by Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations National Assembly voted Thursday to reinstate the United States in the Human Rights Council (HRC), more than three years after the presidency of former US President Donald Trump left the UN body denouncing a bias against Israel and a lack of reforms.
The United States, which had no rival to join the Council of 47 members, received 168 votes in favor in the secret ballot held in the Assembly, where 193 member countries sit.
His three-year term will begin on January 1, suggesting possible quarrels with China and Russia, which this year joined the CDH.
When he arrived at the White House last January, Joe Biden promised that the issue of human rights would be at the center of his foreign policy, his administration having since blamed China without restraint for its actions in Hong Kong, in Xinjiang and Taiwan, and criticized Russia.
However, a Reuters investigation last month showed that the Biden administration sometimes sidelined human rights in other countries in favor of national security issues or dialogue with foreign powers.
“The United States will have the opportunity to demonstrate how much the Biden administration places human rights at the center of its domestic and foreign policies,” said Human Rights Watch director Louis Charbonneau.
Washington will initially focus on what it “can accomplish in situations of dire need, such as Afghanistan, Burma, China, Ethiopia, Syria and Yemen,” said the American ambassador to the UN.
“Our objectives are clear: to stand up alongside human rights defenders and denounce violations and abuses,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield added in a statement, indicating that the United States would also oppose “the ‘disproportionate attention of the Council on Israel “.
The CDH candidates are elected by geographic groups for the sake of fairness. Thursday’s vote to elect 13 new members and re-elect five members went without competing nominations.
Also elected were Kazakhstan, Gambia, Benin, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Paraguay, Honduras, Luxembourg, Finland, Montenegro and Lithuania. Cameroon, Eritrea, Somalia, India and Argentina have been confirmed members.
(Report Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, with Patricia Zengerle in Washington; French version Jean Terzian)
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