The USA is halting funding for UN projects, including those in Ukraine, reported the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, according to UNN citing Reuters.
Details
According to her, the UN Human Rights Office received a notification from the US government about the cessation of five projects.
Ravina Shamdasani stated that "the notifications concern projects in Equatorial Guinea, Iraq, Ukraine, and Colombia, as well as for the fund for indigenous peoples, which are funded by the US Agency for International Development and the US State Department."
"There are some countries where we will have to cut back on some of our work, including Colombia, including Iraq, and in other places we are trying to redistribute funding," she told reporters in Geneva.
The UN Human Rights Office has offices and teams around the world that document abuses, assist people in unlawful detention, and protect human rights defenders.
The Iraqi program, which helped victims of torture and families of the missing, will be completely shut down, she added, without providing further details.
Previously, Washington was the main donor to the UN Human Rights Office, providing nearly 14% of its budget last year in addition to mandatory UN dues.
"This is a time to increase investments in human rights, not to decrease investments. (Human rights) help prevent conflicts, help resolve crises, help avert crises, so he (High Commissioner Volker Turk) calls on all states to increase their investments," she said.
Supplement
US President Donald Trump is cutting foreign aid programs by billions of dollars worldwide as part of a major review of spending by the world's largest aid donor, and details of the cuts and their global implications are now emerging.