Trump’s Insidious Reason for Leaving the UN Human Rights Council
While his administration cited its criticism of Israel, the White House also wants to distance itself from a body critical of its own policies.
When the Trump administration commits to a decision, it goes full throttle—and often with little regard for the consequences. One such decision was announced Tuesday evening: The United States is withdrawing its membership from the UN Human Rights Council, which it joined in 2008, two years after its creation.
The stated reasons for withdrawal ranged from what the Trump administration regards as the council’s seeming lack of interest in addressing abuses in places like Venezuela and Iran, to accusations of partiality. In a press conference on Tuesday, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called the council a “protector of human-rights abusers, and a cesspool of political bias,” and said
