US cuts force UN rights office to shut some work, including for Iraq torture victims

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday it has received termination notices from the U.S. government for five of its projects, forcing it to shut some programmes including helping torture victims in Iraq.

U.S. President Donald Trump is cutting billions of dollars in foreign aid programmes globally as part of a major spending overhaul by the world's biggest aid donor, with details of the cuts and their global impacts now emerging.

Ravina Shamdasani, U.N. human rights spokesperson, said the notices were for projects in Equatorial Guinea, Iraq, Ukraine and Colombia as well as for a fund for indigenous people, which were financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. State Department.

"There are some countries where we will have to cut back on some of our work, including Colombia, including Iraq, and in other places we're trying to redeploy funding," she told reporters in Geneva.

The U.N. rights office has offices and teams around the world documenting abuses, helping people in illegal detention and protecting human rights defenders.

The Iraq programme, which helped torture victims and the families of those who disappeared, will be shuttered completely, she added, without giving further details.

Washington was previously the top donor to the U.N. human rights office, providing nearly 14% of its budget last year on top of mandatory U.N. fees.

"This is a time for more investment in human rights, not less investment. (Human rights) help prevent conflicts, help resolve crises, help pre-empt crises, so he (High Commissioner Volker Turk) is calling on all states to step up their investments," she said.

(Reporting by Emma Farge, Editing by Rachel More and Deepa Babington)