I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2376 
To withhold United States funding from the United Nations Human Rights 
Council. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 12, 2009 
Mr. STEARNS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To withhold United States funding from the United Nations 
Human Rights Council. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) The United Nations Human Rights Council 
fails to adequately reform the United Nations Com-
mission on Human Rights, thus preventing the 
Council from becoming an effective monitor of 
human rights throughout the world. 
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(2) The United Nations Commission on Human 
Rights was created in 1946 to monitor and prevent 
the abuse of human rights throughout the world. It 
failed miserably to uphold even the most basic ideals 
enumerated in the United Nations Charter and the 
Universal Declaration on Human Rights. It lost its 
credibility as an instrument for the promotion and 
protection of human rights and instead allowed re-
pressive regimes to shield themselves from criticism 
for their human rights violations. 
(3) The membership of the United Nations 
Commission on Human Rights constituted some of 
the worst abusers of human rights in the world, in-
cluding the tyrannies of Cuba, Sudan, Libya, 
Belarus, the People’s Republic of China, and 
Zimbabwe. 
(4) The United Nations Commission on Human 
Rights failed to act or speak out against numerous 
cases of egregious human rights abuses, including 
the countless atrocities committed by communist re-
gimes, the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and the on-
going genocide in Darfur caused by the Government 
of Sudan. 
(5) The United Nations Commission on Human 
Rights failed to condemn countries that sponsor ter-
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rorism (a glaring affront to human rights), including 
Iran, Syria, and North Korea. 
(6) The United Nations Commission on Human 
Rights had repeatedly vilified Israel, the only democ-
racy in the Middle East, while overlooking horrific 
human rights abuses throughout the Middle East. A 
recent study found that 30 percent of all country- 
specific resolutions of the Commission critical of 
human rights have been directed at Israel, but none 
against persistent violators like China, Myanmar, 
Syria, or Zimbabwe. 
(7) Former United Nations Secretary General 
Kofi Annan repeatedly emphasized that meaningful 
reform of the United Nations Commission on 
Human Rights is a key element for making the 
United Nations more accountable, effective, and effi-
cient, and that ‘‘the Commission’s declining credi-
bility has cast a shadow on the reputation of the 
United Nations system’’. 
(8) The creation of the United Nations Human 
Rights Council on March 15, 2006, failed to address 
the serious shortcomings of the United Nations 
Commission on Human Rights and fell far short of 
creating the small standing body composed of appro-
priate countries that was initially envisioned by 
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Former Secretary General Annan, in his March 
2005 report, ‘‘In Larger Freedom: Towards Devel-
opment, Security and Human Rights For All’’. 
(9) The United Nations Human Rights Council 
succeeds only in making superficial changes to the 
structure of the United Nations Commission on 
Human Rights, masquerading motion as reform and 
placebo as treatment. 
(10) The United Nations Human Rights Coun-
cil does not embody the recommended institutional 
reforms necessary to advance human rights. 
(11) The United Nations Human Rights Coun-
cil cannot monitor cases of human rights abuse 
throughout the world, nor even prevent egregious 
human rights violators from being elected to the 
council itself. The only supposed protection—that a 
country can be suspended if two-thirds of the mem-
bers of the General Assembly agree to do so—is use-
less, since less than half of the General Assembly 
could agree that Sudan was guilty of any human 
rights violations. 
(12) The United Nations Human Rights Coun-
cil only reduces the number of seats on the council 
to 47 from 53, which is not enough to make the 
Council more efficient or more effective. 
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(13) The United Nations Human Rights Coun-
cil also retains geographical quotas that will only en-
sure that human rights abusers will continue to have 
access to membership on the council. Indeed, Israel, 
a constant target of United Nations ire, had been 
discriminated 
against 
by 
being 
denied 
full 
participatory rights in regional group meetings asso-
ciated with the operation of the United Nations 
Human Rights Commission, while nonmembers of 
the United Nations, such as the Holy See and the 
Palestinian observer, participated in such meetings. 
The geographic quota system ensures a majority of 
membership slots for the world’s least democratic re-
gions. 
(14) The United States, while voting against 
the resolution creating the United Nations Human 
Rights Council, was unable to ensure that the Coun-
cil would be structured to best promote and protect 
human rights around the globe. 
(15) If the United States, working with other 
like-minded countries, is not able to adequately re-
form the corrupt United Nations Human Rights 
Council, then the chances for the United States and 
other like-minded countries to effect the broader 
changes to the United Nations that are desired and 
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needed to make the institution more effective are 
much reduced. 
(16) The first group of Member States elected 
to the new United Nations Human Rights Council 
includes nine countries that the democracy watchdog 
Freedom House designates as ‘‘not free’’, including 
the People’s Republic of China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, 
Russia, Pakistan, Tunisia, Algeria, Cameroon, and 
Azerbaijan. 
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) the United Nations Human Rights Coun-
cil— 
(A) should be a body that upholds the 
ideals enumerated in the United Nations Char-
ter and the Universal Declaration on Human 
Rights; 
(B) should allow full participation by Israel 
in all operations associated with the Council; 
and 
(C) should be made up of countries that 
hold regular, competitive, and democratic elec-
tions, allow for freedom of expression, and have 
a credible civil society; and 
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(2) the United States should not support the 
United Nations Human Rights Council, and should 
withhold any financial support for the Council until 
meaningful reforms related to the responsibilities of 
the United Nations for the protection of human 
rights are carried out. 
SEC. 3. WITHHOLDING FUNDING FOR THE UNITED NATIONS 
HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of State shall with-
hold from a United States contribution to a regularly as-
sessed biennial budget of the United Nations an amount 
that is equal to the percentage of such contribution that 
the Secretary determines would be allocated by the United 
Nations to support the United Nations Human Rights 
Council. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Subsection (a) shall take ef-
fect and apply beginning on October 1, 2009, with respect 
to annual dues paid by the United States to the United 
Nations each fiscal year in connection with United States 
contributions to the regularly assessed biennial budgets of 
the United Nations. 
Æ 
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