Obama submits US to first ever "review" by UN's so-called Human Rights Council, promised UN members that US would agree to improve in 174 ways. But Venezuela, Cuba, Iran said US wasn't improving enough-AP, 3/18/2011

3/18/2011, "Obama Yields to UN on US 'Human Rights' Abuses," AP, Geneva 

"The United States on Friday disavowed torture and pledged to treat terror suspects humanely, but set aside calls to drop the death penalty, as the United Nations carried out its first review of Washington’s [the United States'] human rights record.

As part of a groundbreaking commitment to improvement  under the Obama administration, the U.S. joined the 47-nation Human Rights Council in 2009. And in doing so, submitted to more international scrutiny. State Department legal advisor dviser Harold Koh outlined nine key improvement areas Friday, encompassing about 174 of the 228 recommendations the community had urged on Washington [the United States] in an initial report last November [2010]. Nations are held accountable for what they agree to improve. 

He said the U.S. would agree to improvements in areas ranging from civil rights to national security to immigration, including intolerance of torture and the humane treatment of suspects at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba.

But in some areas the U.S. stance was unchanged, particularly on the death penalty, which had led to a chorus of objections from many European nations. 

Critics say the law is inhumane and unfairly applied. But Koh said capital punishment is permitted under international law. 

“To those who desire as a matter of policy to end capital punishment in the United States — and I count myself among those — I note the decision made by the government of Illinois on March 9 to abolish that state’s death penalty,” Koh told the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council. 

Cuba, Iran and Venezuela complained the U.S. was brushing too many recommendations aside, while China and Russia said the U.S. was not going far enough on Guantanamo, and called for it to be shut down as President Barack Obama had promised. 

Other nations urged the U.S. to reduce overcrowding in prisons, ratify international treaties on the rights of women and children, and take further steps to prevent racial profiling. Koh said Obama also would push to ratify additional measures under the Geneva Conventions and add protections for anyone it detains in an international armed conflict.

Civil society groups have praised the U.S. for involving itself in the review process, which all U.N. member states have to undergo every four years. Japan, France and Cameroon had led the writing of the report on the U.S."...

___
.......

Added: In 2015 Obama is still complaining to the UN about the US:

May 11, 2015, "Obama Complains to UN About America’s ‘Human Rights’ Violations," Breitbart, Joel B. Pollak

...................




"Online: U.N. Universal Periodic Review: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR"

..................