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U.S. boycotts U.N. human rights review for second year running
NPR • • nation
Key Points:
- The United States has skipped the United Nations universal periodic review of its human rights record for the second consecutive year, becoming the only U.N. member state to do so twice.
- The review process is mandatory for all 193 U.N. member states and aims to ensure peer evaluation of human rights practices, with participation from diplomats and civil society groups.
- The U.S. withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council, accusing it of anti-American bias, but this does not exempt it from the review process, which Washington has effectively boycotted.
- Human rights organizations criticize the U.S. for disengaging from multilateral institutions and call for the U.N. to proceed with the review despite the absence of U.S. representatives.
- U.N. officials worry that conducting a review without U.S. participation could set a precedent encouraging other countries to skip their reviews, undermining the effectiveness of the universal periodic review mechanism.
