Minnesota Star Tribune

November 22, 2025

HUMAN RIGHTS

The U.S. shirked its role, but we won’t

On Nov. 7, the U.S. was scheduled to meet with the United Nations Human Rights Council for its Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The UPR is conducted every four years with each member country of the U.N. to analyze that country’s progress in human rights for its residents. The U.S. didn’t show up, the only country to ever do this, and did not submit its report due last August.

The Trump administration routinely violates human rights: extrajudicial killings; unlawful deportations; escalating violence against women, girls and gender-expansive people; discrimination against people of color; the widening economic chasm between the top 1% and everyone else; no health care for millions; and more.

Although the U.S. didn’t submit a report, we did. Civil society organizations can write a “shadow report,” documenting concerns that the country omitted or presented inaccurately. World Without Genocide organized a coalition of organizations. We focused on the right to bodily autonomy, the ability to make decisions about one’s own body that include health choices, safety from violence and control over one’s own reproduction. As a cornerstone of gender equality and a fundamental human right, bodily autonomy is safeguarded by international treaties, laws and global human rights mechanisms. U.S. policies have eroded these protections.

Read the report: worldwithoutgenocide.org/shadowreport

The U.S. review is rescheduled for November 2026. Will the U.S. show up? We will update our report. We will be there. We are ashamed: The U.S. has tossed aside all pretense of caring about human rights.

Ellen Kennedy, Minneapolis

The writer is executive director of World Without Genocide.