US walks out of its commitment to uphold human rights

The United States has withdrawn from yet another multilateral global agency, citing a so-called chronic bias against the Israeli regime as the reason for leaving the United Nations Human Rights Council.

While the decision was couched in fiery language by America’s Ambassador to United Nations Nikki Haley, the rhetoric of retreating from a “hypocritical and self-serving organisation” might come back to haunt the US administration as it delves deep into an isolationist stance. The retreat portrays the White House to be always on the lookout for an exit from international groups whose policies it decides to be out-of-tune with US interests — from the Trans-Pacific Partnership to the Paris Climate Agreement, the US has now walked out of a whole gamut of global engagements.

It is true that the Israeli regime’s human rights record comes up for discussion at every single meeting of the UN council — a standing resolution of “Item 7” on the agenda. But the reason for such unfailingly regular appearance is not far to seek — with a history of 50 years of occupation, systematic abuse of and discrimination against Palestinians and murderous attacks on innocent civilians do constitute a clear violation of international humanitarian law.

A withdrawal from the council is therefore no solution to either the US or the UN. However, it is also imperative for the council to ensure that there is no inherent misrepresentation of rights abuse cases. For instance, since 2006, the council has passed more than 70 resolutions critical of the Israeli regime — 10 times as often as it has criticised Iran, whose rights record deserves far better scrutiny. And urgent reform of the council must be pursued immediately instead of shelving them as a chronic habit.

Real and credible success on improving human rights around the world can only be achieved when the world’s top powers unite and unequivocally condemn blatant rights violations — whether by the Israeli regime, Iran or anyone else. For that to happen, the US must be an integral and active part of the UN rights council.