Nikki Haley Announces Withdrawal From UN Human Rights Council: It’s a ‘Cesspool of Political Bias’
.@USUN Ambassador Nikki Haley announces the U.S. withdrawal from the @UN #HumanRightsCouncil. pic.twitter.com/G1Zk7ZZhGT
— Department of State (@StateDept) June 19, 2018
Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced on Tuesday that the US is pulling out of the UN Human Rights Council, accusing the body in a statement of bias against Israel.
“Human rights abusers continue to serve on, and be elected to, the council,” said Haley from the State Department alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “The world’s most inhumane regimes continue to escape its scrutiny, and the council continues politicizing scapegoating of countries with positive human rights records in an attempt to distract from the abusers in its ranks.”
The Human Rights Council is a body of 47 member states that works around the world to protect human rights. The move, as CNN reported, comes the day after the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called the Trump administration policy of separating child migrants at the southern border “unconscionable.”
“For too long the Human Rights Council has been a protector of human rights abusers, and a cesspool of political bias,” Haley said.
“When a so-called Human Rights Council cannot bring itself to address the massive abuses in Venezuela and Iran, and it welcomes the Democratic Republic of Congo as a new member, the council ceases to be worthy of its name,” Haley said. “Such a council, in fact, damages the cause of human rights.”
She also lambasted the council for calling out Israel for the alleged abuse of Palestinians, claiming a “disproportionate focus and unending hostility toward Israel.”
Watch her full statement above, via The Department of State.
[image via screengrab]
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