Human Rights Council is UN's 'greatest failure', says Nikki Haley
Terming the Human Rights Council as the United Nations' "greatest failure", US envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, alleged the institution has provided cover for the world's most inhumane regimes, defending the US withdrawal. Last month, the US withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and condemned its shameless hypocrisy in absolving wrongdoers through silence and falsely condemning those committing no offense. Here's more.
Haley calls Council a bully pulpit of human rights violators
Speaking at a top American think-tank, The Heritage Foundation, Haley, the Indian-American US politician, alleged, "More often, the Human Rights Council has provided cover, not condemnation, for the world's most inhumane regimes. It has been a bully pulpit for human rights violators."
Haley cites examples of the unjust practices of the Council
Haley said the UN body has focused its attention unfairly on Israel. Meanwhile, it has ignored the misery inflicted in Venezuela, Cuba, Zimbabwe, and China, she said. "It (UNHRC) has taken the idea of human dignity and has reduced it to just another instrument of international politics. And that is a great tragedy," Haley said, noting she did not come to this conclusion lightly.
Cannot allow human rights to be cheapened by Council: Haley
"Many of our friends urged us to stay as they believed the US provided the last-shred of credibility the Council had. But that was precisely why we withdrew," Haley said. The right to speak freely, to be equal before the law, these are sacred-rights, she said. "We take these rights too seriously to allow them to be cheapened by a hypocritical institution," she said.
US does more for human-rights than any other country: Haley
Asserting that no one should equate the Human Rights Council membership with support for human rights, Haley said, to this day, the US does more for human rights, both inside the UN and around the world than any other country and will continue to do so. "We just won't do it inside a Council that consistently fails the cause of human rights," she said.
Haley invites others to join US in fight for reform
Haley said America's withdrawal from the Human Rights Council does not mean that it has given up its fight for reform. "On the contrary, any country willing to work with us to reshape the Council need only ask. Fixing the institutional flaws of the Human Rights Council was, is, and will remain one of the biggest priorities at the UN," she added.
