US to become first nation to shun UN Human Rights Council review
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The gist
The US is set to become the first country to fully shun a UN Human Rights Council review.
The walkout leaves its rights record unexamined and may tempt other states to follow.
Background
The UN Human Rights Council, based in Geneva, regularly examines the rights records of all 193 UN member states roughly every four to five years through a process called the universal periodic review (UPR). The Trump administration pulled the US out of the council, accusing it of anti-US and anti-Israel bias and of failing to uphold the values it promotes. The US already skipped its scheduled November 2025 review, and the council postponed it to November 2026 in hopes Washington would change its mind.
How it unfolded
- Feb 13, 2025The Trump administration had already disengaged from the UN Human Rights Council even though the US is not a current member, according to the ACLU.
- Aug 2025The administration abruptly withdrew from the UN's Universal Periodic Review.
- Nov 7, 2025The US failed to participate in its review; no UN member state had failed to be reviewed since the process was created in 2006.
- Nov 2025The scheduled review was pushed back to November 2026 in hopes the US government might change its mind.
- Nov 10, 2026The US is set to become the first country to fully shun a regular review of its human rights record at the UN's top rights body.
- Nov 10, 2026With no US representatives present, the review cannot proceed and is likely to be postponed until January, per a draft UN document and diplomats; fourteen other countries are due to be reviewed in Geneva this month.
Key terms
- UN Human Rights Council
- A United Nations body of 47 elected members that promotes and protects human rights worldwide, based in Geneva.
- universal periodic review
- A UN Human Rights Council mechanism that periodically examines the human rights records of all 193 UN member states.
- ACLU
- A US nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920 that defends individual rights and freedoms through litigation, lobbying, and education.
Source: Wikipedia
Who’s saying what
- Official
- A State Department spokesperson said the US gives "no credibility" to the council, calling it an "irredeemable body" that pushes anti-American rhetoric and fails to condemn the most egregious human rights violators.
- Caution
- ACLU human rights program director Jamil Dakwar said the administration is telling the world it will "continue to violate human rights unabashed," and urged the council to hold the US accountable.
- Expert
- Eric Tistounet, the council's first secretary, said the US walkout could affect the credibility of the council's review system.
- Public
- Noor Abdalla, wife of detained pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, said that when the most powerful government is not held accountable, it thinks it can do whatever it wants.
- Analysts
- Critics warn the walkout could encourage other countries that bristle at intense scrutiny from human rights monitors to follow suit.
Still unverified
The review is "likely to be postponed until January," according to a draft UN document and diplomats cited in a report.