U.S. Leaves U.N. Human Rights Council Due to a ‘Cesspool of Political Bias’
Tuesday The Trump Administration’s U.S. Ambassador, Nikki Haley, announced that the United States is withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council. This was declared, by accusing the body of bias against US ally Israel and a failure to hold human rights abusers accountable.
Haley was a major critique of the council, stating that it had grown colder over the past year and become a “protector of human rights abusers and a cesspool of political bias.”
The decision to leave the 47-nation body based in Geneva was expected as they warned but, this has been the latest move by the Trump administration to withdraw from international groups such as climate change, trade, and NATO.
Haley argued that the United States Human Rights Council had failed to hold a single session on Venezuela, which is a council member, or Iran, even with the crushing of opposition demonstrations.
In the video below Haley stated, “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.”
Vice President, Mike Pence stood by her announcement and tweeted his support in a statement. “
Today the U.S. took a stand against some of the world’s worst human rights violators by withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council. My full statement: pic.twitter.com/KyICyXh3XI
— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) June 19, 2018
Elliot L. Engel, the top Democrat on the House committee that oversees the State Department. stated to The Washington Post “However, this administration’s approach when it sees a problem is to take the United States off the field,”
This news came a day after the U.N. human rights chief slammed the administration’s policy of separating migrant parents from their children after they enter the United States at the Mexican border, unconscionable.
