Washington, Feb 4 (EFE).- United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending US participation in the United Nations Human Rights Council and continuing the suspension of funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on Tuesday.
The signing comes as Trump is scheduled to meet in the Oval Office of the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long been critical of UNRWA and has accused the UN Human Rights Council of being biased against Israel.
“I have always known that the UN has tremendous potential. It’s not living up to that potential right now, it really isn’t, hasn’t for a long time. There are great hopes for it, but it’s not being well run, to be honest,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Following his remarks, the president signed the executive orders, saying that both UNRWA and the UN Human Rights Council must “get their act together.”
“They gotta be fair to countries that deserve fairness,” he added.
In a statement released before the signing, the White House claimed that the UN Human Rights Council has demonstrated consistent bias against Israel and has allowed countries such as Iran, China, and Cuba to use it to protect themselves despite their gross human rights violations and abuses.
Specifically, the executive order claims that “numerous actions taken by a number of bodies of the UN exhibit a deep anti-American bias” and therefore orders the US to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council, as well as freezing funding for UNRWA, which supports more than five million Palestinian refugees.
The document also requires the Secretary of State to review and report on which international organizations, conventions, or treaties promote radical or anti-American sentiments, and specifically mentions the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as one of the institutions requiring “executive order calls for review.”
During his first term (2017-2021), Trump already withdrew the US from the Human Rights Council, the main intergovernmental forum for discussing human rights within the UN. Washington rejoined this body shortly after Joe Biden arrived in the White House in January 2021.
Since taking office for his second term on Jan. 20, Trump has ordered the US to withdraw from the World Health Organisation and the Paris Climate Agreement, decisions he had made during his first term in the White House. EFE
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