AP Photo/Mel Evans

The Power of Justice
Applying international human rights standards
to American domestic practices
William F. Schulz  June 2009

	

w w w.americanprogress.org

The Power of Justice
Applying international human rights standards to
American domestic practices
William F. Schulz  June 2009

Front Cover Image: In this Jan. 28, 2009, file photo after an overnight snowfall, Neil Floyd starts a fire to keep warm outside his tent in the small tent city,
where he lives with other homeless people in Camden, N.J. More than 37 million Americans live in poverty.

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Introduction and summary
At the heart of the American experiment lies a paradox. A country founded upon a conception of its own uniqueness—an exceptional nation—sought to be a model for other
countries to emulate. To the extent those countries did emulate it, however, the perception
of America as unique began to dissipate. The more countries began to copy the values and
virtues of the American tradition, the more they began to compare America to her own
ideals. The measurer became the measured. And to the extent she fell short of those ideals,
she tended to defend herself through a renewed claim to her own uniqueness. In no small
degree it is the tension between these two characteristics—monotype and template—that
accounts for the United States’ ambivalence toward the rest of the world and the world’s
toward it.

“…our power alone cannot
protect us…our security
emanates from the force
of our example…”
– President Barack
	 Obama’s 2009 Inaugural
	 Address

In terms of human rights, that ambivalence has manifested itself in the coupling of unparalleled leadership with frequent resistance to the implications of that leadership for the
United States itself. Since the end of World War II, no country has been more influential in
the development of the international human rights regimen than the United States, beginning with Franklin Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” speech, the Atlantic Charter, and Eleanor
Roosevelt’s guiding role in the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or
UDHR. At the same time no democratic country has been more reticent to acknowledge
the application of that regimen’s standards to its own domestic performance.
That is in part because the United States has fallen short of those standards in significant
ways. The Bush administration’s unapologetic use of torture, secret prisons, and extraordinary rendition, which clearly violated international legal norms, is but among the most
visible of those shortfalls. But there are many others: The United States is, for example,
the only country in the world that regularly sentences children under 18 years-old to life
incarceration without the possibility of parole and the only country other than Somalia
not to have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, or CRC.1
The United States’ disregard for the international human rights regimen, at the simplest
level, looks like little more than hypocrisy. But, hypocritical though it may be, it reflects
the vagaries of American history, ignorance about the relationship between the country’s
domestic practices and its foreign policy goals, and uncertainty—even among human
rights advocates—about the advantages of framing domestic justice struggles in international human rights terms.

Introduction and summary  |  www.americanprogress.org  1

Now is the time to sort through that confusion.
The United States is, in the first place, emerging from a period that witnessed an unprecedented plunge in its worldwide popularity and credibility caused in good part by its
own human rights violations connected to the so-called “war on terror.” Today, many
Americans are eager to see the United States restore its international standing and they
recognize that will entail pursuing security through diplomacy and international institutions and not just military force.2
Second, Americans strongly support the concept of human rights, including such social
and economic rights as those to food, education, and health care. Seventy-seven percent
of Americans, for example, say the government has an obligation to meet the basic human
need for health care.3
Third, international human rights standards and mechanisms—despite some of those
mechanisms’ shortcomings—hold more promise today than at any time since the passage
of the UDHR in 1948. This is the case thanks to the development of a system of U.N. bodies and special procedures as well as regional human rights courts charged with addressing
human rights violations; the agreement by the member states of the European Union to
submit themselves to common human rights standards; the successes of the War Crimes
Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda; the trials of Alberto Fujimori in Peru and
former Khmer Rouge operatives in Cambodia; the growing recognition of the principle of
universal jurisdiction; the adoption by the United Nations in 2005 of the “responsibility
to protect;” and the establishment of a functioning International Criminal Court that has
recently brought its first indictment against a sitting head of state.
Finally, domestic activists in the United States are finding international human rights laws
and standards more and more useful resources with which to frame and advance their
causes. Organizations as influential as Oxfam International, the American Civil Liberties
Union, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have
adopted human rights language and concepts. And these groups display, in the words of
the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, “increasing awareness of the
importance of connecting the struggle for social justice in the United States to a broader
movement for human rights around the world.”4 The U.S. Human Rights Network was
formed in 2003 and serves as a coordinating body for the work of more than 200 groups
that focus on domestic human rights.5
Moreover, all this is coming at a time when there is at least some reason to believe a new
American administration may be more open to understanding some of its domestic policy
goals in human rights terms. In the second presidential debate, candidate Barack Obama
said that health care “should be a right for every American” and cited as “fundamentally
wrong” his mother’s experience of being denied payment for her treatments as she lay dying
of cancer.6 In his statement on Human Rights Day 2008, the president-elect called upon the
United States to “stand up for human rights, by example at home and by effort abroad.”7

