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Nikki Haley, the outgoing American ambassador to the United Nations, called its Human Rights Council “an exercise in shameless hypocrisy” in June, in announcing that the US was withdrawing from the Geneva-based body. Photo: EPA-EFE
OpinionLetters

Letters | Nikki Haley did well to call out the UN on human rights hypocrisy

  • Ambassador Haley has called out the UN for its abuse, bias and idleness
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Letters
Letters
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Alex Lo’s My Take column of October 18 (“Nikki Haley is an odious hypocrite on rights”) is far removed from reality. US Ambassador Haley in fact is a breath of fresh air in the otherwise stuffy organisation that is the United Nations.
For decades since its establishment in 1945, though with good intentions, the UN has done little to improve international relations, it has not prevented nor has it stopped one war. It does do some good in providing food relief to disaster areas. However, it has a history of human rights and sexual abuse in countries where UN peacekeepers have been stationed (in Africa and Southeast Asia, for instance).
Ambassador Haley has called out the UN for its abuse, bias and idleness. Yet Mr Lo decries Ms Haley’s criticism of the UN Human Rights Council.

Please allow me to point out some member countries on that Council; Angola, Burundi, Cuba, Ethiopia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. Also, Syria is a current member of the Conference on Disarmament, the UN council in charge of international arms control agreements!

Medical staff tend to a child following an alleged chemical weapons attack in April in Douma, Syria. Photo: Reuters
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Just the human rights record of these countries should automatically disqualify them from ever overseeing or voting on the subject of human rights.

Mr Lo should also know that moving the US embassy to Jerusalem was in accordance with law passed by Congress in 1995. President Donald Trump merely enacted this law after previous presidents promised to, but dithered once elected, believing it would scupper peace efforts. Well, as President Trump rightly reasoned, that approach did not bring any results over the many decades.

As for the idea that Jerusalem as a capital of the state of Israel is “provocative”, it is only so to people who disregard historical facts and promote false narratives. Ambassador Haley is an honourable, righteous person in the vein of great statesmen like the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan and, yes, former UN ambassador John Bolton.

Marian Schneps, Wan Chai

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