On a gray morning in Geneva, a human-rights advocate walks into the Palais des Nations and scans the room the way you’d scan a street corner for gang members in a hard neighborhood. Not for gangbangers, though; for “civil society.” For the suited delegates with NGO badges who film speakers a little too closely, who echo embassy talking points a little too faithfully, who make the room feel—subtly, persistently—less safe for anyone bringing evidence that embarrasses Beijing. Investigators have documented this pattern: government-linked “NGOs” using U.N. access to disrupt, intimidate, and drown out criticism.
Cancel culture is alive and well in the groups and committees of the U.N. and that scene matters because it sits beneath the most consequential line in the White House’s new withdrawal memorandum: the United States will “take immediate steps” to exit a list of international organizations and U.N.-linked bodies “as soon as possible.”
