January 23, 2026 04:09 am
The United States’ withdrawal from the World Health Organisation (WHO) has officially taken effect today.
This comes one year after US President Donald Trump ordered the country’s withdrawal from the WHO just hours after taking office.
One of the conditions for withdrawal in the agreement, which is for the US to pay its agreed financial contributions in full, has not been met.
However, the WHO has no mechanism to compel payment or block the withdrawal.
Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said he hopes that the US will reconsider its decision and.
According to a press release from the U.S. Health and State Departments, the U.S. will only work with the WHO in a limited fashion in order to effectuate the withdrawal.
“We have no plans to participate as an observer, and we have no plans of rejoining,” a senior government health official said. The U.S. said it plans to work directly with other countries – rather than through an international organization – on disease surveillance and other public health priorities.
DISPUTE OVER US-OWED FEES
Under U.S. law, it was supposed to give one-year notice and pay all outstanding fees – around $260 million – before departing.
But a U.S. State Department official disputed that the statute contains a condition that any payment needs to be made before withdrawal.
“The American people have paid more than enough,” a State Department spokesperson said in an email earlier on Thursday.
The Department of Health and Human Services said in a document released on Thursday that the government had ended its funding contributions to the agency. Trump had exercised his authority to pause the future transfer of any U.S. government resources to the WHO because the organization had cost the U.S. trillions of dollars, the HHS spokesperson said.
The U.S. flag had been removed from outside the WHO headquarters in Geneva on Thursday, according to witnesses.
In recent weeks, the U.S. has moved to exit a number of other United Nations organizations, and some fear that Trump’s recently launched Board of Peace could undermine the UN as a whole.
Several WHO critics have also proposed setting up a new agency to replace the organization, although a proposal document reviewed by the Trump administration last year instead suggested the U.S. push for reforms and American leadership at WHO.
QUICK RETURN UNLIKELY
Over the last year, many global health experts have urged a rethink, including most recently WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WHO also said the U.S. has not yet paid the fees it owes for 2024 and 2025. Member states are set to discuss the U.S. departure and how it will be handled at the WHO’s executive board in February, a WHO spokesperson said.
“This is a clear violation of U.S. law,” said Lawrence Gostin, founding director of the O’Neill Institute for Global Health Law at Georgetown University in Washington, a close observer of the WHO. “But Trump is highly likely to get away with it.”
