US Quits United Nations Human Rights Council
The United States has withdrawn from the United Nations Human Rights Council accusing it of a “chronic bias against Israel”, a move that activists warned would make advancing human rights globally even more difficult.
Standing with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley slammed Russia, China, Cuba and Egypt for thwarting American efforts to reform the council.
“Regrettably, it is now clear that our call for reform was not heeded. “Human rights abusers continue to serve on and be elected to the council.
“The world’s most inhumane regimes continue to escape scrutiny and the council continues politicising and scape-goating of countries with positive human rights records in an attempt to distract from the abusers and their ranks.”
She also criticised countries which shared US values and encouraged Washington to remain but “were unwilling to seriously challenge the status quo”.
The United States is half way through a three-year term on the main UN rights body and the Trump administration had long threatened to quit if the 47-member Geneva-based body was not overhauled.
Ms Haley also said the “disproportionate focus and unending hostility toward Israel is clear proof that the council is motivated by political bias, not by human rights”. Among reforms the United States had been seeking was to make it easier to kick out a member state with egregious rights records. Ms Haley said the US withdrawal from the Human Rights Council “is not a retreat from our human rights commitments”. Twelve rights and aids groups, including Human Rights First, Save the Children and CARE, wrote to Mr Pompeo to warn the withdrawal would “make it more difficult to advance human rights priorities and aid victims of abuse around the world”.
“The US’s absence will only compound the council’s weaknesses,” they wrote. Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Human Rights Program, said Mr Trump’s “misguided policy of isolationism only harms American interests and betrays our values as a nation”. Jewish rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center applauded the US withdrawal and urged other countries to do the same.
The council meets three times a year to examine human rights violations worldwide.
It has mandated independent investigators to look at situations including Syria, North Korea, Myanmar and South Sudan.
Its resolutions are not legally binding but carry moral authority.
The world’s most inhumane regimes continue to escape scrutiny and the council continues politicising and scape-goating of countries with positive human rights records in an attempt to distract from the abusers and their ranks.
Nikki Haley US Ambassador to UN