US plans withdrawal from UN Human Rights Council

The Donald Trump administration on Tuesday decided to announce its withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council, accusing it of hypocrisy and partiality against Israel, according to sources. 

As per the latest reports, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley are all set to announce the withdrawal later on Tuesday. However, the discussion between Pompeo and Haley has not been made public yet.

The United States had long threatened the Geneva-based body to quit if it does not reform the 47-member body eliminating a "chronic anti-Israel bias. There were also reports that the talks between the United States and the UNHRC on 'reform' had failed to meet Washington's demands.

Moreover, in its latest session on Monday, the 47-nation council criticised President Donald Trump’s immigration policy of separating children from parents crossing the southern border illegally "unconscionable."

"The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable," said Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights told during the meet.

Meanwhile, Washington's withdrawal from the UNHRC would be the third US rejection of multilateral engagement afresh. Earlier, it had pulled out of the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal.

The United Nations Human Rights Council, set up on March 15, 2006, has a permanent standing agenda item on alleged violations by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories, which Washington wanted to remove from the body.