US envoy to visit Human Rights Council in Geneva and Israel

YnetNews

US Ambassador Nikki Haley is set to travel to Geneva next week to address the UN Human Rights Council, whose funding is under threat by the Trump administration, and then fly to Israel to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

The US Mission to the United Nations said Tuesday that Haley’s address to the Human Rights Council on June 6 will be the first by a US ambassador. It will be followed by a speech at the Graduate Institute Geneva laying out the US position on future involvement with the council that will address its benefits and failings.

US envoy Nikki Haley (Photo: MCT)

Haley has also complained about anti-Israel bias at the Human Rights Council and said in March that she planned to visit Geneva to talk to members about what the US thinks an effective council should look like.

Speaking with Tuesday, she said, “We’ll be talking with the Human Rights Council about what we think they do well, what we think is not productive, and if there is some reform that could happen out of that.”

Haley said in March that If Washington sees changes it likes, it will remain a member and if not “we’ll put out.”

While in Geneva, the mission said, Haley will also participate in an event highlighting Venezuela’s human rights crisis.

The mission said Haley’s visit to Israel on June 7-9 will also include visits to UN operations in the region.

Haley said she will also be following up in Israel on her visit to the Human Rights Council.