Will Human Rights Make the Cut for the U.S. President-Elect's To-Do List?
by Aisha Gawad
When President Bush moves out of the White House in January, he'll pack up his bags and boxes and move his life back to Crawford, Texas. He'll take his personal belongings, presidential memorabilia, his dog Miss Beazley, but he'll also leave something for President-Elect Barack Obama to remember him by: responsibility for the economy, the war in Iraq, national security, health care, and all the other responsibilities that Mr. Bush ignored or mangled during his eight years in office.
Mr. Obama, already worn from the brutally long campaign season, will have to take ownership of these abandoned responsibilities. The American people, it seems, trust him to do this or we wouldn’t have elected him. But what if President Bush forgot something else in the Oval Office? A small dusty box of forsaken human rights, for instance? The one containing much ignored issues such as the oppression of women and children, prisoner abuse, rendition, the death penalty, and racism. What is Mr. Obama supposed to do with this box of human rights when he has burden of a failing economy and a disastrous war on his hands? In a time of crises, the president has to prioritize, and the issue of human rights risks being left in the dust again.
But it doesn't have to be that way. American people made the choice to elect not only Mr. Obama but also all the other senators running for Congress, and it just so happens that most of us chose to elect Democrats. The combination of a democratic president and a majority democratic House and Senate gives the Democrat Party its strongest governing position since 1976. This is not to say that one party is better at respecting human rights than another, but rather that the U.S. government will enjoy a political unity of the likes it hasn't seen in decades.
American people who care about restoring their country's reputation as a defender of human rights should take advantage of this unity, and show the president and Congress that human rights are a pressing matter, not something that we can afford to brush aside anymore. Much of the recent US human rights record is downright embarrassing. Some of these embarrassments are better known, such as the abysmal prison at Guantanamo Bay, our alliances with countries with worse records than our own (think: Saudi Arabia, China, Pakistan), our refusal to grant equal rights to gays, our status as a nation with one of the most prolific amounts of prison executions, and so on.
Surprisingly, however, the U.S. has also failed to support some of the more basic, and much less controversial, human rights issues.
How many people know, for instance, that the U.S. is one of two countries that have yet to ratify the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC)? This convention, adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, is a legally-binding international document "drafted with the specific purpose of promoting and protecting the well-being of all children, regardless of national boundaries," according to the Child Rights Campaign's website. Despite the fact that the U.S. held a prominent role in writing the document, it never ratified it because of disagreements in the Congress. Now, the United States can stand proudly along with Somalia as the only two countries who don't find it necessary to internationally guarantee a child's "right to survival, the right to develop to the fullest potential, the right to protection from abuse, neglect and exploitation, and the right to participate in family, cultural and social life:" the four main themes of the convention as stated by the Child Rights Campaign.
And what about women's rights? The U.S. is one of only eight countries who can boast not ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). In this case, America joins the likes of Iran, Tonga and Sudan. This treaty aims to combat discrimination against women, change cultural practices that oppress women, and ensure women more rights to lead independent, healthy and successful lives. So why hasn't the U.S. ratified it? Sarah Albert, CEDAW Working Group Co-Chair, thinks it has a lot to do with this historically tumultuous relationship between the U.S. and the U.N. "During the Bush years, the U.S. sent diplomats to the U.N. who opposed both CEDAW and the CRC. I think there is a general apprehension about anything having to do with the U.N," said Albert. She also cites concerns from senators who worry that the treaty would ease restrictions on abortion in the U.S, or that it would be a treaty for gay rights, none of which is true according to Albert. “This treaty is about the most basic human rights for women. It creates a forum to discuss these basic rights, and we can use it as a platform for improvement." she says.
Some people may argue that U.S. ratification isn't necessary if American laws already guarantee women these basic rights, but Albert argues that we lose our international standing this way. Because the U.S. hasn't ratified it, it can't question other countries who have, but still maintain poor women's rights records. "We cannot expect other countries to live up to this treaty because we haven't walked the walk ourselves. We have no diplomatic standing, and we aren’t allowed to participate on the CEDAW committee," Albert said.
Does Albert think we have a chance of seeing U.S. ratification under Obama? "Well, I'm always hopeful, but then again I'm an Orioles fan, so I know to take everything with a grain of salt. I'm hopeful but pragmatic."
Restoring our international standing is one of the things President-Elect Obama pledged to do during his time in office, and American citizens should hold him, along with Congress, to that promise. The next president needs to voice his unequivocal support for these treaties, and Congress needs to stop their squabbling over ridiculous reservations and vote to ratify both.
We, too, should be hopeful but pragmatic. We have more pressing and more complicated issues to deal with-in the human rights realm and elsewhere-but this should be a no-brainer. Just do it.
