“I’m pleased to announce the United States will seek election to the Human Rights Council for the 2022-24 term,” Blinken declared on Wednesday. “We humbly ask for the support of all UN member states in our bid to return to a seat in this body.”
Former President Donald Trump’s administration withdrew the United States from the council in June 2018, calling it “a poor defender of human rights” and “an exercise in shameless hypocrisy.” President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, however, have long expressed a desire to rejoin.
Despite Washington’s eagerness to return, Blinken also leveled criticisms at the council. He urged the UN council to “look at how it conducts its business” and accused it of placing a “disproportionate focus” on Israeli human rights violations, branding the body’s concerns “unrelenting bias.”
Blinken also called for the removal of other countries from the UN Human Rights Council, declaring, “Those with the worst human rights records should not be members of this council.”
During his message, Blinken made no mention of the United States’ own history of human rights violations. Last year, when the International Criminal Court authorized an investigation into potential US war crimes in Afghanistan, the Trump administration responded by sanctioning ICC officials. The Biden administration has also expressed opposition to the investigation, but is “reviewing” the sanctions.
Blinken told the UN on Wednesday that the United States “is placing democracy and human rights at the center of our foreign policy.”
The secretary of state has previously criticized the UN for holding Israel accountable for human rights violations, telling reporters earlier this month, “We recognize that the Human Rights Council is a flawed body, in need of reform to its agenda, membership, and focus, including its disproportionate focus on Israel.”
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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Is there any limit to the chutzpah of ministers of the USG? If there is, I wonder where it can be?
Flounce out of the body calling it names and then say: “We want back in and you lot that didn’t flounce out, don’t deserve a place in it, and anyway you’re being unfair to our friends!” Wonderful! You really could not make it up! Or if you did, people would say: You’re making that up!” If something analogous happened in a schoolyard, people in the gang they had left, would probably say something like: “P*ss, off C*nt!”
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