Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday that he is launching a
“Commission on Unalienable Rights,” which he described as being meant
to review which human rights “are entitled to gain respect.”
Pompeo said that the proliferation of human rights claims have required “one of the most profound reexaminations of the unalienable rights in the world.” This being the US, and human rights, a lot of critics are expecting it to go poorly.
Some were critical of how little human rights has appeared to enter into
US foreign policy, while others are expecting a religion-centric study
group, which will try to endorse traditional Judeo-Christian concepts of
rights, while disavowing more modern concepts, which Pompeo described
as being “government-proscribed” rights.
Coming at a time when the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is
criticizing the US treatment of migrants and refugees, the expectation
is that the commission will conclude those groups don’t have any such
rights, to try to deflect international criticism.
Pompeo Launches Commission to Study Which Human Rights Deserve Respect
Critics see move as an attempt to disavow certain rights
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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