A refreshing op-ed in the Washington Post by UN Ambassador Nikki Haley as she took the opportunityu to savage the so-called UN Human Rights Council. 

Titled, "The UN Human Rights Council Whitewashes Brutality," Haley breaks with the previous administration by calling the HRC what it is; a haven for brutal dictatorships.

Last month, a U.S. Senate subcommittee met to consider whether the United States should remain a part of the council. Expert witnesses shared their viewpoints, not on the question of whether America supports human rights — of course we do, and very strongly. The question was whether the Human Rights Council actually supports human rights or is merely a showcase for dictatorships that use their membership to whitewash brutality.

When the council focuses on human rights instead of politics, it advances important causes. In North Korea, its attention has led to action on human rights abuses. In Syria, it has established a commission on the atrocities of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

All too often, however, the victims of the world’s most egregious human rights violations are ignored by the very organization that is supposed to protect them.

Venezuela is a member of the council despite the systematic destruction of civil society by the government of Nicolás Maduro through arbitrary detention, torture and blatant violations of freedom of the press and expression. Mothers are forced to dig through trash cans to feed their children. This is a crisis that has been 18 years in the making. And yet, not once has the Human Rights Council seen fit to condemn Venezuela.

Cuba’s government strictly controls the media and severely restricts the Cuban people’s access to the Internet. Thousands are arbitrarily detained each year, with some political prisoners serving long sentences. Yet Cuba has never been condemned by the council; it, too, is a member.

In 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine and took over Crimea. This illegal occupation resulted in thousands of civilian deaths and injuries, as well as arbitrary detentions. No special meeting of the Human Rights Council was called, and the abuses continue to mount.

The council has been given a great responsibility. It has been charged with using the moral power of universal human rights to be the world’s advocate for the most vulnerable among us. The United Nations must reclaim the legitimacy of this organization.

It's not so much that the Obama administration and its UN Ambassador, Samantha Power gave the HRC a free pass. They, too, pointed out the nauseating hypocrisy of many members.

But they never questioned the need for the Council. Haley is saying that without significant reforms, the US may pull out of the Council entirely. This would be a blow to the lackeys for dictatorships on the Council because the US is the major funder for the organization.

It's ludicrous that the HRC regularly condemns Israel and the US for violations when both nations have advanced the cause of human rights around the world more than anyone else. It's enraging that Cuba or Vietnam would take the US to task for tragic killings of black men by police, when both nations have a history of massive human rights violations themselves.

Of course, the "occuption" is constantly cited as evidence of Israel's lack of commitment to human rights, despite never a word from the HRC about the Palestinian's bloodthirsty vow to destroy the Jewish state or their numerous terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians.

Reforms should include limiting membership to those states who have demonstrated a committment to human rights in their own nations. True, that would prevent about 80% of the world from participating in the HRC. But at least the Council would become less of a bad joke and have more moral authority to advance human rights across the globe.