US Cannot Withdraw from a Body it no Longer Belongs: UNHRC

GENEVA:
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has said that as of January 1, 2025, the US’ term as a member had ended, making it ineligible to withdraw from an intergovernmental body it was no longer part of.

“For the record, the United States was a member of the Human Rights Council from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2024. Since January 1, 2025, the United States is no longer a member of the Human Rights Council and automatically became an observer state, like any of the 193 UN member states that are not Council members. An observer state of the Council cannot withdraw from an intergovernmental body it is no longer a part of,” Pascal Sim, spokesperson for the UNHRC, said on Thursday in a statement sent to Xinhua news agency.

“As a matter of principle, and in the spirit of multilateral dialogue that characterises the Council, we welcome and encourage the engagement of every UN Member State — whether as a Council member or an observer — in the work of the Council and its mechanisms,” the statement added.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order, withdrawing the US from the UNHRC, Xinhua news agency reported.

The UNHRC is composed of 47 member states, with nearly one-third of its seats up for election each year. Member states serve three-year terms and may be re-elected once.

During Trump’s first term, the US withdrew from the UNHRC in June 2018.

In February 2021, then Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the Joe Biden administration would re-engage with the Council as an observer.

The US returned to the body in January 2022 as a full member.

Trump also pulled the US out of the Human Rights Council in June 2018. His ambassador to the UN at the time, Nikki Haley, accused the council of “chronic bias against Israel” and pointed to what she said were human rights abusers among its members.

President Joe Biden renewed support for the Human Rights Council, and the US won a seat on the 47-nation body in October 2021. But the Biden administration announced in late September that the US would not seek a second consecutive term.

Trump’s order on Tuesday has little concrete effect because the US is already not a council member, said council spokesperson Pascal Sim.

But like all other UN member countries, the US automatically has informal observer status and will still have a seat in the council’s ornate round chamber at the UN complex in Geneva.