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US Announced Pull-out of UN Human Rights Council

The Trump administration on Tuesday announced its departure from the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), the US envoy to the UN Nikki Haley said, and called the HRC “an organization that is not worthy of its name.”

“The US officially withdraws from the UN Human Rights Council. At the same time, I want to make it crystal clear that this step is not a retreat from our human rights commitments,” Haley told a special press conference alongside with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Pompeo said that the Geneva-based HCR the Human Rights Council has become “an exercise in shameless hypocrisy, with many of the world’s worst human rights abuses going ignored and some of the world’s most serious offenders sitting on the council itself.”

Pompeo stressed that the United States is the leader in promoting human rights. At the same time, the promises made by some countries in many areas have not been fulfilled, he added. Pompeo reiterated the words of US President Donald Trump that the UN HRC is “a huge source of shame for the UN,” because it includes states that are the main violators of human rights.

“The HCR is a poor defender of human rights. The Council covers for violations of human rights […] and is an obstacle to progress,” the secretary said, calling the HRC a” hypocritical and self-serving” organization.

Pompeo said that the HRC has a record of falsely accusing countries of violations they did not commit, while ignoring violations of other countries.” “The Council failed in the declared purposes. It includes authoritarian governments such as China, Cuba and Venezuela,” the US top diplomat continued. 

He criticized HRCs “continued and well-documented bias against Israel”. Since the HRC was created in 2006 it has adopted more resolutions condemning Israel than against the rest of the world, combined the US Secretary of State said. Israel welcomed the US “brave decision” to depart from the UN Human Rights Council, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. 




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