日内瓦，瑞士——美国连续第二年在一次关键的联合国人权审议中空出席位，成为有史以来唯一这样做的联合国会员国。
GENEVA, Switzerland — The United States has left an empty chair at a key United Nations human rights review for the second year running, becoming the only U.N. member state ever to do so.
这项审议被称为普遍定期审议，本意就是普遍性。每个国家每四到五年由其他会员国审议一次。其目的是确保无论国家多么强大，都要接受同行对其人权记录的审议。
The review, known as the universal periodic review, is meant to be just that: universal. Each state is reviewed every four to five years by fellow member states. The aim is to ensure that every country, however powerful, undergoes a peer review of its human rights record.
除了被审议国家的外交官，民间团体也可以提交证据。几个团体前往日内瓦，由美国公民自由联盟牵头。
As well as diplomats from countries under review, civil society groups are allowed to submit evidence too. Several made the trip to Geneva, led by the American Civil Liberties Union.
美国公民自由联盟人权主任贾米尔·达克瓦尔告诉记者，现任美国政府正在“毫不掩饰地”侵犯人权，并以对移民、学生抗议者和LGBTQ群体的待遇为例。
Jamil Dakwar, the ACLU's human rights director, told journalists that the current U.S. administration was continuing to violate human rights "unabashed," citing the treatment of immigrants, student protesters and the LGBTQ community as examples.
达克瓦尔表示，联合国必须让美国承担责任，并警告称特朗普政府想要“拆解人权”。在书面回复中，国务院指出，华盛顿已正式退出联合国人权理事会，指责该理事会“推行反美言论”。事实上，退出拥有47名选举成员的理事会，并不意味着美国可以轻易摆脱审议进程，该进程对所有193个联合国会员国都是强制性的。人权团体认为华盛顿的态度是退出甚至积极反对多边组织模式的一部分，并指出美国对国际刑事法院的制裁以及退出世界卫生组织的决定。
Dakwar said the U.N. must hold the U.S. accountable, warning that the Trump administration wanted to "dismantle human rights." In a written response, the State Department pointed out that Washington had already formally withdrawn from the U.N. Human Rights Council, accusing it of "pushing anti-American rhetoric." In fact, leaving the council, which has 47 elected members, does not mean the U.S. can easily get out of the review process, which is obligatory for all 193 U.N. member states. Human rights groups see Washington's stance as part of a pattern of disengagement and even active opposition to multilateral organizations, pointing to U.S. sanctions on the International Criminal Court and the decision to leave the World Health Organization.
那么现在会怎样？联合国对不配合审议进程的国家几乎没有制裁手段。以色列在2013年曾因抗议所谓的反以色列偏见而缺席一次审议，但在联合国重新安排后九个月返回。直到今天美国再次缺席，还没有哪个国家两次未到场。
So what happens now? The U.N. has few sanctions against a country that does not cooperate with the review process. Israel skipped one review back in 2013 in protest at what it said was anti-Israel bias, but returned nine months later after the U.N. rescheduled. Until today's no-show by the U.S., no country has ever failed to turn up twice.
人权组织希望联合国仍然进行审议，并收集关于美国涉嫌违规的证据。成员国已经为华盛顿的外交官列出了一系列问题，包括有关死刑使用和堕胎限制的问题。
Rights groups would like the U.N. to hold the review anyway, and take evidence about alleged violations in the U.S. Member states had already drawn up a list of questions for Washington's diplomats, including questions about the use of the death penalty and restrictions on abortion.
但联合国内部人士担心，在没有人能够回答这些问题的情况下进行审议，可能会树立一个危险的先例。即使是朝鲜等专制政权也会参与审议程序。如果联合国允许在美国缺席的情况下进行审议，可能会鼓励其他成员国也缺席，从而让人权组织只能在“真空”中提交证据。
But U.N. insiders fear that holding the review when there is no one to answer those questions could set a risky precedent. Even authoritarian regimes such as North Korea take part in the review process. If the U.N. allows a review to go ahead without U.S. participation, it could encourage other member states to stay away, too, leaving rights groups to present their evidence, as one put it, "in a vacuum."
目前，联合国已决定将如何应对的棘手讨论推迟到明年初。与此同时，被视为人权侵害受害者的最后救济程序对美国公民并不可用。正如一位在日内瓦的人权活动家所说，这是“一场问责危机”。
For now, the U.N. has decided to postpone tricky deliberations about how to react until early next year. In the meantime, a process regarded as a last resort for the victims of human rights violations is not available to U.S. citizens. It is, one rights activist said in Geneva, "a crisis of accountability."