The U.S. Under Trump Will Skip Its UN Human Rights Review in Geneva for a Second Year Running — the First Country Ever to Fully Boycott the Check-Up — After Quitting the Council Last Year, as the State Department Calls It an "Irredeemable Body" That Pushes Anti-American Rhetoric
The United States is set on Tuesday to become the first country to fully shun the regular review of its human rights record at the United Nations' top rights body since the council was created two decades ago — refusing, for the second year in a row, to take part in the check-up every U.N. member state undergoes.
The review, known as the universal periodic review, is the process in which the Geneva-based Human Rights Council examines the rights record of all 193 U.N. member states roughly every four to five years. National delegations make a presentation, face questions and hear recommendations from other countries. The council says the process requires the participation of the country in question — with no American representatives in the room, the U.S. review cannot go forward.
The Trump administration pulled the United States out of the Human Rights Council last year, accusing it of anti-U.S. and anti-Israel bias and alleging that it did not uphold the very values it promotes. President Trump signed the executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the council in February 2025.
The United States, under Trump, already skipped its appointment for the review a year ago. The scheduled November 2025 review was pushed back until Tuesday in hopes the U.S. government might change its mind. It did not.
"(W)e give no credibility to the agency," a State Department spokesperson said in an email to The Associated Press. "This irredeemable body makes a mockery of human rights through consistent failures to uphold its own 'values' as it pushes anti-American rhetoric," the spokesperson said, alleging the council's "persistent failure to condemn the most egregious human rights violators."
Supporters of the council back its mandate to keep tabs on human rights in all member states including the U.S., which has drawn criticism for policies including strong-arm deportations and targeted killings of alleged drug-runners in the Caribbean and Pacific — measures the administration has said are designed to protect U.S. workers and help keep the country safe.
Critics of the U.S. snub warn the walkout could encourage other countries to follow suit. Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's human rights program, said the administration is telling the world it does not care whether it is reviewed, and said the ACLU and its allies have called on the U.N. human rights chief to present an update on rights in the United States early next year. Eric Tistounet, a visiting professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute who was the council's first secretary, warned the absence of the predominant global power could affect the credibility of the whole review system.
For Americans, the administration's case is about who gets to judge the United States: Washington's position is that a body it calls biased against America and Israel, and slow to condemn the world's worst violators, has no standing to grade the U.S. record — and that American laws and courts, not a Geneva panel, are where the country's policies answer for themselves.
📰 ProfiloPolitics Member News — choose your news, share it, earn credit:
https://white-curlew-963569.hostingersite.com
Never miss a story — Join our Telegram channel
Breaking U.S. political news, live as it happens — plus the stories the big outlets sit on.
Join ProfiloPolitics on Telegram