This is a list of international treaties the United States has either not signed, not ratified, or signed/ratified but later withdrawn its signature/ratification from.
Background
The Treaty Clause in Article Two of the United States Constitution dictates that the President of the United States negotiates treaties with other countries or political entities, and signs them. Signed treaties enter into force only if ratified by at least two-thirds (67 members) of the United States Senate. (Technically, the Senate itself does not ratify treaties, it only approves or rejects resolutions of ratification submitted by the Committee on Foreign Relations; if approved, the United States exchanges the instruments of ratification with the foreign power(s)). Between 1789 and 1990, the Senate approved more than 1,500 treaties, rejected 21, and 85 treaties were withdrawn because the Senate did not act on them. As of December 2014, 36 treaties signed by the President were awaiting action by the Senate.
Among the treaties unsigned or unratified by the United States, a few have been singled out by organizations such as Human Rights Watch (2009), as extremely important, and the United States’ reluctance to ratify them problematic. Among the treaties are the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED), the Ottawa Treaty (Mine Ban Treaty), the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT). The United States is also one of the few countries not to have ratified the Kyoto Protocol. According to a 2014 analysis by The New Republic, the ratification of a significant number of treaties signed after 1990 has been blocked by senators of the Republican Party for various ideological reasons.
Multilateral
This list includes multilateral treaties that the United States has never ratified or has withdrawn from and which the United States signed, officially debated signing, or negotiated. It also includes treaties signed or ratified without the participation of the United States by a majority of sovereign countries (at any given time) or UN member states.
Year Treaty U.S. status Current parties 1919 Treaty of Versailles Strongly influenced by Woodrow Wilson. The US ratified the separate U.S.–German Peace Treaty (1921) and did not join the League of Nations. 23 1930 Forced Labour Convention 181 1948 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention 158 1949 Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 168 1950 Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others 82 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 146 (147 for 1967 protocol) 1951 Equal Remuneration Convention 174 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons 99 1958 Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention 175 1960 Convention against Discrimination in Education 111 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness 82 1962 Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages 55 1964 Employment Policy Convention, 1964 115 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 173 1966 First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 116 1966 Constitution of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization 174 1969 Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity 56 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 118 1973 Minimum Age Convention, 1973 176 1977 American Convention on Human Rights 23 1977 Protocol I (Geneva Conventions amendment) 175 1977 Protocol II (Geneva Conventions amendment) 170 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) 189 1979 Moon Treaty 17 1981 Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 76 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 171 + EU 1989 Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 92 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) 196 1989 Basel Convention 190 + EU 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families 60 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) 195 + EU 1992 Treaty on Open Skies 32 1994 Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel 94 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty 178 (not in force) 1997 Kyoto Protocol 191 + EU 1997 Ottawa Treaty (Mine Ban Treaty) 162 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court 125 1999 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (OP-CEDAW) 189 2000 Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (supplement to CBD) 173 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants 185+EU 2002 Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) 95 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage 185 2003 WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control 182 2007 International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) 77 2007 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 190 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) 112 2011 Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) 1 (not in force) 2013 Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) 116 2015 Paris Agreement 193 + EU 2016 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) 2 (not in force); 12 for the replacement Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership 2023 High Seas Treaty 87
A treaty establishing a Free Trade Area of the Americas was negotiated from 1994 to 2005, but never signed.
Bilateral treaties Year Treaty Depositary U.S. status 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty Bilateral US–Soviet treaty 1979 Salt II Bilateral US–Soviet treaty 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty Bilateral US–Soviet treaty
See also List of United States treaties Foreign policy of the United States List of treaties
References
External links Ratification of International Human Rights Treaties - USA