The order is part of the United States’ move away from international commitments the Trump administration considers as not aligned with U.S. interests.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order to withdraw from U.N. organizations including the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) as part of a government-wide pullback from a number of international organizations.
The Feb. 4
order also stopped U.S. funding of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for the Near East (UNRWA) and stated that the United States will conduct a review of its membership in the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
This order came just days after another order was handed down to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO). Israel also announced on Feb. 5 its withdrawal from the UNHRC, accusing the council of “institutional bias” against the Jewish state.
In the days following World War II, the United States participated in founding the United Nations, hoping the international forum and its peacekeeping operations could help prevent international conflicts.
The United Nations has “drifted from this mission,” the order stated, adding that it acts “contrary to the interests of the United States while attacking our allies and propagating anti-Semitism.”
The order requires that the secretary of state review and report on which of the international organization’s “conventions or treaties promote radical or anti-American sentiment.”
UNHRC, UNRWA, and UNESCO
In the order, the Trump administration accused the UNRWA of being “infiltrated by members of groups long designated by the Secretary of State ... as foreign terrorist organizations.”The administration noted some UNRWA employees’
involvement in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. The nine UNRWA employees identified by a U.N. investigation last year as Hamas operatives were fired by the agency.
The UNRWA’s detractors have voiced concern that the agency is a breeding ground for hatred toward the Jewish state. It has
disputed those claims.
Late last year, Congress
passed legislation to halt U.S. funding for UNRWA through March 2025. The United States, historically the
largest donor to the agency, contributed $422 million in 2023 alone.
The administration also levels accusations at UNHRC and UNESCO.
“UNHRC has protected human rights abusers by allowing them to use the organization to shield themselves from scrutiny, while UNESCO has demonstrated failure to reform itself, has continually demonstrated anti-Israel sentiment over the past decade, and has failed to address concerns over mounting arrears,” the order stated.
The
UNHRC, which was founded in 1950, states on its website that it “has played an essential role for over 60 years since its establishment in providing vital services for the well-being, human development, and protection of Palestine refugees, and the amelioration of their plight, pending the just resolution of the question of the Palestine refugees.”
Additionally, the UNHRC states it has
aided in efforts to help Palestinian refugees “achieve their full potential in human development under the difficult circumstances in which they live, consistent with internationally agreed goals and standards.”
Previous Withdrawal
The executive order noted a 2018 move by the former Trump administration to withdraw from the UNHRC, repeating as then that the United States would need to “reevaluate our commitment to these institutions.” The previous withdrawal came with an end of funding for the UNRWA as well.
In 2017, Trump said, “The United Nations must reform if it is to be an effective partner in confronting threats to sovereignty, security, and prosperity.”
Trump’s previous withdrawal was reversed by the Biden administration in 2021, though the UNRWA funds were
paused again in 2024 because of the allegations that some employees of the agency were involved in Hamas’s attack on Israel, which were later
confirmed.
In the previous termination of the United States membership to the groups, funding was cut to UNESCO. The White House pointed to the 2018 withdrawal as resulting in positive change, saying that UNESCO “took steps to improve its relationship with Israel.”
Critics of the UNHRC have also cited concern about the group’s inclusion of countries that are known to violate basic human rights.
The White House explainer for the recent executive order stated that the UNHRC allows countries such as Iran, China, and Cuba to use the group to “shield themselves despite having egregious records of human rights violations and abuses.”
WHO Pullback
On the first day in office of his second term, Trump signed an
executive order to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), making good on a goal from his first administration.
Trump’s Jan. 20 order halted U.S. funding to the U.N. body, citing the WHO’s “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China,” as well as other global health concerns.
The United States is
currently the largest WHO funder, contributing about $1.28 billion during 2022–2023, the last reported year on the organization’s
website. That equates to almost half of the WHO’s joint external evaluation missions for the last fiscal year.
The 2024–2025 fiscal year is shaping up similarly, with the United States serving as the
largest donor by far, contributing an estimated $988 million, or roughly 14 percent of the WHO’s $6.9 billion budget.
According to the report, the WHO is accused of bending to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party and placing “China’s political interests ahead of its international duties.”
As part of the alleged failure, the WHO reportedly ignored warnings by Taiwan on Dec. 31, 2019, about “atypical pneumonia cases” in Wuhan, which it asked the WHO to investigate.
Jackson Richman contributed to this report.
