US to finally withdraw from wildly misnamed UN Human Rights Council
A report published by Reuters says the U.S. will finally withdraw completely from the misnamed U.N. Human Rights Commission. A diplomatic source told Reuters that the withdrawal was "not a question of if but of when."
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley has clashed with the council over its treatment of Israel and has repeatedly voted against U.N. measures that were critical of that country. Most recently, the U.S. and Australia were the only two members to vote against a proposal to investigate Israel's alleged use of excessive force in Gaza.
Haley has criticized the council over what she called a "chronic anti-Israel bias" and threatened last year to leave.
"When the council passes more than 70 resolutions against Israel, a country with a strong human rights record, and just seven resolutions against Iran, a country with an abysmal human rights record, you know something is seriously wrong," she wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post last June.
The U.S. rejoined the council under former President Obama after boycotting for three years under former President George W. Bush.
Haley has also called for other reforms to the body, including making it easier to expel member states with poor human rights records, specifically Venezuela, China and Saudi Arabia.
Swiss Ambassador Valentin Zellweger told Reuters that he agrees with Haley that "not all members fulfill the criteria" for membership to the council, but expressed concern over the potential withdrawal.
"The decision by the Americans will have a profound impact on the Council," Zellweger said. "If they withdraw, we can expect significant consequences."
Somewhere, the world's smallest violin is playing a melancholy tune.
There is no "reform" of an organization that counts Cuba, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and China among its membership. These nations routinely violate the human rights of their citizens, making a mockery of the very idea that they should be able to sit in judgment on Israel, the U.S., and other Western democracies.
Indeed, the real joke is that most major media take their pronouncements and resolutions seriously.
The HRC is nothing more than a platform for anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and anti-American political posturing. Not only should the U.S. withdraw from the HRC, but Congress should make sure that not one penny of American tax dollars goes to support it.