The U.S. Rejoins the UN’s Human Rights Violators Club

If the United Nations Human Rights Council were a figment of George Orwell’s imagination, you’d probably say: “Okay, very entertaining but, even accounting for dramatic license, this is a bit over the top.”

The UNHRC is a club for many of the world’s worst and most chronic violators of human rights (read FDD’s assessment here). Among the privileges of membership: virtual immunity to criticism.

The U.S., by contrast, is fair game for criticism. And Israel has long been the council’s whipping boy.

President Trump and his ambassador the UN, Nikki Haley, withdrew from the UNHRC three years ago. President Biden has reversed that policy. The U.S. has just won election to that body again – with the Biden administration promising that re-engagement will lead to reform.

Joining host Cliff May to discuss the UN and human rights are Rich Goldberg, senior advisor to FDD, who has held senior positions in the House, Senate, and National Security Council; Orde Kittrie,  a senior fellow at FDD and a tenured professor of law at Arizona State University;  and Morgan Viña, who served as Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor to U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, and is now Vice President for Government Affairs at JINSA, the Jewish Institute for National Security of America.

A general view of the United Nations Human Rights Council room during a debate in Geneva. (Getty Images)