President Donald J. Trump will withdraw American cultural institutions from the United Nations to be responsible for protecting and defending World Heritage, a deepening segregation between the United States and international institutions that promote human rights.
The decision was announced by the State Council on Tuesday and will take effect by the end of 2026.
“Continuing participation in UNESCO is not in the national interest of the United States,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
Bruce accused the organization of “schismatic social and cultural causes” and further promoted its “globalization ideological agenda that contradicts the U.S.’s first-country foreign policy, which is global, is globalized ideological agenda.”
Through a series of execution orders, President Trump has shown disdain for organizations that rely on multilateral actions to address global concerns such as climate change, infectious diseases and cultural custody, especially those working with the United Nations. He withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) on the first day of the second day in 2018, during his first presidency.
The decision to leave UNESCO may represent the inevitability of the United States, and before Trump took office, it developed a dynamic dynamic with the mother. Under the Obama administration, the United States stopped UNESCO funding, a direct response to its decision to grant formal membership to Palestine and cut ties with the organization in 2017 during Trump’s first term. The Biden administration withdrew its breakup in 2023 in a bid to rejoin the UN’s argument that the power vacuum left by the United States would be filled with its geopolitical rivals, especially China.
UNESCO’s famous responsibility is to monitor 1,200 World Heritage Sites scattered around the world, especially those who have risks of damage or damage due to conflict, and to designate new cultural characteristics worthy of protection. UNESCO has designated 26 World Heritage Sites in the United States.
UNESCO branches have extensive efforts to protect, or deemed insufficient, places where cultural sites are reconstructed. In June, UNESCO verified the destruction of 501 cultural sites in Ukraine caused by Russian troops since February 2022, including 151 religious sites and 34 museums. The human body’s power also includes “temporary enhanced protection” to an endangered legacy, which is expected to have the highest level of infringement and immunity for military purposes.
“Failure to comply with these provisions would constitute a ‘serious violation’ of Chapter II of the 1999 Hague Convention, opening up the possibility of prosecution,” UNESCO said. The organization led the reconstruction campaign in part funded by its member states. Several locations in Mosul, Iraq and Ukraine benefit from the program. UNESCO’s concern about the loss of Palestinian cultural heritage is also outspoken due to Israel’s war on Gaza and the growth of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, threatening archaeological characteristics seen as part of Palestine. In July 2024, the organization caused controversy among Israel and its allies by adding the ancient Monastery of St. Hilaryon (also known as Tell Umm Amer) in Gaza, in its list of endangered locations.
State Department spokesman Bruce cited the “proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization” as another reason for the U.S. decision.
“How regrettable, this announcement is expected to be prepared for it,” said UNESCO in a statement. Azuli added that the financial impact of the withdrawal would be minimal, as UNESCO has turned to voluntary contributions from member states and private donors in recent years. The U.S. financial contributions account for only 8% of UNESCO’s overall budget, part of its previous contributions, accounting for nearly one-fifth of its operating costs in 2011.
“The United States has raised the same reasons as it was seven years ago, and despite profound changes in the situation, political tensions have disappeared, and today UNESCO constitutes a rare forum on a multilateral consensus on specific and directions of action.”
