While fighting against anti-Israel prejudice at the UN, USUN has promoted US priorities on human rights. We campaigned for the UN Security Council to hold the DPRK responsible for its repeated provocations in violation of numerous UN Security Council resolutions while standing up for the UN Charter in the face of Russia’s violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
We started new programs to expand the number of Americans employed by the UN, and we oversaw reform activities to ensure the UN is functional in the twenty-first century. The Mission has supported Biden Administration policies to support democracy, engage youth, and hire a more diverse workforce that better represents the American people through Ambassador Thomas-domestic Greenfield’s and foreign travel.
The United States of America spearheaded the campaign to exclude Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women, marking the first time a nation has been expelled from that body in response to Iran’s bloody assault on nonviolent protestors, particularly women and girls. The USUN and Albania co-hosted a UN Security Council Arria-Formula meeting on the Iranian protests and the government’s repression and violence.
USUN successfully lobbied for the publication of the report on Xinjiang by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. A conference on China’s genocide and human rights violations against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang was also co-hosted by USUN.
Working closely with the UK, USUN was able to achieve the approval of a UN Security Council resolution denouncing the military takeover of Burma last year, the regime’s horrific human rights abuses, and calling for the release of inmates who had been imprisoned arbitrarily.
As an international champion for gender equality, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield promoted the Security Council’s Women, Peace, and Security Agenda.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield made it a point to visit Afghan refugees during her domestic journey. In a joint statement released in October, the United States and 26 other UN members reaffirmed the rights of Afghan women and girls while denouncing the Taliban’s continued violations of those rights.
Along with Secretary Blinken and Special Envoy Stern, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield attended the high-level UNGA event for the LGBTI Core Group. Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield called for increased international efforts to ensure the release of people held by the Assad regime and other parties at an Arria-formula meeting of the Security Council on arbitrarily detained and missing persons in Syria in June, which she co-hosted with Albania.