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This is not to say for a moment, however, that the use of language and principles derived
from international human rights instrumentalities is no longer controversial in this country. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has described reference to non-U.S. law by the
Court as “meaningless” but “dangerous” dicta.8 When he was House Majority Leader, Rep.
Tom DeLay (R-TX) called Justice Anthony Kennedy’s nods to international law in several
of his opinions for the majority “outrageous.”9 In the recent tumult over the appointment
of distinguished human rights scholar Harold Hongju Koh to the position of legal advisor
at the U.S. Department of State, opponents have referred to international law as “international imperialism” and a “euphemism for left-wing extremism.”10
Clearly, then, there remains considerable discomfort about submitting American practices
to international review—discomfort that is fueled by America’s self-identity, fears for its
sovereignty, and suspicion—which is in some cases justifiable—of the limits and implications of international jurisprudence, such as in its permitted restrictions on free speech.
This paper is designed to address that resistance not from the standpoint of legal strategy
but from that of policy formation and political action. It will argue that, when done well,
the utilizing of international human rights standards can add significant value to domestic
social justice agendas and it will encourage activists, opinion leaders, policymakers, legislators, and administration officials to think in those terms.
It begins by briefly describing the historical roots of the concept of the United States as an
“exceptional nation” and how that has led to a suspicion of submitting American practices
to international scrutiny (Section I). It then traces how, from the Civil War onward, resistance to the application of international norms to U. S. domestic issues has proven harmful
to the achievement of U.S. foreign policy goals (Section II).
If that is the case, why—other than an historical predilection to exceptionalism—has the
United States traditionally balked at understanding its own domestic problems in human
rights terms? The paper explains the basis upon which civil rights activists themselves
shunned a “human rights” framework and cites other sources of reticence to embrace
international law and standards, such as fears about sovereignty, criticisms of the undemocratic nature of such norms, and conflation of social and economic rights with “socialism”
(Section III).
The paper argues, however, that international law and standards can be an invaluable
resource in bringing about human rights change—change which comes about through
a dynamic combination of social movements with their grassroots advocacy and legal
mandates recognizing “rights” as rights. It then goes on to cite numerous ways in which the
use of an international human rights framework can be advantageous for both advocates
and public officials in pursuit of their respective responsibilities to address domestic social
problems. For advocates, for example, such a framework can provide common standards
against which to measure the shortcoming of domestic policies, provide a common

Introduction and summary  |  www.americanprogress.org  3

language, and introduce new ways of thinking about old problems. For policymakers, it
can increase American security, reinforce the United States’ credibility as a critic, and help
avoid litigation (Section IV).
The paper concludes with a series of recommendations to advocates, policy analysts,
legislators, and policymakers that will advance the application of international human
rights standards and principles to domestic issues. These include, for advocates, focusing major attention on local- and state-level change; framing standards as guiding norms
and not obligations; and making health care reform a “rights” issues. For legislators and
policymakers, recommendations include conforming U. S. law to treaty obligations,
ratifying additional key human rights treaties, adopting requirements for human rights
impact assessments of appropriate legislation and policies, and becoming educated about
implementation of social and economic rights (Section V).
The United States has since 1948 ratified only a handful of human rights treaties and
conventions—in addition to humanitarian treaties, such as the Geneva Conventions.
Those it has ratified it has declared to not be self executing (meaning they cannot be
legally enforceable without enabling legislation) and it has attached a variety of reservations to them, many designed to insure the subordination of the instrument to the U.S.
Constitution.11 Under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, however, upon ratification these treaties become the “supreme Law of the Land” to which “the Judges in every
State” are bound.12 There are of course many other treaties that have not been ratified
and are therefore not legally binding on the United States. And there are also many other
sources of international law, including international custom, decisions of international
judicial bodies, and resolutions of the U.N. Security Council.
In addition to international law, however, there are also “international human rights
standards” that do not necessarily have force of law—for example, recommendations of
U.N. treaty bodies—but reflect international interpretation of “best practices.” Because the
focus of this paper is not a legal one, we will in general refer to “standards” as incorporating
both international law and wisdom. It is not, of course, that the international community
can never be “wrong” about an issue. But, when an authoritative international body has
arrived at a position, it is at least worth considering whether we might not have something
to learn from it.

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Major international human rights treaties and protocols ratified by the United States
The United States has only ratified four key international human rights treaties and two optional protocols
Key treaties and protocols ratified by the United States
•	 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
•	 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (CERD) with reservations
•	 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) with reservations
•	 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (CAT) with notification
•	 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the
involvement of children in armed conflict (CRCOPAC) with declaration
and understanding
•	 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the
sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (CRCOPSC)
with reservation

Key human rights treaties ratified or acceded to
by G20 nations
The United States has ratified or acceded to fewer key human rights
treaties* than all other countries in the G20 group.

