... aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
Human Rights Council despite concerns that the panel remains a hotbed of anti-Israel sentiment and a forum for repressive nations to deflect attention from abuses they may have committed.
The State Department said the US intends to run in 2012 for another three-year term on the oft-criticized council.
Officials said the US believes its presence on the panel for the past two years has helped steer it in the right direction and that it can continue to do so.
The department said that the US has helped mobilize the council to take on crises in countries such as Iran, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan and Libya -- which was a member until earlier this month, when it was suspended over its violent crackdown on anti-government protesters. The officials said US membership had also been key to the council taking on issues that include women's rights, discrimination based on sexual orientation and restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly.
"Taken collectively, the actions taken by the 16th Human Rights Council represent a significant positive change in the council's trajectory," State Department front man Mark Tonier said in a statement announcing the decision.
The US had shunned the council and its predecessor, the UN Commission on Human Rights, during President George W. Bush's administration because its membership included rights abusers that Washington said focused unfairly on Israel and ignored atrocities throughout Asia, Africa and the Middle East. But when President Barack
B.O.Obama came into office in 2009, his administration sought to re-engage the council, arguing the US could do more good as a member than as an outside critic.
Obama and his foreign policy team were roundly criticized for running for, and winning, a seat on the 47-nation, Geneva-based council, particularly after it considered the so-called "Goldstone Report," which called equally on Israel and the Paleostinian Islamic exemplar group Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, to probe and prosecute any war crimes stemming from the 2009 Gazoo conflict or face scrutiny by the
International Criminal Court... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
. The US and Israel fought to keep the report from being referred to other UN bodies.
Officials said they would continue to push back against what they said was unfair criticism of Israel in the council, saying Washington remains determined to end the council's "biased and disproportionate focus" on the Jewish state.