GENEVA — In a speech Tuesday, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley criticized the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) threatening that the US might withdraw from the body if reforms aren’t made to “re-establish the Council’s legitimacy.”
“If the Human Rights Council is going to be an organization we entrust to protect and promote human rights, it must change,” said Haley. “If it fails to change, then we must pursue the advancement of human rights outside the Council.”
Haley called out the Council for admitting countries that are some of the worst human rights violators including Venezuela, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia. She also called out the Council for a “relentless, pathological campaign” against Israel.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), expressed concern over Haley’s speech saying that if the U.S. did pull out it signal to oppresive regimes that the U.S. was looking the other way.
“Consider the message the United States would send to the world if it were to disengage from the UN Human Rights Council,” said Ty Cobb, Director of HRC Global. “U.S. foreign policy must protect and promote human rights. Turning away from the Council would signal to brutal regimes — and all those they oppress — that the U.S. is looking the other way. Without U.S. leadership, despotic leaders will be emboldened to control the agenda and push their own dangerous goals.”
In 2016, the U.S. and other nations passed a resolution at the UNHRC appointing an Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity. Prof. Vitit Muntarbhorn of Thailand is the first person to hold that position and is assessing LGBTQ human rights in various countries, meeting with LGBTQ advocates around the globe, and engaging with governments and civil society to help combat violence and discrimination targeting LGBTQ people.
