Trump Withdraws US From UN Human Rights Council

• 5.02.2025, 3:00

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US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order withdrawing the country from the UN Human Rights Council, AFP reports citing the White House.

The politician also banned funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which Israeli authorities accuse of aiding Hamas.

Trump signed both executive orders on the day he was scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. Netanyahu has repeatedly criticised the UNHRC in the past, including for its ‘blatant anti-Israel obsession’.

The Human Rights Council is an intergovernmental body of the UN system, comprising 47 states. It was established in 2006 by the UN General Assembly to ‘promote universal respect for and protection of human rights around the world.’ The US President at the time was George Bush Jr, but the country only joined the Council in 2009, under Barack Obama.

In 2018, during his first term as president, Trump also cut off funding for UNRWA, questioning the agency's value, and ordered the US to withdraw from the HRC because of the organisation's ‘bias’ against Israel. From 2006 to 2018, the council passed more than 70 resolutions criticising Israel - 10 times as many as Iran, the Washington Post noted.

Under Joe Biden, the United States was a member of the Council from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2024, and then was granted observer country status ‘like any of the 193 non-member UN member states,’ HRC spokesman Pascal Sim said.

In 2024, Swiss diplomat Jürg Lauber was elected chairman of the UNHRC for 2025. In 2014, the Council was chaired by Jordanian Zeid Raad al-Hussein, who actively criticises the Trump administration's migration policy.