Pence: UN Human Rights Council ‘doesn’t deserve its name’

Vice President Mike Pence blasted the United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday, saying that it “doesn’t deserve its name.”

“The United Nations is bound by its charter to foster ‘international cooperation in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all,’ ” Pence told the members of the U.N. Security Council in New York.

“That was the purpose under which the U.N. Human Rights Council was formed. But the truth is, the Human Rights Council doesn’t deserve its name,” he continued.

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Pence targeted the group of 47 nations for repeatedly condemning Israel while “largely ignoring the world’s worst human rights abusers.”

“The council’s agenda item seven actually singles out Israel for discussion at every single meeting, something no other country must endure,” Pence said Wednesday. “As evidence, the Human Rights Council has passed more than 70 resolutions condemning Israel, while largely ignoring the world’s worst human rights abusers.” 

“It is, as President Trump said yesterday, a massive source of embarrassment,” Pence added.

Pence said the council’s own members often violate international human rights standards themselves and singled out Cuba and Venezuela as the two worst offenders.

“Today, the United Nations Human Rights Council actually attracts and welcomes many of the worst human rights violators in the world. A clear majority of the Human Rights Council’s members fail to meet even the most basic human rights standards,” Pence added.

The Trump administration indicated earlier this year that it may resign from the U.N. Human Rights Council over what it considers “anti-Israel bias.” In an op-ed for The Washington Post, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley wrote that the body must cease its repeated condemnations of Israel.

“The council must also end its practice of wrongly singling out Israel for criticism,” Haley wrote in June.

“When the council passes more than 70 resolutions against Israel, a country with a strong human rights record, and just seven resolutions against Iran, a country with an abysmal human rights record, you know something is seriously wrong.”