How China will gain if Trump pulls a Paris on UN Human Rights Council
Ambassador Nikki Haley suggests the US could leave the panel if serial violators keep their seats, though an expert says the US doesn’t exactly have ‘clean hands’ either
China could extend its influence in the United Nations Human Rights Council if the United States makes good on its threat to quit, hot on the heels of its shock withdrawal from the Paris climate deal this month, analysts said.
They made the remarks after US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley singled out China and other members of the council for criticism.
“Countries like Venezuela, Cuba, China, Burundi and Saudi Arabia occupy positions that obligate them to, in the words of the resolution that created the Human Rights Council, ‘uphold the highest standards’ of human rights. They clearly do not uphold those highest standards,” she said at the Graduate Institute of Geneva this month.
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“If the Human Rights Council is going to be an organisation we entrust to protect and promote human rights, it must change. If it fails to change, then we must pursue the advancement of human rights outside of the council.”
Addressing the council in Geneva on the same day, the ambassador made it clear that “no country that is a human rights violator should be allowed a seat at the table”.
Among the 47 members in the council, 13 are Asia-Pacific states, with China the biggest power. Other Asian member states include the Philippines, India, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
