The US returned to the UN Human Rights Council, three years after former US President Donald Trump pulled the country out of the UN HRC in 2018, citing his long-standing anti-Israel bias.
In her post-vote speech, US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, vowed to “resist the Council’s disproportionate focus on Israel, which includes the Council’s only standing agenda item directed against one country.”
Returning to the organization, the Biden administration acknowledged its “disproportionate focus” on Israel. In elections held by the UN General Assembly on Thursday, 168 members voted for the US membership.
“Our first efforts as full members of the Council will focus on what we can achieve in situations of dire need such as Afghanistan, Burma, China, Ethiopia, Syria, and Yemen. More broadly, we will promote respect for fundamental freedoms and women’s rights, as well as counter religious intolerance, racial and ethnic injustice, violence and discrimination against minority groups, including LGBTQI + and people with disabilities,” said Thomas-Greenfield.
During the session, the UN called also for an independent investigation into the death of the ex-Venezuelan minister. The UN Human Rights Office has called on Venezuela to conduct an “independent investigation” into the death of imprisoned former minister Raul Baduel, a prominent dissident considered a political prisoner by the country’s opposition.
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