Nikki Haley: Damn the UN Human Rights Council and the Rest of You Too

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By Ann Garrison – Jun 20, 2018
âMore censure of Israel is no doubt in the works, given Israelâs latest massacres in Gaza.â
On Tuesday, June 19, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley announced US withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) now meeting in Geneva. The UNHRC is stacked with human rights abusers including Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, and, till now, the US itself, but this is still an ugly gesture, like refusing to accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, ditching the Paris Climate Accords, and shredding the Iran Nuclear Deal. Who gives a damn what the world thinks of us? We are good! As Hillary Clinton said at the last Democratic National Convention, âAmerica is great because itâs good.â What could better evidence that than our 1000 or so military bases, our unparalleled arsenal, and however many wars weâre fighting, depending on how you count? Even BAR readers would probably have to stop and decide how to count before they could settle on a number. How dare anyone deny that America is good?
George W. Bush boycotted the UNHRC for three years, but Obama returned to the fold, and Hillary announced that we were back âto set a new agenda, based on three principles,â the second of which was: âThe Council must apply a single standard to all countriesâŠIt cannot continue to single out and devote disproportionate attention to any one country,â meaning Israel.
âThe human rights situation in Palestine is debated three times a year.â
At the close of its first session, on June 30, 2006, the UNHRC voted to establish a standing âAgenda Item 7: Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territoriesâ to be debated every time it convenesâthree times a year. Itâs since passed over 70 resolutions censuring Israel, including 5 passed at its March meeting earlier this year. Nikki Haley then scolded the Council for being âfoolish and unworthy of its name.â
âAgenda Item 7â hasnât been debated in the current session yet, but more censure of Israel is no doubt in the works, given Israelâs latest massacres in Gaza. In 2016, the US and other Western states walked out during the âAgenda Item 7â debate, and the delirious Jerusalem Post then screeched that â35 countries attacked Israeli human rights abuses against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.â Imagine that! Attacking Israeli human rights abuses. Israel is great because itâs good! It even has nuclear weapons and everybody knows it, especially Iran.
This week Israeli Defense Minister Avidor Lieberman called for Israel to withdraw from the UNHRC even though itâs not a member. He seems to think that the US and Israeli states are one. America and Israel are good!
âThe UK is also threatening to leave if the Council doesnât overcome its âanti-Israel biasâ within the next six months.â
Most folks have never even heard of the UNHRC, so, just for context:
The UNHRC is composed of 47 members elected to three year terms within five geographic groups: Africa, Central America and Caribbean, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, and Western European and Other States including the US and Australia. The seats are rarely contested; nations from the various groups just swap votes and take turns. Only the Asia Pacific seat was contested this year.
UNHRC resolutions are neither legally binding nor enforceable, so itâs just a forum, but occasionally it makes news. This year the UNHRC story in the headlines has been that the US might quit the Council over its âanti-Israel biasââas it now hasâ before its three-year term expires in 2019. The UKâs made a few headlines too by threatening to leave if the Council doesnât overcome its âanti-Israel biasâ within the next six months. The UKâs term expires in 2019 too.
The UN General Assemblyâs favorite sport
Last week, before threatening US withdrawal, Nikki Haley raged about the UN General Assemblyâs latest overwhelming vote condemning Israelâs âexcessive use of forceâ and calling for protection of Palestinians in Gaza: âWhat makes Gaza different for some is that attacking Israel is their favorite political sport. Thatâs why weâre here today. The nature of this resolution clearly demonstrates that politics is driving the day.â
Politics! Imagine that. Politics are just a sordid process staining the purity of human rights respected and protected by the US in its global war on the planet and the people. Why not withdraw from the General Assembly? The US seat is secure on the Security Council, the only UN body whose resolutions are legally binding and enforceable. The U.S. ambassador vetoes any Security Council resolutions criticizing Israel or calling for peacekeepers to protect Gazans, but the US keeps getting beaten up, along with Israel, in all these toothless UN expressions of public opinion.
Donald Trump has suggested bombing the UN for violating our national sovereignty, but itâs right next to his property, so he may just have it collapsed like Building 7.
RELATED CONTENT: My Day in Palestine: The Stunning Beauty and Cruel Reality of an Occupied Land
Sneaky secret ballots
At the end of June, the US suffered another blow to its moral authority when Pierre Prosper, its candidate for the UN Human Rights Committee, was defeated on a secret ballot. The Human Rights Committee is 18 internationally recognized human rights experts tasked solely with monitoring and commenting on compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. As a former International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda prosecutor and US War Crimes Ambassador, Pierre Prosper was tasked with canonizing Rwandan military dictator Paul Kagame by making sure that only Hutus, not Tutsis, were prosecuted for the Rwandan massacres of 1990-1994. Israel and Rwanda then formed a deep bond based on victimâs license to invade the neighbors and otherwise do as they pleased.
Thereâs some speculation that the US may be using its outrage about the UNHRCâs tri-annual censure of Israel as an excuse to withdraw and thereby dodge censure of itself for tearing migrant parents and children apart at the US/Mexican border. Or to avoid debate about the staggering report on extreme poverty in the US that the UN Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights will present on Thursday. Who knows? I canât read Donald Trump, John Bolton, or Nikki Haleyâs mind, but who cares? America is great because itâs good! So good that we might as well take the rest of the world down with us.
Featured image: UN Geneva Human Rights room 2022
Ann Garrison is an independent journalist who also contributes to the San Francisco Bay View, Global Research, the Black Agenda Report and the Black Star News, and produces radio for KPFA-Berkeley and WBAI-New York City. In 2014, she was awarded the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize by the Womens International Network for Democracy and Peace.