On American Values, Unalienable Rights, and Human Rights: Some Reflections on the Pompeo Commission

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Risse
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Declaration Of Independence ◽  
American Values ◽  
Natural Law Theory ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The U.S

AbstractIn July 2019, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo launched a Commission on Unalienable Rights, charged with a reexamination of the scope and nature of human rights–based claims. From his statements, it seems that Pompeo hopes the commission will substantiate—by appeal to the U.S. Declaration of Independence and to natural law theory—three key conservative ideas: (1) that there is too much human rights proliferation, and once we get things right, social and economic rights as well as gender emancipation and reproductive rights will no longer register as human rights; (2) that religious liberties should be strengthened under the human rights umbrella; and (3) that the unalienable rights that should guide American foreign policy neither need nor benefit from any international oversight. I aim to show that despite Pompeo's framing, the Declaration of Independence, per se, is of no help with any of this, whereas evoking natural law is only helpful in ways that reveal its own limitations as a foundation for both human rights and foreign policy in our interconnected age.

scholarly journals Direitos humanos e política externa norte-americana: a participação dos EUA na Conferência de Viena (1993) / Human rights and American foreign policy: the US participation in the Vienna Conference (1993)

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-351
Author(s):  
Matheus de Carvalho Hernandez
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Bill Clinton ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
The Us ◽  
Second World ◽  
Rights Issues ◽  
The U.S

A II Conferência Mundial para os Direitos Humanos da ONU, conhecida como Conferência de Viena, realizada em 1993, foi objeto de estudo da literatura de Relações Internacionais durante os anos noventa principalmente, inclusive no Brasil, devido à destacada participação da delegação brasileira. Entretanto, há ainda uma carência na área em relação à análise da importante participação dos Estados Unidos nesse evento da ONU. Sendo assim, o objetivo deste artigo é tentar contribuir no sentido de suprir essa lacuna, isto é, tentar compreender melhor a participação dos EUA – assim como suas motivações e contradições no que tange à política externa – nesse que foi o mais importante evento internacional em matéria de direitos humanos no pós-Guerra Fria. A hipótese aqui discutida é que a participação destacada dos EUA na referida Conferência seria resultado de dois fatores associados: um impulso inicial favorável aos direitos humanos, incitado pela necessidade do recém eleito Bill Clinton demonstrar relativa coerência com suas críticas às posturas de seu antecessor em matéria de direitos humanos; e a formação inicial de uma equipe de governo ligada à temática dos direitos humanos. Por outro lado, a análise da participação dos EUA em Viena diante do foco de Clinton nas questões econômicas domésticas e em comparação com outras ações de política externa parece demonstrar a permanência da ambivalência da política externa de direitos humanos dos EUA, resultando no que se designa como dupla padronização. The Second World Conference on Human Rights, known as the Vienna Conference, held in 1993, was studied by the literature of International Relations especially during the 1990s, including in Brazil, due to the outstanding participation of the Brazilian delegation. However, there is a lack of studies about the significant participation of the U.S. in the meeting. Thus, the aim of this article is to contribute towards filling this gap, in other words, to better understand the American involvement – as well as their motivations and contradictions regarding foreign policy – in this event, considered the most important international human rights event in the post-Cold War era. The hypothesis here is that the U.S. outstanding participation in the Conference would be the outcome of two linked factors: an initial push to favor human rights incited by the need of the newly elected Bill Clinton to demonstrate coherence with his criticism on the former administration's acts in the human rights field; and the initial composition of a government staff closer to human rights issues. On the other hand, the analysis of U.S. active involvement in Vienna - in contrast to the focus of Clinton on domestic and economic issues and compared to other foreign policy actions - seems to point to the continuing ambivalence of human rights foreign policy of the U.S., thus resulting in what is designated as double-standard.