	 1.	
	 2.	
	 3.	
	 4.	
	 5.	
	 6.	
	 7.	
	 8.	
	 9.	
	10.	
	11.	
	12.	
	13.	
	14.	
	15.	
	16.	
	17.	
	18.	
	19.	

Argentina: 10
Mexico: 10
Australia: 8
Brazil: 8
France: 8
Germany: 8
Italy: 8
South Korea: 8
Turkey: 8
Canada: 7
China: 7
India: 7
Russia: 7
South Africa: 7
United Kingdom: 7
Indonesia: 6
Japan: 6
Saudi Arabia: 6
United States of America: 4

Key treaties and protocols not ratified or accepted by
the United States
•	 Amendment to Article 8 of the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
•	 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
signed but not ratified
•	 Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
•	 Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (CCPR)
•	 Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War
Crimes and Crimes against Humanity
•	 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the
Crime of Apartheid
•	 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW) signed but not ratified
•	 Amendment to article 20, paragraph 1 of the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
•	 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
•	 Amendments to articles 17(7) and 18(5) of the Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (CAT)
•	 Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT)
•	 International Convention against Apartheid in Sports
•	 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) signed but not ratified
•	 Amendment to article 43(2) of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child (CRC)
•	 Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty (CCPR)
•	 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and members of their Families (CMW)
•	 Agreement establishing the Fund for the Development of the
Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean
•	 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
•	 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities
•	 International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from
Enforced Disappearance

* Key human rights treaties: Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948; International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), 1966; International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), 1966; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), 1966; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),
1979; Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), 1984; Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), 1989; International Convention on the Protection of the Rights
of All Migrant Workers and members of their Families, 1990; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2006; International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, 2006
Source: United Nations Treaty Body Database, Status by Country: http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/Statusfrset?OpenFrameSet; Status of Ratifications of the Principle International Human Rights Treaties:
http://www.unhchr.ch/pdf/report.pdf

Introduction and summary  |  www.americanprogress.org  5

I. The roots of exceptionalism
I suspect that with time,
we will rely increasingly on
international and foreign
law in resolving what now
appear to be domestic issues,
as we both appreciate more
fully the ways in which
domestic issues have international dimensions, and
recognize the rich resources
available to us in the decisions of foreign courts.
– Supreme Court Justice
	 Sandra Day O’Connor13

Above all, the Puritans were separatists. When Governor John Winthrop led his company
of more than 1,000 men, women, and children to their new home in Massachusetts Bay in
1630, he did so not only because his religious community had come under pressure from
both King Charles I and his high-church Bishop William Laud to conform their practices
to Anglo-Catholic order and discipline. He did so also because he and his community
wished to found a more “pure” church, an “unspotted” society, a New Jerusalem, what
Winthrop famously called “a city on a hill,” distinct and separate from all others.
For our purposes the “hill” part of the formula was as important as the city part. The city
was indeed intended to distinguish itself for its saintliness. It was to stand as living proof
that a community could succeed by taking God’s unmediated Word as its sole guide. But it
was not to be a light unto itself. The city had to be set not in a valley but “on a hill” where
others could see it, the eyes of all people to be upon it that, as Winthrop so pointedly put
it, “men shall say of succeeding plantations, ‘The Lord make it like that of New England.’”14
Founded for such a purpose and dedicated to such a mission, the United States—at least
the majority white population of the United States—could hardly help but see itself as
exceptional. The New World was not the Old; it did not want to be. It was unencumbered
by the stains of the Old; it was a fresh lamp unto the nations. And throughout American
history that sense of blessedness, of separateness—coupled with the conviction that
America was an estimable model for others to imitate—has rarely been far from the minds
of both leaders and citizens. The Declaration of Independence, for example, invoked the
protection of Divine Providence on a course of action that was being announced not
solely for the king’s ears or those of the British Parliament but out of “a decent respect to
the opinions of mankind.”
Repeatedly Americans had reason to see themselves as touched by God’s special grace.
The nation’s survival of a blood-wrenching Civil War. The successful implementation of
a Manifest Destiny to conquer the continent. The fact that the continent was populated
by a “nation of immigrants” fleeing what were by definition less desirable realms for the
American Promised Land. The extension of the imperium across the seas to Cuba, the
Philippines, Hawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico. The completion of the greatest technological achievement of the age, the Panama Canal, a challenge that the French had notably
flunked. Or, more recently, the twice-told rescue of Europe from two great wars, the first
man on the moon, and the defeat of Communism.

