President Donald Trump has been in office less than a month and somehow it feels like decades. We are all already exhausted by this man and his endless chaotic executive orders and threats of tariffs, and who knows what else is next. Oh, we do know, actually. That’s right… he’s pulling us out of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Hurray.
Trump is expected to withdraw from the council and also stop all funds for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). This news comes as the president is set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.
To be clear, the UNRWA thing is not as surprising, considering there were reports that staffers for the agency were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Former President Joe Biden paused funding when that came to light.
Regardless, the move also makes the future of another government agency, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), also unclear. With Trump’s “America First” ideology, these types of things are going to keep happening.
The U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is an organization comprised of 47 Member States, and acts as a “multilateral” place where human rights violations can be heard. The council does things like adapt resolutions on human rights issues, hold crisis meetings when there are urgent rights violations, appoint independent experts, and commissions “inquiry and fact-finding missions.”
These missions, the council says, provide “hard-hitting evidence on war crimes and crimes against humanity.” The United States has had a complicated history with the council. It was founded during the presidency of George W. Bush, who like Trump, declined to engage with it, while President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden did engage with it.
In a fact sheet about the council obtained by POLITICO, the Trump administration said the council “has not fulfilled its purpose” and is just a “protective body” for countries that continuously commit “horrific human rights violations.”
In case that’s not clear, Trump is saying the council only exists to perpetuate violations, not stop them. This is of course political, and can be traced to America’s relationship with Israel. The fact sheet said the council is consistently biased against Israel, which it focuses on “unfairly and disproportionately.”
The council has “passed more resolutions condemning Israel than Syria, Iran, and North Korea combined,” the fact sheet said. The UNRWA declined to comment on the issue but said that its financial situation is already “very, very bad.” This is bad news for Palestinian refugees.
The order will also have a requirement that Secretary of State Marco Rubio reviews all international organizations, treaties, or conventions that “promote radical or anti-American sentiment.” This is expected to spotlight UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which the United States pulled out of in 2019 citing, you guessed it, a bias against Israel.
We’re also getting a new ambassador to the United Nations: Republican Representative Elise Stefanik, pending her confirmation. She said she would reform the country’s relationship with the U.N. to make sure that U.S. dollars are going to programs that “work” and have a “basis in the rule of law,” and that “strengthen our national security.” Considering the way this administration is going, that could mean anything.
This is unfortunately just the beginning. In the coming months, who knows what other organizations will be jettisoned. Yes, everyone is very tired.
Published: Feb 4, 2025 11:01 am