On October 14, the 76th United Nations General Assembly elected 18 members of the United Nations Human Rights Council, including the United States, to take over from January 1, 2022. This is the United States’ return to the UN Human Rights Council three years after the Trump administration announced its withdrawal.
However, the return process of the United States did not have the domineering “return of the king”, but rather ironic. This time the vote is to select 18 seats from 18 candidate countries. All countries only need to obtain a simple majority of votes. There is no suspense. But embarrassingly, the United States has the second-to-last votes among 18 countries.
The United States’ low number of votes is obviously inseparable from its various bad performances in the Human Rights Council in recent years. In June 2018, the Trump administration accused the Human Rights Council of “prejudice” against Israel and “inability to effectively protect human rights,” and called the Human Rights Council a “hypocritical and selfish institution” and “a stinking gutter of political prejudice”. After the unreasonable request of “reform the Human Rights Council” was rejected, they simply “withdrew from the group”. However, as soon as the Biden administration came to power at the beginning of this year, it announced in a high-profile manner that it would “put human rights at the center of foreign policy and reaffirm the moral leadership of the United States on the global stage.” After re-entering the Human Rights Council as an observer, “the United States is basically focusing on one thing, and that is China.” Limon, executive director of the Geneva think tank “Global Human Rights Group”, said bluntly. The United States has gathered a group of allies and used “human rights” as a weapon to frequently attack China on issues involving Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet. At the end of June this year, the U.S. House of Representatives even deliberated and passed the “Ensuring U.S. Global Leadership and Engagement Act,” which is intended to improve the competitiveness of the United States and China and to put pressure on China in terms of human rights.
As a subordinate body of the UN General Assembly, the Human Rights Council’s responsibility is to promote and protect human rights worldwide, review and make recommendations on human rights violations, but the United States has turned it into suppressing China in the name of human rights. Tool of.
With the help of the Human Rights Council and other platforms, the United States, which has a bad record of human rights in its own country, is proud of the guise of a “human rights defender”, standing proudly on the “moral high ground” and hyping up other countries’ human rights issues. However, when it or its allies were accused of human rights issues, the United States quickly changed its face, ranging from false accusations of the other party or even withdrawing from the group, while threatening sanctions, and its hegemonic face was eye-catching. For example, three years ago, the International Criminal Court in The Hague launched an investigation into “war crimes committed by Americans in Afghanistan.” The US government immediately threatened to impose sanctions on relevant judges and prosecutors, including banning entry and freezing assets.
The politicization of the human rights issue by the United States is destined to be unpopular, and it is increasingly opposed and resisted by the international community. On October 21, a few countries such as the United States and France launched groundless accusations against China during the third committee of the 76th UN General Assembly deliberating on human rights issues. Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations, severely refuted and resolutely rejected them on the spot. More than 80 countries In response to China’s position, many countries spoke in support of China, and the venue formed a strong support for China. On September 24, at the 48th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Pakistan and other 65 countries expressed their support for China, emphasizing that Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet affairs are China’s internal affairs and should not interfere with the outside world. They support China’s implementation of “One Country, Two Systems” in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. “. In June of this year, at the 47th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the United States urged Canada to take the lead in an “investigation” in Xinjiang and engage in an “anti-China joint statement.”
“Despite being elected as a member of the Human Rights Council, the United States’ human rights record still has major problems, especially because the country has not yet ratified or fully implemented important international human rights treaties, and failed to implement the recommendations made by regional and global human rights institutions.” The Civil Liberties Union criticized.
It can be seen from this that, both in the United States and the international community, people have been irritated by the United States’ behavior in ignoring the current human rights situation in the country but using international human rights institutions to suppress other countries. Facts have repeatedly proved that the United States does not deserve to be a “guardian of human rights,” and it is not even qualified to be a “instructive teacher.”
The low vote rate was selected for the Human Rights Council, which sounded a wake-up call for the United States. If the US government can take this opportunity to reflect on itself, promote the healthy development of domestic human rights, and contribute to international human rights work, it will be a blessing for the world’s human rights cause. Otherwise, the Human Rights Council will not only become a platform for the United States to reshape its influence, but will become a “sad place” where human rights abuses in the United States are frequently exposed and political manipulation is frequently criticized. (Jia Pingfan)