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Americans found, in all this, evidence of the exceptional nature of their country and,
indeed, there is an element of truth in the telling. The U.S. Constitution and political system have been models for dozens of other countries; the United States has maintained for
well more than two centuries a stable democracy that is the envy of millions of the world’s
inhabitants; and the United States remains the globe’s preeminent military, economic, and
diplomatic power.
But, paradoxically, as the rest of the world has more and more readily adopted norms
associated with American values—representative democracy, an array of freedoms, and
respect for due process and the rule of law—and institutionalized those norms in law and
practice, the United States has grown increasingly resistant to allowing scrutiny of its own
behavior by others.
The truth is that many of the major human rights developments of the last 65 years—from
the Nuremburg and Tokyo trials to the founding of the United Nations, to the adoption
of the UDHR to the creation of the original U.N. Human Rights Commission, to the War
Crimes Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda—would not have occurred
without the support, explicit or tacit, of the United States. American representatives even
played a crucial role in the origin and shaping of the statutes for the International Criminal
Court right up until the moment the United States declined to endorse the final version. It
is as if the country, having helped usher in the international human rights regimen, threw
up its hands and bewailed what it hath wrought—at least as far as that regimen might be
applicable to itself.
That resistance has not always been as draconian as Senator John Bricker’s attempts in
the early 1950s to circumscribe the president’s ability to sign all human rights treaties or
the George W. Bush administration’s nose-thumbing at the Geneva Conventions. More
frequently it has taken the form of such things as foot-dragging with regard to the ratification of treaties (the first one ratified, the Genocide Convention, for example, was signed
by President Harry Truman in 1948, entered into force in 1951, but not ratified by the
Senate until 1988.) Or the inclusion of reservations to the treaties and insistence that they
are not self executing, as already noted. Or infrequency of citation by American courts of
international law even when international law would bolster arguments being made on
other grounds. Or lack of cooperation with U.N. special rapporteurs who are appointed to
investigate allegations of human rights abuses. Or tardiness in submitting reports to U.N.
treaty bodies. Or attempts to undermine the International Criminal Court. Or a general
skepticism about the legitimacy of social and economic rights despite their prominent
inclusion in the UDHR for which the United States voted in 1948.
Whether such resistance to recognize human rights standards domestically is a bad case
of “creator’s prerogative;” an instinct to protect the uniqueness of the American “brand;”
the conviction—as foreign policy realists would have it—that the responsibilities of the
“world’s sole remaining superpower” cannot be squared with any compromise of sovereignty; or simple neoconservative pridefulness in American superiority, this resistance

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has often been damaging to the country’s own foreign policy goals, not to mention to
American citizens and residents who live without recognition of some rights.
America’s disregard for international human rights standards within its own borders has,
for example, put us at odds with allies, often attracting contempt from European governments. It has handed fodder to adversaries, allowing Al Qaeda to claim that the United
States is conducting a “war on Islam” or Sudanese politicians to assert that their defiance of
a warrant from the International Criminal Court for the arrest of Sudan’s president merely
follows the lead of the United States, which is not a signatory to the court.15 And it has
deprived the United States of invaluable resources with which to address issues of injustice
and inequity in its own house.
Among the most serious results have been the threats it has engendered to our security
interests and foreign policy goals. When the United States has failed to live up to its highest values at home, it has invited jeopardy abroad. And that, as we shall see in a moment,
has been true going back at least to the Civil War.

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II. The security consequences
of domestic injustice
The modern human rights era may be dated from the adoption of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. But long before that the “international community” began to coalesce around certain values that today would go by the name of “human
rights.” Sometimes the adoption of those standards was formal and identified with one
moment in time as with the First Geneva Convention, known officially as the Convention
for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field, instituted
by common agreement in 1864. Other times the emergence of values was more gradual
but steady nonetheless. The abolition of slavery is an example.
By the time of the American Civil War, slavery had acquired the status of a broadly
prohibited practice and abolition was the equivalent of a widely accepted international
norm. Slavery and/or the slave trade was abolished in Lithuania and Japan in 1588; in
Russia in 1723; followed by Portugal (1761); Denmark/Norway (1803); Lower Canada
(1803); Haiti (1804); Prussia (1807); Argentina (1813); The Netherlands (1814);
France (1818); Greece (1822); Mexico (1829); and the British Empire (1834), to name
a few. Even the United States forbade the importation of slaves—though not of course the
institution of slavery itself—after 1808.
Both Great Britain and France, despite themselves having abolished slavery years before,
were far more kindly disposed to the Confederacy than they were to the federal government for the first year and a half of the Civil War. Both countries were dependent upon
the trade in cotton with the South and the Confederate government had done a skillful
job of wooing Europe’s two greatest powers into seriously considering offering military
assistance against the North. The conflict had been presented by President Abraham
Lincoln as a war to preserve the union, fearful as he was that border states would side with
the Confederacy if the goal of Union victory was to free the slaves. Many Europeans saw
the Confederate cause as a battle for self-determination—a cause that had far more appeal
than a fight to maintain a union that represented a potentially competitive empire.

