The United Nations Human Rights Council pushed its review of the U.S. human rights record to January after the Trump administration skipped Tuesday’s session in Geneva. It was the second time Washington declined to appear for the same review. The council had already moved it back a year after the U.S. missed its November 2025 date.
The council’s 47 members approved the latest delay without a vote, The Associated Press reported. The review is now due during the working group’s Jan. 18 to 29 session, according to Anadolu. The council asked its president to keep pressing Washington to take part. A new date does not establish whether a U.S. delegation will attend.
What the delay leaves unanswered
The Universal Periodic Review covers all 193 UN member states about every four to five years. In a review, the government presents its record and other countries ask questions and make recommendations. Those recommendations are nonbinding. They can still put a government on the record about which changes it supports and which it declines to endorse.
Other countries had planned to raise issues including abortion and the death penalty, Reuters reported. Nearly 200 submissions from U.S. and international organizations addressed subjects including migration and racial discrimination. The postponement leaves those submissions in the record but delays the public exchange with U.S. officials and the recommendations that would follow it.
The State Department told Reuters that taking part would imply endorsement of a council it accuses of anti-American rhetoric and failing to uphold human rights. A February 2025 executive order directed the United States to stop participating in the council and decline to seek election to it. The two processes have diverged before. During President Donald Trump’s first term, the U.S. withdrew from the council but still submitted its national report for the 2020 review.
The UN has posted the recording of Tuesday’s session. Its U.S. review file lists the UN’s evidence compilation, stakeholder summaries and questions submitted in advance. The national report field for the current cycle is empty. The council’s November 2025 decision records the first postponement and the earlier request for U.S. cooperation.
The same UN file shows what a completed review produces. For the 2020 cycle it includes a table of recommendations and a follow-up letter from the UN human rights chief to the U.S. government. The 2026 entry contains the material prepared for the meeting, but it has no comparable outcome documents yet.
