US pulls out of ‘hypocritical’ UN rights council

WASHINGTON: The United States has withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council, accusing the body of being a “poor defender” of human rights by allowing membership to countries such as China and Cuba that routinely commit violations, and of harbouring a “chronic bias” against Israel.

The Trump administration has already pulled the US out of several international partnerships and agreements such as the Trans-pacific Partnership (TPP), the Paris Accord on climate change and UNESCO.

The UNHRC is “a poor defender of human rights” and it has become “an exercise in shameless hypocrisy”, secretary of state Mike Pompeo said in a joint appearance at the state department with the US ambassador to UN, Nikki Haley, on Tuesday.

Haley said the US tried hard to push the UN council towards reforms but it “was not heeded”. She added: “Human rights abusers continue to serve on and be elected to the council. The world’s most inhumane regimes continue to escape scrutiny.” They named China, Cuba, Venezuela and the Democratic Republic of Congo as examples of countries that abuse human rights but continue to serve on the council. “Even as it was being elected to membership…mass graves continued to be discovered in the Congo,” Haley said. The two officials castigated the world body over Israel.

CONTINUED ON P 11 MUMBAI: As farmers’ opposition to its ambitious Mumbai-nagpur expressway project increases, the Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra is pulling out all the stops to bring it back on track before the elections next year.

Government agencies have paid the state’s highest-ever compensation to acquire land in the belt — an average of ₹87 lakh a hectare, and in most cases up to five times the going market rate.

And, to cover the cost, the cash-strapped government has been borrowing funds from its undertakings. So far, ₹5,500 crore has been taken from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) and the Maharashtra Industries Development Corporation (MIDC).

In the more urban districts such as Thane, Nashik and Nagpur, the average was far higher, at ₹1.63 crore a hectare.

The highest paid individual compensation was ₹5.17 crore a hectare for land in Thane’s Khardi village, in the Shahapur taluka.

This is more than the compensation paid for the Mumbai-goa highway, which had gone up to ₹1 crore a hectare, one of the highest in recent times.

The high rates helped the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) — the nodal agency responsible for implementing the Mumbai-nagpur Super Communication e-way (as the project is called) — reduce

resistance to land acquisition. The agency said it has acquired 81.01% of the 7,291 hectares of private land it needs across the 10 districts the expressway will run through.

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