…United States ratification of the Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights
at this moment in history
would underscore our
natural commitment to
fostering democratic values
through international
law…U.S. ratification
would also strengthen our
ability to influence the
development of appropriate human rights principles in the international
community….
– President George H.
	 W. Bush16

On January 1, 1863, however, all that changed with Lincoln’s issuing of the Emancipation
Proclamation. Now any possibility of a European alliance with slaveholders became
unthinkable because the war ceased to be just an internal domestic squabble pitting one
section of the United States against another. Now it was about a fundamental moral issue
that had long been resolved in Europe. No European government that had to pay the least

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attention to the sentiment of its own people could take sides against an American government that was trying to destroy slavery. The only practical course for Britain and France
was to stay militarily neutral—a decision that contributed to the South’s ultimate demise.
By acting in ways consistent with prevailing international rights standards, Lincoln had
taken a giant step toward the saving of the union.17
That is perhaps the most dramatic example of how domestic human rights practices have
influenced the United States’ international standing and relations with the rest of the
world, but it is far from the only one. Fear of the so-called “Yellow Peril” and the vicious
attacks, both verbal and physical, on Asian immigrants that resulted—first on the Chinese
in the late 19th century and then the Japanese in the early 20th—colored the perception
of the United States in Asia for generations. When President Rutherford Hayes vetoed a
bill in 1879 that forbade any ship to import more than 15 Chinese on any one trip, The
New York Tribune described his actions as having “saved the character of the country from
humiliation among the family of nations.”18 But Hayes’ restraint was soon overshadowed
by anti-Chinese riots and the cold-blooded massacre of 28 Chinese coal miners in Rock
Spring, Wyoming, in 1885—developments that infuriated the Chinese government and
ultimately forced the payment of indemnities by the United States.
The inspiration Adolf Hitler derived from American treatment of Native Americans was
referenced by acclaimed historian John Toland in his 1976 biography of Hitler. “Hitler’s
concept of concentration camps as well as the practicality of genocide,” Toland wrote,
“owed much, so he claimed, to his studies of…United States history. He admired the
camps… for the Indians in the Wild West; and often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America’s extermination… of the red savages.”19
American eugenics laws provided another connection with the genocidal policies of the
Third Reich. In the first part of the 20th century, laws designed to preserve a Nordic stereotype and eliminate humans deemed “unfit” through forced sterilization and restrictions
on marriage were enacted in some 27 states. Ultimately as many as 60,000 Americans were
subjected to such laws. German scientists had been fascinated by eugenics since the late
19th century, but it was the United States’ translation of eugenics into law—coupled with
close collaboration between German and American researchers and major funding by
American foundations, notably the Rockefeller Foundation—that accelerated the enforcement of “race science” by the Nazis.20 As law professor Paul Lombardo has put it recently,
“It’s pretty clear that the German scientists who stood at Hitler’s elbow knew all about
eugenics… but looked to America for precedents that they could rely on and justify some
of their own activities.”21
Since 1945, and the explicit articulation of human rights principles in the U.N. charter
and the UDHR, the line between violations of those principles and damage to the United
States’ interests has been even easier to draw. Joseph McCarthy’s indifference to due
process rights, for example, famously prompted President Truman to call the senator “the

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best asset the Kremlin has” for attempting to “sabotage the foreign policy of the United
States” during the Cold War. What McCarthy was doing, Truman said, was like shooting
American soldiers in the back.22
In 1957, the world watched a white mob prevent African-American parents from enrolling
their children in Little Rock High School. President Dwight Eisenhower went on television to explain his decision to send troops to Little Rock: “Our enemies are gloating over
this incident and using it everywhere to misrepresent our whole nation,” he said. “We are
portrayed as a violator of those standards of conduct which the peoples of the world united
to proclaim in the Charter of the United Nations. [Enforcing the law] will restore the image
of America and of all its parts as one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”23
Indeed, since the end of the Second World War, the Soviets had cleverly used the existence
of racial segregation and inequality in the United States to taint all American values. Mary
Dudziak, a scholar of the civil rights movement, argues that one of the major motives for
the federal government’s eventual passage and enforcement of civil rights legislation was
to counter such damaging Soviet propaganda.24 As Dean Rusk, John Kennedy’s secretary
of state, lamented, “The U.S. is widely regarded as… the leader of the struggle for freedom,
for human rights, for human dignity. We are expected to be the model. So our failures to
live up to our proclaimed ideals are noted and magnified…”25
More recently, the former U.S. ambassador to France, Felix Rohatyn, wrote in the New
York Times in 2006, “…no single issue [is viewed in Europe] with as much hostility as our
support for the death penalty…When we require European support on security issues…
our job is made more difficult.”26 In fact, the European Parliament voted not to extradite
suspects to the United States who are accused of crimes for which they might be executed
without assurances that they would not be.27
But the death penalty is hardly the only arena in which domestic politics and practices
result in the United States being isolated and subject to international derision. The world
looked on in horror in 2005 as the federal government failed to respond adequately
to the fundamental needs of the people of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina. In 2006, as a result of pressure from the American gun lobby, the United States
was the only country to vote against a U.N. treaty to curb the trade in small guns and
light weapons.28 Also in 2006 the United States attracted opprobrium from the U.N.
Human Rights Committee, a body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, or ICCPR, for failing to
uphold the standards set forth in the ICCPR—from the use of torture to the treatment
of racial minorities, the impoverished, and those of minority sexual orientations.29 The
United States again drew criticism from the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination in 2008, which derided it for sentencing over 2,500 youth offenders—a
disproportionate number of whom are persons of color—to life sentences without parole,
and for racial disparities in sentencing for offenses involving crack cocaine.30

