August, 28 2025, 02:24pm EDT
ACLU Comment on Trump Administration Boycott of United Nations Review of US Human Rights Record
The Trump administration will not participate in the upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a mechanism of the United Nations Human Rights Council that calls for each UN Member State to undergo a peer review of its human rights record every five years. The move comes months after the Trump administration signed an executive order disengaging the United States from the Human Rights Council. Never before has the United States declined to participate in the UPR process.
In response to this news, Jamil Dakwar, director the Human Rights Program at the American Civil Liberties Union, had the following reaction:
“The Trump administration’s decision to boycott the UPR puts the U.S. among the ranks of the worst violators of human rights. This move is a chilling attempt to evade accountability, setting a terrible precedent that would only embolden dictators and autocrats and dangerously weaken respect for human rights at home and abroad.
“The ACLU will continue to hold the Trump administration accountable for U.S. human rights obligations and calls on Congress and state and local elected officials to join the fight to defend human dignity and everyone’s basic rights and freedoms as promised by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
(212) 549-2666LATEST NEWS
Sanders Demands Congress 'Immediately' Investigate Firing of CDC Director
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "must testify," and the CDC officials who were fired and resigned in protest also should be invited to do so, said the senator.
Aug 28, 2025
In the wake of a "Wednesday night massacre" at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and related resignations, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday called for an immediate congressional probe.
Just weeks after the Senate confirmed President Donald Trump's pick to lead the CDC, Dr. Susan Monarez, the director was forced out on Wednesday after reportedly clashing with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Her ouster led to calls for firing Kennedy, four other officials resigning in protest, and a related walkout by agency staff.
Sanders (I-Vt.) serves as ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and in a letter, he asked Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the panel's chair and a physician, to "immediately" call a hearing.
"I am very disturbed that the Trump administration apparently made this reckless decision because Director Monarez refused to act as a rubber stamp to implement Secretary Kennedy's dangerous agenda to substantially limit the use of safe and effective vaccines and undermine the confidence that the American people have in scientific achievements that have saved millions of lives," Sanders wrote to Cassidy.
RFK Jr. is pushing out scientific leaders who refuse to act as a rubber stamp for his dangerous conspiracy theories and manipulate science. Today, I am calling for a bipartisan congressional investigation into the firing of CDC Director Dr. Monarez.
[image or embed]
— Senator Bernie Sanders (@sanders.senate.gov) August 28, 2025 at 1:30 PM
"We need leaders at the CDC and HHS who are committed to improving public health and have the courage to stand up for science," he argued, "not officials who have a history of spreading bogus conspiracy theories and disinformation that will endanger the lives of the American people and people throughout the world."
Sanders—who previously served as the panel's chair—asked Cassidy to launch a "bipartisan probe" and stressed that "as part of that investigation, Secretary Kennedy must testify at a hearing in the HELP Committee as soon as possible. We should also invite Dr. Monarez and the senior CDC officials who resigned to testify as well."
Noting that Cassidy on Wednesday "called for oversight of the firings and resignations at the agency," Sanders made the case that "as a start, the American people should hear directly from Secretary Kennedy and Dr. Monarez and every member of our committee should be able to ask questions and get honest answers from them."
The senator also took aim at the HHS chief, writing that "it is absolutely imperative that trust in vaccine science not be undermined. The well-being of millions of people are at stake. In just six months, Secretary Kennedy has completely upended the process for reviewing and recommending vaccines for the public."
"Enough is enough," he declared. "We have got to make it clear to Secretary Kennedy that his actions to double down on his war on science and disinformation campaign must end. Too many lives are at stake."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Top Human Rights Group Makes Case for Countries to 'Break Up' Big Tech
Amnesty International says Big Tech's consolidation of power "has profound implications for human rights, particularly the rights to privacy, nondiscrimination, and access to information."
Aug 28, 2025
One of the world's leading human rights groups, Amnesty International, is calling on governments worldwide to "break up with Big Tech" by reining in the growing influence of tech and social media giants.
A report published Thursday by Amnesty highlights five tech companies: Alphabet (Google), Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple, which Hannah Storey, an advocacy and policy adviser on technology and human rights at Amnesty, describes as "digital landlords who determine the shape and form of our online interaction."
These five companies collectively have billions of active users, which the report says makes them akin to "utility providers."
