A Human Rights Agenda for the New Administration
Nossel, Suzanne
FOR ALL THEIR differences, the two leading presidential candidates have both spotlighted the promotion of human rights internationally as a cornerstone of a rebuilt American foreign policy....
...What the United States can do immediately is to address its own conduct...
...Rather than becoming impatient with such reservations and casting blame on others, the United States will need to painstakingly work through them...
...The Bush administration's failings have culminated in a sense that American values and ideals have collapsed...
...pressure on human rights is even so much as a thorn in Moscow's side...
...In 2002, for example, the Republican-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to report the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women for a vote by the full Senate—only to be blocked as a result of Bush's decision to call for further review by the Justice Department and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, a known treaty opponent...
...can hold its head even higher...
...No one knows the scope of the CIA's secret detention program...
...Negative views of the United States have undermined cooperation in the fight against terrorism...
...The U.S...
...In some cases, the Bush administration was clearly to blame...
...One of the most frequent criticisms of the Bush administration has centered on its preference for unilateral action—"going at it alone"—over the negotiation and compromise required by working with others...
...THERE WILL never be a set of fully objective and universally endorsed criteria for humanitarian intervention...
...Democracy has become an admission ticket of sorts for countries to the inner circles of global trade and politics...
...John McCain, breaking from Republican orthodoxy, has said that "promoting human rights abroad can serve our national interests in profound ways...
...If the United States is not trusted and respected, it cannot mobilize others behind these causes...
...A June 2007 Pew Global Attitudes survey recorded the widespread belief among global publics that the next U.S...
...The CIA claimed in 2007 that "fewer than one hundred" people were held in such places...
...First, the way the Bush administration has conducted the Iraq War, combined with its spurning of various treaties and other opportunities for international cooperation, has shattered America's credibility abroad...
...It also requires actively buttonholing supportive governments and amassing facts and arguments to persuade the undecided...
...It will have to instruct its ambassadors to put cooperation on human rights at the top of bilateral agendas with countries who can give American efforts credibility...
...Human rights organizations have been unable to uncover and document the scope of the CIA's secret detention system...
...The 2006 U.S...
...There are substantive reasons to do so as well...
...The first is that the perceived hypocrisy of the Bush administration has raised the standards by which United States performance on human rights will be judged...
...Another essential plank is closing the American prison at Guantanamo Bay and adopting a plan to try or release those imprisoned there...
...Repeated cases of individual suspects transferred from CIA to military custody raise more questions than they answer about where detainees are held, how many there are, and what kind of treatment they receive...
...relationships, already long, is growing: included are China, Russia, Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Iraq, and more...
...The most difficult part has to do with a series of complex relationships that implicate serious human rights questions...
...Army field manual explicitly bans torture, because, as a group of fifty retired military leaders wrote to President Bush, "If degradation, humiliation, physical and mental brutalization of prisoners is decriminalized or considered permissible . . . we will forfeit all credible objections should such barbaric practices be inflicted upon American prisoners...
...Both candidates have already committed themselves to certain key steps...
...bases, sell oil, counter drug trafficking, or hold U.S...
...And yet, by overlooking human rights in the context of its highest stakes relationships, Washington undercuts its credibility in dealing with everyone else...
...This creates a genuine risk that by being out in front in criticizing other countries, Washington may undermine the cause of human rights among countries whose distrust of America clouds their judgment...
...A related problem is rooted in the character of the Bush administration and in the rise of new powers that challenge American dominance...
...As a result, the U.S...
...The record of the Carter administration, the presidency most committed to human rights promotion, at least as a rhetorical matter, is illustrative...
...Actions that were previously explainable and excusable are now more likely to be seen in the worst possible light...
...The list of such U.S...
...Indeed, some critics of America's role in the world go further and foresee certain advantages if leadership comes from more diverse quarters, including the global South...
...foreign policy for the betA HUMAN RIGHTS AGENDA ter...
...custody wherever they are...
...allies like South Africa and India will be reluctant to call out other governments for complicity in human rights abuses...
...Getting on a A HUMAN RIGHTS AGENDA path toward ultimately joining the ICC will require further debate, but recent developments suggest that it can and should be done...
