US takes seat at UN rights council
Doubts prevail over Trump’s ability to lead the international organisation.
Geneva: The United States claimed its seat at the UN Human Rights Council under the new presidency of Donald Trump, whose election has provoked deep concern over the body’s future.
Over its 11-year history, the council has come in for criticism, including allegations that it has, at times, been co-opted by rights abusers who push resolutions attacking their geopolitical rivals, with genuine rights issues marginalised.
But the 47-member panel has had successes – thanks to support from Barack Obama’s administration which held a seat on the council for most of his eight-year term, civil society groups say.
Many of the issues prioritised by Obama’s UN envoys – including violations in North Korea, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and South Sudan – remained on the agenda when the council opened its main annual session in Geneva yesterday.
Among the headline speakers were UN chief Antonio Guterres and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Trump’s State Department has not yet named a replacement for Obama’s envoy Keith Harper.
Veteran US foreign service officer Erin Barclay is scheduled to address the body tomorrow.
Much of Trump’s international agenda remains murky but rights advocates have warned that early signs are not good for either the council or the broader human rights agenda.
“Clearly ‘America First’ does not suggest an approach that (prioritises) multilateral engagement,” said John Fisher of Human Rights Watch in Geneva, referring to Trump’s starkly-defined foreign policy doctrine.
There is also “significant concern” about the US capacity to take a leadership role in the council based on Trump’s early moves, he added.
“When the administration has issued an executive order that bans travel from seven mainly-Muslim countries it erodes the US’ moral credibility and ability to engage in initiatives around the UN,” Fisher said. Trump’s travel ban has been blocked in court.
Fisher also highlighted Trump’s moves curbing rights for transgender people and his “stereotyping and scape-goating” of some migrants.
“I think one of the key challenges that the US will face is to demonstrate that it applies at home the same human rights and principles that it applies to others,” he said.
Last week, another spat blew up over freedom of the press after the White House barred several major US and international news organisations from a daily briefing and Trump denounced the media as the “enemy of the people”.
The move sparked outrage, with an editorial in the Los Angeles Times warning that Trump was demonstrating some “alarmingly authoritarian notions” in punishing organisations which ran stories critical of him. — AFP