Varadkar: US’s exit from rights council a mistake

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has described the US decision to quit the UN Human Rights Council as a “mistake”.

“I think it’s deeply regrettable. I always believe in politics of engagement and that involves sitting around the table, even with people you disagree with,” he said.

“I think they have a point in pointing out some of the double standards that exist, the fact that people are extremely critical, for example, of Israel, and rightly so, but they turn a blind eye to the destruction of democracy in Venezuela, the absence of human rights in Cuba, and expropriation in Zimbabwe, because it’s being done by left-wing governments.