World Bulletin
The US Prepares for Scrutiny on Its Human Rights Record By Amanda Vance
Susan E. Rice, right, the US representative at the UN, after winning a seat on the Human Rights Council.
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Feb. 17 – The US will face a review of its own human rights record – flaws and otherwise – in December as part of a universal process in the UN’s Human Rights Council. To prepare for the session, the government has started reaching out to local and national civil society groups to discuss the most pressing issues relevant to the US.
The dialogue between the government and citizens is considered an important part of the process and will make it into the US’ final report to the council in Geneva at the end of the year. In addition, nongovernmental organizations can make direct submissions to the process, which will be posted on the UN Web site for the review and compiled in a summary prepared by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
A US State Department Web site, www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/dec/133606.htm, is also available for people and groups to use to report their human rights concerns to the American government, making the process as open as possible.
That means that nongovernmental organizations have “more impact on this process than possibly any other procedure in the UN,” said Felice Gaer, director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Human Rights at the American Jewish Committee. “It is like a fantasy land for the NGO movement to have this access and its voice amplified by the UN and the US. This is the most amazing aspect of the procedure.”
This month, the universal periodic review, or U.P.R., entered its latest session with an evaluation of the human rights records of Iran, Angola and 14 other countries. Each UN state’s record is evaluated every four years, in a file consisting of a report written by the country in question, UN summaries and information from nongovernmental organizations. It also involves a question-answer session in which the three countries chairing the conference discuss the human rights challenges facing the country under review and make recommendations for improvement.
Jamil Dakwar, director of the Human Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union in New York and a participant in the US government-nongovernmental organization consultations, described the review as an “important endeavor” for the US.
The US, which joined the Human Rights Council in September, can “show how seriously it is taking engagement with international bodies,” Dakwar said. This step, he added, is especially significant since President Bush’s disengagement from the UN damaged America’s reputation abroad.
Lawrence Moss, an American human rights lawyer, said that for the US, the process will provide a major opportunity for civil rights activists to encourage the US to carry out international human rights norms by highlighting the many international treaties the government has failed to ratify, including treaties protecting women’s rights, children’s rights and migrant workers.
“The US has a generally good record on civil and political rights under domestic Constitutional standards, but international standards can provide an additional basis to further domestic civil rights protection,” Moss said.
As the review may extend to all the principles in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Moss said that the process can encourage the US to accept the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, thus providing support for a domestic agenda for universal health care and rights to education and housing.
Issues Nagging the US
The review is also important for other domestic matters. Dakwar said that it could emphasize issues that are often overlooked in the US, including immigration laws, post-Katrina reconstruction efforts and the treatment of Muslim communities. Concerns about racial profiling and access to social justice will also be addressed in the A.C.L.U.’s final cluster report to the Human Rights Council.
Dakwar said that he hoped that the review would be a meaningful process in which the US government would follow through on the commitments and pledges that it has made to the international community. The review could also be used to discuss an expansion of a domestic human rights infrastructure, which he says is lacking in the US. Nor are there local bodies that individuals can call on to address human rights concerns or even an effective federal monitoring mechanism to ensure US compliance with human rights commitments domestically.
In addition to the State Department Web site, the government is consulting nongovernmental organizations in seven states, including New York, on human rights matters. On Feb. 19, a conference in Washington will welcome groups from around the world, including Amnesty International, to air their concerns about US conduct in Iraq and Afghanistan and other matters.
So far, Dakwar said, “the US is trying to offer a good example in conducting these consultations.”
Nevertheless, the process has its flaws, Dakwar noted: when all is said and done, the December session could amount to just three hours of highly politicized talk. Key domestic problems could be overridden by agendas put forth by the three countries assigned to chair the conference. One item that could “hijack the agenda,” Dakwar said, is Guantánamo Bay. Moreover, the review is limited in terms of nongovernmental organization contributions, so it is only as relevant as the Obama administration allows.
“The question remains,” Dakwar said, “whether these consultations are just a road show or whether they are a meaningful dialogue between the federal government and civil society.”
As Gaer said, “The procedure is still in its infancy.”
Amanda Vance is a publications intern at UNA-USA and a student at the Bard College Globalization and International Affairs Program in New York City.
Keywords: human rights, Universal Periodic Review, United States, United Nations
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