U.S. reportedly joins North Korea in resisting U.N. human rights investigations

America's human rights abuses — including those potentially committed by the government — reportedly aren't getting U.N. scrutiny under President Trump.

The United Nations hasn't been invited to examine potential human rights violations inside the U.S. so far during Trump's presidency, The Guardian reports. And since last May, the U.S. has reportedly ignored all complaints from the U.N.'s independent watchdogs. It's a "break with U.S. practice going back decades," and sends a "dangerous signal to authoritarian regimes around the world," The Guardian says.

The U.N. routinely sends human rights experts for "fact-finding visits," making 16 trips to the U.S. under former President Barack Obama's watch, per The Guardian. But those special rapporteurs have only been to America twice under Trump, and were both initially invited by Obama. One rapporteur accused the Trump administration of exacerbating extreme poverty, which then-U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley called "patently ridiculous." Another 13 requests to probe "poverty, migration, freedom of expression, and justice" have gone without a response since May, The Guardian writes.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The lack of cooperation comes amid "a perilous moment for the U.S., both externally and within its own borders," The Guardian says. Trump withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council last June and has faced questions over his handling of asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, among many other things.

A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. was "deeply committed to the promotion and defense of human rights around the globe." But The Guardian says the spokesperson "pointedly omitted any reference to US compliance domestically." Read more at The Guardian.