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Nikki Haley: ‘The Human Rights Council Is The UN’s Greatest Failure’

Hanna Bogorowski/TheDCNF

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley gave an address at The Heritage Foundation on Wednesday on the U.S. decision to withdraw from the U.N. Human Rights Council, which she claims is the organization’s “greatest failure.”

Haley, along with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, announced the formal withdrawal on June 19, saying the council had become grossly politicized and in turn failed to seriously address any real global human rights concerns.

The U.S. called on the organization to reform and make efforts to change these aspects, but their calls were not heeded.

“The Human Rights Council is the U.N.’s greatest failure,” Haley said Wednesday.

She reiterated her main two reasons for the withdrawal, the first being the irony that major human rights abusers were themselves on the council, citing Venezuela, Cuba and China specifically.

“The other countries [on the council] lack the courage to make a difference,” she told those at the event sponsored by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative public policy think tank in Washington, D.C.

Haley claimed the second catalyst for withdrawal was the council’s persistent efforts to delegitimize Israel, referring to the body’s Agenda Item 7: “Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.”

She noted that no other country has an entire agenda dedicated to it besides Israel, which Haley says reveals the council’s undeserving bias and failure to acknowledge other real issues. (RELATED: Nikki Haley Withdraws From UN Human Rights Council, Calling It A ‘Cesspool Of Political Bias’)

Haley explained the council’s inability to make a positive difference in the lives of those who need it by citing the human rights violations occurring in Venezuela, which will not ever be seriously fixed because the country itself sits on the council.

“Change is threatening to them,” Haley said of the remaining members, and that “the United States does more for human rights in and outside of the U.N. than any other country in the world.”

Haley persisted that the U.S. will continue to do so because that is what the country stands for, and she is willing to work again with the council if they decide to reform as she has repeatedly asked.

The withdrawal “does not mean we give up our fight for reform. On the contrary, any country willing to work with us to reshape the council, need only ask,” she said.

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