Kenneth Roth Council Quotations

The proposed new council is a major improvement over the old Commission on Human Rights. It would be reckless for the United States to force a vote because that will invite amendments from spoiler states to weaken the council. The time has come to accept the overwhelming consensus behind the council and to work to make it function effectively.

The moral authority of the United States depends on its working effectively with other countries to advance human rights protection ? not blocking a consensus proposal that makes so much progress for human rights. The current resolution can be made to work if the United States joins with other democracies to establish the new council and make it function effectively.

The new council should be a great improvement over the old Commission, but today's vote is only the beginning. Its ability to protect the weakest will now depend on the commitment of governments to curb rights violations.

It's childish for the U.S. government not to cooperate with the new Human Rights Council when it cooperated for decades with the vastly inferior old Commission on Human Rights.

The commission will continue until the creation of a council. The proposed new council is a major improvement.

It's an open question whether Bolton's throwing all the cards up in the air is meant to improve the council or to prove that the UN can't reform itself and therefore should be abandoned.