After several months of threats, the Trump Administration has finally decided to pull out of the United Nations' Human Rights Council.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley confirmed the nation's exit during a joint appearance at the State Department. "The Human Rights Council has become an exercise in shameless hypocrisy, with many of the world's worst human-rights abuses going ignored and some of the world's most serious offenders sitting on the council itself," Pompeo reveals. "The only thing worse than a council that does almost nothing to protect human rights is a council that covers for human-rights abuses—and is therefore an obstacle to progress and an impediment to change."
The decision comes days after the U.N. criticized the Trump Administration for separating migrant children from their parents at the U.S./Mexico border in Texas.
Haley has consistently castigated the Human Rights Council for their "chronic bias against" Israel, an ally to the U.S.
Rep. Eliot Engel, the House Foreign Affairs top Democrat released a statement on Tuesday that showcases widespread condemnation of the organization throughout the American Senate. "The UN Human Rights Council has always been a problem. Instead of focusing on real human-rights issues, the council has used its time and resources to bully Israel and question Israel’s legitimacy as a sovereign state. But the way to deal with this challenge is to remain engaged and work with partners to push for change […] By withdrawing from the council, we lose our leverage and allow the council's bad actors to follow their worst impulses unchecked—including running roughshod over Israel."
The United States is the first nation to voluntarily exit the council since its inception in 2006. However, Haley notes how "this step is not a retreat from human rights commitments. On the contrary, we take this step because our commitment does not allow us to remain a part of a hypocritical and self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights."