BICOM

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley announced yesterday that the US would withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), an organisation she called a “cesspool of political bias”.

Speaking yesterday at the US State Department alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Haley said that the US could not be a member of a “hypocritical and self-serving organisation that makes a mockery of human rights”.

She also criticised Russia, China, Cuba and Egypt for undermining US efforts to reform the UNHRC and said they “don’t want the council to be effective”.

Haley accused the council of ignoring human rights abuses by its own members, including Venezuela and the Democratic Republic of Congo, whilst maintaining a permanent standing agenda item dedicated exclusively to alleged Israeli human rights violations.

“There are more resolutions at the UNHRC against Israel than against the rest of the world combined,” Pompeo said.

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called the US decision “regrettable” and said UK support for the Human Rights Council “remains steadfast”. Johnson acknowledged the organisation’s flaws but reiterated Britain’s commitment to “to strengthen the Council from within”.

The UK is a longstanding critic of the UNHRC. In 2017, the UK delegation informed the Council that unless its obsessive focus on Israel ceased, the UK would adopt a policy of voting against all resolutions concerning Israel. In March 2018 it released a statement criticising “the disproportionate number of resolutions against Israel and the existence of a dedicated agenda item that singles out Israel”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the US for “their courageous decision against the hypocrisy and the lies of the so-called UN Human Rights Council. For years, the UNHRC has proven to be a biased, hostile, anti-Israel organization that has betrayed its mission of protecting human rights,” he said.