US withdraws from UN human rights body
Print Edition
THE United States withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council, condemning the “hypocrisy” of its members and its alleged “unrelenting bias” against Israel.
The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, came to Washington on Tuesday to announce the decision alongside President Donald Trump’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Both insisted the US would remain a leading champion of human rights but, for many, the decision will reflect Trump’s general hostility to the world body and to multilateral diplomacy in general.
The announcement came after the top UN human rights official criticized Washington for separating migrant children from their parents who are seeking asylum after crossing into the country from Mexico.
But Haley and Pompeo stressed the decision had been made after a year of efforts to shame the council into reform and remove member states that themselves commit abuses.
“These reforms were needed in order to make the council a serious advocate for human rights,” Haley said. “For too long, the Human Rights Council has been a protector of human rights abusers, and a cesspool of political bias. Regrettably, it is now clear that our call for reform was not heeded.”
The Geneva-based body was established in 2006 to promote and protect human rights worldwide, but its pronouncements and reports have often clashed with US priorities.
The council’s focus on Israeli behavior toward Palestinians in the territory it occupies on the West Bank and in Gaza has infuriated Washington.
But, as Haley stressed, Washington also believes it comes up short on criticizing abuses by US opponents like Venezuela and Cuba.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the US move, branding the council “a biased, hostile, anti-Israel organization that has betrayed its mission of protecting human rights.”
Haley, who issued a warning a year ago that Washington would make good on its threat to leave the council if reforms were not carried through, used even starker language.
“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,” she said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres regretted the US decision, saying: “The UN’s human rights architecture plays a very important role in the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide.”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, a Jordanian, had rebuked Trump over the US practice of splitting up migrant families on the Mexican border.
“The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable,” he said.
Once the Trump administration formally notifies it of its decision, the UN General Assembly will organize elections for a replacement to assume the US term through 2019.
The Western group of countries in the council is expected to discuss the issue at their weekly meeting today, diplomats said.
Trump has adopted a hostile approach to world governance, leading Washington to quit the UN cultural agency UNESCO, cut UN funding and planning to leave the Paris climate agreement.
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