The Carnegie Poll on Values in American Foreign Policy

1989 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 297-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Myers
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
The U.S

In a brief summary of a poll conducted by the Carnegie Council, Myers outlines the American public's views on issues ranging from foreign policy/peace issues to economic security, defense, and human rights. The underlying perception of the United States as the “moral nation” raises a fundamental question: How deeply imbedded is the distinction between words and deeds in American foreign policy? Some results of the survey defied explanation. “Why are Americans so avid about human rights abroad, yet so reluctant to commit foreign aid, and so indignant about the U.S. dollars that are spent on NATO and Japanese security? Logic and sentiment remain interwoven,” concludes Myers.

scholarly journals KONSTITUSIONALITAS KEBIJAKAN NEW NORMAL DALAM PERLINDUNGAN HAK HIDUP WARGA NEGARA

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Ruth Crista Vanesa Hariyanto
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
New Normal ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
Natural Law Theory ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right

<p align="center"><strong><em>Abstract</em></strong><strong></strong></p><p><em>This study aims to answer two problems: first, outlining the correlation of the Right to Life with Economic Rights in New Nornal Policy; and  secondly, analyzing theConstitutionality of New Normal Policy</em>. <em>The policy created during the Covid-19 Pandemic not infrequently reaping contracdictions. Especially the last one echoed by the governments is the existence of a New Normal Policy which is actually considered unconstitutional because with this policy the government is felt to have ignored the right of Right to Life of citizen and priorited Economic Right. For this reason, this article uses natural law theory as a means of interpretation of two existing problems. In accordance with this, this acricle argues that the New Normal Policy is a constitutional policy because it is in accordance with the spirit of Article 28A UUD NRI 1945. </em></p><p><em>Keywords</em>: <em>Human Rights, New Normal, Public Policy, Constitutionalism</em><em>.</em></p><p align="center"><strong>Abstrak</strong></p><p>Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menjawab dua permasalahan: pertama, menguraikan korelasi Hak untuk Hidup dengan Hak Ekonomi dalam Kebijakan Nornal Baru; dan kedua, menganalisis Konstitusionalitas Kebijakan Normal Baru. Kebijakan yang dibuat saat Pandemi Covid-19 tak jarang menuai kontradiksi. Terlebih yang terakhir digaungkan oleh pemerintah adalah adanya New Normal Policy yang justru dinilai inkonstitusional karena dengan kebijakan ini pemerintah dirasa telah mengabaikan hak atas Hak Hidup warga negara dan mengutamakan Hak Ekonomi. Untuk itulah, artikel ini menggunakan teori hukum kodrat sebagai alat interpretasi dari dua masalah yang ada. Sejalan dengan hal tersebut, acricle ini berpendapat bahwa New Normal Policy merupakan kebijakan konstitusional karena sesuai dengan semangat Pasal 28A UUD NRI 1945.</p><p>Kata Kunci: Hak Asasi Manusia, Normal Baru, Kebijakan Publik, Konstitusionalisme.</p>

scholarly journals Teaching the History of Human Rights and "Humanitarian" Interventions

2015 ◽  
Vol 103 ◽  
pp. 47-55
Author(s):  
Mary Nolan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Humanitarian Interventions ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

This article explores how I teach about human rights and so-called humanitarian interventions to MA and Ph.D. students.  The course has three main themes or foci.  First, what are human rights and why have the social and economic human rights laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights been so neglected or rejected, especially by the U.S.  Second, how has American foreign policy used and abused human rights.  Third, why have liberal or humanitarian interventions of a militarized sort become so prevalent since the end of the Cold War and why are they so damaging.  The goal is to get students to look critically at the meaning and uses of human rights, about which many display a naive enthusiasm.

scholarly journals God, New Natural Law Theory, and Human Rights

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 613
Author(s):  
Christopher Tollefsen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Natural Rights ◽  
Creative Activity ◽  
Adequate Account ◽  
Full Theory ◽  
Natural Law Theory ◽  
Epistemological Dimension

