The Foreign Service Journal, September 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2019 15 TALKING POINTS Chair of the Commission on Unalienable Rights Mary Ann Glendon delivers remarks to the press at the State Department on July 8, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listens. State Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus is at left. U.S.DEPARTMENTOFSTATE Secretary Pompeo Establishes New Rights Commission S ecretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the formation of a Com- mission on Unalienable Rights to redefine human rights at a press conference on July 8. “The Commission will provide fresh thinking about human rights discourse where such discourse has departed from our nation’s founding principles of natural law and natural rights,” accord- ing to the department notice. In his press conference, Secretary Pompeo said the commission would offer advice to him through an “informed review of the role of human rights in foreign policy.” The goal of the commission, Sec. Pompeo told reporters in May, would be to sort out “how do we connect up what it is we’re trying to achieve throughout the world, and how do we make sure that we have a solid foundation of human rights upon which to tell all our diplomats around the world. …It’s an important review of how we think about human rights inside of our efforts in diplomacy.” The commission is billed as a biparti- san group of 10 scholars and experts. The State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor is not involved. Secretary Pompeo announced July 8 that Kiron Skinner would serve as executive secretary. (Skinner headed State’s Policy Planning Office until she was fired on Aug. 2.) The commission is chaired by Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard Law profes- sor and former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. Other members include Peter Berkowitz, Christopher Tollefsen and Paolo Carozza. Many observers have raised concerns about the new commission. On July 23, 178 organizations plus 251 named signatories (including former senior-level U.S. government officials, faith-based leaders, scholars) sent a letter to Sec. Pompeo urging him to disband the commission. They object to the commis- sion’s stated purpose, “which we find harmful to the global effort to protect the rights of all people and a waste of resources.” They also object to “the commission’s make-up, which lacks ideological diver- sity and appears to reflect a clear interest in limited human rights, including the rights of women and LGBTQI individuals; and the process by which the commission came into being and is being adminis- tered, which has sidelined human rights experts in the State Department’s own [DRL] Bureau.” On the same day, 23 Democratic sena- tors sent a letter expressing “deep concern,” stating that the signatories “vehemently disagree that there is any ‘confusion’ over what human rights are. …It seems that the administration is reluctant—or even hostile—to protecting established interna- tionally recognized definitions of human rights, particularly those requiring it to uphold protections for reproductive rights and the rights of marginalized communi- ties, including LGBT persons.” Daniel Drezner, professor of interna- tional politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, writes in the July 10 Washington Post , that he sees only a slim chance the commission can be constructive: “The commission’s members are primar- ily conservative but also the kind of individuals that, in normal times, would be taken seriously. These are not normal times. The people running this will need to bend over backward to demonstrate good faith to skeptics. On this issue, the administration they serve has dug a hole for itself. It is possible that this commis- sion can level the ground. It is not very likely.” A shift to “natural law” would mean a step away from the accepted definition that “modern human rights are based on the dignity inherent in all human beings, not on God-given rights,” former Assistant Secretary for DRL Harold Koh told The New York Times. “On the one hand it’s commendable that the secretary wants to place more emphasis on these issues, given that the administration to date has not been very outspoken on them,” David Kramer, assistant secretary of State for human rights under President George W. Bush, told Politico . “On the other hand, I’m not sure what this commission is supposed to do that the human rights bureau doesn’t already do.”