The US will rejoin the United Nations Human Rights Council, nearly three years after former president Donald Trump’s administration pulled the nation out of the body. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will on Monday morning (eastern time) announce that the United States will “re-engage with the UNHRC as an observer, said US Charge d’Affaires in Geneva, Mark Cassayre in an organisational meeting, which was held ahead of the body’s next session. 

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The US will “engage with the council as an observer,” Blinken said, adding that it will have the “opportunity to speak in the council, participate in negotiations, and partner with others to introduce resolutions,” reports AFP.

In June 2018, the US pulled out of the UNHRC calling it a “cesspool of political bias”. The then US envoy to the UN, Niki Haley had said that the UNHRC is a “hypocritical” body that “makes a mockery of human rights,” reports BBC. 

Haley, while announcing the decision to quit the body, had said that the council displays “unending hostility towards Israel.” Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had denounced the council as  “a protector of human rights abusers”.

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While Blinken announced the US’s return to the UNHRC, he said that the Joe Biden-led United States administration still recognises the council as a “flawed body, in need of reform to its agenda, membership, and focus, including its disproportionate focus on Israel.”

The US was a member of the council when it quit, however, it cannot regain the membership of the body automatically. America will need to wait for elections towards the end of this year for the seats that will become available in 2022.