The United States on Friday became only the second country to ever boycott a United Nations review of its human rights record, as President Donald Trump’s administration faced criticism over mounting abuses.US seats were left empty at the world body’s European headquarters in Geneva for the so-called Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which all 193 UN member states have to undergo every four to five years.Some countries have requested postponements since the UPR began in 2008 but Israel was the only previous no-show in early 2013, although it eventually underwent a delayed review 10 months later.As the review was set to begin, UN Human Rights Council president Jurg Lauber looked at the empty seats behind the US nameplate and said: “I note that the delegation of the United States is not present in the room.”The US absence was not a surprise after the Trump administration decided early this year to halt Washington’s cooperation with the rights council, and announced in August it would also boycott the UPR process.But it still angered a number of US local officials and rights groups who had come to Geneva to list their growing concerns since Trump returned to power in January.- ‘Shocking’ -“It’s shocking that the US decided not to participate,” Carolyn Nash of Amnesty International told AFP, accusing Washington of “walking away from even the impression of caring about the safety and security of people in the US and around the world”.This is “really an abdication of US multilateral and human rights leadership,” Uzra Zeya, head of Human Rights First, told AFP.Speaking at one of several events at the UN connected with the aborted US review, she warned the government had created an “unprecedented reprisal environment” with infringements on free speech, government “weaponisation of federal funds” and Trump’s “massive deportation operation”. Others listed the crackdowns on universities, the media and art institutions, as well as lethal strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, among alarming developments.Larry Krasner, who was re-elected district attorney of Philadelphia earlier this week, told AFP he was not surprised that “criminal” Trump “wants to escape accountability”.But he voiced hope the “moral authority” of the people would help “rein in a rough president … who wants to be Adolf Hitler”.The side events were taking place in a room of the UN’s European headquarters where former US first lady Eleanor Roosevelt helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights before its adoption in 1948.”It’s tragic and deeply ironic that we helped to create the norms as well as this (UPR) process that we are now backing out of,” a former senior US official told AFP, asking not to be named.- Need for ‘sunlight’ -Many urged the international community to speak out and support their work to hold the US government in check.”It’s the Human Rights Council, the United Nations system and a community of nations committed to human rights and democracy who can bring necessary sunlight to these abuses,” said Chandra Bhatnagar, head of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)’s southern California branch.Holly Mitchell, the elected supervisor of the Second District County of Los Angeles, agreed.”When the president sends tanks into the streets and disappears people, people are taken from home, off the street, from their families, from school, without any rights, being held without access to counsel, I believe we’re in trouble,” she said. “It’s going to take the world’s eye and the world’s voice to hold him accountable.”Observers warned the US absence could serve as a bad example.”We hope this doesn’t risk normalising withdrawal from the council,” Sanjay Sethi, co-head of the Artistic Freedom Initiative, told AFP.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday said Earth cannot sustain humanity’s dependence on fossil fuels and without confronting this reality the climate fight will be lost.The leftist leader spoke at a pre-COP30 summit in the Brazilian Amazon where other heads of state and government implored all nations to start weaning off the burning of coal, oil and gas responsible for most of planet-heating pollution.    Evidence of dangerous warming has never been clearer: the decade since the Paris Agreement has been the hottest on record, marked by intensifying hurricanes, heatwaves and wildfires.Lula said tackling the urgent question over the future of energy would determine “success or failure in the battle against climate change,” he added.”Earth can no longer sustain the development model based on the intensive use of fossil fuels that has prevailed over the past 200 years,” Lula told world leaders in Belem where the UN climate talks are taking place.Brazil has stressed that each country would pursue its own course to “transition away from fossil fuels” — a pact made by all nations at a previous COP in Dubai in 2023.Lula is presiding over the world’s top climate negotiations just weeks after his government approved new oil drilling in the Amazon region.Earlier this week he told AFP and other outlets that “it’s not easy” for countries to reduce fossil fuels, but that the subject could be approached through a “roadmap” developed at COP30.Rwanda’s environment minister Bernadette Arakwiye told delegates that they face a stark choice.  “We can continue with incremental progress while the planet burns, or we can rise to meet the scale of this crisis,” she said.  “The fossil fuel era is drawing to a close. We must now ensure the transition is just, inclusive and equitable.”- ‘Fossil age ending’ -The absence of leaders from the world’s biggest polluters, including the United States, where President Donald Trump has dismissed climate science as a “con job,” cast a shadow over talks, but also catalyzed calls for greater mobilization.Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told the summit that his country was moving forward with others to tax premium-class flights and private jets, one major source of heat-trapping emissions.”It is only fair that those who have more and pollute more should pay their fair share,” he said.UN chief Antonio Guterres said global investment in renewable energy reached two trillion dollars in 2024 — eight hundred million more than polluting forms of energy.”The fossil fuel age is ending,” he told an event in Belem, a rainforest city on the edge of the Amazon.Guterres warned Thursday that the world would fail to keep global warming below 1.5C — the Paris Agreement’s primary target — but must keep to a minimum any overshoot before returning temperatures below this safer limit.Despite this, climate change has slipped down the agenda as nations grapple with economic pressures, trade disputes and wars, as well as the Trump administration’s aggressively pushing for more fossil fuels.- Roadmap support -Lula lamented the “pressure and threats” that led the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to postpone a plan to curb shipping emissions, and also spoke of the need to pursue alternative fuels for transport and industry including ethanol.And the latest round of negotiations to agree a world-first treaty on plastic — a byproduct of oil and gas manufactured by petrochemical companies — collapsed in August.The idea of phasing out hydrocarbons is gaining traction in Europe. Despite their divisions, EU countries noted that they have reduced greenhouse gas emissions for more than three decades and are aiming for a 90 percent cut by 2040.Lula’s “roadmap” presented on day one of the summit — a pathway to halting deforestation, reducing fossil fuel use, and finding the money to achieve those goals — was applauded from the floor.A formal anti-fossil fuel decision in Belem is unlikely, given the requirement for consensus among nearly 200 countries attending the conference.Still, COP30 will put a spotlight on countries’ voluntary pledges and their implementation, which could lead to fresh announcements on methane — a “super pollutant” and the main component of natural gas, prone to leaking from pipelines and installations.burs-np/klm/bgs