cynicism in stubbornly refusing to recognize its own human rights problems while trying to tailor the council to its political interests.”

The Chinese government also expressed regret over Washington’s decision. In Beijing, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said the council is “an important platform” for countries to discuss human rights and that Beijing has been committed to supporting the group’s work.

But the Chinese government is often accused by Western countries of human rights violations and by rights groups of seeking to undermine the mechanisms of the UN human rights council. In March, a Chinese diplomat repeatedly interrupted a speech by a prominent Chinese dissident to block him from addressing the UN Human Rights Council, a failed attempt that bared China’s sensitivity on human rights.