Conservatives on Wednesday cheered President Donald Trump’s decision to leave the United Nations Human Rights Council and end the U.S. portion of its funding.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley (pictured above) announced the move Tuesday.

“The world’s most inhumane regimes continue to escape its scrutiny, and the council continues politicizing scapegoating of countries with positive human rights records in an attempt to distract from the abusers in its ranks,” Haley said.

At the pro-Israel think tank Middle East Forum, president Daniel Pipes noted that the notion of enshrining human rights in the international order came from Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

“Little did they anticipate 70 years later, it would be turned around on us and our allies,” he told LifeZette.

Pipes said the “horse-trading” that goes on during the panel’s work, and the checkered records of many of its members, make a mockery of the very idea. He said President Donald Trump’s administration is right to pull out.

“It’s a good idea. We shouldn’t have anything to do with these distorted institutions where the Syrian government is in charge of disarmament and human rights abusers are in charge of human rights,” he said.

Kyle Shideler, director of the threat information office at the Washington-based Center for Security Policy, said the Human Rights Council is a sham.

“It’s long overdue,” he said. “You have this commission full of the biggest human rights abusers on the planet. All they do is sit around and file resolutions against Israel.”

Critics blasted the administration and noted that it came one day after the council issued a report harshly criticizing the so-called zero-tolerance policy of bringing criminal charges against first-time border crossers even if they are traveling with their children.

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But Shideler said that points to the hypocrisy of the council for attacking the United States while ignoring genuine human rights abuses of the world’s most totalitarian states.

“That’s a potentially good example, actually, of why the human rights commission is such a waste of time,” he said.

Brett Schaefer, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the “obsessive focus” on Israel highlights the reality that the council does not operate in a “fair and equal manner.” He noted that the commission has passed more resolutions condemning Israel than it has against China, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria combined.

Currently, 14 of the council’s 47 members have “not free” ratings by Freedom House. That is the highest number ever, and it includes Burundi, China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.

Pipes acknowledged that the United States would stand a greater chance to reform the council if it stays a member. But he said U.S. officials have tried to make changes for years.

“It just doesn’t work,” he said. “If we’re part of it, we’re giving it financial support. And we’re giving it prestige.”

Schaefer said the United States should look for other ways to support human rights. He pointed to the Community of Democracies, an organization created in 2000, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which promotes fair elections.

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Schaefer said the United States has its own organizations, such as the National Endowment for Democracy. He added that even the United Nations has better options as well, such as the General Assembly’s Third Committee.

U.S. officials also ought to look for ways to directly support human rights and democracies, Schaefer said. He said the federal government spends four times as much money on international environmental initiatives than on good government and the rule of law.

Schaefer said the United States can continue efforts to reform the U.N. Human Rights Council from the outside. He noted that Haley said the U.S. would be open to rejoining the council.

“This is not the end of the process,” he said.

PoliZette senior writer Brendan Kirby can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.

(photo credit, article image: Ambassador Nikki Haley…, CC BY-ND 2.0, by United States Mission Geneva)