Critics of the “New” Natural Law (NNL) theory have raised questions about the role of the divine in that theory. This paper considers that role in regard to its account of human rights: can the NNL account of human rights be sustained without a more or less explicit advertence to “the question of God’s existence or nature or will”? It might seem that Finnis’s “elaborate sketch” includes a full theory of human rights even prior to the introduction of his reflections on the divine in the concluding chapter of Natural Law and Natural Rights. But in this essay, I argue that an adequate account of human rights cannot, in fact, be sustained without some role for God’s creative activity in two dimensions, the ontological and the motivational. These dimensions must be distinguished from the epistemological dimension of human rights, that is, the question of whether epistemological access to truths about human rights is possible without reference to God’s existence, nature, or will. The NNL view is that such access is possible. However, I will argue, the epistemological cannot be entirely cabined off from the relevant ontological and motivational issues and the NNL framework can accommodate this fact without difficulty.

scholarly journals Liberal world order and economic coercion in modern foreign policy of the U.S.

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-62
Author(s):  
Oğuz Alperen Turhan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
World Order ◽  
Single System ◽  
Global System ◽  
Economic Coercion ◽  
The U.S

The article studies the evolution of liberal world order within the framework of conventional directions of the U.S.&rsquo; foreign policy. The purpose of this work is to reveal the peculiarities of development of the U.S.&rsquo; foreign policy in terms of liberal world order. For this purpose, the U.S.&rsquo; foreign policy is considered through the prism of Walter Russel Mead&rsquo;s &ldquo;four schools of American foreign policy&rdquo;. The author analyzes the development and transformation of liberalism in the context of using economic coercion in the U.S.&rsquo; foreign policy. The article also considers the topical problems of development of the liberal world order faced by the realist and liberal paradigms. Representatives of both groups realize the failure of the liberal world order, but offer different strategies of defining the U.S.&rsquo; foreign policy course. Representatives of the liberal paradigm believe that the liberal world order entered a phase of self-destruction because of accelerated integration of unequal states in a single system. Realists, in their turn, claim that transformations in the structure of the global system determine the functionality of the liberal world order. Specifically, the revisionist position of Russia and China is a reaction to the imposed principles, and serves as a basis for the transition to the multipolar system. Thus, conflicts of interest between the parties cause the use of measures of coercion.

America and the World

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mugambi Jouet
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
United Nations ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
Manifest Destiny ◽  
Original Analysis ◽  
The World ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Western Democracies ◽  
Invasion Of Iraq

America has long been much more inclined than other Western democracies to defy norms of diplomacy, international law, and human rights deemed against its interests, although these stances have at times profoundly divided the U.S. public. Americans were bitterly divided over the Bush administration’s use of torture, its aim to detain alleged terrorists forever without trial at Guantanamo, and its catastrophic invasion of Iraq on grounds later revealed to be false. The Obama administration’s rather different approach to foreign policy proved divisive too. The chapter explores why Americans are far more polarized than Europeans over fundamental issues like war, diplomacy, the United Nations, and human rights. From the ideal of Manifest Destiny to America’s relative geographic isolation, superpower status, and the idea that God chose it to lead the world, Mugambi Jouet’s original analysis explains the interrelationship between the different aspects of American exceptionalism shaping U.S. foreign policy.

Introduction

Basic Rights ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 5-10
Author(s):  
Henry Shue
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Basic Rights ◽  
Subsistence Rights ◽  
To Receive

This introductory chapter provides an overview of basic rights. The wisdom of a U.S. foreign policy that includes attention to “human rights” depends heavily upon which rights are in practice the focus of the attention. The major international documents on human rights include dozens of kinds of rights, often artificially divided into “civil and political” and “economic, social, and cultural” rights. U.S. foreign policy probably could not, and almost certainly should not, concern itself with the performance of other governments in honoring every one of these internationally recognized human rights. The policy must in practice assign priority to some rights over others. It is not entirely clear so far either which rights are receiving priority or which rights ought to receive priority in U.S. foreign policy. The purpose of this book is to present the reasons why the most fundamental core of the so-called “economic rights,” which can be called subsistence rights, ought to be among those that receive priority. The chapter then presents some divergent indications of what the priorities actually are.

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