UN chief regrets as US exits 'biased' Human Rights Council
United Nations, June 20 : United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres regretted the withdrawal of the United States from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), said his spokesman on Tuesday.
"The Secretary-General would have much preferred for the United States to remain in the Human Rights Council," reported Xinhua news agency quoting spokesman Stephane Dujarric as saying in a note to correspondents.
"The UN's human rights architecture plays a very important role in the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide," the note read.
Earlier, announcing the country's withdrawal from the UNHRC, US envoy to the UN Nikki Haley described the body as "hypocritical and self-serving" and one that "makes a mockery of human rights".
According to a BBC report, Haley last year accused the council of "chronic anti-Israel bias" and said the US was reviewing its membership.
Formed in 2006, the council has been criticised for allowing countries with questionable human rights records to be members.
The move comes amid intense criticism over the Trump administration's policy of separating child migrants from their parents at the US-Mexico border.
UN human rights chief Zeid bin Ra'ad has called the policy "unconscionable".
The New York-based Human Rights Watch also condemned separation of families, and called President Trump's human rights policy "one-dimensional".
Reacting to the US' exit from the global rights body, Ra'ad said in Geneva that the US withdrawal is "disappointing, if not really surprising."
"Given the state of human rights in today's world, the US should be stepping up, not stepping back," Zeid said.
Haley announced the US intention to quit the council at a joint news conference with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
She called the council a "cesspool of political bias", but stressed: "I want to make it crystal clear that this step is not a retreat from our human rights commitments."
Last year, she told the Council it was "hard to accept" that resolutions had been passed against Israel yet none had been considered for Venezuela, which at the time saw dozens of protesters killed during political turmoil.
Israel is the only country that is subject to a permanent standing agenda item, meaning its treatment of the Palestinians is regularly scrutinised.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
