# List of treaties unsigned or unratified by the United States

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is a list of international treaties the United States has either not signed, not ratified, or signed/ratified but later withdrawn its signature/ratification from.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 President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur..."
– Treaty Clause (U.S. Constitution)
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 Between 1789 and 1990, the Senate approved more than 1,500 treaties, rejected 21, and 85 treaties were withdrawn because the Senate did not act on them.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.

## List

| Year | Treaty | Depositary | U.S. status |
| 1930 | Forced Labour Convention | International Labour Organization | signed, not ratified |
| 1948 | Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention | International Labour Organization | not signed |
| 1949 | Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 | International Labour Organization | not signed |
| 1950 | Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others | UN Secretary-General | not signed |
| 1951 | Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees | UN Secretary-General | only 1967 protocol |
| 1951 | Equal Remuneration Convention | International Labour Organization | signed, not ratified |
| 1954 | Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons | UN Secretary-General | not signed |
| 1958 | Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention | International Labour Organization | signed, not ratified |
| 1960 | Convention against Discrimination in Education | UNESCO | signed, not ratified |
| 1961 | Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness | UN Secretary-General | not signed |
| 1962 | Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages | UN Secretary-General | signed, not ratified |
| 1964 | Employment Policy Convention, 1964 | International Labour Organization | signed, not ratified |
| 1966 | International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights | UN Secretary-General | signed, not ratified |
| 1966 | First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights | UN Secretary-General | not signed |
| 1969 | Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity | UN Secretary-General | signed, not ratified |
| 1969 | Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties | UN Secretary-General | signed, not ratified |
| 1972 | Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty | Bilateral US–Soviet treaty | ratified 1972, withdrew 2002 |
| 1973 | Minimum Age Convention, 1973 | International Labour Organization | signed, not ratified |
| 1977 | American Convention on Human Rights | Organization of American States | signed, not ratified |
| 1977 | Protocol I (Geneva Conventions amendment) | UN Secretary-General | signed, not ratified |
| 1977 | Protocol II (Geneva Conventions amendment) | UN Secretary-General | signed, not ratified |
| 1979 | Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) | UN Secretary-General | signed 1980, not ratified |
| 1979 | Salt II | Bilateral US–Soviet treaty | signed 1979, withdrew 1980 |
| 1979 | Moon Treaty | UN Secretary-General | not signed |
| 1981 | Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 | International Labour Organization | signed, not ratified |
| 1982 | United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) | UN Secretary-General | not signed |
| 1987 | Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty | Bilateral US–Soviet treaty | ratified 1988, withdrew 2019 |
| 1989 | Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights | UN Secretary-General | not signed |
| 1989 | Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) | UN Secretary-General | signed 1995, not ratified |
| 1989 | Basel Convention | UN Secretary-General | signed, not ratified |
| 1990 | International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families | UN Secretary-General | not signed |
| 1992 | Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) | UN Secretary-General | signed, not ratified |
| 1994 | Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel | UN Secretary-General | signed, not ratified |
| 1996 | Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty | UN Secretary-General | signed, not ratified |
| 1997 | Kyoto Protocol | UN Secretary-General | signed, not ratified |
| 1997 | Ottawa Treaty (Mine Ban Treaty) | UN Secretary-General | not signed |
| 1998 | Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court | UN Secretary-General | signed 1998, withdrew 2002 |
| 1999 | Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (OP-CEDAW) | UN Secretary-General | not signed |
| 1999 | Civil Law Convention on Corruption | Council of Europe | not signed |
| 2002 | Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) | UN Secretary-General | not signed |
| 2007 | International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) | UN Secretary-General | not signed |
| 2007 | Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities | UN Secretary-General | signed 2009, not ratified |
| 2008 | Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) | UN Secretary-General | not signed |
| 2011 | Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) | Government of Japan | signed, not ratified |
| 2013 | Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) | UN Secretary-General | signed, not ratified |
| 2016 | Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) | Government of New Zealand | signed 2016, withdrew 2017 |