Global Geopolitical Series: U.S. quits UNHRC citing chronic bias and lack of reforms after agency slams Trump administration over refugees

After chief of United Nations’ Human Rights Council (UNHRC) criticized the Trump administration earlier this week, over stricter enforcement of law at the borders that is separating minor children from their illegally entered parents, the Trump administration fired back at the council over its failures and announced that the United States is leaving the council though, it would remain a defender of Human Rights all around the world. There have been furor within the United States and outside over the Trump administration treatment of minors but the border protection agency fired back by saying they are only implementing the existing laws.

Speaking in Washington, the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and United States’ ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley launched a scathing attack on the UNHRC before announcing the decision to quit the council. Mike Pompeo said, “We have no doubt that there was once a noble vision for this council. But today, we need to be honest – the Human Rights Council is a poor defender of human rights…….Worse than that, the Human Rights Council has become an exercise in shameless hypocrisy – with many of the world’s worst human rights abuses going ignored, and some of the world’s most serious offenders sitting on the council itself……..Its membership includes authoritarian governments with unambiguous and abhorrent human rights records, such as China, Cuba, and Venezuela………There is no fair or competitive election process, and countries have colluded with one another to undermine the current method of selecting members……..And the council’s continued and well-documented bias against Israel is unconscionable. Since its creation, the council has adopted more resolutions condemning Israel than against the rest of the world combined.”

Ms. Haley further elaborated and explained that the U.S. efforts to reform the council over the past year or so has failed, “We did not make this decision lightly. When this administration began 17 months ago, we were well aware of the enormous flaws in the Human Rights Council. We could have withdrawn immediately. We did not do that. Instead, we made a good-faith effort to resolve the problems……..Almost every country we met with agrees with us in principle and behind closed doors that the Human Rights Council needs major, dramatic, systemic changes, yet no other country has had the courage to join our fight. Meanwhile, the situation on the council has gotten worse, not better. One of our central goals was to prevent the world’s worst human rights abusers from gaining Human Rights Council membership. What happened? In the past year, the Democratic Republic of Congo was elected as a member. The DRC is widely known to have one of the worst human rights records in the world. Even as it was being elected to membership in the Human Rights Council, mass graves continued to be discovered in the Congo. Another of our goals was to stop the council from protecting the world’s worst human rights abusers. What happened? The council would not even have a meeting on the human rights conditions in Venezuela. Why? Because Venezuela is a member of the Human Rights Council, as is Cuba, as is China….Similarly, the council failed to respond in December and January when the Iranian regime killed and arrested hundreds of citizens simply for expressing their views….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……And then, of course, there is the matter of the chronic bias against Israel. Last year, the United States made it clear that we would not accept the continued existence of agenda item seven, which singles out Israel in a way that no other country is singled out. Earlier this year, as it has in previous years, the Human Rights Council passed five resolutions against Israel – more than the number passed against North Korea, Iran, and Syria combined.”

Read the full speech by the duo here, https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2018/06/283341.htm

As they were leaving reporters threw out questions suggesting if the decision was linked to the recent criticism of the United States refugee policy by the UNHRC.