WJC President Ronald S. Lauder applauds US decision to review funding of UNHRC

NEW YORK – The World Jewish Congress strongly supports the United States’ decision to review its funding of the United Nations Human Rights Council, WJC President Ronald S. Lauder said Friday following U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton’s statement to that effect. “The WJC deeply appreciates the principled stance President Donald Trump’s administration has taken against the systemic bias against Israel ongoing in the United Nations Human Rights Council and other UN bodies and agencies,” Lauder said.
 
“It is absolutely valuable to have an international body tasked with monitoring and acting against human rights violation and abuses, but the UNHRC is too often plagued by politicization and an obsession with condemning Israel, to the detriment of other pressing human rights situations that deserve the attention of the Council,” Lauder said.  “Israel is the only country with a permanent agenda item in the UNHRC, and since the establishment of the council in 2006, it has been targeted in more than half of of the country-specific resolutions adopted.”
 
“The UNHRC time and again undermines its own credibility and is deeply in need of reform from within,” Lauder said. “We sincerely hope that the US’ decision to withdraw will lead to soul-searching among the members of the council and bring about this change within, including the removal of Agenda Item 7 and a calculated understanding that Israel must be treated as any other country.”
 
“In the coming months, when Michelle Bachelet takes the helm as High Commissioner for Human Rights, she will have the opportunity to enact constructive and positive changes," said Lauder.