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U.S. human rights violations as cited by international bodies
In 2006 the U.N. Human Rights Committee, monitoring
compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, or ICCPR, cited the following violations,
among others, by the United States:
•	 Detaining people secretly and in secret places for months and years on end.
•	 Employing enhanced interrogation techniques, such as prolonged stress
positions and isolation, sensory deprivation, hooding, exposure to cold or
heat, sleep and dietary adjustments, 20-hour interrogations, removal of
clothing and deprivation of all comfort and religious items, forced grooming, and exploitation of detainees’ individual phobias.
•	 Torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
•	 De facto racial segregation in public schools that is reportedly caused by
discrepancies between the racial and ethnic composition of large urban
districts and their surrounding suburbs, and the manner in which schools
districts are created, funded, and regulated.
•	 A widespread incidence of violent crime perpetrated against gay, lesbian,
bisexual, and transgender groups.
•	 Poor Americans, and in particular African Americans, were disadvantaged
by the rescue and evacuation plans implemented when Hurricane Katrina
hit the United States.
•	 A persistence of employment discrimination against women.
•	 A disproportionate imposition of the death penalty on ethnic minorities
and low-income groups.
•	 Conditions in some maximum security prisons wherein detainees are not

In 2008 the Concluding Observations of the U.N. Committee
on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, monitoring
compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination, or CERD, cited the following violations,
among others, by the United States:
•	 Widespread racial profiling practices.
•	 Increase in racial profiling against Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians in the
wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
•	 A disproportionate concentration of racial, ethnic, and national minorities,
especially Latino and African-American persons, in poor residential areas
characterized by sub-standard housing conditions, limited employment
opportunities, inadequate access to health care facilities, underresourced
schools, and high exposure to crime and violence.
•	 Persistent racial disparities in the criminal justice system, including the disproportionate number of persons belonging to racial, ethnic, and national
minorities in the prison population.
•	 Excessive or deadly use of force by law enforcement officials against persons
belonging to racial, ethnic, or national minorities, in particular Latino and
African-American persons and undocumented migrants crossing the U.S.Mexico border.
•	 Incidences of rape and sexual violence against women belonging to
racial, ethnic, and national minority groups, particularly American Indian
and Alaska Native women and female migrant workers, especially
domestic workers.
•	 Nuclear testing, toxic, and dangerous waste storage, mining, or logging,

treated humanely and with respect, including being held in prolonged cellu-

carried out or planned in areas of spiritual and cultural significance to

lar confinement and allowed out-of-cell recreation only five hours per week.

Native Americans that negatively affect the lives and activities of indig-

•	 Shackling of detained women during childbirth.
•	 Incarceration of children under the age of 18 for life sentences without parole.
•	 Disenfranchisement of 5 million citizens due to a felony conviction.
•	 Extinguishing of tribal property rights without due process and
fair compensation.
Source: U.N. Human Rights Committee Concluding Observations, United States of America (2006), available at http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/898586b1dc7b4043c1256a450044f331/0d83f7fe89d83ed6c125
71fb00411eb5/$FILE/G0644318.pdf.

