Monday, 08 February 2021_The United States reportedly plans to reengage with the UN Human Rights Council that former President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018, in a move that is expected to draw rebuke from those who have recoiled at the body's criticism of Israel.
The Associated Press reported Sunday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a senior US diplomat in Geneva will announce Washington’s decision to rejoin the organization as a non-voting member for this year, with the goal of becoming a full member in 2022.
Trump withdrew the US from the Geneva-based council, accusing the body of hypocrisy and being biased against the Israeli regime.
"For too long the Human Rights Council has been a protector of human rights abusers and a cesspool of political bias. Regrettably, it is now clear that our call for reform was not headed,” said then US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
“Human rights abusers continue to serve on and be elected to the council … Therefore, as we said we would do a year ago, if we did not see any progress, the United States is officially withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council,” she added.
The Trump administration also took issue with the body’s membership, which includes China, Cuba, Eritrea, Russia and Venezuela, all of which the US has accused of human rights abuses.
According to one senior US official, the administration of President Joe Biden still wants the council to reform but it believes the best way to promote change is to “engage with it in a principled fashion.”
The US' decision to rejoin the UNHRC would represent the latest move by the Biden administration to reverse Trump’s isolationist agenda, in which he removed the US from a number of international organizations.
This comes after a group of House Republicans asked Biden to reconsider his position in a letter they wrote to the Democratic president on Friday.
"The United States should not grant this body any further credibility with its membership," said the Republicans led by Texas Representative Chip Roy in their letter.
The UNHRC has "disproportionately targeted" Israel, read the letter co-signed by more than 40 House Republicans.
The council was established in 2006 and Washington joined it in 2009 after President Barack Obama came to power.
Following the US withdrawal, Human Rights Watch said then Washington's move was "a sad reflection of the US administration's one-dimensional rights policy," adding that the US' defense of Israeli abuses took precedence above everything else.
In May 2018, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said Israel had systematically deprived Palestinians of their human rights, with 1.9 million in Gaza "caged in a toxic slum from birth to death."
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