GENEVA: Civil society organisations on Monday slammed Washington’s expected boycott of a regular UN review of its human rights record, urging the international community to hold the United States accountable for alleged serious abuses.
Rights advocates, civil society organisations and US elected officials gathered in Geneva ahead of the scheduled US review on Tuesday, although few expected representatives from US President Donald Trump’s administration to appear.
‘The United States government, for the second year, will not show up before the world to answer questions about systemic violations of human rights,’ said Jamil Dakwar, head of the ACLU’s human rights programme.
He called for the UN Human Rights Council to help ‘put an end to US impu-nity and hold the United States accountable’.
Last November, the United States became only the second country ever to boycott the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which all 193 UN member states undergo every four to five years, amid criticism from rights groups over policies pursued by the Trump administration.
The Human Rights Council subsequently postponed the review for a year in the hope that Washington would participate.
‘Irredeemable’ But when contacted, the US State Department indicated the Trump administration had no intention of showing up. A spokesman noted that Washington had formally withdrawn from the council last year, describing itasan ‘irredeemablebody’that ‘pushes anti-American rhetoric’.
Before the United States, only Israel had previously boycotted its UPR, in early 2013, although it underwent a delayed review later that year. Some countries have sought postponements since the UPR process began in 2008, while Nicaragua partially boycotted the process, but only after its latest review had already taken place.
Among those gathered in Geneva was Noor Abdalla, the wife of Mahmoud Khalil, the prominent pro-Palestinian protest leader and green card holder whom the Trump administration sought to deport last year.
‘Accountability is important,’ she told reporters. ‘When the most powerful government in the world is not held accountable, they think that they can do whatever they want to do... We saw that withmy husband’s case.
Washington’s expected boycott is ‘just a big FU’, said Joseph Bell, a former life-without-parole prisoner who campaigns against such sentences.
‘It’s not right,’ he said. ‘I did double my time, so how come [Trump] is not being held accountable?’ Philadelphia City Council member Kendra Brooks described the administration’s expected absence as ‘very disappointing, but to be expected under this administration’.
‘People are living in fear... We are in crisis.’ During panel discussions on Monday, advocates highlighted a range of concerns, including over the Trump administration’s policies on immigration and reproductive rights, and alleged attacks on freedom of expression.
Civil society groups have urged countries to take a stronger stance against US non-cooperation with the UPR. -AFP