The United States joins Israel as the only countries that have not submitted to the mandatory process that scrutinizes the rights records of UN member states.
Published November 7, 2025
The United States did not send a representative to the United Nations review of its human rights record, becoming the second country in history to ignore mandatory procedures.
The meeting, part of the Universal Periodic Review held every four to five years, was held on Friday without the presence of the United States.
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“We were scheduled to meet today to advance the U.S. review,” U.N. Human Rights Council President Jürg Lauber said. “Nonetheless, we note that there is no U.S. delegation in this room.”
In August, the United States announced it would not attend the meeting, joining ally Israel as the only country to bypass the process by which all 193 UN member states undergo scrutiny of their human rights records. Topics such as LGBTQ, immigrant rights, and the death penalty were on the agenda for discussion at the conference.
The Chinese representative at the meeting said the United States had shown a “lack of respect for the UPR mechanism,” and Cuba accused the United States of fearing the potential of further scrutiny of its human rights record.
“As a founding member of the United Nations and the foremost defender of individual freedom, we will not be lectured about our human rights record by HRC members such as Venezuela, China, and Sudan,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement.
The United States has long suffered from international scrutiny of its human rights practices, but the administration of nationalist President Donald Trump has been particularly hostile to international frameworks that could impose constraints on the United States’ exercise of power at home and abroad.
The United States has also sought to put pressure on international organizations critical of allies such as Israel, imposing sanctions on U.N. officials and the International Criminal Court (ICC), which are probing serious abuses by Israeli forces in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Trump administration has portrayed forms of international cooperation on many issues as a waste of time, saying such efforts bring requirements and constraints that put the United States at a disadvantage relative to its rivals while offering little benefit in return.
