UN Postpones Review of U.S. Human Rights Record After Washington Refuses to Take Part

The U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday postponed a regular review of the United States human rights record until January, after the Trump administration refused to take part. The delay gives the council more time to press Washington to reverse a decision that would make the United States the first country to reject the process from start to finish.

The council’s 47 member states adopted the decision without a vote, citing what it called the continued non-cooperation of the United States. Under the process, known as the universal periodic review, the council examines the rights records of all 193 U.N. member states about every four to five years. A review cannot go ahead without the country under review taking part.

A review delayed twice

The United States was first due for review in November 2025. That session was pushed back a year in the hope that Washington would change its mind. It did not. The administration pulled the United States out of the council last year, accusing it of anti-American and anti-Israel bias and saying it failed to uphold the values it promotes.

In a statement issued before and after Tuesday’s decision, the State Department said, “(W)e give no credibility to the agency.” The statement called the council an “irredeemable body” that “makes a mockery of human rights through consistent failures to uphold its own ‘values’ as it pushes anti-American rhetoric.”

Allies and rights groups push back

The European Union said it regretted the decision. “The EU regrets any situation in which full engagement with the mechanism does not occur, including the decision by the United States again not to participate in their review today,” said Simone van der Post, a Dutch envoy speaking for EU council members. “All states are subject to the scrutiny of their human rights situation by the international community,” she added.

Rights advocates said the United States should face the same review as every other country. Phil Lynch, executive director of the International Service for Human Rights, said the U.S. record deserves scrutiny on “migration, LGBT rights, racial discrimination and civic freedoms, like the right to protest,” as well as wars in the Middle East and what he called “extrajudicial executions” in the Pacific and Caribbean. “What has Washington got to hide?” he said.

Jamil Dakwar, director of the human rights program at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the administration was telling the world it would keep violating human rights whether or not it was reviewed. He said the ACLU and its allies have asked the U.N. human rights chief to present an update on rights in the United States early next year.

Critics of the decision warn that the U.S. walkout could encourage other governments to skip scrutiny of their own records. Eric Tistounet, a visiting professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute who served as the council’s first secretary, said the absence of the world’s most powerful country from the process puts the review system in trouble. “If the predominant global power, which has always claimed to adhere to the human rights norms, doesn’t show up and doesn’t even justify why, then you are in big trouble,” he said.

The council will take up the U.S. review again in January.

Reporting based on coverage by The Associated Press and the Washington Examiner.