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President Donald Trump's national security adviser John Bolton

President Donald Trump's national security adviser John Bolton, seen here in 2017, told the Associated Press on Thursday that the administration would "de-fund the Human Rights Council" and cut off funds for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (Photo: Gage Skidmore/flickr/cc)

John Bolton Announces Trump Admin Will Re-Up Attack on United Nations and Defund Human Rights Agencies

"We are going to de-fund the Human Rights Council," Bolton tells AP.

Andrea Germanos

The Trump administration issued another attack on the United Nations, with John Bolton, President Donald Trump's hawkish national security adviser, announcing it plans to cut off funding to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Human Rights Council, with other U.N. agencies being potential future targets.

According to one observer, the plan to starve the "Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights suggests U.S. hostility to U.N. human rights protection is not really, or only, about flaws with the Council as it has previously claimed."

The U.S. announced in June its decision to leave the 47-member Human Rights Council over its alleged anti-Israel bias, which prompted Amnesty International to say that Trump was again "showing his complete disregard for the fundamental rights and freedoms the U.S. claims to uphold."

In an interview with the Associated Press on Thursday, Bolton said, "We are going to de-fund the Human Rights Council."

The U.S. is the U.N.'s biggest donor, providing about 22 percent of its funds.

Bolton said the administration would "calculate 22 percent of the Human Rights Council and the High Commissioner's budget, and our remittances to the U.N. for this budget year will be less 22 percent of those costs—and we'll say specifically that's what we're doing."

Unsurprisingly, the move drew immediate praise from Israel.

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