US will dump UN Human Rights Council if Israel obsession Persists

The US will withdraw from the UNSC if it does not stop its obsession with Israel and work towards more balanced positions. 

The US is calling on the United Nations human rights body to drop its “obsession with Israel,” or the US may be forced to withdraw its membership.

American envoy Erin Barclay told the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Wednesday that, “the United States’ commitment to fundamental human rights is stronger than ever.”

However, Barclay, the US deputy assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, said Washington is considering its future engagement with the council “with an eye toward reform.”

The US “remains deeply troubled by the Council’s consistent unfair and unbalanced focus on one democratic country, Israel,” Barclay stated.

She said that the council’s “obsession with Israel” threatened the council’s credibility. “In order for this Council to have any credibility, let alone success, it must move away from its unbalanced and unproductive positions.”

The UNHRC, in its 34th session in Geneva, dedicated an entire item to discussing Israel, while ignoring Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s bombing of hospitals and genocide, and North Korea and Iran’s denial of basic human rights to their citizens, among other travesties of justice plaguing the world.

“As we consider our future engagements, my government will be considering the Council’s actions with an eye toward reform to more fully achieve the Council’s mission to protect and promote human rights,” she declared.

Politico reported on Saturday that the Trump administration is considering pulling out of the UNHRC.

Countries known for human rights abuses, such as China and Saudi Arabia, are on the 47-member body.

The Human Rights Council was established in 2006. It replaced the UN Human Rights Commission, which had faced severe criticism because countries with poor rights records became members and blocked its mission.

The Bush administration refused to join the new council, questioning its efficacy. Under President Barack Obama, the US felt it was more useful to influence the Council from the inside, including by speaking out in support of Israel.

However, even former US Secretary of State John Kerry said the UNHRC must cease with its “excessive and biased focus on Israel.”

“No one in this room can deny there is an unbalanced focus on one democratic country,” Kerry said. “It must be said that the HRC’s obsession with Israel risks undermining the credibility of the entire organization,” Kerry stated in March 2016.

Over a decade, the council has passed 62 resolutions condemning the reasonable actions Israel takes to defend its security. Meanwhile, the world’s worst human rights abusers in Syria, Iran, and North Korea received far fewer condemnations.

By: World Israel News Staff

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