The United States was elected to a three year term on the UN Human Rights Council yesterday. The Council is currently midway through a review of human rights in each UN member state, according to the Washington Post.
Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the United Nations said “We ran for the Human Rights Council because [we] are deeply committed to upholding and respecting the human rights of every individual. While we recognize that the Human Rights Council has been a flawed body that has not lived up to its potential, we are looking forward to working from within with a broad cross section of member states to strengthen and reform the Human Rights Council and enable it to live up to the vision that was crafted when it was created….Obviously there will always be some countries whose respect and record on human rights is sub-par; we have not been perfect ourselves. But we intend to lead based on the strong, principled vision that the American people have about respecting human rights, supporting democracy.”
According to the BBC, in 2006 the Council replaced the UN Commission on Human Rights. The Bush administration did not support the Human Rights Council.
