YEAH, RIGHTS
U.S. quits UN panel as world condemns immig treatment
The Trump administration pulled out of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday in protest of what it called “chronic bias against Israel.”
The withdrawal, announced by UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, came one day after the council’s top official blasted the Trump administration’s “unconscionable” policy of separating children from their immigrant parents at the country’s southern border.
“We take this step because our commitment does not allow us to remain a part of a hypocritical and self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights,” Haley said during a joint press conference with Secretary of State Pompeo at State Department headquarters, claiming the international consortium is “not worthy of its name.”
Haley added the U.S. will be “happy” to rejoin the council if reforms are enacted.
Trump administration officials have long accused the diplomatic body of holding an anti-Israel bias in the bloody conflict with the Palestinians, while protecting what Haley on Tuesday called “human rights abusers” such as Venezuela, Congo, China and Cuba.
Pompeo said the council, which was founded in 2006, once had a “noble vision.”
“But today we need to be honest,” he said. “The Human Rights Council is a poor defender of human rights.”
In March, the 47-member council defied U.S. opposition and adopted five resolutions condemning Israel for its treatment of Palestinians. Israeli forces have killed hundreds of Palestinian protesters in bloody clashes near the Gaza border since January.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the U.S. exit, praising Trump, Pompeo and Hale y for“their decision against the hypocrisy and lies of the UN Human Rights Council.”
Human rights advocates lamented the move.
“The United States leaving the United Nations Human Rights Council is shortsighted and will have profound consequences for our international standing and for America’s legacy on human rights,” Abby Maxman, president of Oxfam, said in a statement.
While Haley didn’t reference it, the U.S. withdrawal coincides with UN human rights commissioner Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein’s scathing criticism of the Trump ad Trump ministration’s “zero tolerance” policy on immigration.
“The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable,” Hussein said at a council meeting in Geneva on Monday. “I call on the United States to immediately end the practice of forcible separation of these children.”
The policy, which pledges to prosecute all illegal entries into the country, has resulted in immigration agents separating more than 2,300 children from their undocumented parents.
continues to falsely blame Democrats for the widely despised practice.
The President could end the hawkish policy immediately, but has instead demanded Congress finds a solution.
The human rights council departure extends a broader Trump administration pattern of abandoning international agreements. Since Trump’s inauguration, the U.S. has withdrawn from the Paris climate accord, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. and the Iran nuclear deal.