The United States is trying to evade accountability for grave, ongoing human rights violations in the country, rights groups said today. On August 27, the U.S. State Department sent a letter to the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights stating that the Trump Administration will not participate in its upcoming Universal Periodic Review, a mandatory UN process through which countries review each other’s human rights records. A delegation of local, national and international sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice organizations, as well as other social justice groups, are currently in Geneva, Switzerland for advocacy and evidence briefings in anticipation of the U.S. review, which was scheduled to take place this November. 

The delegation in Geneva includes: Jane’s Due Process, The Holy H.O.E. Institute, Reproductive Justice Action Collective (ReJAC), Birthmark, Global Justice Center, Ipas, Guttmacher Institute, Pregnancy Justice, Louisiana Abortion Fund (LAAF), and Physicians for Human Rights.

The Universal Periodic Review offers a unique opportunity to hold countries accountable for human rights obligations on a global stage. Every UN member country participates and to date, only two other countries, Israel and Nicaragua, have attempted to evade review. This was scheduled to be the first UN review of the U.S. since the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade and stripped federal constitutional protections for abortion. Since then, attacks on reproductive freedom and human rights have only escalated.

Pregnant people are facing criminalization based on their pregnancy status or pregnancy outcomes, making people fear seeking care as clinicians are deputized to report these patients and driving up adverse maternal health outcomes, defying medical and human rights standards. Abortion restrictions also intersect with attacks on LGBTQIA+ people’s access to education and healthcare. The same lawmakers who obstruct access to reproductive healthcare are prohibiting young people’s access to gender-affirming care. The devastating health and human rights impact of retrogressive laws and policies around healthcare is compounded for multiply-marginalized individuals — as US states become increasingly carceral and militarized, thousands of people are unable to access healthcare, education and employment to sustain their families through restrictions on movement.

Communities in the U.S., especially Black, Brown, immigrant, and young people, are already traveling thousands of miles just to access basic healthcare. But our movements are not silent. We came to the UN to deliver the recommendations our government refuses to face, because people’s lives cannot wait. This refusal is one more step in this administration’s intent to undermine human rights structures and silence those who are fighting to protect them — and that is the danger: a government that silences accountability while expanding repression. That is why we are here.

Quotes from Delegation:

Irma Garcia, Director of Reproductive Health and Education Services at Jane’s Due Process: “We came to the UN to confront our government, because people’s lives are literally on the line right now. The U.S. refusal to participate is about silencing the truth of communities who are dying under these policies. Black people, queer people, immigrants, young people are the ones who carry the weight of these policies. In Texas alone, we’ve served minors who’ve traveled more than 246,000 miles — equivalent to ten times around the Earth — to reach basic healthcare. No young person, anywhere in the world, should face this. We will not be quiet. This is how empire behaves when it is exposed, but we insist on another future rooted in reproductive justice, freedom, and collective liberation.”

Qiana Lewis-Arnold of the Holy HOE Institute: “We are the very communities most harmed by U.S. repression. We live the same oppression and risks we are calling out. By bringing our truth to the world stage we put ourselves at greater risk, but we refuse to be silent. We came to Geneva because people’s lives cannot wait, and we want the world to know we are here and that we will be home soon.” 

Dr. Victoria Williams, Birthmark: “Louisiana already has one of the deadliest maternal health crises in the country. Our communities, especially for communities of concerned families, are forced into parenthood, pushed deeper into poverty, and criminalized for their pregnancies. By refusing to participate in this review, the U.S. is not only denying its failures, it is denying us the right to live with dignity. We came to Geneva because the lives of our clients cannot wait.”

Elise Keppler, Executive Director, Global Justice Center: “The US is repeatedly violating people’s human rights through abortion bans and restrictions, while shying away from a global review in which all countries participate. The US should face up to its status as a regressive global outlier on reproductive healthcare.”

Kulsoom Ijaz, Senior Policy Counsel, Pregnancy Justice: “In the first year after losing Roe, we documented at least 210 cases of pregnancy-related prosecutions in the U.S., including after giving birth and suffering a pregnancy loss. At Pregnancy Justice, we defend pregnant people — many of them poor, stigmatized, and ostracized. As the walls continue to close in on them and their rights are trampled, the U.S. has cruelly shut its eyes, plugged its ears, and turned its back to this pain on the world stage on the eve of mine and other civil society members’ presentations on U.S. human rights violations. The Council must hold members accountable, and the U.S. is no exception.”

Bethany Van Kampen Saravia, Senior Legal and Policy Advisor, Ipas US: “We traveled to the United Nations to shed a light on the egregious human rights violations occurring throughout the US and to sound the alarms that this administration is testing the rule of law as we know it in the US. If the US does not engage in this UPR process, it opens the floodgates for more human rights violations within its borders.”

Pearl Ricks, Executive Director, Reproductive Justice Action Collective (ReJAC): “This is an attempt for the current US administration to shirk its responsibilities to its citizens and to its global counterparts. If the US does not participate in the UPR, our country will be cut off from a universal accountability body. This can’t be the start of a troubling trend or pattern. I adamantly urge UN member bodies and states to apply steadfast and earnest pressure. If the US doesn’t have a UPR in November, who knows what will happen behind its closed doors and taut borders, and the effects it will have on global justice.”

For more details, see:

Coalition UPR Submission: https://www.globaljusticecenter.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/USA-UPR-Submission.pdf