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GENEVA / HRC NIKKI HALEY
STORY: GENEVA / HRC NIKKI HALEY
TRT: 2:11
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 6 JUNE 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior, Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, podium Human Rights Council
3. Med shot, camerawoman
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Nikki Haley, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United States: “I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in front of this body on an issue that we believe is very important - respect for human rights. As you know, the United States is looking carefully at this Council and our participation in it. We see some areas for significant strengthening, and later today I will be speaking at the Geneva Graduate Institute and proposing ideas to make the Human Rights Council more effective, more accountable, and more responsive.”.
4. Pan right, delegations
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Nikki Haley, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United States: “In this session of the Council, it is crucial to adopt the strongest possible resolutions on the critical human rights situations in Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Belarus, and Ukraine, and that it follow up to prevent further human rights violations and abuses in those countries.”
6. Close up, Israel delegate
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Nikki Haley, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United States:
“The United States will continue to speak up loudly in support of civil society participation. Civil society has also helped advance the equal rights of women, an important theme of this session.”
8. Pan right, delegations
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Nikki Haley, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United States:
”The Council must address this issue. If Venezuela cannot, it should voluntarily step down from its seat on the Human Rights Council until it can get its own house in order. Being a member of this council is a privilege, and no country who is a human rights violator should be allowed a seat at the table. Finally, it’s hard to accept that this Council has never considered a resolution on Venezuela, and yet it adopted five biased resolutions in March against a single country, Israel. It is essential that this Council address its chronic anti-Israel bias, if it is to have any credibility.”
10. Various shots, Human Rights Council
US ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Nikki Haley, told the Human Rights Council that the United States is "reviewing its participation" in the body given what she described as the Council's "anti-Israel bias."
Speaking today (6 Jun) in her first appearance at the United Nations in Geneva, she said “I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in front of this body on an issue that we believe is very important - respect for human rights."
Haley said, "As you know, the United States is looking carefully at this Council and our participation in it. We see some areas for significant strengthening,” adding that she would outline her ideas to make the body "more effective, more accountable, and more responsive” in a speech she will deliver later this evening at Geneva's Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.
The Geneva-based Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system made up of 47 States - elected by the UN General Assembly - who are responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe.
Speaking at the beginning of the current three week session, the US Ambassador called on the Council members " to adopt the strongest possible resolutions on the critical human rights situations in Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Belarus, and Ukraine, and that it follow up to prevent further human rights violations and abuses in those countries.”
Haley urged all members to support the participation of civil society in the Human Rights Council. She said “the United States will continue to speak up loudly in support of civil society participation. Civil society has also helped advance the equal rights of women, an important theme of this session.”
Referring to the current crisis in Venezuela, Haley said “the Council must address this issue. If Venezuela cannot, it should voluntarily step down from its seat on the Human Rights Council until it can get its own house in order."
The US representative went further in her criticism of the South American nation, currently a member of the Human Rights Council, saying, "Being a member of this council is a privilege, and no country who is a human rights violator should be allowed a seat at the table."
Haley pointed out, "It’s hard to accept that this Council has never considered a resolution on Venezuela, and yet it adopted five biased resolutions in March against a single country, Israel. It is essential that this Council address its chronic anti-Israel bias, if it is to have any credibility.”
Venezuela is expected to exercise its right to reply at the Human Rights Council later in the day.
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