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This will provide yet another reason for the Trump administration to pull out of the dysfunctional, misnamed Human Rights Council and to withdraw funding

UN Interference with Efforts to Repeal and Replace Obamacare



The United Nations is once again sticking its nose into the domestic affairs of the United States in violation of the UN Charter (Article 2, para. 7). The Washington Post has uncovered a transmittal letter dated February 2, 2017 from the UN Office of High Commissioner of Human Rights, forwarding to the then acting U.S. Secretary of State, Thomas Shannon, Jr., a complaint from one of the UN’s Special Rapporteurs about plans to repeal and replace Obamacare. This Special Rapporteur “on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,” Dainius Puras, believes it is within his mandate to intervene in the internal debate going on within the U.S. Congress and the executive branch as to what to do about Obamacare.
In his letter, Puras went to great length to describe the Senate budget reconciliation process, as well as proposed changes to Medicaid, tax subsidies, and the Obamacare individual and employer mandates. He expressed his “serious concern” over how such changes could deprive the American people of the rights contained in his long title. And then he waved the banner of international law. He cited broad clauses on health care in a number of treaties to which the U.S. is a party and the opinions of unelected bureaucrats on the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights interpreting the treaty clauses. The Committee noted, he said, that “there is a strong presumption that retrogressive measures taken in relation to the right to health are not permissible and if any deliberately retrogressive measures are taken, the State party has the burden of providing that they have been introduced after the most care consideration of all alternatives…” Finally, as some sort of grand inquisitor, Puras set forth a number of requests for information, including “details on the health policy, programmatic and financial measures that will be put in place to substitute the Affordable Care Act” if repealed, “and to ensure the realization of everyone’s right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health in a non-discriminatory, accessible and affordable manner.” While awaiting a reply, he urged “that all necessary interim measures be taken to prevent the alleged violations” and, if the allegations prove to be correct after investigations, “to guarantee the accountability of any person responsible of (sic) the alleged violations.”

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How about asking first for accountability of the persons in UN Peacekeeping responsible for the spread of cholera in Haiti, resulting in thousands of deaths, before lecturing the United States about what to do with its health care system? The U.S. Constitution vests no authority whatsoever in a UN Special Rapporteur with a mouthful of a title, who relies on the pronouncements of unelected UN committee members putting their own gloss on vaguely worded treaty language that they say the member states must follow in order to be in compliance with their notion of "international law." These unaccountable dunderheads apparently think they can tell Congress what laws it should and should not pass in order to meet their progressive standard for defining "universal" human rights — completely interfering with the cardinal principle of national sovereignty and the United States’ constitutional processes of self-government. Perhaps sensing the sensitivity of the UN being perceived as interfering with U.S. domestic matters, the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary General tried to distance the UN organization from the Special Rapporteur’s letter. He described the Special Rapporteur as an independent person expressing his own views, not necessarily those of the UN itself. He said, “the content of the letter has nothing to do with the High Commissioner for Human Rights. I think it was forwarded by the High Commissioner’s office, but it is not an action of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.” The problem with this answer is two-fold. First, the Special Rapporteur receives his mandate from an official body of the UN, the Human Rights Council, and submits his report to that body, which he intends to do in this case.

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Second, the Special Rapporteur’s letter did go out under a cover letter from the chief of the Special Procedures branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, with the subject line in all caps: “URGENT APPEAL FROM SPECIAL PROCEDURES.” The chief made a special point of asking the U.S. Deputy Permanent representative in the Geneva office to send the Special Rapporteur’s letter directly to the acting Secretary of State “at your earliest convenience.” Clearly, the UN Secretariat was placing its imprimatur on the letter. Not a single taxpayer dollar should be wasted on replying to the questions submitted by the Special Rapporteur with the fancy title “on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.” And if he should issue a critical press release, as he has threatened to do, in advance of his presumably critical report to the UN Human Rights Council, this will provide yet another reason for the Trump administration to pull out of the dysfunctional, misnamed Human Rights Council and to withdraw funding.


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Joseph A. Klein, CFP United Nations Columnist -- Bio and Archives

Joseph A. Klein is the author of Global Deception: The UN’s Stealth Assault on America’s Freedom.


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