Geneva - Sana
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the United States is seeking to return to the United Nations Human Rights Council, from which the administration of former President Donald Trump withdrew three years ago.
Blinken said in a video message to the council today: “I am pleased to announce that the United States will seek to be elected to the Human Rights Council for the 2022-2024 term, and we humbly request the support of all member states of the United Nations in our attempt to return to take a seat in this body.”
The Trump administration withdrew from the council in June 2018 after accusing it of being “intransigent in its bias” against the authorities of the Israeli entity and of practicing “hypocrisy” by allowing countries that violate rights to occupy seats in it, as they claim.
While Washington has pledged to begin active participation in the council’s activities immediately, it cannot automatically regain the membership it abandoned three years ago.
The human rights record in the United States was criticized by the Council, including a debate devoted to this last June in which Washington did not participate, following the killing of black American George Floyd on May 25, 2020, after a white police officer pressed his neck for nearly nine minutes.