...officials concerned with piracy and intellectual property protection in China, for example, may be able to make common cause with human rights officers on steps to promote respect for the rule of law there...
...Army field manual, which condemns techniques such as waterboarding that have so outraged human rights supporters...
...The next president must grant legal rights to all detainees and access to all prisoners in U.S...
...Although there is a logic to promoting democracy and human rights together, the stronger public support, at home and abroad, for the latter suggests that, at least for now, they should be kept separate...
...After a week of revelations about torture and secret prisons last year, a New York Times editorial asked "Is this really who we are...
...More than these international agreements, the United States must also embrace a number of important human rights institutions, including two that began work during the Bush years...
...In recent months, for example, it has imposed tough measures on countries like Burma and Zimbabwe—places, admittedly, where Washington has no strong competing interests...
...selfimage...
...THE REJECTION of these two bodies raises important issues...
...For the United States to continue to promote human rights, it will have to educate, empower, and equip—through money, training, technology, and expert advice—local human rights advocates to press for reform rather than expecting that its own leverage will be sufficient...
...honest criteria that reflect how the international community actually behaves in practice would be rejected as unconscionably political...
...diplomats...
...Trials for such detainees should be held swiftly and, whenever possible, in regular federal courts rather than military commissions...
...A 2006 survey by the German Marshall Fund asked Americans if the United States should help establish democracy in other countries...
...In fact, some of the problems with the Council may be remediable...
...will be able to walk away with its head held high...
...rights will always be one among many values and interests that shape policy...
...The United States should position itself as a dogged problem-solver on such issues as expediting the UN's deployment in Darfur or mobilizing pressure on Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, to yield power...
...Addressing the most egregious human rights abuses at home and rejoining international treaties and organizations will be, comparatively, the easy part of asserting American human rights leadership...
...Keeping human rights as part of the conversation with China and Russia, even if to no avail, is important to demonstrate that human rights remain an important principle to the United States everywhere...
...It sprang out of the ashes of the politicized and discredited UN Commission on Human Rights—the body infamous for seating the Sudanese government at the height of the Darfur crisis in 2004 and for ignoring myriad crises while spending a disproportionate part of its efforts to censure Israel...
...Majorities in eight of nine countries said no...
...These diplomats will also need the status necessary to enable them to build support among other arms of the U.S...
...The efforts will be frustrating: considerations of regional solidarity or national sovereignty will sometimes mean that even democracies and U.S...
...Rebuilding American credibility on human rights matters both for the United States and for human rights...
...position on clusters and small arms fits into a traditional pattern of aversion to international rules that it views as too restrictive...
...The American people, too, are now skittish about democracy promotion in a way they aren't about human rights...
...Its use of torture and indefinite detention without trial, the abuses against detainees, and de facto disappearances of terrorist suspects into secret CIA "black sites" have undermined the U.S...
...Although people in some countries may miss American leadership, others have concluded that the world is better off without it...
...The third reason goes beyond national legitimacy and security to national identity and pride...
...But once established, the ICC proved far less threatening to the Bush administration than it had initially appeared, and the administration has gradually recognized the folly of its effort to discredit the court...
...In April 2007, for example, the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations conducted polls around the world asking if the United States ought to fight violations of international law and aggression wherever they occur...
...As the global economy grows more integrated, and as China emerges as a major alternative source of political and financial backing, the ability of the United States—or of any government—to exercise direct, decisive external leverage over foreign governments will diminish...
...military or civilian criminal courts...
...The authors note, though, that the driving force in each case came from local movements rather than American diplomats...
...If his commitment is not deep enough, the new president could take the easy way out and clean up the problems at home without addressing the thornier foreign policy issues...
...As Julie Mertus has written, "Human rights have long been central to the U.S...
...Although they have never sat together easily, such contradictions have long been at least tacitly accepted...
...By laying a foundation of effective cooperation with others, the DISSENT / Fall 2008 n 53 A HUMAN RIGHTS AGENDA United States can avoid having to face the next call for humanitarian intervention alone...
...Senate passage would send an important message of American willingness to play by the rules of the international system...
...Quiet diplomacy won't be enough...
