US quits UN human rights council

BBC informs that the US has pulled out of the United Nations Human Rights Council, calling it a "cesspool of political bias".

Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the UN, said it was a "hypocritical" body that "makes a mockery of human rights". “Regrettably it is now clear that our call for reform was not heeded,” Haley told reporters. “Human rights abusers continue to serve on, and be elected to, the council.”

She added: “The world’s most inhumane regimes continue to escape scrutiny and the council continues politicizing and scapegoating of countries with positive human rights records in an attempt to distract from the abusers in their ranks.”

“For too long the human rights council has been a protector of human rights abusers and a cesspool of political bias.”-she said.

Announcing the decision to quit the council, Ms Haley described the council as a "hypocritical and self-serving organization" that displayed "unending hostility towards Israel".

According to The Guardian “Haley argued the US had spent a year in pursuit of reforms while the council’s flaws deepened. She pointed to the election of the Democratic Republic of Congo to council membership in the past year, despite the US reform campaign, as proof that the body could not be fixed. She also noted the council had failed to hold a single session on Venezuela, which is a council member, or Iran, despite its ruthless crushing of opposition demonstrations.”

“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,” the ambassador said.

Haley also pointed to the continued existence of “agenda item 7”, a permanent fixture on the schedule, exclusively devoted to the discussion of rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

She was speaking alongside US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who denounced the council as "a protector of human rights abusers".

U.N. Human Rights Council  called the US withdrawal "disappointing, if not really surprising, news". Israel, meanwhile, praised the decision.

Prepared by Marina Muradyan