Sec. 501 Findings
Congress makes the following findings:
Since its establishment in 2006, the United Nations Human Rights Council has failed to meaningfully promote the protection of internationally recognized human rights, and has proven to be even more problematic than the United Nations Human Rights Commission that it was created to replace.
The United Nations Human Rights Council suffers from fundamental and severe structural flaws present since its establishment by the United Nations General Assembly, such as the fact that it draws its members from the General Assembly without any substantive membership criteria, with the perverse result that a number of the world’s worst human rights abusers are members of the council.
For example, many members of the United Nations Human Rights Council are rated Not Free or only Partly Free by Freedom House. Only a minority of members were rated Free.
The structure and composition of the United Nations Human Rights Council have made it subject to gross political manipulation, with the result that, during its almost seven years of operation, the Council has passed over 46 resolutions censuring the democratic, Jewish State of Israel, as compared to only a handful censuring the dictatorships in Burma, North Korea, and Syria, just one addressing the severe, ongoing human rights abuses in Libya, Iran, and Belarus, and none addressing the severe, ongoing human rights abuses in China, Cuba, Russia, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and elsewhere.
The United Nations Human Rights Council’s agenda contains a permanent item for criticism of the democratic, Jewish State of Israel, but no permanent items criticizing any other state.
The United Nations Human Rights Council has established, or preserved the existence of, a number of Special Procedures mechanisms to address country-specific situations or thematic issues. These mechanisms include a number of special rapporteurs whose expenses and staff support are paid for by contributions to the United Nations.
The United Nations Human Rights Council has also established an Advisory Committee whose expenses and staff support are paid for by contributions to the United Nations.
Some of these special rapporteurs and members of the Advisory Committee have displayed consistent bias against the United States, Israel, and the Jewish people, while providing support to human rights abusers.
Richard Falk, the United Nations “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967”, has compared Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to the Holocaust, questioned the veracity of the events of September 11, 2001, and posted a cartoon on his blog depicting Americans and Jews as bloodthirsty dogs.
Jean Ziegler, a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, has accused former President George W. Bush and former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of committing state terrorism, has called for an investigation of Israel by the International Criminal Court for war crimes following Israel’s war against Hezbollah in 2006, has visited Cuba and praised the Cuban regime’s provision of food to the Cuban people, and has stated that Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe “has history and morality with him”. Ziegler was also involved in the establishment of the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, a prize established by, funded by, and named after Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi, and awarded in the past to Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Louis Farrakhan, and Roger Garaudy, who has denied the Holocaust, questioned the veracity of the events of September 11, 2001, and supported Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s call for Israel to be wiped off the map.
Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee who has previously served as President of the United Nations General Assembly and as foreign minister for the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, has implicitly accused the United States of terrorism, has called former President Ronald Reagan a butcher, has called for a international boycott of Israel, has stated that the Palestinians were being crucified by Israel, has called Israel’s defensive Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip a monstrosity and genocide, has urged the United Nations to use the term apartheid in discussing Israeli treatment of Palestinians, has embraced Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after Ahmadinejad delivered an anti-American, anti-Israel address to the United Nations General Assembly, has stated that charges of genocide against Sudanese dictator Omar Hassan al Bashir are racist, and has declared Fidel Castro World Hero of Solidarity, stating that Castro “embod[ied] virtues and values worth emulation by all of us”.
Halima Warzazi, a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, has compared Israel to Nazi Germany, and used her previous membership in a United Nations apparatus to shield Saddam Hussein from censure for gassing Iraqi Kurds in Halabja.
The ongoing five-year review of the United Nations Human Rights Council concluded on June 17, 2011, and failed to make any significant reforms to its fundamental and severe structural flaws, including its absence of substantive membership criteria, or to remove the permanent agenda item on Israel.
On June 17, 2011, John F. Sammis, United States Deputy Representative to the Economic and Social Council, stated that “The Geneva process [of the five-year review] failed to yield even minimally positive results, forcing us to dissociate from the outcome … the final resolution [for the five-year review] also fails to address the core problems that still plague the Human Rights Council … The United States has therefore voted no on the resolution … the Council’s effectiveness and legitimacy will always be compromised so long as one country in all the world is unfairly and uniquely singled out while others, including chronic human rights abusers, escape scrutiny … The resolution before us today does nothing to address the Council’s failures nor move it any closer to the founding values of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”.
United States membership in the Human Rights Council has not led to reform of its fundamental flaws diminished the Council’s virulently anti-Israel behavior. The Council has passed twenty-seven resolutions criticizing Israel since the United States joined in 2009.