Geneva (AFP) – The United States on Friday became only the second country to ever boycott a United Nations review of its human rights record, as President Donald Trump’s administration faced criticism over mounting abuses. US seats were left empty at the world body’s European headquarters in Geneva for the so-called Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which all 193 UN member states have to undergo every four to five years. Some countries have requested postponements since the UPR began in 2008, but Israel was the only previous no-show in early 2013, although it eventually underwent a delayed review 10 months later.
As the review was set to begin, UN Human Rights Council president Jurg Lauber looked at the empty seats behind the US nameplate and said: “I note that the delegation of the United States is not present in the room.” The US absence was not a surprise after the Trump administration decided early this year to halt Washington’s cooperation with the rights council and announced in August it would also boycott the UPR process.
But it still angered a number of US local officials and rights groups who had come to Geneva to list their growing concerns since Trump returned to power in January.
– ‘Shocking’ –
“It’s shocking that the US decided not to participate,” Carolyn Nash of Amnesty International told AFP, accusing Washington of “walking away from even the impression of caring about the safety and security of people in the US and around the world”. This is “really an abdication of US multilateral and human rights leadership,” Uzra Zeya, head of Human Rights First, told AFP. Speaking at one of several events at the UN connected with the aborted US review, she warned the government had created an “unprecedented reprisal environment” with infringements on free speech, government “weaponisation of federal funds,” and Trump’s “massive deportation operation”.
Others listed the crackdowns on universities, the media, and art institutions, as well as lethal strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific among alarming developments. Larry Krasner, who was re-elected district attorney of Philadelphia earlier this week, told AFP he was not surprised that “criminal” Trump “wants to escape accountability.” But he voiced hope the “moral authority” of the people would help “rein in a rough president …who wants to be Adolf Hitler”.
The side events were taking place in a room of the UN’s European headquarters where former US first lady Eleanor Roosevelt helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights before its adoption in 1948. “It’s tragic and deeply ironic that we helped to create the norms as well as this (UPR) process that we are now backing out of,” a former senior US official told AFP, asking not to be named.
– Need for ‘sunlight’ –
Many urged the international community to speak out and support their work to hold the US government in check. “It’s the Human Rights Council, the United Nations system and a community of nations committed to human rights and democracy who can bring necessary sunlight to these abuses,” said Chandra Bhatnagar, head of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)’s southern California branch. Holly Mitchell, the elected supervisor of the Second District County of Los Angeles, agreed.
“When the president sends tanks into the streets and disappears people, people are taken from home, off the street, from their families, from school, without any rights, being held without access to counsel, I believe we’re in trouble,” she said. “It’s going to take the world’s eye and the world’s voice to hold him accountable.”
Observers warned the US absence could serve as a bad example. “We hope this doesn’t risk normalising withdrawal from the council,” Sanjay Sethi, co-head of the Artistic Freedom Initiative, told AFP.
© 2024 AFP
