While the anti-Israel bias in the United Nations and its institutions is well-known, there is no entity in which it is more obvious than in what is called the Human Rights Council โ which does exactly the opposite of what its name implies. The events of this past weekend prove that the council has lost not only its legitimacy but also its right to exist. Does anyone really think that the council โ whose members include Afghanistan, Angola, Cuba, Venezuela, and Qatar โ will demonstrate any obligation to human rights? The council's bias starts from what is written in its very agenda. While human rights violations throughout the world are addressed under Article 4, a unique article has been devoted to Israel โ Article 7 โ which require the council to discuss the only democracy in the Middle Eastย every year.
This weekend, the Human Rights Council convened once again for its regular anti-Israel discussion and accordingly passed five resolutions against Israel, while countries like Iran, Syria, and North Korea were the subjects of only one resolution each.
If anyone needed proof that the council is detached from reality and has nothing to do with human rights, it came in the form of a council resolution on human rights violations in what it called the "occupied Syrian Golan Heights." It appears that the denizens of Geneva cafes believe that the residents of the Golan Heights had it better under the rule of a government that slaughters its citizens and uses chemical weapons against them than under a government that provides the citizens of an enemy regime with medical care and humanitarian aid.
It's time to put an end to the farce that is the United Nations Human Rights Council. The response of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley to the council's recent decisions and her characterization of the council as "foolish and unworthy of its name" shows that the U.S. is losing patience. The Trump administration's record on the U.N. has shown that he doesn't only make threats โ he also follows through and punishes U.N. organizations that take action against the U.S., its values, and its allies.
The Trump administration cut $65 million from the budget of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. The U.S. and the nations of Europe must stand up and take action. They must cease to be a fig leaf that conceals the council's sins, leave the HRC to those who violate those rights, and establish a new body that will implement the U.N.'s original mandate in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an organization that will hold human rights sacred rather than trampling them.
