The Biden administration has opted not to pursue a second consecutive term on the UN Human Rights Council, the State Department said on Monday.
“We decided not to seek another (term) on the Human Rights Council at this time because we are engaged with our allies about the best way to move forward,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters, as quoted by The Associated Press.
The UN General Assembly conducts elections for the council, which has 47 members. Candidate countries come from different geographic regions. Iceland, Spain, and Switzerland are the other candidates from the US's regional group, known as the Western Hemisphere and Others (WEOG), and could represent US interests and values, Miller said.
“All of them are countries with a very strong record of support for human rights,” he added. “We thought they would carry the flag forward, but we will continue to remain engaged on human rights issues.”
Former US President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the UNHRC in 2018, citing its longstanding anti-Israel bias.
The Biden Administration later reversed Trump’s decision and returned to the organization, even though it acknowledged its “disproportionate focus” on Israel.
When the Biden administration announced its intention to reverse Trump’s decision, Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized the withdrawal, saying it “did nothing to encourage meaningful change, but instead created a vacuum of US leadership, which countries with authoritarian agendas have used to their advantage.”
The Human Rights Council was established in 2006 to replace the previous human rights commission, which had been discredited due to the poor human rights records of some of its members. However, the new council has faced similar criticism, including claims that some countries with questionable human rights practices seek membership to protect themselves and their allies.