Self-anointed guardians of human freedom China, Russia, Cuba, Eritrea, and Venezuela may soon have the company of the U.S. at the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) if the Biden administration’s rush to rejoin the globalist body is a success.
The diplomatic move by Washington will be a direct rebuff to former President Donald Trump who withdrew the U.S. from the Geneva-based organization in 2018 citing its anti-Israel program and lack of a reform agenda, as Breitbart News reported.
Variously described as a “bully pulpit for human rights violators,” then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the UNHRC is “a haven for dictators and the democracies that indulge them.”
“If the Council were serious about protecting human rights, there are plenty of legitimate needs for its attention, such as the systemic racial disparities in places like Cuba, China, and Iran,” Pompeo offered in a statement at the time.
U.S. officials said Sunday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a senior U.S. diplomat in Switzerland will announce on Monday a return as an observer with an eye toward seeking election as a full member while it builds closer relations with the United Nations even as members like China scold the U.S. at every opportunity:
AP reports one senior U.S. official said the Biden administration believed the council must still reform but the best way to promote change is to “engage with it in a principled fashion.”
The official said it can be “an important forum for those fighting tyranny and injustice around the world” and the U.S. presence intends to “ensure it can live up to that potential.”
Trump’s withdrawal from the UNHRC was one of a number of U.S. retrenchments from international bodies during his four years in office due to their lack of accountability.
He also exited the Paris Climate Accord, the Iran nuclear deal, the World Health Organization, U.N. education and cultural organization, UNESCO, and several arms-control treaties.
All of which has left the U.N. entirely unperturbed as it defies any and all criticism of its actions, as has always been the case.
Since taking office last month, President Joe Biden has rejoined both the Paris accord and the W.H.O. and has signaled interest in returning to the Iran deal as well as UNESCO.
Although the U.S. will have only nonvoting observer status on the UNHRC through the end of 2021, the officials told AP the Biden administration intends to seek one of three full member seats — currently held by Austria, Denmark and Italy — from the “Western Europe and other states group” that come up for election later this year.
The U.N. General Assembly makes the final choice in a vote that generally takes place in October every year to fill vacancies in three-year terms at the 47-member-state council.
AP contributed to this story