U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced on Tuesday that the United Sates has quit the United Nations Human Rights Council.
“Look at the council membership and you see an appalling disrespect for human rights,” Nikki Haley said on Tuesday, citing member countries China, Venezuela, Russia, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Egypt.
She went on to speak at length about how the council displayed a “chronic anti-Israel bias” and was “not worthy of its name.”
The move to pull out of the council comes one day after Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for human rights, heavily criticized the Trump administration’s immigration policy that forcibly separates families who cross the border into the US illegally.
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, called the US withdrawal “disappointing, if not really surprising, news”.
Israel, meanwhile, has praised the decision.
Reuters reported last week that activists and diplomats said talks with the United States on reforms within the Council had failed to meet Washington’s demands, suggesting that the Trump administration would quit.
In recent years, the council has made some positive and effective changes, like instituting a periodic review of each country’s human rights record in order to hold them to account. It has also issued resolutions that influenced countries to reduce torture and human trafficking, and improve their treatment of journalists.
Yet, according to reports, it has failed to address certain systemic issues, like allowing countries that openly violate human rights laws, such as Saudi Arabia, to remain on as members.
The council last month voted to probe killings in Gaza and accused Israel of excessive use of force, after the Israeli military killed 125 Palestinians. The United States and Australia cast the only “no” votes. Israel’s ambassador in Geneva castigated the council for “spreading lies against Israel.”
aaron@ugchristiannews.com
