Geneva - US Secretary of State John Kerry accused the UN Human Rights Council on Monday of being obsessed by allegations of Israeli abuses and said the United States would defend Israel against efforts to isolate it.
In a speech to the Council in Geneva, Kerry also exhorted the 47-member-state group to look into what he described as severe abuses in separatist-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine as well as in Crimea, annexed by Russia from Ukraine last year.
He also condemned North Korea's human rights record as "appalling" and said tens of thousands of people there lived "as virtual slaves". Kerry added, "There is no freedom of expression, worship or political dissent.