text: SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
  
      (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
              (1) The United Nations Human Rights Council fails to 
          adequately reform the United Nations Commission on Human 
          Rights, thus preventing the Council from becoming an effective 
          monitor of human rights throughout the world.
              (2) The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was 
          created in 1946 to monitor and prevent the abuse of human 
          rights throughout the world. It failed miserably to uphold even 
          the most basic ideals enumerated in the United Nations Charter 
          and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. It lost its 
          credibility as an instrument for the promotion and protection 
          of human rights and instead allowed repressive regimes to 
          shield themselves from criticism for their human rights 
          violations.
              (3) The membership of the United Nations Commission on 
          Human Rights constituted some of the worst abusers of human 
          rights in the world, including the tyrannies of Cuba, Sudan, 
          Libya, Belarus, the People's Republic of China, and Zimbabwe.
              (4) The United Nations Commission on Human Rights failed to 
          act or speak out against numerous cases of egregious human 
          rights abuses, including the countless atrocities committed by 
          communist regimes, the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and the 
          ongoing genocide in Darfur caused by the Government of Sudan.
              (5) The United Nations Commission on Human Rights failed to 
          condemn countries that sponsor terrorism (a glaring affront to 
          human rights), including Iran, Syria, and North Korea.
              (6) The United Nations Commission on Human Rights had 
          repeatedly vilified Israel, the only democracy in the Middle 
          East, while overlooking horrific human rights abuses throughout 
          the Middle East. A recent study found that 30 percent of all 
          country-specific resolutions of the Commission critical of 
          human rights have been directed at Israel, but none against 
          persistent violators like China, Myanmar, Syria, or Zimbabwe.
              (7) Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan 
          repeatedly emphasized that meaningful reform of the United 
          Nations Commission on Human Rights is a key element for making 
          the United Nations more accountable, effective, and efficient, 
          and that ``the Commission's declining credibility has cast a 
          shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system''.
              (8) The creation of the United Nations Human Rights Council 
          on March 15, 2006, failed to address the serious shortcomings 
          of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and fell far 
          short of creating the small standing body composed of 
          appropriate countries that was initially envisioned by Former 
          Secretary General Annan, in his March 2005 report, ``In Larger 
          Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights For 
          All''.
              (9) The United Nations Human Rights Council succeeds only 
          in making superficial changes to the structure of the United 
          Nations Commission on Human Rights, masquerading motion as 
          reform and placebo as treatment.
              (10) The United Nations Human Rights Council does not 
          embody the recommended institutional reforms necessary to 
          advance human rights.
              (11) The United Nations Human Rights Council cannot monitor 
          cases of human rights abuse throughout the world, nor even 
          prevent egregious human rights violators from being elected to 
          the council itself. The only supposed protection--that a 
          country can be suspended if two-thirds of the members of the 
          General Assembly agree to do so--is useless, since less than 
          half of the General Assembly could agree that Sudan was guilty 
          of any human rights violations.
              (12) The United Nations Human Rights Council only reduces 
          the number of seats on the council to 47 from 53, which is not 
          enough to make the Council more efficient or more effective.
              (13) The United Nations Human Rights Council also retains 
          geographical quotas that will only ensure that human rights 
          abusers will continue to have access to membership on the 
          council. Indeed, Israel, a constant target of United Nations 
          ire, had been discriminated against by being denied full 
          participatory rights in regional group meetings associated with 
          the operation of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, 
          while nonmembers of the United Nations, such as the Holy See 
          and the Palestinian observer, participated in such meetings. 
          The geographic quota system ensures a majority of membership 
          slots for the world's least democratic regions.
              (14) The United States, while voting against the resolution 
          creating the United Nations Human Rights Council, was unable to 
          ensure that the Council would be structured to best promote and 
          protect human rights around the globe.
              (15) If the United States, working with other like-minded 
          countries, is not able to adequately reform the corrupt United 
          Nations Human Rights Council, then the chances for the United 
          States and other like-minded countries to effect the broader 
          changes to the United Nations that are desired and needed to 
          make the institution more effective are much reduced.
              (16) The first group of Member States elected to the new 
          United Nations Human Rights Council includes nine countries 
          that the democracy watchdog Freedom House designates as ``not 
          free'', including the People's Republic of China, Cuba, Saudi 
          Arabia, Russia, Pakistan, Tunisia, Algeria, Cameroon, and 
          Azerbaijan.
  
  SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
  
      It is the sense of Congress that--
              (1) the United Nations Human Rights Council--
                      (A) should be a body that upholds the ideals 
                  enumerated in the United Nations Charter and the 
                  Universal Declaration on Human Rights;
                      (B) should allow full participation by Israel in 
                  all operations associated with the Council; and
                      (C) should be made up of countries that hold 
                  regular, competitive, and democratic elections, allow 
                  for freedom of expression, and have a credible civil 
                  society; and
              (2) the United States should not support the United Nations 
          Human Rights Council, and should withhold any financial support 
          for the Council until meaningful reforms related to the 
          responsibilities of the United Nations for the protection of 
          human rights are carried out.
  
  SEC. 3. WITHHOLDING FUNDING FOR THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS 
                COUNCIL.
  
      (a) In General.--The Secretary of State shall withhold from a 
  United States contribution to a regularly assessed biennial budget of 
  the United Nations an amount that is equal to the percentage of such 
  contribution that the Secretary determines would be allocated by the 
  United Nations to support the United Nations Human Rights Council.
      (b) Effective Date.--Subsection (a) shall take effect and apply 
  beginning on October 1, 2009, with respect to annual dues paid by the 
  United States to the United Nations each fiscal year in connection with 
  United States contributions to the regularly assessed biennial budgets 
  of the United Nations.
target: Expresses the sense of Congress that the United Nations Human Rights Council should: (1) be a body that upholds the ideals enumerated in the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights; (2) allow full participation by Israel in Council operations; and (3) be made up of countries that hold regular democratic elections, permit freedom of expression, and have a credible civil society.
  
  Expresses the sense of Congress that the United States should not support the Council, and should withhold financial support for the Council until meaningful human rights reforms are carried out.
  
   Directs the Secretary of State to withhold from a U.S. contribution to a regularly assessed biennial U.N. budget an amount equal to the percentage of such contribution that the Secretary determines would be allocated by the United Nations to the Council.
feat_title: To withhold United States funding from the United Nations Human Rights Council.