U.S. shot itself in the foot by skipping hearings at human rights commission

(Photo: Cliff Owen – AP)

The Trump Administration’s highly unusual step of boycotting several sessions of the highly-respected Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IAHRC) was a bad mistake that will weaken U.S. efforts to condemn Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and other systematic human rights abusers.

The administration informed the Washington, D.C.-based IAHRC that it would not participate in three hearings about President Trump’s executive orders on immigration that were held Tuesday, as part of a review of human rights cases in countries across the hemisphere.

«This is the first time in at least 20 years that the U.S. government doesn’t show up,» Commission President Francisco Eguiguren told me after the hearings. «And we hold hearings on U.S. issues, like those of many other countries, virtually every year.»

The Trump administration’s decision to stay out of the hearings put the United States in the odd situation of being in same category as Cuba and other systematic human rights abusers, which often boycott the IAHRC hearings, other commission officials told me.

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