Explanation of vote by the United States on Israeli amendment proposing to remove funding for the U.N. "Human Rights" Council "Commission of Inquiry"

"We stand with Israel in rejecting the unprecedented, open-ended mandate of this Commission of Inquiry, which is why we voted yes on Israel’s oral amendment on the budget. The CoI was created by the UN Human Rights Council early this year, perpetuates a practice of unfairly singling out Israel in the UN, and like prior U.S. administrations, we strongly oppose such treatment of Israel.

The United States will continue to oppose this CoI and looks for opportunities in Geneva to revisit its mandate, which unfortunately was passed while the United States did not have a seat on the Human Rights Council. At the same time, we want to express our appreciation for the good faith effort of the ACABQ and others at the UN to reduce the inflated budget and staffing levels of this commission. Moving forward, the United States will work in Geneva, where the debate over this CoI’s mandate belongs, to persuade more member states that it is inherently biased and an obstacle to the cause of true peace. In the meantime, Israel can continue to count on the United States to do everything possible to shield it from discriminatory and unbalanced criticism, whether at the Human Rights Council, or elsewhere in the United Nations system."