Prince Mohammad University International Human Rights Discussion

In this video : https://www.state.gov/unalienable-rights-and-the-s…

on an event celebrating the release of the Report of the Commission on Inalienable Rights in July 2020.

In his speech, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo describes his motivation for creating this commission: it was a desire to reorient US foreign policy around “foundational, inalienable rights” and curtail the “proliferation of rights.” Arguing that the “great and noble human rights project of the 20th Century is in crisis,” Pompeo believes it’s time to “go back to basics” and center the “rights that we care most about”: property rights and religious freedom.

Pompeo and the commission’s chair, Professor Mary Ann Glendon, believe that America has a special, indeed exceptional, role to play in the world as the foremost promotor and protector of human rights; while they recognize that the US hasn’t always lived up to its ideals, they suggest that there is no “moral equivalence between rights-respecting countries that fall short in progress towards their ideals, and countries that regularly and massively trample on their citizens’ human rights.”

On this discussion board, I’d like you to present your ideas about this video and what it says about the role the US plays (and should play) in the international human rights system.

Consider the following questions as a jumping off point:

• Would it make sense to insist that the international human rights project re-center around a foundation of property rights and religious liberty?
• Is the concern that Pompeo express about the “proliferation of rights” appropriate?
• Do you believe that this “return to basics” approach would permit the human rights project to escape from its “crisis”?
• Finally, have Pompeo’s remarks in this speech adequately responded to concerns about a US “double standard” regarding human rights that some of you have mentioned in our discussions over the last couple of weeks?