As President Trump threatened to slash American funding for the United Nations this spring, diplomats from around the world met privately at a lakeside resort in Switzerland to weigh painful spending cuts.
One proposal hinted at the potential cost of America’s withdrawal: What if the United Nations cut funding for human rights investigations?
The ambassadors of China and Cuba, which have long faced scrutiny over their own rights records, were the ones pushing to limit inquiries into government-sanctioned abuses like torture, war crimes, and jailing of dissidents, according to two diplomats who attended the meeting of the Human Rights Council in May in Switzerland.
Over the past few months, those nations, along with others that have a history of imprisoning dissidents like Iran, Russia and Venezuela, have repeatedly suggested scaling back human rights investigations, citing the need to save money, the two diplomats as well as two human rights activists said.
Since taking office, Mr. Trump has upended the operations of the United Nations by withdrawing from the Human Rights Council and other agencies, freezing funding for others, and ordering a sweeping review of America’s involvement in the global body. The United States hosts the U.N. headquarters in New York City and has long been its largest donor.
While the White House has not yet announced the results of its review, it has clawed back $1 billion in funding for the U.N. and informed Congress of its intent to slash another $1 billion, adding to a funding shortfall at the United Nations. Earlier this week, senior U.N. officials proposed broad funding cuts, including to human rights programs, according to a document obtained by The Times.
World leaders will be watching closely for further announcements as President Trump addresses the U.N. General Assembly at its annual gathering in New York next week.
U.N. critics within and outside the Trump administration argue that the United Nations is a wasteful, ineffective bureaucracy biased against American interests, and that bodies such as the Human Rights Council do more to legitimize governments that commit abuses than improve conditions on the ground.
But those who defend the United Nations as one of the few organizations that can shine a light on injustices say the Trump administration’s retreat is emboldening authoritarian nations to reshape the United Nations to their advantage, interviews with two dozen diplomats and officials and a review of internal and other documents reveal.
Qatar, with its history of labor abuses, is offering to host some of the offices of the U.N. workers’ rights agency. Russia has proposed cutting speaking time for advocacy groups to save money on hearings. Eritrea has called for an end to a U.N. investigation into human rights abuses there.
The countries are “using every opportunity, including the opportunity presented by the liquidity crisis and at high-level meetings, to try and advance their agenda,” said Phil Lynch, the executive director of International Service for Human Rights, a nongovernmental group focused on U.N. advocacy in Geneva. “Cuts are on the table, and it opens a window of opportunity for them.”
The State Department said in a statement that the Trump administration’s review “seeks to ensure that the United States is more effective in promoting the safety, security, and prosperity of America, not less” and that the department would not comment on the process until it had concluded.
The budget cuts being discussed by the United Nations are widely perceived as a response to Mr. Trump’s actions. But Farhan Haq, the U.N.’s deputy spokesman, said the budget overhaul was part of an ongoing effort to make the organization more agile and efficient.
The Cuban, Eritrean, Russian and Qatari missions to Geneva did not respond to requests to comment.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington said in a statement that it opposed “attempts by certain countries to politicize” human rights. “China has never intended to challenge or replace the United States,” the embassy said.
A Power Vacuum, and the Scramble to Fill It
The world once relied on American money and leadership to address global problems like pandemics, forced labor and poverty.
Now many groups are considering new patrons like China and Qatar, governments that are seeking to remake oversight of human rights and labor conditions.
The United Nations had already been facing a fiscal crisis for years. Its office in Geneva has cut back on meeting time and interpretation services and even closed for weeks at a time.
The United States is charged 22 percent of the U.N.’s $3.72 billion regular budget, and Washington has also provided billions annually in additional contributions to U.N. peacekeeping and other U.N. agencies, funds, and programs. The White House has argued that the funding doesn’t serve U.S. interests.
Opponents of U.N. engagement point to China’s seat on the Human Rights Council, which has criticized the United States for practices like separating migrant families.
“There is scant evidence of the council improving human rights, but much evidence of governments elected to the council using it to shield themselves from scrutiny,” said Brett D. Schaefer, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
Mr. Trump withdrew from the rights council and the World Health Organization earlier this year and from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the first U.N. agency to undergo a review, on July 22.
The Trump administration’s wariness of international bodies has only made the United Nations’ cash crunch worse: Some U.N. agencies in Geneva stand to lose as much as 40 percent of their funding.
U.N. leaders asked departments in May to find budget cuts and consider relocating some positions from New York and Geneva to cheaper cities. The Geneva office proposed ending the lease early on the building that houses the U.N.’s human rights arm. And the U.N. department that provides rations to peacekeeping troops has proposed slashing their daily calories from 4,500 to 3,250, in an internal presentation obtained by The New York Times.
The financial squeeze has also led to proposals to relocate the offices of agencies, which could expand the influence of the new countries hosting them.
Qatar sent a large delegation to Geneva, offering to house parts of several U.N. groups, according to diplomats briefed on the visit. Over the past few months, leaders at the International Labor Organization, a U.N. agency, have met repeatedly with Qatari diplomats, a review of records shows. Its director general has reportedly said he is considering moving some staff members to Doha, despite an earlier controversy over Qatari funding of the agency and criticism of the country’s treatment of migrant workers.
The labor organization declined to comment on its relocation plans or discussions with Qatari officials.
Rwanda, where the government has faced criticism for backing rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is also interested in hosting a “long-term U.N. campus,” according to a letter from its prime minister obtained by The Times. The rebels have been widely accused of human rights abuses including unlawful executions, rape and other war crimes. (The letter was earlier reported by Nile Post, a Uganda-based news site.)
Mr. Haq, the U.N. deputy spokesman, said that the organization does not typically disclose communications from member states and that any relocations “will be done in a phased manner,” with approval from U.N. member states. The Rwandan mission to New York did not respond to a request to comment.
China, which has long sought a greater role in the United Nations, is expanding its sway in multiple bodies. In May, months after Mr. Trump withdrew from W.H.O., China sent a vice premier to the W.H.O. assembly and said it would provide $500 million in funding over five years.
The health body has been accused of letting Beijing steer its search for the origins of the pandemic, instead of pushing for a more thorough inquiry in the country, a charge that both the Chinese embassy and W.H.O. deny. The new outlay could give Beijing more influence in the organization.
Human Rights and Food Aid Under Pressure
Not all of the measures being put forth by China, Russia and their supporters to weaken human rights protections are finding success.
Their proposals to cut funding for human right investigations and slash speaking time for independent activists were ultimately not adopted at the private meetings of the Human Rights Council this spring. In July, Eritrea introduced a measure calling for an end to a U.N. investigation into human rights abuses within its borders; it was rejected.
But public debates on the Eritrea investigation, along with funding for other U.N. human rights activities, will be scaled back.
The United States has its own record of human rights violations, and its global standing has eroded in recent years, diminishing its credibility in the United Nations. Now, its retreat has left rights monitors with fewer resources.
Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, told The Times that his office would need to halt an investigation into war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and make cuts to many other projects. It will also reduce visits by monitors looking into the use of torture around the world.
“We will probably see the rise of more torture,” Mr. Türk said. “If you weaken human rights, you open the floodgates to the ones who want to exercise power in an unconstrained manner.”
Soon after Mr. Trump ordered the review of U.S. involvement in the United Nations in February, staff members in some U.N. agencies were told not to spend money that the United States had already allocated, resulting in a freeze on some projects, according to messages seen by The Times.
Some agency heads in Geneva were caught off guard. The combination of the U.S. funding freeze and cuts by other donors was a shock, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, told staff members in May, according to a transcript obtained by The Times. “Unfortunately, regrettably, we will have to do less with less,” he said. “And this will impact the lives of millions of people.”
Although limited U.S. funding to the agency has resumed, the agency said in July that aid to up to 11.6 million refugees could be cut. The U.N.’s food agency estimates that as many as 16.7 million people could lose food assistance.
European countries have argued they cannot fill the gap because the Trump administration has demanded that they spend more on defense, diplomats in Geneva said.
Nor will China make up the difference. The Chinese outlay to W.H.O. is far less than the United States would have paid, had Mr. Trump stayed in the organization.
“This is the irony,” said Richard Gowan, the United Nations director at the International Crisis Group, an organization that seeks to prevent deadly conflicts. “The Chinese don’t need to step up in a big way to gain more influence. Because the U.S. walking out means that by definition, the Chinese are more powerful.”
American Soft Power Up for Grabs
Mr. Trump and his supporters sometimes deride U.N. “globalists” who put other countries’ interests before those of the United States. In fact, the United States, which helped create the United Nations 80 years ago, long wielded immense power, helping sway elections at the United Nations and votes to influence policy on human rights and other areas.
Now it stands to lose this influence.
Andrew Bremberg, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said he helped defeat a Chinese candidate in the 2020 election for the head of the U.N. organization charged with protecting intellectual property, by using the State Department to rally support. The agency shapes international rules around intellectual property, an area where the United States and China have long clashed.
Washington also flexed its muscle at the International Telecommunication Union, an obscure but influential U.N. agency that sets policy for satellite communication and internet cables. China had led the agency for eight years, and pushed 5G equipment developed by Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications company.
In 2022, the United States helped secure the election of an American, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, who helped U.S. technology companies make inroads in emerging economies.
But today that power only goes so far. At a meeting of that agency in June, American diplomats sought to block Shanghai from hosting a 2027 conference where the International Telecommunication Union will discuss satellite regulations, people familiar with the negotiations said.
A win for China would have presented security concerns for American companies hoping to join the conference. The United States offered Washington as a last-minute alternative.
Influencing votes was the sort of soft power move that the United States once excelled at.
This time, the Americans lost.
Joy Dong contributed reporting. Alain Delaquérière and Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Mara Hvistendahl is an investigative reporter on the International desk. You can reach her at [email protected]
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