US poised to announce exit from UN human rights council after chief calls Trump border policy 'government-sanctioned child abuse'

Getty Images/Mario Tama

• President Donald Trump's administration is poised to exit the United Nations' Human Rights Council.
• Officials said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley will announce the exit Tuesday.
• The departure comes a day after the UN human rights chief slammed Trump's zero-tolerance immigration policy as "government-sanctioned child abuse."

The Trump administration is poised to announce its departure from the United Nations' main human rights body in its latest withdrawal from an international institution.

Officials say Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley will deliver the verdict on membership in the UN Human Rights Council in a joint appearance at the State Department on Tuesday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly preview the decision.

Haley threatened the pullout last year citing longstanding U.S. complaints that the council is biased against Israel. But Tuesday's announcement also comes just a day after the U.N. human rights chief denounced the Trump administration for separating migrant children from their parents.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in remarks to the Human Rights Council in Geneva the Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy is "government-sanctioned child abuse".

"The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable," he said of the policy that has resulted in almost 2,000 children being separated from their families at the US-Mexico border over six weeks.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the policy as a deterrence measure, saying, "If you don't like that, then don't smuggle children over our border."

Sessions recently defended the policy against comparisons to Nazi Germany, saying "it's a real exaggeration."

Photos and audio of wailing children in cages have emerged that depict detention centers where children are detained after forced family separation, a grim environment which experts say cause permanent psychological damage.