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发帖数: 5309 | 1 华盛顿邮报援引国务院高层人士，疮破政府对联合国的美国贫困人口调查报告非常不满
是导致退出联合国人权委员会的原因，而不是之前声称的因为对以色列的不公。 该报
告严厉批评了美国政府对4千万贫困人口不闻不问的政策。该报告不符合疮破政府粉饰
的MAGA国家形象，联合国因此遭到美国政府官员警告说如若发布此报告，美国将退出人
权委会。Alson交给日内瓦委员会的报告5月发布，紧接着美国便宣布退出。
Philip G. Alston arrived in Washington last fall on a mission from the U.N.
Human Rights Council to document poverty in America. At his first meeting,
Alston said he was told by a senior State Department official that his
findings may influence the United States' membership in the human rights
body.
“A senior official said to me my report could be a factor in whether the U.
S. decided or not to stay in the council,” said Alston, U.N. special
rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, who declined to name the
official. “I think I was being sent a message.”
Two other people at the meeting, speaking on the condition of anonymity,
confirmed Alston's account. State Department spokesman Noel C. Clay declined
to comment on the meeting, which was held Dec. 1 at State.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced this week that
the United States would withdraw from the Human Rights Council, citing what
she called its bias against Israel. Haley also threatened a U.S. departure
in 2017, saying the council whitewashed dictators' abuses. Conservatives
have for years pushed for the United States to withdraw from the body, which
investigates allegations of human rights abuses in U.N. member states.
On Friday, a spokesman for Haley said that Alston's report, which was
published this May, “had nothing to do with our decision to leave the Human
Rights Council.”
But the fact that a State Department official had made the connection
between the forthcoming report and U.S. participation in the U.N. panel
underscores the Trump administration's sensitivity to criticisms of its
policy.
“It was in the opening comments by State [officials]," said a second
attendee at the meeting, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the
person was not authorized to disclose what happened. “The impression that I
got was that if this rocked the boat too much, it could be detrimental to
the U.S.'s continued involvement in the U.N.'s human rights mechanisms.”
The 20-page Alston report found that the United States has among the most
chronic rates of poverty among all nations in the developed world and that
President Trump's policies are likely to exacerbate them. Liberal critics
seized on Alston's findings to say the Trump administration was failing to
help the nation's poorest citizens.
But in a letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) released Thursday, Haley
argued that the council should instead focus on developing countries like
Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“It is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in
America,” Haley wrote. “In our country, the President, Members of Congress
, Governors, Mayors, and City Council members actively engage on poverty
issues every day. Compare that to the many countries around the world, whose
governments knowingly abuse human rights and cause pain and suffering.”
Alston formally presented his findings to the Human Rights Council in Geneva
on Friday, arguing that "when one of the world’s wealthiest countries does
very little about the fact that 40 million of its citizens live in poverty,
it is entirely appropriate for the reasons to be scrutinized."
Kenneth Roth, executive director of the advocacy organization Human Rights
Watch, said he believed the U.S. decision to leave the council was motivated
primarily by Israel policy, but he said Alston's presentation might have
sped it up.
"The driving factor was Israel, but the timing could have easily been
affected by a desire to not be in the room when Alston reported on the U.S.
going backward in not addressing poverty," he said.
Alston said he was initially invited by the U.S. government under President
Barack Obama to study poverty in America. The invitation was extended again
by U.S. officials under then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in 2017, he
said.
“We look forward to welcoming Mr. Alston to the United States for a country
visit this December,” Flacelia Celsula, part of the U.S. delegation at the
United Nations, said in a meeting of the Human Rights Council on June 8,
2017.
The report said the United States has the highest rates of youth poverty,
infant mortality, incarceration, income inequality and obesity among all
countries in the developed world, as well as 40 million people living in
poverty. Most of the statistics cited in the report date from 2016, before
Trump was elected.
Alston said the comments from the State Department official did not
influence his work. |
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