New testimony precedes United States’ upcoming human rights review in November 2026

August 31, 2026, Washington, D.C. – Last week, a coalition of immigrant rights organizations testified before the United Nations about the United States’ escalating abuse of non-citizens through inhumane practices such as mass immigration detention; third country removals; and increasingly aggressive, discriminatory ICE enforcement. Representatives from the coalition presented before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, in preparation for the United States’ rescheduled Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in November 2026.

Held regularly since 2008, the UN Human Rights Council conducts a UPR of each member state every four and a half years. These formal peer reviews are a platform for international accountability, with civil society organizations and nonprofits submitting reports on relevant human rights issues and violations. Following the review, other UN member states make recommendations to the country under review based on civil society reports and interactions with government representatives.

In November 2025, the United States made the unprecedented decision to boycott its own review. In light of the U.S. government’s refusal to participate, the UPR was rescheduled for November 2026. 

“In the face of one of its most deplorable immigrant rights records in modern history, the U.S. seeks to opt out of international accountability. Today, over 70,000 people are incarcerated in an immigration detention regime that subjects people to indefinite detention, deadly medical neglect, rampant sexual abuse, and retaliation through solitary confinement with virtually no oversight,” said Sarah Decker, senior staff attorney at the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center. “The UPR process is a critical moment to acknowledge the endemic scale of human rights abuses in the U.S. immigration system. And we cannot afford to let this moment pass.”

During their testimony, representatives from the coalition called out the United States’ recent human rights violations against immigrants and asylum seekers, including the deadly lack of adequate medical care within ICE facilities; the renewed use of family detention; enforced disappearances to third countries and military facilities such as the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base; and racially discriminatory ICE enforcement practices. Representatives also referenced additional abuses documented within the coalition’s April 2026 report, which was submitted as part of the formal UPR process.

"Immigration is treated as a purely internal matter where States enjoy the broadest discretion. The scale of what is happening in the United States removes that argument. Indefinite detention in inhumane conditions, lack of due process and independent oversight, deaths in custody, transfers to third countries and overseas facilities are not policy choices within a margin of discretion, but violations of human rights obligations, and not of one State alone. Every government that accepts people transferred out of US custody takes on its own. Despite the US’s absence from the UPR, the dialogue continues and civil society still has a platform to share its concerns,” said Iaroslavna Kondrashova, Representative of the Global Rights Advocacy.

“In the name of mass deportation – nearly half a million people deported in a single year, including about 23,000 to third countries – the U.S. has flouted domestic law and international treaty obligations such as the Convention Against Torture. We need UN bodies, member states, and civil society to join us in boldly holding the U.S. to account for these gross abuses,” said C.J. Sandley, senior staff attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights.

“This month, over 350,000 Haitians woke up undocumented as the US Supreme Court granted the Trump Administration permission to strip them of their legal status known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS), leaving families vulnerable to detention and deportation,” said Guerline Jozef, Executive Director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance. “We are now seeing Haitians and other Black immigrants being boxed in by ICE SUVs and kidnapped on the spot. The Haitian community is afraid to take their US children to school, let alone be separated from them. The United States cannot claim to respect human rights while stripping hundreds of thousands of Haitians of protection and subjecting them to increasingly aggressive and discriminatory enforcement. The Black immigrant communities continue to be the target of relentless harassment and abuse.”

Now that civil society testimony has concluded, the UN Human Rights Council will determine specific questions and areas of focus for the United States’ scheduled review in November. 

The full immigration coalition includes Amnesty International; The Advocates for Human Rights; AVAN Immigrant Services;  Black Alliance for Just Immigration; Center for Constitutional Rights; Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law; Community Justice Project; Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project; Global Rights Advocacy; Haitian Bridge Alliance;  Hope Border Institute; Human Rights First; Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy; Immigrant Defenders Law Center; International Refugee Assistance Project; Muslim Advocates; National Immigration Project; Physicians for Human Rights; Public Council; Refugee Council USA; Refugees International; The Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center; Southern Border Communities Coalition; and United Stateless.