The United States is scheduled to appear in Geneva on November 10 for its Universal Periodic Review, the United Nations’ peer review process of every member state’s rights record. But the US is unlikely to show: the Trump administration declared in 2025 that the US would not participate.
After the US failed to turn up in November 2025, the review was rescheduled. Should the US again fail to appear next week, it should not be given another extension and should not be exempt from this process which, as the name suggests, applies to every UN member country.
As part of the process, US and international rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, made 192 submissions highlighting a range of human rights issues. The civil society submissions paint a worrying picture, with a dramatic worsening of the US government’s rights record over the past year.
At President Trump’s direction, the US government dismantled its civil rights enforcement apparatus. It has also violated the prohibition on non-refoulement and sent Venezuelan men to torture in El Salvador’s prisons. The Trump administration also continues to retaliate against opponents, restrict the rights of transgender people, and eliminate regulations that curb climate warming pollutants, among other things. In an unprecedented assault on the rule of law, the administration escalated its sanctions against the ICC, targeting the court as a whole.
State legislation and targeted federal funding cuts have dramatically reduced access to safe abortion care and other reproductive health care in many states, curtailing women’s rights. During the immigration crackdown, authorities have separated breastfeeding and other parents from their children and have detained pregnant women despite a longstanding government policy that directs agencies to avoid this except in limited circumstances.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has highlighted concerns about deaths in immigration detention; harmful migration policies and enforcement; and sanctions against the ICC and Palestinian rights groups. The UN Special Procedures mandate holders have also raised concerns regarding: unlawful killings at sea; allegedly arbitrary removal of immigration judges and politicization of immigration courts; and unlawful use of lethal force by immigration enforcement agents.
The US government is attempting to dodge international scrutiny of these serious and well-documented abuses. The Human Rights Council should not let that happen. This is a time for greater rights scrutiny in the US, not less.
