U.S. threatens to leave human rights panel

U.N. body coddles dictators, is unfair to Israel, Haley says.

UNITED NATIONS — The Trump administration warned Tuesday that the United States could pull out of the U.N. Human Rights Council unless the body ends what Washington calls the whitewashing of dictators’ abuses and unfair attacks on Israel.

President Donald Trump’s U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, delivered the ultimatum in an unusual address in Geneva to the 47-member body.

“The United States is looking very carefully at this council and our participation in it. We see some areas for significant strengthening,” Haley told council members. “Being a member of this council is a privilege, and no country who is a human rights violator should be allowed a seat at the table.”

The United States accuses the council of shielding the repressive regimes it should be condemning, allowing them to join the body and then use it to thwart scrutiny. It is the same criticism that led former President George W. Bush in 2006 to shun the council, a decision that his successor, Barack Obama, reversed in his first year in office.

Haley pointed to what she said are egregious human rights violations in Venezuela, a council member, and said if the country cannot reform it should step down from the rights council.

Haley outlined proposals for reform in a separate address later Tuesday, delivered away from the council headquarters. She again accused Venezuela of masking starvation and repression at home with membership in the human rights body, and added others to the list of those she said misuse positions on the council.

“Countries like Venezuela, Cuba, China, Burundi and Saudi Arabia occupy positions that obligate them to, in the words of the resolution that created the Human Rights Council, ‘uphold the highest standards’ of human rights,” Haley said in remarks at the Graduate Institute Geneva. “They clearly do not uphold those highest standards.”

She did not mention U.S. ally Egypt, a council member accused of arbitrary detention, torture and other abuses.

“When the council fails to act properly — when it fails to act at all — it undermines its own credibility and the cause of human rights,” Haley said. “It leaves the most vulnerable to suffer and die. It fuels the cynical belief that countries cannot put aside self-interest and cooperate on behalf of human dignity. It reinforces our growing suspicion that the Human Rights Council is not a good investment of our time, money, and national prestige.”

The council risks becoming as discredited as its predecessor, the Human Rights Commission, Haley said.

That 60-year-old body was disbanded in 2005 as irredeemably tainted by its protection of abusers, and the Human Rights Council was formed as a fresh start.

“America does not seek to leave the Human Rights Council. We seek to reestablish the council’s legitimacy,” Haley said.

Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Human Rights Program, attended the council session.

“It’s hard to take Ambassador Haley seriously on U.S. support for human rights in light of Trump administration actions like the Muslim ban and immigration crackdowns,” he said in a statement. “Regardless of the party in power, the U.S. needs to lead by example and practice what it preaches on human rights.”

The council must also stop singling out Israel for criticism, Haley said.

The former South Carolina governor, frequently mentioned as a future Republican presidential candidate, has focused heavily on what she calls mistreatment of Israel at the United Nations. The effort has endeared her to Israeli leaders and to conservative U.S. pro-Israel organizations. Haley will travel to Israel later this week.