GENEVA / HRC UNITED STATES

A top United States official said the largest threat to the UN Human Rights Council’s credibility is its "obsession with Israel.” UNTV CH

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:29
• Production Date: 1 March 2017
• Asset Language: English
• Corporate Name: HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
• Subject Topical: HUMAN RIGHTS; REFORMS
• Geographic Subject: ISRAEL; UNITED STATES
• MAMS Id: 1840244
• Parent Id: 1840244
• Alternate Title: unifeed170301a

Description

STORY: GENEVA / HRC UNITED STATES
TRT: 01:29
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE:

DATELINE: 01 MARCH 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Shotlist

FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

1. Wide shot, Palais des Nations exterior

01 MARCH 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

2. Wide shot, Human Rights Council meeting room
3. Pan right, Barclay walking to podium
4. Med shot, US delegates
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Erin Barclay, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, United States:
“The obsession with Israel through Agenda Item 7 is the largest threat to this Council’s credibility. It limits the good we can accomplish by making a mockery of this Council. The United States will oppose any effort to delegitimize or isolate Israel, not just in the HRC, but wherever it occurs. When it comes to human rights, no country should be free from scrutiny, but neither should any democratic country be regularly subjected to unfair, unbalanced and unfounded bias.”
6. Med shots, delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Erin Barclay, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, United States:
“In order for this Council to have any credibility, let alone success, it must move away from its unbalanced and unproductive positions. As we consider our future engagements, my government will be considering the Council’s actions with an eye toward reform, to more fully achieve the Council’s mission to protect and promote human rights. Building greater credibility of the HRC will increase our ability to help create a better world for individuals in all countries.
8. Med shots, delegates
9. Pan right, Barclay shaking hands with officials

Storyline

A top United States official said the largest threat to the UN Human Rights Council’s credibility is its "obsession with Israel.”

Addressing the Council in Geneva today (01 Mar), US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Erin Barclay said her Government was deeply troubled by what it considered was an unfair and unbalanced focus on Israel adding that no other nation was the focus of an entire agenda item.

She stressed that the “obsession” was “making a mockery” of the Council and her country would “oppose any effort to delegitimize or isolate Israel, not just in the HRC, but wherever it occurs.” Barclay said no country should be free from scrutiny when it comes to human rights, but “neither should any democratic country be regularly subjected to unfair, unbalanced and unfounded bias.”

Barclay said the Council must move away from its “unbalanced and unproductive positions” to have any credibility. She stressed that her Government would be considering “the Council’s actions with an eye toward reform” in its future engagements with the HRC. She said progress could be made to help the HRC fulfil its mandate to make the world a better, safer place by consistently turning attention to the most critical human rights situations.

Since its creation in 2006, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) has been persistently criticized by the US for biased treatment of Israel. This was the first address by a US official to the Council since the start of the Trump administration late January.