12  Center for American Progress  |  The Power of Justice

enous peoples.
•	 Large numbers of persons belonging to racial, ethnic, and national minorities still remain without health insurance and face numerous obstacles to
adequate health care and services.
•	 Wide racial disparities continue to exist in the field of sexual and reproductive health, particularly the high maternal and infant mortality rates among
women and children belonging to racial, ethnic, and national minorities,
especially African Americans.
Source: U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Concluding Observations, United
States of America (2008), available at http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G08/419/82/PDF/
G0841982.pdf?OpenElement

International development goals have also been adversely affected by domestic politics.
There is a direct correlation between the empowerment of women and the successful
economic development of societies.31 Yet the Bush administration’s “gag rule,” which was
instituted at the behest of anti-choice advocates and denied U.S. assistance to women’s
health service providers overseas who offered information about abortions, along with
the administration’s insistence on funding abstinence-only policies to combat AIDS in
Africa, had a disproportionate effect on women. Those policies thereby undermined the
Millennium Development Goals and the United States’ capacity to combat poverty in developing countries.
It almost goes without saying at this point that the many violations of international law
and standards carried out in the name of combating terrorism have done enormous damage to America’s reputation. In 1998, 59 percent of citizens in Great Britain and 61 percent
in Germany—two of the United States’ staunchest allies—said America was doing a “good
job” in advancing human rights around the world. By 2006, due to Guantanamo Bay, Abu
Ghraib, and other markers of disdain for human rights, those numbers had fallen to 22
percent and 24 percent respectively.32
When Muslims are subjected to racial profiling, such discriminatory treatment makes it
easier for Al Qaeda to characterize the United States’ response to terrorism as a “war on
Islam.” In 2002, for example, the Immigration and Naturalization Service required male
visitors to the United States from 25 countries—all of them Arab and Muslim except
North Korea—to be fingerprinted, photographed, and questioned by authorities. And in
2005 the FBI conducted radiation testing of large numbers of American mosques in the
absence of evidence of criminal activity.33
Similarly, just as the Soviet Union once reaped benefits from exploiting the existence
of racial discrimination in the United States, so the Chinese have a field day every year
responding to the State Department’s criticisms of Chinese human rights abuses by citing American failings. These include the practice of sentencing children to life in prison
without parole or the fact that the number of people living in poverty in the United States
increased from 36.5 million in 2006 to 37.3 million in 2007.
The latter citation indicates that shortcomings in the area of social and economic rights
can also have implications for U.S. foreign policy goals. If the United States, for example,
recognized a human right to health, it is likely that its approach to the drug wars would
focus far more on prevention and treatment than punishment and prison time. That, in
turn, would diminish the market for illegal drugs that fuels narcotrafficking, violence on
the southern border, and instability in Mexico.
Joseph Nye, the renowned coiner of the phrase “soft power,” has described how an open
attitude toward immigration can enhance America’s strategic interests:

II. The security consequences of domestic injustice  |  www.americanprogress.org  13

The fact that people want to come to the United States enhances our appeal… America
is a magnet, and many people can envision themselves as Americans. Many successful
Americans “look like” people in other countries. Moreover, connections between immigrants and their families and friends back home help to convey accurate and positive
information about the United States. In addition, the presence of multiple cultures creates avenues of connection with other countries and helps create a necessary broadening
of American attitudes in an era of globalization…it would be a mistake for Americans
to reject immigration. Rather than diluting our hard and soft power, it enhances both.34
Conversely, every time an immigrant is treated shabbily—when, for example, immigrant
children or asylum seekers are incarcerated in punitive conditions or when immigrants in
detention are manhandled, held with the general prison population, or denied adequate
medical care—the stories of their suffering work their way back to their native lands and
diminish the United States in the population’s eyes.35
Moreover, as Nye, Thomas Friedman, Leslie Gelb, and many other respected foreign
policy analysts have repeatedly pointed out, to stay competitive in a globalized world the
United States must rectify shortcomings in its educational system, the exorbitant cost of
its health care, and the failure to provide what Friedman has called “lifetime employability,” which he characterizes not as the guarantee of a lifetime job but “the chance to make
[oneself] more employable.”36
This means that addressing social and economic rights to close the achievement gap
between well-off children and others—a gap that is above the average for the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development’s 29 industrialized nations—is not just
a nice idea. It is a matter of national security, as is the need to make health care more
affordable or job retraining more accessible in order for dollars and productivity not to be
wasted.37 Among other things, failure to improve such conditions makes it harder to find
healthy, educationally qualified recruits for an all-volunteer army that often draws from the
lower economic strata of the society. It also leaves the United States vulnerable to international economic pressures as President Obama has discovered when he has tried to convince European nations—which have far stronger safety nets than the United States—to
join in stimulus spending to end the recession.38
In all these ways and more international human rights standards point the way to a safer,
stronger America that is more respected and more economically resilient—to say nothing of more just. As President-elect Obama put it in his Human Rights Day statement
on December 10, 2008, standing up for human rights “strengthen[s] our security and
well-being, because the abuse of human rights can feed many of the global dangers that we
confront.”39 But if that is the case, then why have Americans and their leaders been at best
indifferent and at times downright hostile to the application of international standards to
our domestic practices?

