UN must not let the United States escape its human rights review

Foundation for Gaia urges the UN Human Rights Council to protect the integrity of its Universal Periodic Review by making sure the United States is reviewed on 10 November 2026, whether or not the US government takes part.¹

The call comes ahead of the Council's 63rd session, which opens in Geneva on 7 September.² Last November, the United States did not turn up for its review, the process in which every UN member state's human rights record is examined by other states. The Council rescheduled the review and asked its President to press the United States to resume its cooperation.³

Since the review began in 2006, no UN member state has gone unreviewed.⁴ The only other country to miss its review, Israel in 2013, took part later that year.^5,6 If the United States does not appear on 10 November, it will become the first country to miss its review twice.

The US State Department has said that taking part would imply endorsing the Council, which it accuses of failing to condemn the worst human rights abusers.⁷ The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has called the United States' withdrawal from the Council and its review process "deeply regrettable".⁸

The review is one of the few places where a government's record on climate and the environment is examined by its peers. For the United States, the questions are pressing.

• Climate rules. In February 2026, the US Environmental Protection Agency scrapped its finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health, the legal basis for limiting those emissions, and repealed all greenhouse gas standards for vehicles. The Agency called it the largest deregulatory action in US history.⁹ The United States has also withdrawn from the Paris Agreement on climate change.¹⁰
• Oceans. The administration has opened protected marine areas to commercial fishing, including nearly half a million square miles of Pacific waters that are home to coral reefs and endangered species.¹¹ In July 2026, it also launched the country's first lease sale for deep sea mining, despite opposition from Pacific communities.¹²
• Water and data centres. The United States hosts around 4,000 data centres, more than the next fourteen countries combined.¹³ Two thirds of the data centres now planned across the country are set to be built in areas recently hit by drought.¹⁴

More than 100 US civil society groups sent evidence to the review, including on climate change.¹⁵ If the review does not happen, their voices will not be heard at the UN.