"This concentration of power," the report says, "has profound implications for human rights, particularly the rights to privacy, nondiscrimination, and access to information."
The report emphasizes the "pervasive surveillance" by Google and Meta, which profit from "harvesting and monetizing vast quantities of our personal data."
"The more data they collect, the more dominant they become, and the harder it is for competitors to challenge their position," the report says. "The result is a digital ecosystem where users have little meaningful choice or control over how their data is used."
Meanwhile, Google's YouTube, as well as Facebook and Instagram—two Meta products—function using algorithms "optimized for engagement and profit," which emphasize content meant to provoke strong emotions and outrage from users.
"In an increasingly polarized context, the report says, "this can contribute to the rapid spread of discriminatory speech and even incitement to violence, which has had devastating consequences in several crisis and conflict-affected areas."
The report notes several areas around the globe where social media algorithms amplified ethnic hatred. It cites past research showing how Facebook's algorithm helped to "supercharge" dehumanizing rhetoric that fueled the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in Myanmar and the violence in Ethiopia's Tigray War.
More broadly, it says, the ubiquity of these tech companies in users' lives gives them outsized influence over access to information.
"Social media platforms shape what millions of people see online, often through opaque algorithms that prioritize engagement over accuracy or diversity," it says. "Documented cases of content removal, inconsistent moderation, and algorithmic bias highlight the dangers of allowing a handful of companies to act as gatekeepers of the digital public sphere."
Amnesty argues that international human rights law requires governments worldwide to intervene to protect their people from abuses by tech companies.
"States and competition authorities should use competition laws as part of their human rights toolbox," it says. "States should investigate and sanction anti-competitive behaviours that harm human rights, prevent regulatory capture, and prevent harmful monopolies from forming."
Amnesty also calls on these states to consider the possible human rights impacts of artificial intelligence, which it describes as the "next phase" of Big Tech's growing dominance, with Microsoft, Amazon, and Google alone controlling 60% of the global cloud computing market.
"Addressing this dominance is critical, not only as a matter of market fairness but as a pressing human rights issue," Storey said. "Breaking up these tech oligarchies will help create an online environment that is fair and just."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'You Are Heroes': CDC Staff Stage Mass Walkout in Support of Officials Who Resigned in Protest
"We need congress to intervene," said one of the CDC officials who stepped down this week.
Aug 28, 2025
Staff members at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday staged a mass walkout in a show of support for three top officials who resigned in protest this week.
The three officials in question—Demetre Daskalakis, Daniel Jernigan, and Debra Houry—resigned on Wednesday night to protest the ouster of former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez, who had just been confirmed weeks ago by the US Senate.
All three officials came to the CDC headquarters to clear out their offices and, as they left the building on Thursday afternoon, were followed out by hundreds of workers who cheered them and thanked them for their work at the agency.
Marissa Sarbak, a reporter with NBC Atlanta, posted a video showing the crowds that had gathered to support the departing officials.
Hundreds of people have come out to Roybal campus to show solidarity and support for the CDC leaders that resigned today following CDC Director Susan Monarez’s firing. We’re expecting the leaders who resigned to walk out in a few minutes. @11AliveNews pic.twitter.com/ptMuWcQMnY
— Marissa Sarbak (@MarissaSarbak) August 28, 2025
Sam Stein, a journalist at The Bulwark, reported that Houry gave a short speech outside the building in which she warned that the agency was in danger of falling apart and that more resignations would be coming soon unless drastic changes were made.
"We need congress to intervene," she emphasized.
Jernigan, who until Wednesday has served as the director of the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, told The Washington Post that his "last straw" was being forced to work with David Geier, who has long pushed false theories linking childhood vaccinations to autism.
"The current administration has made it very difficult for me to stay," said Jernigan, who has nearly two decades of experience working at the CDC. "We have been asked to revise and to review and change studies that have been settled in the past, scientific findings that were there to help guide vaccine decisions."
Monarez was reportedly pushed out by Health Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who, like Geier, has also in the past pushed conspiracy theories linking vaccines to autism.
Kennedy's decision to oust Monarez has drawn bipartisan concern. Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) have both called on President Donald Trump to fire Kennedy, while Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) called for HHS to postpone its scheduled Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting, given what he described as "serious allegations" that have been made by the resigned CDC officials.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular