US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday withdrawing Washington from a number of United Nations bodies, including the Human Rights Council (UNHRC), and initiating a broader review of US funding for the multilateral organization.
The executive order stated that Washington would withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council and the main UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), as well as review its involvement in the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The actions were taken in protest of what White House staff secretary Will Scharf described as “anti-American bias” at UN agencies.
The 47 members of the UN Human Rights Council are elected by the General Assembly to three-year terms, with the United States’ most recent term ending on December 31. It currently holds observer status at the body.
Tuesday’s order appears to end the United States’ participation in the council’s activities, which include reviews of countries’ human rights records and specific allegations of rights violations.
“More generally, the executive order calls for review of American involvement and funding in the UN in light of the wild disparities and levels of funding among different countries,” according to Scharf.
Trump emphasized the UN’s “tremendous potential” but claimed it is “not being well run.”
“It should be funded by everybody, but we’re disproportionate, as we always seem to be,” he told me.
Trump has long criticized Washington’s levels of funding for multilateral organizations, urging other countries to increase their contributions, particularly to the military alliance NATO.
UNRWA is the primary aid agency for Palestinians, and many of the 1.9 million people displaced by the Gaza war rely on its deliveries to survive.
Under Trump, Washington has supported Israel’s move to ban the agency, after the US ally accused UNRWA of spreading hate material.
The administration of then-President Joe Biden halted US funding for UNRWA in January 2024 after Israel accused 12 of its employees of involvement in Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023.
A series of investigations discovered some “neutrality-related issues” at UNRWA, but no evidence for Israel’s main allegations, and most other donors who had similarly suspended funding resumed their support.
Earlier in his current term, Trump withdrew from the Paris climate agreement and began withdrawing from the World Health Organization, to which it is the largest donor.
Each withdrawal has been a continuation of the Republican billionaire’s first term in office, which ends in 2021.
