Jewish Community’s Public Affairs Arm Outraged At U.N. For Voting U.S. Off Human Rights Commission

NEW YORK— The Jewish Council for Public Affairs today expressed outrage that the United States will lose its seat on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights for the first time since its establishment in 1947.

"The United States has long led the fight for human rights around the world. Now, in a strange perversion of justice, the U.S. has failed to win election to a seat on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights," said JCPA Chairman Leonard A. Cole.

"We trust that the U.S. absence will be temporary. The 54 members of the Economic and Social Council, which elects members to the commission, must be made to recognize that they made a terrible mistake that should not be repeated at the next election," Cole added.

"Excluding the U.S. is all the more a travesty because in recent years the council’s members have elected human rights abusers such as Libya, Syria, and Sudan."

Cole further stated that: "Our dismay with this week’s vote will not diminish our support for U.S. involvement at the United Nations. We continue to urge that this country pay its arrears and current dues to the world body. Also, while we deplore the decision by the Economic and Social Council to exclude the U.S. from the commission, we are heartened by the council’s overdue approval of consultative status for Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America."

JCPA, the public affairs arm of the organized Jewish community, serves as the national coordinating and advisory body for the 13 national and 122 local agencies comprising the field of Jewish community relations.

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