Haley to Preside Over Human Rights Discussion at U.N. Security Council
Akshaya Kumar said that Unless the U.S. is prepared to seriously address human rights abuses committed by its allies — like Saudi Arabia
and Iraq — a theoretical debate about human rights issues at the Security Council won’t improve the Council’s work,
By SOMINI SENGUPTAAPRIL 18, 2017
UNITED NATIONS — The Trump administration is seeking to highlight its commitment to human rights around the world,
and so its envoy to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, is presiding over what it calls the first "thematic debate" on human rights in the Security Council on Tuesday afternoon.
She has been skeptical of the United Nations Human Rights Council, though, describing many of its constituents as countries with poor human rights records
and calling it "so corrupt." Countries are elected to serve on the Human Rights Council.
And for at least a decade, the Security Council has received briefings from human rights officials within the United Nations
and occasionally from outside organizations that work on human rights.
In 2013, Ban Ki-moon, secretary general at the time, put in place a policy
that he called Human Rights Up Front, instructing all United Nations officials in the field to report on human rights violations in the countries where they work.
Whether Ms. Haley will recommend that the United States pull out of the Human Rights Council is unclear.
