After Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord, many noted that it was the end of the United States as a superpower.
Now, there’s another nail in that coffin. It’s increasingly looking like we are also going to pull out of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which would mean we would have no influence whatsoever on human rights abusers.
On Tuesday, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will appear for the first time at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. The United States is one of 47 members of the council — a hard-fought privilege — but the Trump administration is contemplating pulling out. Haley is unlikely to shut the door on the council during her brief visit, but an assessment process underway could lead to that outcome.
Source: Foreign Policy.com
The reason is that the Human Rights Council is supposedly too mean to Israel and it’s not mean enough to Iran. Israel does have a pretty atrocious record on human rights abuses and Iran has improved since Hassan Rouhani won the presidency in 2013.
Still, those two countries are simply cover for Trump and his isolationist administration. Trump seems to have no issues whatsoever with Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses. That’s because they can help make him richer. We all know Trump’s allegiance to Russia, who according to Human Rights Watch:
The government in 2016 further tightened control over the already-shrinking space for free expression, association, and assembly and intensified persecution of independent critics. Parliament adopted laws expanding the power of law enforcement and security agencies, including to control online speech. The parliamentary vote in September resulted in the ruling party, United Russia, gaining a constitutional majority in the State Duma, the parliament’s lower chamber. Russia continued to support rebels who commit abuses in eastern Ukraine. Russia’s actions in occupied Crimea created a human rights crisis.
Trump and Republicans have never been fans of the United Nations. Neither has Putin. Last year (coincidentally right before our presidential election), Russia lost its seat on the Human Rights Council, mostly because of its support of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad and his brutal use of chemical weapons on his own people.
The Human Rights Council is far from perfect, but without being in it, the United States loses its voice and its position as a moral authority (as if Trump isn’t doing that already). This move would limit our power in the world and it does make one wonder what Trump has in mind for our own country’s human rights.
Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images