...Historically, when Washington has simply preached the virtues of human rights from its own isolated perch, or when it has decided unilaterally to use its tools of foreign aid, military assistance, and trade to press for progress, others have found it easy to dismiss human rights as a made-in-America agenda...
...But just because the United States has been part of the problem doesn't mean it is part of the solution...
...purportedly neutral, principled criteria would only paper over the powerful political forces that dictate whether outside intervention happens...
...If that effort succeeds, the U.S...
...nonparticipation leaves Washington exposed to charges that it has not even tried to help the new Council succeed...
...Most of these countries are important partners whose cooperation and friendship Washington depends on—to house U.S...
...human rights leadership—both for the sake of the United States and for the sake of human rights...
...Doing the latter will demand an unshakable commitment to bringing back U.S...
...A majority said no...
...It will have to avoid stoking fears of imperialism...
...Yet a host of obstacles could stand in the way of an aggressive and successful campaign to make America a force for human rights protection...
...The intense global interest in the U.S...
...Defining a credible, effective, globally accepted approach to promoting democracy is a vitally important objective for the next administration...
...But if the United States does not lead, who will—and how...
...In lowering the bar on human rights, George W. Bush has raised the bar for his successor...
...With some notable exceptions, including Mexico, Argentina, and South Korea, Roth judged emerging powers in Latin America, Africa, and Asia to be at best selective in their support for human rights, often placing regional or political loyalties ahead of principle...
...For the most part it can be summarized as the return to laws, rules, and systems that were made in the USA and worked well here for decades or more before September 11, 2001...
...Majorities in thir5 0 n DISSENT / Fall 2008 teen of fifteen countries polled said the United States is "playing the role of world policeman more than it should be...
...DISSENT / Fall 2008 n 57...
...With the right presidential leadership, the Senate should bring that treaty to a vote and ratify it...
...Bush administration policies have weakened the force of key human rights standards globally...
...AMERICA FACES two main complications in seeking to lead again in the area of human rights...
...Those are countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia that are loyal to Washington in key respects but have poor human rights records at home...
...in Germany, for example, Simon Koschut has documented how government officials and members of the general public have grown less supportive of counterterrorism measures as a result of allegations of their country's complicity in using evidence obtained through secret CIA prisons or "black sites...
...The most likely scenario is that a new administration will be too preoccupied with crises to focus on human rights...
...As a result, although it is easy to say the United States should simply practice what it preaches, gaps and contradictions in relation to human rights are inevitable—in the United States, the EU, or anywhere...
...The maxim holds true on human rights...
...Roth settled on the European Union as the best candidate for human rights leadership...
...The Bush administration also "unsigned" the Rome treaty establishing the International Criminal Court to try war crimes and crimes against humanity...
...On the other hand, oftentimes the Senate and not the president has been the stumbling block to joining treaties...
...Much of the world does not rue the decline of American influence...
...The Bush administration has also publicly acknowledged the court's key role in raising the specter of accountability for atrocities in both Sudan and Uganda...
...The Human Rights Council poses a different set of problems...
...This would bring all interrogations, including those carried out by the CIA and by private contractors, under the same standards set in the U.S...
...America's position in the world is not what it was ten years ago, when the French Foreign Minister popularized the term "hyperpower" to characterize the United States...
...The next president should clearly continue and expand upon these efforts...
...After pushing the UN to reform its Human Rights Council, the United States since 2006 has declined to run for a seat on the reconfigured body...
...Winning back American legitimacy has become a prerequisite for the achievement of any other foreign policy objective, whether hunting down terrorists, winning the war in Afghanistan, negotiating an exit from Iraq, or isolating nuclear proliferators...
...Mission to the United Nations from 1999 to 2001 under Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke...
...AMOTHER CRITICAL dimension for the next president, one that emerges directly from the experience of the Bush years, is disentangling human rights from democracy promotion...
...Roth rejected China, which has shown little regard for human rights either at home or abroad...
...Rather than trying to address these reservations through negotiations, as the Clinton administration had done, the Bush administration declared war on the ICC from the start...
...The fight against terrorism has heightened the strategic importance of countries like Ethiopia with whom human rights might otherwise play a more prominent role...
...Washington will need to persuade the world that it means to stand A HUMAN RIGHTS AGENDA up for what it believes in...
