August 16th, 2010 by Jennifer

Writing in The National Review online, Jacob Mchangama argues that activists who believed that “the so-called Obama effect would lead to America’s championing a new golden era for international human rights” have faced a “rude awakening,” adding that “under Obama, things have taken a turn for the worse.” Mchangama argues that the Obama administration has engaged in the “coddling of tyrants at the U.N.” by proving unwilling to stand up against non-democratic countries such as Russia and China, which have come to dominate the UN Human Rights Council. Mchangama highlights several Arab nations as an example of the U.S.’s failure to criticize “the worst human-rights violators.” He notes that the U.S. was “unable to prevent Muammar Qaddafi’s Libya from becoming a member of the council,” and adds that “the Obama administration has also accepted seemingly harmless compromises that actually chip away at human rights. The best example came in October 2009, when the U.S. and Egypt cosponsored a resolution on freedom of speech that condemned ‘negative religious stereotyping.’” According to Mchangama, this resolution may further enable Egypt to oppress bloggers and other dissidents under bogus charges such as “insulting Islam.” Ultimately, he concludes that the administration must stop “sitting on the fence” and choose between one of two options: either “it must champion the cause of freedom at the U.N. by actively leading a coalition of democracies, confronting authoritarians, and shaming the spoilers”; or it must “build a credible alternative” to the UN as a forum for supporting human rights worldwide.

Posted in Egypt, Human Rights, Libya, US foreign policy, United Nations |