U.N. slams, EU defends, rights council

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joined Western nations in attacking the Human Rights Council’s move to keep Israel singled out for criticism. On Wednesday, Ban said the council was “picking on Israel” as part of an agreement reached Monday on rules governing its operations, Reuters reported. The European Union, the United States and Canada also criticized the council, but the Europeans said the agreement was nonetheless a “necessary compromise.”In a statement, Ban said he was “disappointed at the council’s decision to single out only one specific regional item given the range and scope of allegations of human rights violations throughout the world.”The European Union said Thursday it too regretted that Israel continued to be singled out, but it still retained hope that other improvements to the council, which was established last year to replace its discredited predecessor, the Commission on Human Rights, would be an effective defender of human rights, the Associated Press reported.Alejandro Wolff, the American deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said the council had “a pathological obsession with Israel.”