United States Skips Its UN Human Rights Review in Geneva, a First for Any Country

GENEVA. The United States did not take part in its scheduled human rights review at the United Nations in Geneva on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, becoming the first country to stay away from every stage of the process since the review system began two decades ago.

The empty slot was the United States' own Universal Periodic Review, the regular examination that every one of the UN's 193 member states is asked to undergo roughly every four to five years. Other states question the country under review and offer recommendations, which are not binding. The Human Rights Council says the process requires the participation of the country in question, and without a national delegation in the room the review cannot go forward.

A review delayed for a year

Washington disengaged from the Geneva based Human Rights Council last year, accusing it of anti-Israel bias. The Trump administration pulled the United States out of the 47 member council, saying it held an anti-US and anti-Israel bias and did not uphold the values it promotes. The United States then skipped the appointment for its own review a year ago. The session scheduled for November 2025 was pushed back to Tuesday in the hope that the government might change its mind. It did not, and the no-show will likely mean the review is postponed again, until January, according to a draft UN document and diplomats cited by Reuters.

A US State Department spokesperson said participation would imply endorsement of the council's work. UN documents show that countries had planned to raise issues such as abortion and the death penalty on Tuesday. Fourteen countries are due to take part in the review process in Geneva this month. In President Donald Trump's first term in office, the United States did submit its Universal Periodic Review report.

Rights groups press for scrutiny anyway

American and international non-governmental organisations sent nearly 200 submissions to the UN covering topics from migration to racial discrimination. The American Civil Liberties Union and its allies have called on the UN human rights chief to present an update on rights in the United States early next year, and campaigners are pressing Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to hold a briefing on the US rights situation promptly, even in Washington's absence.

"We've seen attacks on fundamental human rights and civil liberties unprecedented in generations. Enough is enough," Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU's human rights program, told reporters in Geneva.

Noor Abdalla, whose husband, the pro-Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil, was held in immigration detention last year, also spoke to reporters in Geneva. "When the most powerful government in the world is not held accountable, they think that they can do whatever they want," she said.

Amnesty International USA, responding from Geneva to the failure to participate, said the United States is the first country to avoid participating in all stages of the peer review process, and noted that the Human Rights Council gave the United States an extra year to take part. The group called the absence an attempt to avoid scrutiny of human rights violations, a charge the administration rejects through its criticism of the council itself.