US Mission Geneva

We commend Liechtenstein’s strong commitment to the rule of law, democracy, freedom of expression, and the protection of religious freedom. We applaud the government’s programs on Holocaust education and public commemoration ceremonies.

The United States believes deeply in the integrity of the Universal Periodic Review and we understand the vital purpose served in providing all member states an opportunity to examine their human rights performance.

We commend the UAE for improving some protections for migrant workers, including implementing procedures to identify victims of forced labor.

We commend Montenegro’s commitment to the promotion of human rights. We specifically recognize the recent successes in furthering LGBT rights, preventing torture and other mistreatment of individuals.

The experience of coming to the Human Rights Council has shown us that we have partners all over the world who share in our human rights priorities and values. To me this is evidence that the human rights narrative has become a dominant global narrative that is universally embraced, if not perfectly practiced.

We commend Romania’s overall track record on protecting human rights. However, we are concerned that discrimination and violence against members of Roma and LGBT communities as well as their advocates are still common in Romania and often go unreported.

The need for a strong, democratically elected government viewed as legitimate by the Malian people is critical to ensure credible political processes and negotiations with non-extremist groups in the north.

We welcome France’s announcement of an action plan to combat racism and anti-Semitism. However, we remain concerned about the law that prohibits the wearing of religious symbols in state schools and bans the wearing of face-covering garments, including the burqa, in public.

Senior U.S. officials have directly raised the issue of Tibetan self-immolations with their Chinese government counterparts.