LGBT Groups Condemn Trump Exit of Human Rights Council

U.N. Human Rights Council exit by the Trump Administration has been condemned by LGBT Groups across the country after the worldwide shocking news was announced on Monday June 19. This marks the first time that a country has withdrawn from the council.

Ambassador Nikki Haley had been voicing this threat of exiting the Human Rights Council since they condemned Israel over the alleged excessive force used against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Haley has repeatedly voiced her objections of the council’s anti-Israel bias. It is also worthy of thinking that the decision was provoked by the Human Rights Council’s U.N. high commissioner for human rights condemned the Trump administration’s immigration policy.

“For too long, the Human Rights Council has been a protector of human rights abusers, and a cesspool of political bias,” said Nikki Haley today. “The council has “human rights abusers” among its members. The world’s most inhumane regimes continue to escape its scrutiny, and the council continues politicizing scapegoating of countries with positive human rights records in an attempt to distract from the abusers in its ranks,” said Haley.

However it is worth noting that while she condemned such countries for serving on the council, several of those countries are American allies including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain and Turkey.

National Security Advisor to Donald Trump, John Bolton, as well as UN Amabassador Nikki Haley, have been an out spoken critic of the Human Rights Council.  Bolton opposed the creation of the council during his time as U.S. ambassador to the U.N during the George W. Bush administration.

United Nation’s high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said..“The policy of separating children from parents illegally crossing the southern border of the U.S. ‘unconscionable.’”

Ty Cobb, director of the Human Rights Campaign’s global department released the following statement:
“The Trump-Pence administration’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the U.N. Human Rights Council is another failure of leadership when it comes to the human rights of LGBTQ people and other vulnerable populations. In recent years, the U.N. Human Rights Council advanced a number of initiatives focused on LGBTQ human rights — including a 2016 decision establishing an independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity. U.S. leadership at that time played a key role in these efforts. With this decision, the Trump-Pence administration is leaving a vacuum at the Human Rights Council that may well be filled by countries that have little or no commitment to universal human rights, and will use the Council to pursue their own undemocratic agendas.” said Cobb.

Frr more information on the UN Human Rights Council, CLICK HERE

Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

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