State Department Announces U.S. Candidacy in Human Rights Council Elections, Reversing Bush Administration Policy

April 1, 2009

The State Department announced yesterday that the United States will run for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council in elections scheduled for May 15. The decision marks a sharp break from the Bush Administration’s dealings with the Council, which was established in 2006 to replace the heavily-criticized Human Rights Commission. Under the Bush Administration, the United States was one of only four UN member states to vote against the creation of the Council, joining Israel, the Marshall Islands, and Palau. The Bush Administration never ran for election to the Council and last year ended U.S. participation as an observer. 

In yesterday’s State Department release, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Susan Rice explained that the United States was seeking to join the Human Rights Council “because we believe that working from within, we can make the Council a more effective forum to promote and protect human rights.” The release noted that the decision was “in keeping with the Obama Administration’s ‘new era of engagement’ with other nations” and both Rice and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States will work in partnership with other countries to improve the effectiveness of the Council and the UN human rights system. 

The decision was applauded by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, while the response from Congress was mixed. The Secretary-General welcomed the announcement and said the United States “has an important contribution to make” in helping the Human Rights Council to promote and protect human rights for all people. Ban also said that full engagement by the United States will help produce “an inclusive and vibrant intergovernmental process” for promoting human rights around the world.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) also strongly supported the decision, saying, “For too long the United States has sat on the sidelines.” Berman criticized the Council for “a pathological focus on demonizing Israel” at the expense of scrutinizing human rights crises in other countries, such as Zimbabwe and Sudan. He noted that the Council “has become increasingly dysfunctional and politicized, with virtually no guidance from the United States” and said the “time is ripe to take a more positive and active role in challenging the Council.” 

In a statement released yesterday, House Human Rights Commission Co-Chairman Jim McGovern (D-MA) joined Berman in commending the Administration’s decision. “It is high time the United States rejoins the rest of the family of nations in making the Council the strongest international human rights entity yet,” McGovern said.

However, the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s senior Republican member, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) denounced the State Department’s action. In a press release issued yesterday, Ros-Lehtinen complained that the decision “surrenders the strongest leverage we have to force changes in the Council.” She insisted that the United States should not seek to join the Council until significant reforms are implemented to prevent countries with poor human rights records from being elected to the body. She said that U.S. membership on the Council before reforms are implemented “would only grant legitimacy to the biased actions of a fundamentally illegitimate body.” Ros-Lehtinen has introduced wide-ranging UN reform legislation (H.R. 557) that would restrict U.S. participation on the Human Rights Council and withhold a portion of U.S. dues to the United Nations if certain countries are members of the Council. No action has been taken on the legislation, which has 82 cosponsors.

Members of the Human Rights Council serve three year terms, with elections held every year for one-third of the Council’s 47 seats. The United States will run on an uncontested slate of candidates for the May 15^th elections, ensuring a victory. Seats are apportioned based on the UN’s regional group system. The United States is a member of the Western European and Others Group (WEOG) and will run on a slate with Belgium and Norway for three open seats reserved for the WEOG. New Zealand had announced its candidacy for one of the three WEOG seats, but withdrew yesterday after the State Department announced its decision to run.

To read UNA-USA's statement on the U.S. decision to seek election to the Human Rights Council, click here.