Three countries with a history of authoritarian rule and documented human rights abuses have been elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
China, Cuba, and Russia were elected to the HRC on Tuesday, along with Bolivia, France, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, Senegal, Uzbekistan and the United Kingdom, Fox News reported. Saudi Arabia was denied a place on the council.
The move prompted U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to say the election of the authoritarian countries would “only further validate the U.S. decision to withdraw and use other venues and opportunities to protect and promote universal human rights.”
The U.S. withdrew from the council in 2018. At the time, then-U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley called it “a protector of human rights abusers, and a cesspool of political bias.”
Current U.N. Ambassador Kelly Craft said the move “validates [President Donald Trump’s] decision to leave that deeply corrupted body.”
“With China, Russia, Cuba & Venezuela as members, the Council makes a mockery of its intended purpose and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” she added.
As Fox reported, the U.N. General Assembly elected Libya, Sudan and Venezuela to the Human Rights Council, which Craft said at the time was an “embarrassment.”
The Human Rights Council has come under constant criticism for its continued declarations against the U.S. and Israel for alleged human rights abuses while ignoring the obvious, large-scale abuses of countries like Iran, China, and Venezuela.
China’s election to the council is particularly alarming since the past year has revealed widespread human rights abuses against the country’s Uyghur population. As The Daily Wire has previously reported, leaks from the communist nation show how the “educational facilities” China claims to be sending Uyghurs in the Xinjiang province are actually internment camps. One nine-page memo included in the collection of documents, sent in 2017 by then deputy secretary of Xinjiang’s Communist Party, Zhu Hailun, explains how the prisons should be run:
- “Never allow escapes”
- “Increase discipline and punishment of behavioural violations”
- “Promote repentance and confession”
- “Make remedial Mandarin studies the top priority”
- “Encourage students to truly transform”
- “[Ensure] full video surveillance coverage of dormitories and classrooms free of blind spots”
Prior to that stash of documents, The New York Times released leaked documents it had obtained that showed how authorities in Xinjiang were to respond to college students returning home to discover their families had been sent to the labor camps.
Authorities were to respond: “They’re in a training school set up by the government,” and if the student pressed for more information, the authorities were to say their families were no criminals but could not leave the “schools.” Further, students would be threatened that their families may be held longer depending on the student’s actions.
“I’m sure that you will support them, because this is for their own good and also for your own good,” authorities would say.