...It strong-armed allies into signing agreements not to turn over American personnel to the court's jurisdiction...
...Although it is tempting to write off the Council entirely, U.S...
...policymaking apparatus...
...THE UNITED STATES may need human rights, but some are not so sure that the cause of human rights needs the United States...
...It means Washington will have to work to find allies on issues where much of the world is balking...
...She served as deputy to the ambassador for UN Management and Reform at the U.S...
...All this suggests that returning human rights to the place it occupied during the 1990s may not be enough to recreate a sense that the United States takes human rights seriously...
...election and an underlying regard for America's respect for human rights suggests that the renewal of American leadership is possible...
...Indeed, the gap created by the Bush administration's human rights failures remains unfilled...
...Rather than working to resolve its objections, in both cases the United States has sat out major global initiatives aimed to expand human rights enforcement and limit the means of human rights abuse...
...Nor has the International Committee for the Red Cross been allowed access to these prisoners...
...Second, forsaking human rights has proven tactically disastrous...
...officials who deal with foreign governments aren't charged with prioritizing human rights, they DISSENT / Fall 2008 n 5 5 A HUMAN RIGHTS AGENDA will be inclined to let such matters slide...
...ALL THE SAME, the United States can do far more to strengthen the place of human rights in its relationships with other powerful nations...
...embassy has thirteen officers covering economics and just one dealing with human rights...
...Needless to say, dealing with these alleged criminals should not involve a new form of long-term detention without trial The next president will face a harder set of questions in relation to the role of human rights in U.S...
...Over the last seven years, however, the United States is perceived to have crossed a series of red lines, abandoning principles— such as the prohibition on torture— that were long considered sacrosanct...
...The rest of the panel scoffed at the thought that U.S...
...Ever since the concept of human rights first gained wide currency during the early part of the twentieth century, there has been conflict between human rights as universal principles, equally applicable to everyone, and the particular responsibility of any government— not least the United States—to its own people...
...But according to the World Public Opinion polling organization, human rights promotion still enjoys support as a goal of U.S...
...The UN adopted the notion that it has a "responsibility to protect" civilians from genocide and similar crimes, but the UN action, in fact, masked deep differences among the member states over when such a duty would be triggered, and how it should interact with respect for the sovereignty of even abusive governments...
...This does not mean the United States should not lead for fear of backlash, but it does mean it needs to lead carefully, in a manner designed to ensure that others are truly on board...
...In contrast, human rights, though still contested, rest on a long series of international treaties and codified standards...
...For a time at least, it's realistic to expect extra scrutiny in how human rights considerations are weighed against other competing interests...
...Washington will also need to beef up the ranks of American diplomats focused on human rights so that it has the muscle to build coalitions...
...But what is clearer than ever after Iraq is that the presence and active engagement of a broad coalition of like-minded states committed to stopping an abuse is often essential to conduct a successful military intervention or otherwise to prevent those abuses...
...56 n DISSENT / Fan 2008 Not to be a democracy is to have a kind of socialpariah status among the community of nations...
...Advancing change in repressive societies will almost invariably involve collaboration with human rights defenders on the ground who are pressing for change from within...
...Talk of U.S...
...Mugabe's decision to hold elections, only to refuse to announce that the opposition had won, exemplifies this tendency...
...Earlier this year, the administration acted to restore the aid it had earlier cut off in order to punish supporters of the court...
...The U.S...
...It should also ban the practice of turning detainees over to countries where they may be tortured, sequestered indefinitely without trial, or possibly even executed...
...The United States also needs to eliminate secret detentions and disappearances...
...The reality before, during, and after his administration, was anything but...
...It involves answering objections and using political leverage to win over fencesitters...
...Many people abroad hear the phrase "democracy promotion" as a pretext for violent regime change...
...By contrast, reservations about China's rising power coincided with criticisms of Beijing's lack of regard for human rights...
...If that effort fails after it is seriously tried, the U.S...
...It has so far been impossible to set bright-line rules for intervening in sovereign countries that are exterminating parts of their populations...
...But the two agendas should proceed side by side, on different timetables and with different tactics...
