The U.S. State Department stated that the administration of President Donald Trump had ended the country’s participation in the UN Human Rights Council because, in Washington’s view, of its anti-American rhetoric, antisemitism, and the body’s lenient attitude toward repressive regimes. ABC News reports this, UNN conveys.
Details
This does not concern a new decision by the United States adopted on September 18. President Donald Trump signed an executive order back in February 2025 under which the United States ended its participation in the UN Human Rights Council, declined to seek membership in it, and stopped funding it. It also provided for the elimination of the position of the U.S. permanent representative to the Council. The White House stated at the time that, in the view of the American administration, a number of UN bodies had departed from their original missions, acted contrary to U.S. interests, attacked American allies, and spread antisemitism. The Trump administration specifically accused the UN Human Rights Council of allowing states that violate human rights to use membership to shield themselves from international criticism.
A State Department representative recalled the Trump administration’s decision against the backdrop of the publication of a new report by the UN international fact-finding mission on Iran.
The Trump administration officially withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council after the Council repeatedly failed to adhere to its own "values," promoting anti-American rhetoric and antisemitism while simultaneously appeasing repressive regimes
The State Department added that, for this reason, Washington does not consider the findings of the UN mission’s new report credible. At the same time, the American side emphasized that protecting civilians remains a priority for the United States.
Additionally
One of the longstanding points of dispute between Washington and the Council remains its attitude toward Israel. The Council’s agenda contains a separate standing item, No. 7, devoted to the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories. The United States and Israel have criticized this approach for years as biased against the Israeli side. The item itself remains in force in 2026.
What preceded this
The State Department’s new statement came after the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran reported "reasonable grounds to believe" that U.S. military personnel may have committed war crimes during strikes on an elementary school in Minab and a sports complex in Lamerd on February 28, 2026. The mission considers these attacks indiscriminate and says they resulted in significant civilian casualties. At the same time, in the same report, the mission accused the Iranian authorities of crimes against humanity during the suppression of protests. Experts reported unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention, and other violations. Therefore, the claim of "support for Iran" is a political assessment, not a finding of the UN mission itself.
Separately, the Trump administration made allegations against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. In a presidential executive order issued in February 2025, the White House alleged that members of groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United States had infiltrated the agency and that some of its employees had participated in Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. These allegations concerned UNRWA specifically, not the UN Human Rights Council.
It should be recalled
In early January 2026, UNN reported that the Trump administration was withdrawing from 66 international organizations, continuing to move away from global cooperation.