Tag: Prince Zeid bin Ra’ad

The United States announced Tuesday it was leaving the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, with Ambassador Nikki Haley calling it “an organization that is not worthy of its name.” It was the latest withdrawal by the Trump administration from an international institution. Haley, Trump’s envoy to the U.N., said the U.S. had given the human rights body “opportunity after opportunity” to make changes. She lambasted the council for “its chronic bias against Israel” and lamented the fact that its membership includes accused human rights abusers such as China, Cuba, Venezuela and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She had been threatening the pull-out since last year unless the council made changes advocated by the U.S. “Regrettably, it is now clear that our call for reform was not heeded,” Haley said. Opposition to the decision from human rights advocates was swift. The move could reinforce the perception that the Trump administration is seeking to advance Israel’s agenda on the world stage, just as it prepares to unveil its long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan despite Palestinian outrage over the embassy relocation. Israel is the only country in the world whose rights record comes up for discussion at every council session, under “Item 7” on the agenda. The United States’ current term on the council ends next year. A full pullout by the U.S. would leave the council without one of its traditional defenders of human rights. At the rights council, the United States has recently been the most unabashed critic of rights abuses in China — whose growing economic and diplomatic clout has chastened some other would-be critics, rights advocates say.