United Nations, United States: The United States will announce on Tuesdaythat it is withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council, which it accusesof bias against Israel, UN officials said.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley will make the announcement at a press conferencewith Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington at 5:00 pm (2100 GMT).link#_>
Haley has repeatedly threatened to quit the Geneva-based body, establishedin 2006 to promote and protect human rights worldwide.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric declined to comment ahead of theannouncement, saying: “We will wait to hear the details of that decisionbefore commenting fully.”
“What is clear, is that the secretary-general is a strong believer in thehuman rights architecture of the UN and the active participation of allmember states in that architecture.”
UN officials privately confirmed they were expecting the US decision toquit the rights body.
The withdrawal followed strong UN criticism of Trump´s policy to separatemigrant children from their families at the US-Mexico border.
UN rights chief Zeid Ra´ad Al Hussein said Monday “the thought that anystate would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children isunconscionable.”
Human Rights Watch criticized the move, warning that Washington´s absenceat the top UN body would put the onus on other governments to address theworld´s most serious rights problems.
“The Trump administration´s withdrawal is a sad reflection of itsone-dimensional human rights policy: defending Israeli abuses fromcriticism takes precedence above all else,” said HRW´s executive directorKenneth Roth.
“The UN Human Rights Council has played an important role in such countriesas North Korea, Syria, Myanmar and South Sudan, but all Trump seems to careabout is defending Israel.”
US criticism stems from the fact that Israel is the only country that has adedicated agenda item, known as Item 7, at the rights council, meaning itstreatment of the Palestinians comes under scrutiny at each of the body´sthree annual sessions.
The United Stated refused to join the body when it was created in 2006,when George W. Bush was in the White House and his ambassador to the UN wasJohn Bolton, Trump´s current hawkish and UN-skeptic national securityadvisor.
It was only after Barack Obama came to power that Washington joined thecouncil in 2009.
Since Trump took office, the United States has quit the UN cultural agencyUNESCO, cut UN funding and announced plans to quit the UN-backed Parisclimate agreement.