Washington angrily accuses the United Nations of being anti-American and rejects "human rights review" for the second consecutive year

United Nations European Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. (Reuters file photo)

The U.S. government decided on the 10th to skip a scheduled review of its human rights record by the United Nations Human Rights Council. This move triggered strong criticism from human rights groups, who believed that the human rights situation during the Trump administration had deteriorated to the most severe level in decades.

According to Reuters, Washington announced its withdrawal from the Human Rights Council last year on the grounds of anti-Israel bias. This year is the second year in a row that the United States has been absent from the "Universal Periodic Review" (UPR). A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department issued a statement stating that participation in the review will be regarded as approval of the work of the council, and criticized the agency for being full of anti-American rhetoric, unable to defend its own values, and irreversible.

The universal periodic review mechanism requires all 193 United Nations member states to submit regular human rights reports and accept inquiries and non-binding recommendations from other countries. The document shows that various countries plan to review issues such as abortion rights, the death penalty system, immigration deportation and racial discrimination in the United States. Human rights groups and non-governmental organizations also submitted nearly 200 reports. Experts from the American Civil Rights Union (ACLU) pointed out that "the current basic human rights and civil liberties in the United States have suffered a severe blow not seen in generations."

In response to the U.S. boycott, human rights groups and some victims' families have called for a briefing on the current human rights situation in the United States even in the absence of the United States, emphasizing that failure to hold the world's most powerful government accountable will make it more unscrupulous.