The Trump administration is working to rebuild United Nations institutions to support an “America First” foreign policy, U.N. Ambassador Michael Waltz said Tuesday.
Speaking at a panel at the annual International Religious Freedom summit, Mr. Waltz said that select U.N. bodies, such as the Human Rights Council, have failed to curb abuses around the world.
“The administration has undertaken a review of a number of U.N. organizations,” he said. “There are some that we’re determined to get in there and fight and reform, and then there are others that we’ve decided just need to be defunded and taken down and rebuilt. We are no longer funding [the UN Human Rights Council] because … some of the worst and most egregious abusers are members of that council and seek legitimacy from that council.”
The U.S. officially withdrew from the UNHRC last February, with Mr. Waltz and President Trump citing rampant mismanagement and anti-Israel and anti-American bias. Mr. Trump also withdrew the U.S. from two other U.N. organizations, UNRWA and UNESCO, around the same time.
The withdrawals were part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to withdraw from international organizations. Since returning to office last year, Mr. Trump has pulled the U.S. out of 66 international organizations.
Still, Mr. Waltz said the U.S. will be working with partner nations at the U.N. to raise awareness of human rights and religious freedom abuses worldwide.
“What we’re doing is bringing together like‑minded coalitions, using the U.N. as a platform for highlighting the abuses,” Mr. Waltz said. “We are going to use the power of the United States’ purse to defund organizations that are not living up to the basic elements of its charter, like the HRC.”
Mr. Trump’s “Board of Peace” was launched in January, and could also emerge as a rival body to the U.N. In an apparent dig at the U.N., the board’s charter says it will have “the courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed.”
While the organization was intended to oversee the implementation of the U.S.-backed Gaza peace plan, the recently released charter says the board will “promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace” around the world.
