Foreign Policy Blogs

Human Rights for All

The US State Department recently released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. This is done every year as a requirement of the Foreign Assistance Act and normally does not gain much attention. However this year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made waves with the announcement that the US will be subjecting itself to the universal periodic review process of the UN Human Rights Council. This means that the human rights record of the US will be judged and scrutinized by other members of the Council, including some of the worst governmental human rights offenders in the world.

This may seem like an odd decision, and one that flies in the face of typical American attitudes about judgment from other countries. However there is also something intrinsically American about the decision, since progress can only come once you acknowledge where it is needed. For a country largely founded on the desire for progress, this reality should also be extended to our human rights record, as Secretary Clinton alluded to in her presentation:

Human rights are universal, but their experience is local. This is why we are committed to holding everyone to the same standard, including ourselves. This year, the United States is participating in the Universal Periodic Review process in conjunction with our participation in the UN Human Rights Council. In the fall, we will present a report, based on the input of citizens and NGOs, gathered online and in face-to-face meetings across the country attended by senior government officials. Assessing opportunities for progress and soliciting citizen engagement is one way that we demonstrate our commitment in word and deed to the basic principles that guide us toward a more perfect union and a more peaceful world.

But the periodic review may also allow some marginalized groups to shine a light on the problems they face when the regular domestic systems fail them. This is the point made by Valarie Taliman on the ability of Native Americans to uphold their rights in US courts. Rarely is real international attention given to these groups, which allows the problems faced by them to go unnoticed or unattended to domestically. By submitting to an international review of our human rights record, the momentum to change what is broken may finally come.

Of course that is the best case scenario. Undoubtedly, there will be countries that will take advantage of the process to advance their own agendas and anti-American sentiments; that is a risk with an international venture. But the negatives should not overrule the positive step that this actual is in supporting and advancing human rights abroad, and now officially at home.

 

Author

Kimberly J. Curtis

Kimberly Curtis has a Master's degree in International Affairs and a Juris Doctor from American University in Washington, DC. She is a co-founder of The Women's Empowerment Institute of Cameroon and has worked for human rights organizations in Rwanda and the United States. You can follow her on Twitter at @curtiskj

Areas of Focus: Transitional justice; Women's rights; Africa