...Presidents have signed several international treaties on women's rights, 54 n DISSENT / Fall 2008 children's rights, and economic and social rights that the Senate has never ratified...
...Rhetoric about the spreading of liberty and freedom can encompass both democracy and human rights...
...These findings suggest that the United States has an opportunity to reestablish international legitimacy, and that respect for rights is the foundation on which it must build...
...American diplomats will need to show willingness to delve into details—issues like the efficacy and impact of sanctions, the roles of international and regional bodies or influential nations, and the means for monitoring and evaluating human rights progress...
...But neither candidate has yet fleshed out how he would restore American global leadership on human rights...
...By understaffing or underfunding its human rights policies, the administration could sell short its own goals, or it could move too slowly and fail to take advantage of its first months in office to signal a sharp break from the past and make good on campaign rhetoric...
...In light of the commitments that the two leading presidential candidates have made to reviving U.S...
...Unlike nongovernmental organizations that may focus exclusively on human rights, governments must filter their actions through a prism of national interest...
...The United States can also leverage relationA HUMAN RIGHTS AGENDA ships with allies or strong working partners to press for change...
...This is not to say that the United States should abandon the goal of promoting democracy globally...
...President Jimmy Carter said during his 1977 Inaugural Address that "our commitment to human rights must be absolute...
...Tough talk" by Washington, particularly about other countries' internal ways of doing things, is cast as heavy-handed overreaching...
...SUZANNE NOSSEL is chief of operations for Human Rights Watch...
...The image of the United States as an arrogant bully imposing its views and values on others has fueled anti-American sentiment globally...
...At a recent meeting of Russia experts, one scholar suggested formally taking human rights "off the table" in order to elicit Russian cooperation on Iran...
...Since Vladimir Putin has personally dismissed human rights as "artificial," Moscow was no better a prospect...
...But so far the Council has fallen victim to the same forces that brought down its predecessor, including a disproportionate focus on Israel and a reluctance to condemn other countries (only Burma has been censured...
...In the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan's administration claimed to be pressing the junta that ruled El Salvador, but in truth it was hard to distinguish such purportedly gentle prodding from turning a blind eye...
...Military aid was cut to those who refused...
...But it does underscore that without the commitment of the United States, progress is unlikely...
...Both candidates, rightly, see human rights as a necessary foundation for restoring American credibility and legitimacy around the world...
...remains the only industrialized country that is not among the 170 signatories to that treaty...
...Yet there are also examples when the United States has persuasively made the case to friendly autocrats that their own survival—political or physical—weighs in favor of liberalization and respect for human rights...
...voice on human rights in a way prior lapses did not...
...By making a blanket pledge to raise human rights issues more frequently, the United States can signal a high level of commitment and avoid having to agonize over whether human rights belong on the agenda or not...
...house in order...
...As the Bush era draws to a close, there are signs of a tentative uptick in views of the United States...
...so does Vladimir Putin's stage-managing of the Russian elections to handpick his successor, Dmitri Medvedev...
...This groundwork with allies is particularly important to deal with a human rights challenge that cannot be mapped in advance—a threatened or actual genocide...
...DISSENT / Fall 2008 n 5 1 A HUMAN RIGHTS AGENDA Not only does the United States lack the political and moral sway it once had, it is limited in how it can exercise its influence...
...He went on to ask which countries could fill the void...
...No government will ever be an absolute promoter of human rights...
...Michael McFaul and David Adesnik have argued that in the Philippines, South Korea, and Chile, behind-the-scenes pressure on autocratic allies ultimately led to major reforms...
...The result would undo the worst damage of the Bush years, but would not reinvigorate the cause of human rights promotion globally...
...Other nations could breathe new life into an agenda long seen as Western-dominated...
...such a move would eliminate charges of double standards and mistreatment of terrorist suspects while still allowing the United States to put away convicted terrorist plotters with appropriate sentences...
...foreign policy calculus...
...Building such support for American initiatives requires listening, negotiating, and compromising...
...Although these actions rightly strike us as shams, they also underscore that no set of international laws yet defines what a democracy is...
...It must rectify situations like that in Beijing, where the U.S...
