US to ‘re-engage’ with UN Human Rights Council

By AFP
February 09, 2021

Geneva: The United States said Monday that it would "re-engage" with the UN Human Rights Council, nearly three years after former president Donald Trump’s administration withdrew the country from body.

In a statement issued as the UN’s top rights body was conducting an organisational meeting in Geneva, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said President Joe Biden had ordered his department to "re-engage immediately and robustly with the UN Human Rights Council."

The move marks yet another reversal by Biden of his predecessor’s policies. Trump’s administration yanked the country out of the 47-member council in June 2018, complaining about its "unrelenting bias" against Israel and "hypocrisy" of allowing rights-abusing nations a seat at the table.