By Thebe Mabanga
United States President Donald Trump has withdrawn his country’s participation and funding from more than 60 international bodies, about half of them within the United Nations system, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement, and UN University.
Outside the UN, Trump has cut funding to organisations focused on climate change and renewable energy—as widely expected—but also to bodies dealing with cybersecurity, piracy, and democratic governance, including the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.
The withdrawals follow a review Trump ordered in February last year, conducted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and are outlined in a memorandum released on Wednesday titled “Withdrawing the United States from International Organisations, Treaties and Conventions that are Contrary to the Interests of the United States.”
At the start of his second term in January last year, Trump also pulled the United States out of the World Health Organisation (WHO), citing its handling of the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020, which coincided with his first term in office.
In the latest memo, Trump said Rubio undertook the review in consultation with the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Walz.
The outcome is the withdrawal from 35 non-UN bodies and 31 UN entities.
“I hereby direct all executive departments and agencies to take immediate steps to effect the withdrawal of the United States from the [listed organisations] as soon as possible,” Trump said.
“For United Nations entities, withdrawal means ceasing participation in or funding to those entities to the extent permitted by law.”
Among the non-UN bodies the US is exiting is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Other organisations include the 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Compact, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, the Global Counterterrorism Forum, the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise, and the Global Forum on Migration and Development.
US support will also be withdrawn from the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development, the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law, the International Renewable Energy Agency, and the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.
Within the UN system, funding cuts target the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which oversees the Paris Agreement; the UN Economic Commissions for Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Pacific; and the UN Conference on Trade and Development, which monitors foreign direct investment flows.
The International Law Commission has also been affected, along with programmes in the Office of the Secretary-General addressing children in armed conflict, sexual violence, and violence against women and children.
The UN Population Fund, UN Ocean, and UN University are also among the bodies impacted.
Trump has not withdrawn the United States from the World Trade Organisation, which governs global trade, but has significantly disrupted its systems and protocols through the imposition of so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs.
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