The United States will request to rejoin the UN Human Rights Council as of 2022, despite the fact that Joe Biden’s Administration shares with Donald Trump’s some suspicions about the supposedly biased operation of the international body.
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, took the floor on Wednesday before the Council as an observer country to make clear that, with Biden in the White House, Washington aspires to reach out to organizations repudiated by Trump and that now consider “important”.
“The United States is going to place democracy and Human Rights at the center of foreign policy because it is essential for peace and stability,” said Blinken, during a speech in which he confirmed that the United States will seek to occupy a place within of the Council for the period 2022-2024.
The body is made up of a total of 47 members, elected by the UN General Assembly and distributed according to the different regions. The composition of the body is renewed in parts and the countries elected are for a period of three years.
The head of North American diplomacy has “humbly” requested the support of the rest of the countries to achieve this reincorporation, understanding that the Council plays “a fundamental role in the protection of fundamental freedoms”, as he would have shown in his swift condemnation of the coup perpetrated on February 1 in Burma.
Blinken has assumed that “institutions are not perfect”, but has argued that it is precisely from within that the United States can change a series of actions that, for example, place a “disproportionate” focus on Israel. Likewise, he has also advocated that the member states of the Council respect Human Rights, a recurring criticism in each renewal process.
“The United States is not considered perfect”, but Blinken has stressed that there can be no “moral equivalence” with other countries with “authoritarian regimes” and that “violate and abuse Human Rights with impunity.” The Secretary of State has denounced precisely the cases of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Iran, while requesting the “immediate and unconditional” release of the Russian opponent Alexei Navalni and has denounced the “atrocities” committed in the Chinese region of Xinjiang.
