A Reform Agenda for the U.N. Human Rights Council

"Earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent a letter to human rights groups telling them that Washington was evaluating the U.N. Human Rights Council and that continued U.S. participation would depend on considerable reform of the body.

Tillerson did not elaborate on the kinds of reforms the United States wanted. But in a speech delivered last week before the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley provided the long-awaited details...

The council's three biggest problems are:

• Bias against Israel...
• Human rights abusers win seats to the council...
• Failure to address serious human rights situations equally and objectively...

[Ambassador Nikki Haley] identified two main reforms that the United States is seeking:

• Competitive council elections and an end to the practice of secret voting...
• Eliminate Agenda Item 7 and the council's support for the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement...

These reforms are entirely reasonable. In fact, they are rather modest. Additional reforms could and should be sought both to arrest the increasing budgetary and time demands of the council's mushrooming agenda and to improve transparency and accountability..."