By Adam Shaw
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said he was inviting the independent experts to make official visits to the U.S. and would extend further invitations to other envoys, who are appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley on Wednesday tore into the Biden administration for extending an invitation to the United Nations’ envoys on racism and minority issues to make an official visit to the U.S., describing the move as “insane.”
China has one million Uyghurs in concentration camps, Cuba is beating protesters, and Venezuela is torturing political prisoners,” Haley said in a statement to Fox News.
‘Yet Biden’s Secretary of State is inviting the U.N. to investigate human rights in the United States — the freest, fairest country in the world. This is INSANE,” she added.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said he was inviting the independent experts to make official visits to the U.S. and would extend further invitations to other envoys, who are appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council.
“As the President has repeatedly made clear, great nations such as ours do not hide from our shortcomings; they acknowledge them openly and strive to improve with transparency,” Blinken said in a statement. “In so doing, we not only work to set the standard for national responses to these challenges, we also strengthen our democracy, and give new hope and motivation to human rights defenders across the globe.”
Blinken said the U.S. will issue a “formal, standing invitation to all U.N. experts who report and advise on thematic human rights issues” and has already reached out to the U.N. special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on minority issues to invite them to make an official visit.
Rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the Human Rights Council who will typically gather information on their respective issues and then issue a public report.
The Trump administration pulled out of the Human Rights Council in 2018….
