Official Statement on UN Human Rights Council

Case n° 20/2016: United Nations (UN) & Secretary General Ban Ki-moon & Secretary General Antonio Guterres

Official Statement on UN Human Rights Council

The Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights, on June 20, 2018, decides to reaffirm again that the Buddhist Spirituality does not endorse the illegal and immoral behavior of the UN Human Rights Council, which during the last ten years has been dedicated to cover up states that violate human rights, and that have committed the worst international crimes, such as Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Crimes against Humanity and Crimes against Peace.

As a result, the Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights provides ethical support for the decision of the US government to withdraw and abandon its membership within the UN Human Rights Council. In this sense, the Tribunal agrees with the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, who criticized the hypocrisy of the organization, stating that the Human Rights Council has been a protector of human rights violators and a sink of political partiality, letting the most inhuman regimes to escape scrutiny by maintaining a seat within the Human Rights Council.

This can be demonstrated not only by the fact that many members of the UN Human Rights Council lack respect for the most basic human rights, as is the case with China, Cuba and the Democratic Republic of Congo, but it is also demonstrated the mockery and covering up that the Human Rights Council has carried out with regards to crimes against humanity committed by its member state Venezuela. In fact, at the end of 2017, the States of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Peru, protested against the UN Human Rights Council, by publicly demanding the expulsion of Venezuela as a member of the Council, because this State is a dictatorship that does not meet the requirements and obligations to be a member of the Human Rights Council, since it has broken the democratic order and has also seriously violated the human rights of its own people.

The Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights, since it is devoid of prejudices and ideologies, agrees with the US government in its criticism of the UN Human Rights Council, although it is simultaneously made clear the fact that the USA has long time ago ceased to be a leading country in the defense of human rights. 

Always with spirit of reconciliation (maitri),

H.E. Master Maitreya Samyaksambuddha

President and Spiritual Judge of the Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights