FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 8, 2026
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The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice: Trump Administration’s Executive Order Further Undermines Human Rights, Seeks to Escape Accountability on the Global Stage
WASHINGTON (January 8, 2026) — The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice deplores the Trump Administration’s latest Executive Order withdrawing the United States from dozens of international organizations and treaties while discrediting the United Nations and other multilateral mechanisms that are paramount to advancing human rights globally. The Alliance issued the below statements in response.
“With this executive order, the Trump Administration is doubling down on its crusade against human rights both at home and abroad. This government is using lies about the international community to justify its retreat from the global stage and the very mechanisms that would hold the U.S. accountable to its human rights obligations,” said Jessica Stern, Co-President of The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice and former U.S. Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTQI Persons. “We knew further financial cuts by the U.S. were coming, and yet this executive order is more damaging than we had imagined.”
“It is unconscionable for the U.S. to undercut programs that promote gender equality through the empowerment of women and girls, improve the safety and quality of life of people of African descent, and combat the disastrous impact of climate change,” said Desirée Cormier Smith, Co-President of The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice and former U.S. Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice. “That the Trump Administration is withdrawing from organizations the U.S. doesn’t even contribute to under the guise of financial savings tells you everything you need to know. This is a political move meant to enforce an extreme anti-human rights agenda.”
“By cutting funding and relinquishing leadership from the UN offices tasked with combatting the scourge of child soldiers, using rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war, and coordinating against global violence against children, this administration is signaling its tolerance for these abuses,” said Abby Finkenauer, Co-Founder and Principal and Former U.S. Special Envoy for Global Youth. “When the United States walks away from these efforts, abusers are emboldened, survivors are abandoned, harms go unredressed, and violence becomes easier to commit and harder to stop. More children will suffer the ravages of war.”
“Withdrawal from international institutions does not protect or make America greater or stronger,” said Rina Amiri, Co-Founder and Principal of the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice and Former U.S. Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights. “Rather, it weakens U.S leadership, ceding global influence to Russia, China and other forces opposed to American interests and equally hostile to human rights imperatives. Global standards will continue to be set but without U.S. input, jeopardizing America’s global influence and credibility.”
“These multilateral efforts — bringing together experts and diplomatic energy from around the world — are the most effective way to address systemic global problems that demand coordinated global solutions,” said Dr. Beth Van Schaack, Co-Founder and Principal for the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice and Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice. “By turning our back on these institutions, we betray the victims of these abuses, we further alienate our allies and partners, we entrench impunity, and we allow these harms to fester and proliferate.”
“Withdrawing from these entities—including the Global Forum on Migration and Development, the International Trade Centre, and the UN Conference on Trade and Development—will further undermine global efforts to address labor abuses,” said Kelly M. Fay Rodriguez, Co-Founder and Principal for the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice and Former U.S. Special Representative for International Labor Affairs. “It will also undermine efforts to establish free and fair markets; lift standards for workers across international supply chains, including workers inside the United States; and ensure that the goods we buy are not tainted by exploitative employment practices, such as human trafficking.”
About The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice
The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice is a coalition of former senior diplomats, elected officials and human rights experts working to ensure that human rights and global justice remain central to U.S. foreign policy. Founded by former U.S. envoys and ambassadors — Rina Amiri, Desirée Cormier Smith, Cindy Dyer, Kelly M. Fay Rodríguez, Abby Finkenauer, Dr. Geeta Rao Gupta, Dr. Beth Van Schaack and Jessica Stern — The Alliance advances principled, values-based diplomacy that strengthens democracy, equality and peace worldwide.
Prioritizing human rights in U.S. foreign policy is good for the world and good for Americans.
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