U.S. Will Not Join U.N. Rights Council

UNITED NATIONS, April 6 -- The Bush administration will not seek a seat this year on the new U.N. Human Rights Council, marking the first time in more than half a century that the United States has chosen not to pursue membership in the United Nations' principal rights organization.

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The decision announced today was influenced in part, officials said, by concerns that the United States might have failed to win one of the seven seats reserved for Western governments. The United States has faced sharp criticism at the U.N. for alleged abuse of terrorism detainees. Meanwhile, Cuba and China, which have troubled human rights records, stand a strong chance of winning election to the council by secret ballot in May, according to senior U.S. and U.N. diplomats.

The Human Rights Council was established last month to replace the 60-year-old Human Rights Commission, which had been derided in recent years for allowing countries with abysmal rights records, such as Sudan and Zimbabwe, to join and thwart criticism of their actions. The United States, which was voted off the commission for one year in 2001, has always sought membership in the U.N. agency since its creation in 1946.

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The debate over the proper U.S. role on the new council has also played out in Congress, where several leaders, including Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, and Sens. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), have urged the administration to join what they see as an imperfect U.N. agency and improve it from within. "I think we should engage in the process," Hyde said in a March 27 news conference at the United Nations. "It is the best that's available and you do what you can do with what you have at hand."

But Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) wrote to President Bush Thursday to say that U.S. "participation in this new, unreformed council only undermines our own credibility and confers unwarranted legitimacy."

"I am very concerned that your administration now may provide financial support to this discredited council, and may even seek a seat on this body," he wrote.

Bolton has Been Trying to Kill the Human Rights Council from the Beginning

By Steve Clemons

Ivo Daalder over at America Abroad has sided with John Bolton and called me out (in a friendly way) over the brewing UN Human Rights Council mess.

New York Times and Washington Post editorialists are falling over themselves to give John Bolton credit for being an unrelenting advocate for global human rights protections. Daalder is extending the same accolades to Bolton.

But what has really been going on is that John Bolton has been trying to kill the Human Rights Council from the beginning.