WEB DESK
The United States has decided to withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council due to what it calls the organization’s chronic bias against Israel.
US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley made the announcement at the State Department in Washington on Tuesday.
Haley said the Council has passed 5 resolutions against Israel this year, which is more than the number passed against North Korea, Syria, and Iran combined.
She said the disproportionate focus and unending hostility toward Israel is clear proof that the Council is motivated by political bias rather than by human rights concerns.
The move, which the Trump administration has threatened for months, came down one day after the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights slammed the separation of children from their parents at the US-Mexico border as “unconscionable.”
The administration of US President Donald Trump has been criticizing the Human Rights Council for taking a pro-Palestinian stance and its lack of neutrality.
Haley said the administration decided on the withdrawal because its earlier demands to improve the situation have not been met. But she added that her country will be happy to rejoin the Council if it reforms.
The US decision underlines its pro-Israel stance. The US pulled out from UNESCO, the UN’s cultural and educational agency, in October of last year, accusing it of having an anti-Israel bias.
The latest move has drawn sharp reactions. The international rights group Human Rights Watch says it is a reflection of the Trump administration’s one-dimensional human rights policy, in which the US defends Israeli abuses from criticism above all else.
According CNN, US move was immediately condemned by a dozen charitable groups, who wrote to Pompeo to say they were “deeply disappointed with the Administration’s decision to withdraw the United States from the United Nations Human Rights Council, the premier intergovernmental human rights body at the global level.”
“This decision is counterproductive to American national security and foreign policy interests and will make it more difficult to advance human rights priorities and aid victims of abuse around the world,” they added.
Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s secretary-general, said: “Once again President Trump is showing his complete disregard for the fundamental rights and freedoms the US claims to uphold. While the Human Rights Council is by no means perfect and its membership is frequently under scrutiny, it remains an important force for accountability and justice.”
US withdrawal from the council follows efforts by Haley and the US delegation to implement reforms, including more stringent membership criteria and the ability to remove members with egregious human rights records.
“When a so-called Human Rights Council cannot bring itself to address the massive abuses in Venezuela and Iran, and it welcomes the Democratic Republic of Congo as a new member, the council ceases to be worthy of its name,” said Haley. “Such a council, in fact, damages the cause of human rights.”