Thursday, March 28, 2024

Will New Trump Admin Commission Reclaim Human Rights Debate?

Earlier this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the creation of a State Department “Commission on Unalienable Rights.” This commission will reorient American foreign policy on human rights in a constitutional direction, focusing on the “unalienable rights” endowed by our creator and centering around the Bill of Rights. It also will reaffirm the United States’ commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and reflect the administration’s commitment to the family.

Although many support themeasure, others, particularly on the Left, are attempting to steer publicdiscourse against the commission. But why, you may ask, would anyone oppose theprotection of unalienable rights worldwide?

The Left has spentdecades attempting to claim human rights, often manipulating the UDHR tojustify their political positions. It seems that almost daily, “thought pieces”expressing the Left’s redefinition of human rights appear in highly-subscribedperiodicals and newspapers. And in 2019, these often take the form of veritablescreeds against the Trump administration, eschewing objective analysis ofpolicy in favor of selective, highly-isolated criticisms. One recent examplehas been the brouhaha over ICE detention facilities, where the Left hascompletely ignored that the Obama administration did much the same, even sending detainees to former World War II internment camps

It is unsurprising thatthe American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which got involved in that samefiasco, strongly opposes the commission. In their official statement, they claim that “referencesto ‘natural law and natural rights’ are code words used by the religious rightand social conservatives” to “discriminate” against a panoply of groups theLeft believes are oppressed. 

These statements fromprominent left-wing groups themselves explain why Secretary Pompeo was wise topropose the creation of this commission. Progressives will argue that ourconstitutional rights are not based on laws of nature; they do not believe thatour rights are inherent. They certainly don’t believe that our rights come fromour creator. Rather, they believe the source of rights is the beneficence ofthe state, and that rights can be “democratically” re-defined over time. TheACLU’s protest against the Commission effectively demonstrates that mentality.It seems as if the concept of unalienable rights is so foreign to them that theonly way for them to make sense out of it is to refer to it as a “term” usedfor political gain by conservatives.

Yet, the UDHR is aninherently conservative document, and it matches well with Americanconstitutional values and our international agenda. Nowhere, does it state thathuman rights are secured by the state or invented by the state. Rather, it isbuilt upon the premise that “[a]ll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” and that they are “endowedwith reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit ofbrotherhood.”  

The declaration doesn’tmention the latest faddish left-wing issues either, like gender transitions andabortion. Instead, it focuses on priorities that many would consider to beopposed to those things. It guarantees protection from prejudice on the basisof sex, eschewing the preferred leftist lingo of gender self-identification. Itguarantees a right to life for all persons, making no concessions to conceptslike “bodily autonomy” commonly used to justify abortion.

Most importantly, thedocument asserts that the family is: “the natural and fundamental group unit ofsociety and is entitled to protection by society and the State.” It ascribes tothe family a special significance, and goes on to state that international affairsshould be managed with concern for the welfare of the family at the forefront.

These are fundamentallyconservative ideas, and they align with the freedoms acknowledged and protectedby our American Constitution. The UDHR is wholly unconcerned with “wokeissues.”  Instead, it is clearly oriented toward a Judeo-Christianconstruction of liberties that works for the entire world. Its focus is not onthe individual, with its various flaws and idiosyncrasies, or as the Left wouldhave it, traits that demand constant affirmation. Rather, it centers on thefamily — the source of order and contentment on which all healthy societiesare founded.

This fact, recognized in the creation of the State Department’s new Commission, must surely anger many leftists who have sought to undermine this international human rights consensus over the years. Indeed, the global discourse on human rights and progress has been taking on an increasingly disturbing tone for decades. Leftist identitarianism and economic collectivism is becoming ever more difficult to distinguish in tenor from the racial identitarianism and economic collectivism that has foretold numerous dark episodes in modern history.

In 1948, 48 nations came together to create the declaration and say “never again” to the tragedies and reckless debasement of humanity that their century had seen. This new Commission on Unalienable Rights pushes back against toxic trends which are alien to human nature and rights. Given the current state of the human rights debate, this Commission is very necessary, and long overdue.

Photo credit: FDR Presidential Library & Museum via Flickr, CC BY 2.0

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