US withdraws from UN rights council

The United States withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday, condemning the “hypocrisy” of its members and its alleged “unrelenting bias” against Israel.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, came to Washington to announce the decision alongside President Donald Trump’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Both insisted the US would remain a leading champion of human rights but, for many, the decision will reflect Trump’s general hostility to the world body and to multilateral diplomacy in general.

The announcement came after the top UN human rights official criticised Washington for separating migrant children from their parents who are seeking asylum after crossing into the country from Mexico.

But Haley and Pompeo stressed the decision had been made after a long year of efforts to shame the council into reform and to remove member states that themselves commit abuses.

“These reforms were needed in order to make the council a serious advocate for human rights,” Haley said.

“For too long, the human rights council has been a protector of human rights abusers, and a cesspool of political bias.

“Regrettably, it is now clear that our call for reform was not heeded.”

The Geneva-based body was established in 2006 to promote and protect human rights worldwide, but its pronouncements and reports have often clashed with US priorities.

In particular, the council’s focus on Israeli behaviour towards Palestinians in the territory it occupies on the West Bank and in Gaza has infuriated Washington.

But, as Haley stressed, Washington believes it comes up short on criticising even flagrant abuses by US opponents like Venezuela and Cuba.

“Countries have colluded with each other to undermine the current method of selecting members,” Pompeo said.

“And the council’s continued and well-documented bias against Israel is unconscionable,” he said.

“Since its creation, the council has adopted more resolutions condemning Israel than against the rest of the world combined.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the US move, branding the council “a biased, hostile, antiIsrael organisation that has betrayed its mission of protecting human rights”.

Haley, who issued a warning a year ago that Washington would make good on its threat to leave the council if reforms were not carried through, used even starker language.

“We take this step because our commitment does not allow us to remain a part of a hypocritical and self-serving organisation that makes a mockery of human rights,” she said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres regretted the US decision, adding: “The UN’s human rights architecture plays a very important role in the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide.”

On Monday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein – a Jordanian – had rebuked Trump over the US practice of splitting up migrant families detained on the Mexican border.

Russia voiced surprise yesterday at the US’s decision.

“The US has once again brought a powerful blow to its own human rights reputation by demonstrating its disregard for the UN and its bodies,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in Moscow.

She charged the US with “stubbornly refusing to acknowledge the existence of serious human rights problems at home while at the same time trying to shape the council under its own interests”. –