General Le Van Cuong and notable comments on the US withdrawal from the Human Rights Council

PV:Dear Major General,Can you outline the history and purpose of the United Nations Human Rights Council?(UNHRC)?

Major General Le Van Cuong:The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is an organization under the United Nations General Assembly established in 2006, with the main functions and tasks of promoting and protecting human rights worldwide. The UNHRC operates three sessions a year to assess the situation of human rights violations in the world and from there make decisions and resolutions. Although these decisions and resolutions are not legally binding, they have a great impact on the political prestige, role and position of the countries mentioned in the Council's decisions.

The United Nations Human Rights Council consists of 47 official members and over 100 observer members. Photo: Internet

Issues often discussed by the UNHRC include protecting women's rights, protecting the rights of ethnic minorities and vulnerable groups, ensuring health services, the right to education, fighting human trafficking, and fighting inhumane treatment of refugees.

Those are the activities of the United Nations Human Rights Council from 2006 to present.

PV:Major General, what is the role of the US in the United Nations Human Rights Council? Can you explain why the US withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)?

Major General Le Van Cuong:The UNHRC was established in 2006 and the then-President George W. Bush administration boycotted the body. The reason given by the United States was that the council did not reflect and criticize the countries that the United States criticized. It was not until the time of President Barack Obama that the United States joined the council. From 2009 to 2012, the United States was elected by the United Nations General Assembly as a key member of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

If during the 8 years of President Obama's administration, he always maintained a proper attitude in resolving the relationship between Israel and Palestine, or consistently pursued a policy of forming two states, Israel and Palestine. Besides, President Obama condemned and criticized the actions of the Israeli Jewish government that violated the United Nations Charter by continuously building settlements, occupying and massacring many Palestinians. Therefore, during that time, the relationship between the United States and Israel became cold and icy...

In 2017, after President Donald Trump took office, he followed a different policy from his predecessor. At the same time, he announced that the United States officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and began the process of moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv. This decision is causing unprecedented outrage not only in Palestine, Arab countries and the Muslim world, but also facing strong opposition from the international community, including close allies of the United States. This is also an action that violates the resolution of the United Nations Security Council. In the 1948 Resolution of the United Nations Security Council, the ancient city of Jerusalem was divided in two, the West of the ancient city belongs to the state of Israel, the East belongs to the Palestinians.

The withdrawal from the UNHRC is the latest US move to abandon multilateral commitments after Washington announced its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Iran nuclear deal. The reason for the withdrawal from this Council is because “US calls for reform of the Council have not been taken seriously”.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said that the UNHRC only condemned Israel but did not condemn other countries that violate human rights such as Cuba... "The Human Rights Council has long been an organization with a politically incorrect tendency. Unfortunately, our calls for reform have not been implemented. As we said last year, if there is no "progress", the United States will withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council," Ms. Haley said.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a press conference at the US State Department. Photo: REUTERS.

The decision was announced as the US faced heavy criticism from the public for tightening its immigration policy, which resulted in children being separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border. The UNHRC High Commissioner, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, had called on Washington a day earlier to immediately stop the policy, which he called "unconscionable".

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed, “The Council’s continued condemnation and bias against Israel is unacceptable. Since its inception, the Council has passed more resolutions condemning Israel than the rest of the world combined.”

In my opinion, one of the reasons the council has passed more resolutions condemning Israel is because Israel has committed numerous human rights violations at the national level since 1948. Therefore, Israel has become a 7th item on the annual agenda, the only country that occupies an item on the annual agenda of the UNHCR and has been criticized and condemned by the council dozens of times. Therefore, to protect Israel, the Donald Trump administration withdrew from the UNHRC.

PV:According to the Major General, what is the world's reaction to this issue?

Major General Le Van Cuong:It can be said that the Donald Trump administration's withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council on June 19th has created quite mixed reactions in the world. The countries that supported this decision, the most happy and enthusiastic were first of all Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu's spokesman declared that this was a courageous and brave decision by the Donald Trump administration. And certainly some Arab countries that are allies of the United States such as Saudi Arabia also welcomed the US decision to withdraw from the Human Rights Council.

On the contrary, the European Union and the international community oppose the US withdrawal from human rights. A group of 12 organizations including Save the Children, Freedom House, etc. have said that this decision goes against the national security and foreign policy of the US.

Mr. Ken Roth - Executive Director of the UNHRC monitoring organization said that it seemed that all Donald Trump cared about was to protect Israel. And European countries that are allied with the US predicted that this action would risk eroding the role of the US in the world.

In short, this decision is not surprising or surprising, it only makes the role of the US in relation to countries around the world increasingly isolated.

PV:Dear General,Is the withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council also a demonstration of the Donald Trump administration's policy of opposing multilateral institutions?

Major General Le Van Cuong:In my opinion, this is probably true. For more than a year, the Donald Trump administration has reviewed and withdrawn from a series of multilateral institutions such as the US withdrawal from UNESCO, the Paris Agreement on climate change, and the nuclear deal between the P5+1 group and Iran...

In particular, at the last minute of the recent G7 Summit in Canada, the US withdrew from the G7 joint statement. The G7 has never been in such a serious crisis as it is now. Most recently, the US withdrew from the UNHRC.

Is it true that the Donald Trump administration is going against the trend of trade globalization and international integration? Donald Trump is avoiding multilateral institutions and pursuing bilateral relations in economics, politics, foreign affairs, and environmental security?

I think that through this, the role and position of the US will certainly be reduced; the international community will look at it with suspicion and lose trust in the US, including allies and friends.