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MAY 4, 2001

For the first time since the body's inception in 1947, the United States doesn't have a seat on the group's Human Rights Commission, having lost a vote on Thursday.

The reaction in the US varied from "I told you so" to "This is an outrage." Some, including House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt, said President Bush's recent actions on the environment, health, and China contributed to the retaliation by nations who had promised to support the US but sent their votes elsewhere.

Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said the vote was an attempt to "punish the U.S. for its insistence that the commission tell the truth about human rights abuses wherever they occur." He accused some commission members of being some of the "world's premier human rights violators."

Hyde opposes the release of Leonard Peltier, considered by many in the international community a political prisoner.

Get the Story:
U.S. Loses Seat on U.N. Rights Body (The Washington Post 5/4)
Hyde Comments on Vote to Remove U.S. from U.N. Human Rights Commission (Rep. Henry Hyde 5/3)
Gephardt Statement on U.S. Being Voted off U.N. Human Rights Commission (Rep. Dick Gephard 5/3)