Krasner denounces Trump’s boycott of UN review, pledges office’s commitment to human rights

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner on Thursday denounced President Donald Trump’s refusal to cooperate with a United Nations review of the country’s human rights record, calling the administration’s boycott a disgrace.

The United States did not appear before the Human Rights Council last week in Geneva, amid growing scrutiny of the Trump administration’s crackdowns on immigration and free speech and deployment of the National Guard to major cities.

Despite the lack of an official American delegation, Krasner was part of a faction of local leaders who attended the summit in Switzerland.

While it is rare for a country to no-show, the U.S. absence was not unexpected: Trump issued an executive order in February withdrawing from the council and announced in August his administration would also boycott the review. A State Department official said at the time that participating in the review “ignores [the Human Rights Council’s] persistent failure to condemn the most egregious human rights violators.”

The U.S. has undergone reviews every five years since the council was created nearly two decades ago. Israel is the only other country to reject the council’s review process but ended up participating months later. The council rescheduled the U.S. review for next year, but it’s unknown whether the Trump administration will take part then.

“You have a president of the United States who doesn’t want to hear what it is that the United Nations has to say about people being disappeared,” Krasner said at the news conference inside the DA’s Center City office. “He doesn’t even want to hear what the United Nations has to say about whether or not we are meeting the most basic needs of children in the United States.”

Krasner added: “The real hallmark of Donald Trump, more than anything else, is the desire to do whatever he wants without any accountability. … He doesn’t want a report card, he knows what the report card will say.”

In an email, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said, “Who is Larry? The U.N. has done next to nothing for human rights while President Trump has ended eight wars in 10 months.” (Trump said in September that he ended seven wars in seven months; while he has helped with mediations between sparring nations, experts have said his impact is not as clear-cut, according to an analysis by the Associated Press.)

Fresh off his landslide reelection victory, Krasner pledged to be a “human rights district attorney” and roused his fellow elected prosecutors nationwide — and across the aisle — to join his charge. A human rights prosecutor “protects Black, brown, and poor people as well as victims of crime, immigrants, wrongfully convicted people, and those who feel voiceless,” his office said in a statement following the news conference.

» READ MORE: What Philadelphians close to the criminal justice system want DA Larry Krasner to do in his third term

Krasner also reaffirmed that his office would prosecute federal law enforcement officers if they commit state crimes in Philadelphia. He declined to say whether his office is actively investigating any alleged crimes by federal agents but has made clear he plans to protect undocumented people in Philadelphia.

Thursday’s statements may offer an insight into Krasner’s third-term agenda. He has yet to outline his goals for his next four years, instead soliciting ideas from Philadelphians about improving the city’s criminal justice system. In previous campaigns, he promised to overhaul a culture in the district attorney’s office that he said prioritized convictions over justice and pushed for a less punitive system.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.