GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — The United States became the first country to fully refuse participation in the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review of its human rights record on Tuesday, preventing the scheduled examination from proceeding.
The review is designed to examine the human rights practices of every U.N. member state. Since the process began in 2008, all 193 countries have undergone three rounds of review.
The Trump administration withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council last year, accusing it of anti-American and anti-Israel bias. U.S. officials said participating in the review would lend legitimacy to an institution they believe fails to uphold its own stated principles.
Without U.S. representatives, the review could not proceed as planned. Questions prepared for the session included abortion, the death penalty, immigration enforcement and racial discrimination. Nearly 200 civil-society submissions had also been filed.
Critics argue the decision creates a damaging precedent. ACLU official Jamil Dakwar said the administration was effectively signaling that it does not care whether the United States is scrutinized internationally, while human-rights experts warned that other governments could now point to Washington’s refusal as justification for avoiding their own reviews.
The UPR’s recommendations are nonbinding, but the process has relied on universal participation to maintain credibility. The immediate consequence of the U.S. boycott is procedural rather than legal, yet its broader impact could be significant if other governments follow suit.
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