Source: Overseas Network
On 14 October, the 76th session of the UN General Assembly elected 18 members of the UN Human Rights Council, including the United States, to replace members whose terms ended on 1 January 2022. This is the second return of the United States to the United Nations Human Rights Council three years after the Trump administration announced its withdrawal.
However, the return process of the United States does not have the domineering spirit of "the return of the king", but is quite ironic. The ballot was cast from 18 candidates, and each country only needed a simple majority of votes in support, and there was no suspense. But embarrassingly, the United States has the second-to-last number of votes out of 18 countries.
The low votes of the United States are clearly inseparable from its egregious performance in the Human Rights Council in recent years. In June 2018, the Trump administration accused the Human Rights Council of "bias" and "inability to effectively protect human rights" against Israel, calling the Human Rights Council a "hypocritical and selfish institution" and a stinking drain of political bias, and simply "withdrawing" after the unreasonable demands of the "Reform Human Rights Council" were rejected. Earlier this year, however, as soon as the Biden administration took office, it made a high-profile announcement that it would "put human rights at the center of foreign policy and reaffirm America's moral leadership on the global stage." After re-entering the Human Rights Council as an observer, "the United States is basically focused 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 rallied a number of allies and used "human rights" as a weapon to frequently attack China on Hong Kong-related, Xinjiang-related, and Tibet-related issues. At the end of June, the U.S. House of Representatives even passed the "Ensuring U.S. Global Leadership and Engagement Act," which is intended to improve the competitiveness of the United States and China and pressure China on human rights.
As a subordinate organ of the United Nations General Assembly, the Human Rights Council's role was to promote and protect human rights on a global scale, to consider and make recommendations on human rights violations, but the United States has selfishly turned it into a tool to suppress China in the name of human rights.
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, has exalted the guise of "human rights defenders" and stood on the "moral high ground" smugly, hyping up human rights issues in other countries. However, when itself or its allies are accused of human rights issues, the United States has quickly changed its face, ranging from slandering the other side or even withdrawing from the group, and threatening sanctions. For example, three years ago, the International Criminal Court in The Hague launched an investigation into "war crimes committed by Americans in Afghanistan," and the U.S. government immediately threatened to impose sanctions on relevant judges and prosecutors, including a ban on entry and asset freezes.
The politicization of human rights issues by the United States is doomed to be unpopular and is increasingly opposed and resisted by the international community. On October 21, when the United States, France and a few other countries deliberated on human rights issues in the Third Committee of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, they launched groundless accusations against China, and Zhang Jun, China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, severely refuted and resolutely refused on the spot. On September 24, at the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Pakistan and 65 other countries expressed their support for China, stressing that hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet affairs are China's internal affairs and that the outside world should not interfere, and supportIng China's implementation of "one country, two systems" in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. In June this year, at the 47th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the United States instigated Canada to take the lead in "investigating" Xinjiang and vigorously launched the "Anti-China Joint Statement", with which China fiercely confronted and won the support of more than 90 countries.
"Despite being elected to the Human Rights Council, the U.S. human rights record remains highly problematic, not least because the country has not ratified or fully implemented important international human rights treaties and has failed to implement recommendations made by regional and global human rights bodies." The ACLU criticized.
It can be seen from this that both the United States and the international community have been annoyed by the behavior of the United States in ignoring the current situation of human rights in its own country and using international human rights institutions to suppress other countries. Facts have repeatedly proved that the United States is not worthy of being a "human rights defender" at all, let alone qualified to act as a "teacher who commands and commands."
The low vote for the Human Rights Council sounded a wake-up call for the United States. If the US Government can take this as an opportunity to reflect on itself, promote the healthy development of the domestic human rights cause, and contribute to international human rights work, it will be a fortunate thing for the cause of human rights in the world. Otherwise, the Human Rights Council will not only not become a platform for the United States to reshape its influence, but will become a "sad place" where the United States' human rights abuses are frequently exposed and political manipulations are frequently reprimanded. (Jia Pingfan)
People's Daily Overseas Edition ( October 26, 2021, 10th edition)