West Jerusalem’s claim it has quit the UN Human Rights Council is contradictory, as it is not a member of the body, a UNHRC spokesman has clarified
Israel is not currently a member of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), meaning it cannot officially withdraw from a body it is not part of, UNHRC spokesman Pascal Sim has stated.
On Wednesday, a day after US President Donald Trump announced Washington’s withdrawal from the UNHRC, West Jerusalem declared that it was also quitting the council, which is responsible for promoting and protecting human rights worldwide.
“Israel has an observer status in the UN Human Rights Council, as does any of the 193 UN member states that are not among the 47 members of the Council. An observer state in the Council cannot withdraw from a body it is not a member of,” Sim told TASS on Thursday.
The spokesman noted that Israel “regularly interacted with UNHRC for many years, participating and addressing several meetings” of the body. He emphasized that the UN Human Rights Council “welcomes and encourages the participation of every UN member state – whether a member of the Council or an observer – in the work of the Council and its mechanisms.”
In his statement on Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar criticized the UNHRC, claiming that it “has traditionally protected human rights abusers by allowing them to hide from scrutiny, and instead obsessively demonizes the one democracy in the Middle East – Israel.”
He further accused the body of “propagating antisemitism” and discriminating against Israel. “Israel has been subjected to over 100 condemnatory resolutions, over 20% of all resolutions ever passed in the Council – more than against Iran, Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela combined,” Saar said. (more...)
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