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- Trump administration boycotts UN human rights review for second consecutive year
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Get you up to speed: Trump administration again boycotts UN human rights review
The United States boycotted a United Nations examination of its human rights record in Geneva, which has resulted in the review being postponed until January. UN Human Rights Council President Sidharto Reza Suryodipuro confirmed the absence of the US delegation as the session was set to begin.
The UN Human Rights Council has postponed the examination of the US human rights record until January, as US representatives did not attend the scheduled review in Geneva. This marks the second consecutive year that Washington has opted out of its own review, following its withdrawal from the council in February 2025.
Rights groups have condemned the US’s continued boycott of the UN human rights review, citing a surge in violations. In response to the absence, the UN Human Rights Council has postponed the examination of the US record until January.
What remains unclear — It is not specified what specific criticisms or allegations regarding the US human rights record will be raised during the delayed review in January.
Trump administration boycotts UN human rights review for second consecutive year
News|Donald TrumpTrump administration again boycotts UN human rights review
UN Human Rights Council delays US human rights record examination until January after Washington refuses meeting.
Published On 10 Nov 202610 Nov 2026
The United States has again boycotted a United Nations examination of its human rights record, drawing criticism from rights groups who say violations under President Donald Trump are surging to levels not seen in decades.
US representatives on Tuesday failed to show up at the UN in Geneva for the review, which all 193 UN member states undergo every four to five years.
“The delegation of the United States is not present in the room,” UN Human Rights Council President Sidharto Reza Suryodipuro, of Indonesia, announced as the session was set to begin.
The US refusal to participate prompted the UN body to delay examining the US human rights record until January. This is the second year in a row that Washington has skipped its own review.
The US withdrew from the council in February 2025 shortly after Trump began his second presidential term, claiming it was biased against Israel.
The Trump administration has been a fierce critic of the UN, withdrawing Washington from key agencies, slashing its funding and bypassing the body in launching the war on Iran.
A US State Department spokesperson said participation would imply endorsement of the council’s work.
“[We] give no credibility to the agency,” the spokesperson said.
“This irredeemable body makes a mockery of human rights through consistent failures to uphold its own ‘values’ as it pushes anti-American rhetoric,” the official added, without responding to allegations about the US record.
The 47-member council has not directly criticised Washington’s rights record. However, experts have expressed alarm over issues such as migrant deportations, which Washington maintains are carried out in accordance with US immigration law.
UN documents show countries had planned to raise issues such as abortion access and the death penalty.
US and international non-governmental organisations also sent nearly 200 UN submissions covering topics from migration to racial discrimination.
“Enough is enough,” Jamil Dakwar, of the American Civil Liberties Union, told reporters in Geneva.
“We’ve seen attacks on fundamental human rights and civil liberties unprecedented in generations,” he added.
Fourteen countries are due to take part in the review process in Geneva this month. During Trump’s first term in office, the US submitted its UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) report.
Eric Tistounet, a visiting professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute who was the council’s first secretary, said the US walkout could affect the credibility of the council’s review system.
“If the predominant global power, which has always claimed to adhere to the human rights norms, doesn’t show up and doesn’t even justify why, then you are in big trouble,” he said.
October 12, 2024
6:18 am
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
To downplay the genocide, the israelis claim there’s only 20,000 people left in north Gaza, says
@MahaGaza
: the real number exceeds 400,000
Man of the right wing Nigel Farage taking more second jobs and freebie helicopter rides
Gosh he’ll soon be a true blue Tory at this rate
Or far far worse
The cost-of-living crisis is far from over, yet the government’s 50% increase to the bus fare cap is a political choice, adding hundreds to annual costs.
To address hardship & the climate crisis, the government must keep the £2 cap & make public transport accessible for all.
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November 23, 2024
8:25 am
Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
November 23, 2024
8:25 am
November 23, 2024
8:17 am
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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