AJC Praises UK Vow to Vote Against UN Human Rights Agenda Item Devoted to Israel
NEW YORK, March 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- American Jewish Committee (AJC) praised the United Kingdom decision to vote against all resolutions under the United Nations Human Rights Council's notorious agenda item 7, which deals exclusively with Israel.
"Britain's decision, the first European country to take this principled step, is itself a condemnation of the ingrained bias against Israel at the UN Human Rights Council," said AJC CEO David Harris. "As U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley pointed out last year, 'no other country – not Iran, not Syria, not North Korea – has an agenda item devoted solely to it. Agenda Item 7 is not directed at anything Israel does. It is directed at the very existence of Israel.'"
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, explaining his country's decision in an op-ed in the JC, the leading British Jewish newspaper, wrote that "it is an unhelpful illusion to suppose that Israel's conduct deserves special scrutiny" as is done in this "dedicated place on the HRC agenda, known as Item 7."
"Two years ago, the United Kingdom said that unless the situation changed, we would vote against all texts proposed under Item 7," Hunt wrote in the JC. "Sadly, our concerns have not been heeded. So I have decided that we will do exactly what we said: Britain will now oppose every Item 7 resolution."
The Human Rights Council has issued far more condemnations of Israel, the only liberal democracy in the Middle East, than of any of the other 192 UN member states. AJC has long advocated for Council members to abolish agenda Item 7.
Harris encouraged all countries serving on the Human Rights Council to "end the routine, baseless condemnations of Israel and to vote against all resolutions listed under agenda item 7, while also being alert to any attempt to shift the same biased resolutions to other agenda items and seek to pass them by avoiding #7."
AJC has been involved with the UN since the founding conference, in San Francisco, in 1945. Historians credit AJC leaders with having successfully advocated for the inclusion of human rights protections in the UN Charter.
AJC President Judge Joseph M. "Proskauer made the most eloquent and convincing argument that I have ever listened to in my life," said Columbia University Professor James T. Shotwell, who was at the UN founding conference. Following the AJC presentation to the American delegation, "Secretary of State Stettinius instantly promised that he would do all he could to have the human rights clauses inserted in the charter" and they then "got into the charter in the fullest possible way."
SOURCE American Jewish Committee
Related Links
WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM?
Newsrooms &
Influencers
Digital Media
Outlets
Journalists
Opted In
Share this article