US set to become first nation to boycott UN Human Rights Council review

The United States is poised to become the first country in the two-decade history of the United Nations Human Rights Council to completely bypass its periodic evaluation of national rights records.

The formal assessment, part of the Universal Periodic Review conducted every four to five years for all 193 U.N. member nations, cannot proceed without the participation of the state under review. After the Trump administration previously withdrew from the council, Washington had already missed an earlier evaluation date, prompting council organizers to reschedule the session for Tuesday in an unsuccessful bid to secure American involvement.

A State Department spokesperson affirmed the boycott, stating that Washington gives no credibility to the body. The spokesperson described the council as an irredeemable entity that makes a mockery of human rights through continuous failures to champion its stated principles while promoting anti-American messaging. The spokesperson also asserted that the body persistently fails to censure severe human rights violators.

The administration of President Trump previously left the Geneva-based council after alleging that the organization demonstrated sustained bias against both the United States and Israel. Under the review process, governments typically deploy delegations to deliver formal presentations, respond to inquiries, and receive recommendations from international diplomats aimed at encouraging policy improvements.

Advocacy groups and legal scholars have expressed concern that the American refusal could undermine the integrity of the council's oversight mechanisms. Eric Tistounet, a former council secretary and current visiting professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute, warned that an unexplained absence by a major world power that historically claimed devotion to global standards places the credibility of the review framework at serious risk.

Civil rights advocates also condemned the decision to bypass international scrutiny. Jamil Dakwar, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union's human rights initiative, told reporters in Geneva that the administration is signaling to the global community that it intends to disregard rights standards without consequence. Dakwar indicated that the ACLU and partner organizations have formally requested that the U.N. human rights chief independently deliver an updated assessment of conditions in the United States early next year.

U.S. policies have faced criticism from international monitors over actions such as aggressive deportations and targeted operations directed at suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Pacific regions. The administration has maintained that these security measures are necessary to safeguard American citizens and protect the nation's domestic workforce.