Policy Alert: US Review of International Organizations

Action: Executive Order: “Withdrawing the United States From and Ending Funding to Certain United Nations Organizations and Reviewing United States Support to All International Organizations”

What it does: Building on earlier Orders to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement, the Order effectively withdraws the US from the UN Human Rights Council, calls for a review of US participation in the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and reaffirms the US will not fund the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). It also calls for a review within 180 days of US participation in and funding for all international organizations (whether or not they are part of the UN system) as well as multilateral treaties and conventions to which the US is a party.

Key Insights

• In the 1980s, during the Cold War, the US, joined by the UK and Singapore, withdrew from UNESCO over concerns on corruption and its “hostility towards the basic institutions of a free society.” The first Trump Administration withdrew from UNESCO in 2017 over concerns over anti-Israel bias, and the concern now is similar: “anti-Semitism or anti-Israel sentiment within the organization.”
• The Human Rights Council has been controversial as nations generally seen to repress human rights such as Iran have held prominent positions in it, but in recent years the Presidency of the Council has been held by countries such as Switzerland, Morocco, Argentina, and Fiji.
• The Order reverses the State Department’s previous determination that the US may contribute to UNRWA and withdraws funding for 2025.
• The Order contains a very broad provision for a review of all international intergovernmental organizations in which the US participates and funds and “all conventions and treaties to which the United States is a party, to determine which  . . . are contrary to the interests of the United States and whether [they] can be reformed.”
• This could potentially lead to the US leaving a larger number of other organizations, whether part of the UN system or not and withdrawing from multilateral treaties or seeking derogations from them that may not be acceptable to other signatories. It makes no exception for the international financial institutions, regional development banks, or the World Trade Organization (WTO). It also includes all multilateral treaties which the US has ratified.
• This could portend very difficult negotiations not only with the UN but with other multilateral bodies as well. For instance, the US had already declined to appoint members of the Appellate Body of the WTO during the first Trump Administration (a stance continued under the Biden Administration), and continued US participation in the WTO could depend on whether the study believes the WTO is capable of being “reformed” in ways favoring US interests.
• This is only one of many possible examples. In an earlier Order, the US promised a review of bilateral tax treaties.