
Unsatisfied with the proposal for the new Council, the Bush administration rejected U.S. involvement, arguing that refusing to participate gave the U.S. more "leverage" over the Council by permitting it to withhold what was seen as its legitimizing presence from what would inevitably be the same endeavor with a new label. The Obama administration reversed course in 2009, believing that engaging with the Council would permit the U.S. to help shape its actions. At the time, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice stated that the United States sought election to the Council "because we believe that working from within, we can make the council a more effective forum to promote and protect human rights."
Traub assesses the results of the engagement strategy favorably, arguing that it has increased international scrutiny of human rights abusers. For example, the United States representative on the Council, Eileen Donahoe, is credited with revising the rules for the Universal Periodic Review, a human rights report card for every UN state. By permitting any state to intervene in the review process, the new procedure blocks abusers' oft-used diversionary tactic of lining up comments from cronies to direct attention away from the most serious problems.
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