...A commitment of this nature was enshrined in the Tibet Policy Act of 2002, which imposed an array of specific requirements for raising human rights issues and reporting on the results, and could be extended to apply elsewhere...
...The same survey ranked the United States number one among twenty-four countries surveyed for respecting the personal freedoms of its own people...
...It is a given that U.S...
...But he must also do more...
...And true democracies are, of course, more likely than dictatorships to honor human rights...
...And winning that trust hinges on reversing the perception that Washington has abandoned its principles and betrayed its values...
...Rather than bending the rules surreptitiously, Washington— in many cases—broke them openly and unapologetically, claiming that international norms simply did not apply because of the exigencies of the fight against terror...
...These disputes have bedeviled efforts to mobilize the UN Security Council to end the killings in Darfur or squeeze Mugabe from power in Zimbabwe...
...It has also found ways to make incremental progress on issues like women's rights and access to AIDS treatment...
...The initial damage was done by the decision to go to war without legitimacy in the eyes of the world, but soon the bungling of the postwar stabilization effort, the revelations at Abu Ghraib, and the news of other human rights abuses in the name of "the war on terror," turned a blemish into a deep stain on America's reputation...
...should run for a seat on the global body and put in place an aggressive ambassador and staff...
...Whichever party wins the White House, the next administration needs a clear blueprint that not only reverses the worst damage done by the Bush administration but will make the United States once again a vital force in strengthening respect for human rights globally...
...Flaws and all, though, Carter did on balance leave a legacy of making human rights more central to the U.S...
...if other liberal democracies step into the breach, progress in the promotion of rights can still occur...
...human rights leadership, the steps outlined above might seem self-evident, their implementation assured...
...president would "change U.S...
...Barack Obama, resisting a trend among Democrats toward hard-bitten realism, has promised that "in every region of the globe, our foreign policy should promote traditional American ideals: democracy and human rights...
...The U.S...
...Recently, for example, most of the world united behind an accord banning cluster munitions (which is slated to be signed in December 2008) and efforts to curb small arms (which the UN is still negotiating...
...Even some of those who actively wish to see human rights standards reinforced around the world doubt whether the United States should now lead the way...
...IN LIGHT OF these hurdles, the United States needs a game plan for reestablishing its human rights leadership The plan should have three key elements: first, getting the U.S...
...The result is that authoritarian rulers now don the cloak of democracy...
...They argue that it doesn't matter where the leadership comes from as long as it comes...
...Indeed, the court has won praise for issuing indictments against some of the world's most notorious tyrants, and the Bush administration has softened its opposition...
...Unless this is done convincingly, a new president will be unable to rebuild American credibility...
...There is a big difference between setting out what must be done in theory and keeping a steady hand against the buffeting forces of foreign policy reality...
...commitment to human rights...
...But we shouldn't blur the distinction...
...These diplomats should be given a mandate to build credibility for the Council by taking on the world's toughest human rights problems in a balanced way...
...Many analysts have already laid out what needs to be done...
...The United States will also have to alter its longstanding skeptical disposition toward international treaties...
...hypocrisy and the abuse of detainees echoes in the halls of foreign ministries and in the mountains where terrorists hide...
...military has come to grips with the damage that human rights abuses have wrought and is bent on fixing it...
...In relations with Moscow, with Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, and even with Idi Amin in Uganda, Carter often had to place hard political and security interests first—with the effect that many believe his human rights policies to have failed...
...The United States has done a great deal of important, relatively uncontroversial work helping fledgling democracies in the former Soviet Union and throughout Africa find their feet...
...Though America's commitment to human rights has never been absolute, human rights principles are a core element of what Americans believe they have to offer the rest of the world...
...They have given foreign governments an excuse to disregard what were once near-universal norms, such as the rejection of torture...
...This doesn't mean that the United States can sit back and wait for others to lead...
...Thailand, Romania, and Poland have been identified as sites of secret detention facilities...
...debt...
...In the case of the criminal court, American policymakers feared international prosecutions of American soldiers for allegations that are routinely dealt with in U.S...
...Some of them are obvious and straightforward, although 52 n DISSENT / Fall 2008 others will be complex and politically fraught...
...Some of these are what have been dubbed "ugly allies...
