State Department Announces Further Disengagement from Human Rights Council
June 13, 2008
During a June 6th press briefing, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack announced that the Bush administration was further distancing the United States from the UN Human Rights Council because of its “rather pathetic record” and what he called excessive criticism of Israel. The 47-member Council was launched in 2006 as a replacement for the UN Human Rights Commission, which was criticized by the United States and others for its poor performance. The Bush administration asserts that the Human Rights Council is worse than its predecessor.
Administration Has Opposed Council from Inception
From the outset, the Bush administration has been highly skeptical of the Human Rights Council. When the Council was created by the General Assembly by a vote of 170 to 4, the United States joined Israel, Palau, and the Marshall Islands as the only countries opposing the decision. The Administration has not sought a seat on the Council in any of the three elections held thus far, and the United States this year is withholding from its regular budget dues the US share of the Council’s budget.
US Has Participated as Observer
Nonetheless, the United States has participated as an observer in the Council. Just last year, in announcing the decision not to run for election, the State Department announced that the United States would continue to participate as an observer. In testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last summer, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Kristen Silverberg reiterated that the United States would “stay actively engaged as an observer at the Council.”
Administration Looking to Other UN Human Rights Bodies
However, she also suggested that the US should increase its engagement with other human rights venues within the UN system in place of the Human Rights Council. “We believe the UN should take a leading role in human rights work, but we have serious questions about the Human Rights Council’s ability to contribute materially to such work,” Silverberg stated. “We therefore need to redouble our efforts in other multilateral fora.” Noting that there “are many important ways for the U.S. to engage in multilateral human rights through the UN,” Silverberg pointed to, among others, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the General Assembly’s Third Committee, which deals with social and humanitarian issues.
Rice Prescribes More Selective Participation
The State Department’s most recent announcement on June 6th appears to increase further the Administration’s disengagement from the Human Rights Council by limiting US participation as an observer. Spokesman Sean McCormack said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “has taken the decision that we will engage the Human Rights Council really only when we believe that there are matters of deep national interest before the Council and we feel compelled; otherwise, we are not going to.”
New Policy Calls for More Reserved Approach Due to Minimal Influence
McCormack added that, “because we don’t think it is a serious institution in dealing with human rights issues, we are going to take a more reserved approach in terms of engaging the Council, just because our ability…to really influence this body is proven to be rather minimal over the past couple of years, and as a result we’re going to choose more selectively how and when to engage the Council.” McCormack also said that the Administration was going to “think about ways that might improve the function of the Council.”
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