US skips human rights review by UN body as countries appeal for its return next year

GENEVA (AP) — The United States on Friday snubbed a review of its human rights record by a United Nations body on orders of the Trump administration, which has turned its back on the Human Rights Council.

To the chagrin of U.S. allies and rights advocates alike, the U.S. seat sat empty as the council president sought input from the United States — once a stalwart participant and defender of human rights worldwide — as it came up for its turn part of regular review of all U.N. member states.

Council members expressed regret that the United States didn’t take part, called on the council president to urge the U.S. to resume its cooperation, and moved to reschedule the U.S. review next year: Such a review can’t take place without the “concerned country” taking part. Honduras faced its review earlier in the day Friday.

There’s no indication whether the Trump administration would take part next year either. The U.S. already announced in September that it would sit out Friday’s review.

The American Civil Liberties Union, an advocacy group, said the Trump administration was “setting a dangerous example that will further weaken universal human rights at home and abroad,” and pointed to rights concerns in the United States.

“From the discrimination and violence inflicted in the ICE raids, to the attacks on free speech of protesters and journalists, to the deployment of the National Guard in American cities when no crisis exists, the world is watching the United States government attacking the constitutional and human rights of its own people,” said Chandra Bhatnagar, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The council examines the rights records of all 193 U.N. member countries about every four or five years. This was to be the fourth such review of the United States since the 47-member country council was created two decades ago.

Israel, in 2013, became the only other country to reject the council’s review process — but ended up taking part nine months later, council officials have said.

U.S. President Donald Trump in February issued an executive order announcing that the United States was withdrawing from the council.

The first Trump administration, citing the council’s alleged anti-Israel bias and refusal to reform, pulled the United States out in 2018, before the Biden administration brought the U.S. back. The United States still took part in the review process during Trump’s first term.

Volker Türk, the U.N. human rights chief, earlier this year lamented a “fundamental shift in direction” in the United States on the issue of human rights.