US to quit UN Human Rights Council

The Trump administration is likely to pull out the United States from the United Nation Human Rights Council.

US might leave the UNHRC

The US has accused the UN Human Rights Council of being biased against Israel and criticized of including governments involved in human rights violation. The US is doubtful about the effectiveness of the UNHRC and has been questioning the value of US being a part of the UNHRC. No immediate decision has been taken yet of US abandoning the UNHRC in the next session. However, the discussion to leave the council is likely to startle the international activists who are already alarmed by US quitting the Paris climate accord.

In the past as well US has been known for rejecting the UNHRC under the Bush administration as it was not sure about its effectiveness after the failure of the UN Human Rights Commission in 2006.

Criticism against the council

The Council emerged as a reform process initiated by then secretary general Kofi Annan in March 2006 to monitor the violations of human rights. The commission that existed before was widely discredited for allowing states with questionable human rights record to get membership and avoided scrutiny. The US has criticized the Council for its disproportionate focus on Israel, as the Council has done nothing for a peaceful, negotiated and two state solution to the conflict. It also disapproves of the membership standards of the council and questioned the existence of Cuba and Venezuela in the council as both have used their membership to avoid discussion on human rights violation at home.

Saudi Arabia which has been accused of gross human rights violation-arbitrary arrest, violence against women and torture of political prisoners was elected for a three year council membership. Similarly China accused of human rights abuses is a part of the council.

Has US not violated any rights?

US has been questioning the effectiveness of UNHRC on the grounds of its failure to deal with the human rights violation, however, US is also criticised of being lenient with the human rights abusers like Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. It is also known to have approved blocked arms sales to countries who are accused of rights violations. The homicides rates in Mexico are increasing due to drug dealing and drug trafficking and US being a big buyer of these drugs. It has the highest gun ownership rates in the world and the murder figures have also been high, this highlights the high violations and crime rates in the US.  Moreover, Trump’s decision to quit the climate accord is a violation of environmental laws and human rights as it violates rights of many who are being affected by the climate changes. 

Assessment

With increasing human rights violation and the US withdrawing from the council is likely to bring down the credibility of the US administration. This would make the Unites States take a lower profile on global human rights issues. US is the highest contributor in the peace keeping mission compared to other countries. This move by the Trump administration could be a move to cut down the aid and escape expenditures that US had been incurring.

The credibility of the UNHRC cannot be totally done away with. It has been successful in providing food aid, aid to refugees, peacekeeping mission in Syria, Kosovo and North Korea. Thus just for its bias stand towards Israel does not give US a legitimate reason to quit from an international forum to fight human rights violations.

US during the World War had followed the exceptionalism policy and later its involvement made it the super power. Under, the Trump administration US is again seen following the exceptionalism policy which has already got him a lot of criticism. This time it is not sure that a fall of the US will get it back to the same superpower position.