This story would be hilarious if it weren’t so sad. The United Nations Human Rights Council criticized the United States for its human rights record on Monday during a review. The conference was pretty much a rebuke of the Trump administration because even feckless, outdated, international organizations have to get on board with the “Orange Man Bad” sentiment.
The Human Rights Council (HRC) excoriated the U.S. for its use of the death penalty, police brutality against black Americans, and separating migrant children from their parents. Channel News Asia reported that “Activists also said that the Human Rights Council’s examination of the United States, the first since May 2015, amounted to an indictment of the Trump administration’s policies and called for President-elect Joe Biden to usher in reforms.”
Dozens of delegations address the council during the sessions to bash the U.S. and put forward suggestions that they believe America should take to improve its record on human rights. “What we saw today was unsurprising condemnation by many countries around the world of the United States’ human rights record,” Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said to reporters. “We’ve heard country after country … calling and urging the United States to take serious measures to address structural racism and police violence.”
The White House, which pulled out of the Geneva forum in 2018 due to its apparent anti-Israel bias and other reasons, defended America’s human rights record. “Our presence in this process demonstrates our nation’s commitment to human rights,” Robert Destro, US Assistant Secretary of State, said.
The case of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minnesota police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes, came up during the proceedings and was used to supposedly show how atrocious the U.S. is on matters concerning human rights. But Alexander Maugeri, U.S. deputy assistant attorney general, explained that the authorities filed second-degree murder and manslaughter against Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck.
