NPR: US Announces Withdrawal From UN Human Rights Council

The US ambassador to the United Nations and the secretary state announced that the country is withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council. The diplomats insist withdrawal is not a retreat from human rights commitments and called some of the organization’s endeavors “hypocritical” and “self-serving.” Ambassador Nikki Haley has complained about the Council’s bias against Israel for its treatment of Palestinians and opposed fellow members with troubling human rights records including Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and China. Critics of the plan suggest reform can be promoted within the Council as a member. The announcement was made as angry protests greet a Trump administration policy that encourages separation of children from parents at the border and news reports that the immigrant infants and toddlers are being held in warehouses. The chaotic policy risks that some families may never be reunited. The UN high commissioner on human rights called US policy “unconscionable.” The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics has called it “government-sanctioned child abuse.” – YaleGlobal