Naturally, the “resistance” resolution was aimed at the UNHRC’s mortal enemy, Israel.
(CNSNews.com) — Calling it a “momentous” achievement, the Obama administration touted a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution Thursday backing the right to online freedom of expression.
But on the same day, the U.S. was steamrolled by authoritarian regimes, which pushed through a controversial “right to peace” resolution, which endorses resistance against “foreign occupation.”
Thursday, the penultimate day of the council’s current session in Geneva, brought both positive and negative results for the administration, which is eager to justify its decision to join the U.N.’s top human rights body — a reversal of its predecessor’s policy.
The positive included a resolution on the right to freedom of expression on the Internet and another aimed at protecting women’s and children’s right to a nationality. Both were co-sponsored by the U.S. along with member states from other regions, and both were approved by consensus.
Those achievements were hailed variously in separate statements by U.S. Ambassador to the HRC Eileen Donahoe, the State Department’s Office of the Spokesperson and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and were also featured on the State Department’s blog.