News

Minneapolis, MN-- September 30, 2025)- The Advocates for Human Rights, on behalf of 40 other organizations, delivered an oral statement to the United Nations on raising concerns about the United States' refusal to participate in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of its human rights record.  The U.S. refusal would be unprecedented in the 17-year history of the UPR process, potentially destabilizing the human rights framework, and betraying organizations in the U.S. that depend on the opportunity to raise human rights concerns, advances, and opportunities.

The nations of the world created the UPR with the purpose of ensuring that the global community fairly reviews every country's human rights record every five years - reinforcing the value of human rights worldwide and building momentum for improvement. As civil society organizations based in the United States, we depend on the UPR to signal to U.S. authorities, even during our country's current human rights crisis, that we can and will hold them to account.  We rely on Member States and Observers at the United Nations to take the floor during the review to amplify our voices, helping us speak truth to power. 

Calling on the Human Rights Council to take measures to ensure U.S. participation and to use all other tools to bolster the integrity of the UPR process, the forty-one organizations submitting the statement highlighted the active role the UN system must play in these unprecedented times. 

"We know that the international human rights framework has played a crucial role in the peaceful world order and universal enjoyment of human rights for nearly a century. The U.S. refusal to participate does not eliminate its obligations to uphold those rights; instead, it underscores the urgent need for champions to defend the integrity of the human rights system," said Michele Garnett McKenzie, Executive Director at The Advocates for Human Rights. 

We are deeply concerned that U.S. actions threaten to undermine the system, inviting other governments to follow suit in abandoning commitments to human rights. The human rights system, however, is the product of a global consensus; it does not depend on the cooperation of any single country. "The U.S. assault on the system must mobilize the United Nations' members and leaders to rise to the defense of these bedrock ideals - and the advocates on the ground working to uphold them. Now is the time for everyone committed to human rights to take concerted, vocal, and visionary action," concluded Garnett McKenzie. 

For inquiries, contact press@advrights.org.

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