...On the flip side, of course, a new president will face dilemmas every bit as pointed as recent predecessors: a symbiotic economic relationship with China, volatility in the Middle East, rising oil prices, and al-Qaeda still on the loose...
...relationships with China, Russia, and other leading countries will revolve around economic and security interests that risk overpowering human rights concerns...
...In a few places, the Bush administration has done an adequate job on human rights policy...
...recent polls indicate that "large majorities favor putting diplomatic pressure on governments to respect human rights, speaking out against human rights abuses, and encouraging other countries to do the same...
...To be sure, sometimes a quiet, subtle effort by the United States can actually amount to a tacit endorsement of a regime's abuses...
...They stage sham elections and convene powerless parliaments in an effort to hide—and thereby prolong— their repression...
...Americans crave the reassertion of national pride and a new sense of purpose for American power...
...Historically, the United States has balked at international agreements that do not match the rules that Washington would have set for itself...
...American refusal to join more than 150 other nations—including all the nations of Europe, plus Canada, Australia, Israel, Mexico, and others—in endorsing these treaties has rankled even our closest allies...
...The process of elimination leaves the United States...
...Every subsequent presidency professed a commitment to human rights, even as it dealt with a messy reality where human rights considerations have been balanced against—and often outweighed by—other interests...
...A Democratic president will face just as much and probably more pressure than a Republican to prioritize hard security objectives ahead of human rights...
...In both cases, the United States absented itself from talks that forged agreement among dozens of countries, leaving America's closest allies in Europe and elsewhere to lead...
...Nor does it mean Washington should drop important human rights matters just because it stands alone...
...But he went on to cite a series of major impediments to any leading role for the EU, including the union's sclerotic internal consensusbuilding mechanisms, its timid public statements made by Brussels bureaucrats rather than heads of state, and its passive approach to diplomatic advocacy, as seen, for example, in its failure to articulate a clear vision for the UN Human Rights Council...
...In both cases, the United States actually shares many of the interests that have motivated the Europeans and others to support these accords, yet has several specific reservations relating to either domestic politics (the gun lobby in the case of the small arms agreement) or the military (which has invested substantially in clusters...
...For the United States, the case for trying to restore its reputation as a standardbearer for human rights is threefold...
...Doing so will, of course, require active efforts at persuasion by the president and top U.S...
...No values have been betrayed more than the U.S...
...Administration officials seemed surprised to discover in recent years that for it to lead effectively, others would have to follow...
...It must pull together those focused on key bilateral relationships from across the bureaucracy—the State, Treasury, Energy, and Commerce Departments, Pentagon, intelligence agencies, and trade—so that messages on human rights are folded into broader policy frameworks that make clear their importance to the entire United States government...
...One problem is that if senior U.S...
...Without pressure for change within abusive societies, external efforts will be less effective...
...And it will not be able to divorce human rights from a wider policy framework...
...This doesn't mean that the American role in advancing human rights has ever been ideal, pure, or irreplaceable...
...The first order of business should be an executive order, followed by legislation, that forbids torture and deliberate cruelty in interrogations...
...Right now, promoting democracy is even harder than defending human rights, because the Iraq War has discredited American-backed democracy-promotion efforts around the globe...
...If China gets a free pass for showering Mugabe's Zimbabwe with critical goods and financial investment, how then can Washington convince South Africa to squeeze its neighbor to the north...
...The Army and Marines' latest counterinsurgency manual includes an unprecedented introduction from Sarah Sewall of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, who addresses the cenDISSENT / Fall 2008 n 49 A HUMAN RIGHTS AGENDA trality of international law and human rights to the success of counterinsurgency efforts...
...second, figuring out how to work with others ; and third, developing a strategy to better handle relationships that implicate human rights, but also other, sometimes conflicting, national interests...
...To counter this tendency, the next president should seek legislation to obligate such officials to raise human rights in the course of their consultations with foreign diplomats...
...The more the United States can join and mobilize others to send similar messages, take common positions, and mount coordinated pressure, the more influence Washington will have...
...In a January 2007 essay, Ken Roth, from Human Rights Watch, wrote that the United States could not "credibly advocate rights that it flouts...
...actions abroad...
Vol. 55 • September 2008 • No. 4
