WhatsappTruly historic. President Trump decided that the best way to bring change to the corrupt Human Rights Council is for the United States to withdraw from the council.
President Trump and the
US Ambassador to the UN did not want to leave the Human Right Council. They wanted to bring about change to the council in order to address human rights abuses around the world. Withdrawing from the council was their last option after all other efforts to try to bring about change failed.
How ironic and sad that the United States made this historic move because the United States cares about human rights, while the UN council does not.
Chronic Problem at the UN
The UN Human Right Council was set up in 2006 to replace the failed UN Human Rights Commission. Why did the Human Rights Commission fail? For the exact same reason that the council has now failed. It allowed human rights abusing countries to be members and play an active role in deliberately ignoring true human rights abuses around the world. The old Human Rights Commission also was extremely anti-Israel. A true sign of it’s bias, while ignoring all the real human rights abuses around the world.
The council became too big of an embarrassment for the U.N. to ignore. Former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan himself said the following: “The Commission’s declining credibility has cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system as a whole.”
Dashed Hopes
The United States hoped that the new Human Rights Council, established in 2006, would correct the wrongs of the failed commission. They demanded that certain standards be met for membership on the new Human Rights Council. But, the Human Rights Council rejected their demand. So, once again, the new Human Rights Council filled up with member states that are human rights abusers, like Cuba, Russia, China, and others.
President Bush, and his administration recognized this problem and did not have the United States join the Council. When Obama became President he had the United States join.
Once again, the council became a forum that constantly singled out Israel. Meanwhile, they ignored true human rights abuses taking place around the world.
Human Rights
America’s withdrawal from the UNHRC is actually a good thing for all who care about human rights.
What impact will it have on the council is still yet to be determined.
Time and again, the United States had given the UN Human Rights Council chances to prove that it can truly deal with human rights abuses. All the UN had to do was prove that they are more than a playground for the world’s bullies. That they did more than gang up on Israel, and ignore true human rights abuses. But after 17 months of trying, President Trump and Nikki Haley finally threw in the towel. They realized that it is impossible to create the necessary change from inside the council. It can only happen by withdrawing from the council itself.
In the meantime, the United States will deal with human rights abuses on their own. All because the UN can’t be trusted. How sad.