14  Center for American Progress  |  The Power of Justice

III. The reasons for resistance
On one level it is not surprising that the United States would be reticent to submit itself to
the standards and scrutiny of others given the history of American self pride and exceptionalism that we have recounted earlier. Nobody likes to be told what to do about their
own affairs, least of all the most powerful country on earth. And nobody likes to think they
fall short of other people’s expectations, especially if they think of themselves as a leader.
The easiest response to such scrutiny and censure is to question both the standards
themselves and the actors who are applying them. These dual tactics have been frequently
employed by the United States. By attaching reservations to international human rights
treaties it has ratified; declaring that they were not self executing; and failing even to consider a wide variety of other treaties, particularly those dealing with economic, social, and
cultural rights, the United States has asserted that international human rights law is only
as good as one nation’s legislature and constitution say it is. These actions have served to
effectively emasculate those standards, at least in the eyes of U.S. courts and policymakers,
if not the public.
At the same time American leaders have often denigrated those who sought to hold them
accountable. John Bolton, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, has called
the recent American decision to rejoin the U.N. Human Rights Council, “like getting on
the Titanic after it’s hit the iceberg.”40 This is not to say that the council and other international human rights institutions have not sometimes provided ammunition for their
adversaries. The shortcomings of the United Nations and its human rights bodies—their
ineffectiveness, excessive bureaucracy, and perceived bias against Israel, for example—
have reinforced the message that flawed institutions are trying to foist superfluous norms
on a country which is doing pretty well without them.

Yet this peace we seek
cannot be born of fear
alone: it must be rooted in
the lives of nations. There
must be justice, sensed and
shared by all peoples, for,
without justice the world
can know only a tense and
unstable truce. There must
be law, steadily invoked and
respected by all nations,
for without law, the world
promises only such meager
justice as the pity of the
strong upon the weak. But
the law of which we speak,
comprehending the values
of freedom, affirms the
equality of all nations, great
and small.
– President Dwight
	 D. Eisenhower41

Underlying all these efforts to discredit the application of human rights standards to U.S.
behavior has been a conviction in the United States that human rights violations—to
the extent that they should be taken seriously at all—occur only in other countries. That
conviction arose in part because of the inadequate response of human rights institutions to
the American civil rights movement.
The U.S. civil rights movement’s goals were completely congruent with the principles
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but it received little active support from
the United Nations and its human rights bodies. In large part that was because from its

III. The reasons for resistance  |  www.americanprogress.org  15

creation in 1946 until the emergence of African colonial movements in the late 1960s,
the U.N. Human Rights Commission declined to investigate or critique the practices of
member states under the theory that such criticism would be a breach of their sovereignty.
In December of 1951, for example, the Civil Rights Congress submitted a petition to the
United Nations descrying lynching but the organization took no action.42
Moreover, the pursuit of social and economic rights came to be associated with the
agenda of the Soviet Union during the cold war years. The leaders of the early struggle for
equitable treatment of African Americans saw little value in appeals to international law or
bodies and feared that framing a domestic rights struggle in terms of human rights might
smack too much of communism. They therefore adopted the terminology of “civil rights”
rather than “human rights” since the former seemed more resonant with an appeal to the
highest values of the American tradition.
At the same time, long-term international human rights organizations—such as the
International Federation of Human Rights founded in 1922—and emergent ones—most
notably Amnesty International, formed in 1961—were focusing their energies solely on
violations of traditional political rights, such as the right to freedom of belief. They had
little to say about the U.S. civil rights struggle and nothing at all to say about social and
economic rights. The fact that international human rights organizations have historically
been predominantly run by whites from highly developed countries in Europe and North
America only underscored the problem.
These developments contributed to a perception among Americans, including activists,
that “human rights” referred to problems overseas and “civil rights” to issues at home.
Since the United States—unlike communist states—was perceived to welcome political
dissent, it had no “human rights” problem itself—only a “civil rights” problem that it was
thought to be steadily and successfully addressing. The absence of a “culture” of acquaintance with human rights among Americans can be in large measure attributed to this
dynamic.
A new situation presented itself with the end of the Cold War. First, since member states of
the international community were no longer forced to choose between the United States
and the Soviet Union, they began to critically examine the practices of the sole remaining
hegemonic power, often in the name of “human rights.” Second, American policymakers’
lack of understanding of the notion of “progressive realization” as applied to social and
economic rights led to an assumption that the fulfillment of rights would require a whole
new set of entitlement claims that could end up being very costly. Policymakers conflated
social and economic rights with “socialism” and the European welfare state.43 Third and
perhaps most importantly, the suspicion with which such treaties as the Convention on
the Rights of the Child or on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women were met by conservative commentators and political leaders reflected a fear that
foreign entities were trying to expand the circle of rights at the expense of the sovereignty
and prerogatives of the world’s most powerful nation.

16  Center for American Progress  |  The Power of Justice

Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), erstwhile candidate for the Republican nomination
for president, captured that fear perfectly in a 2003 speech on the floor of the House of
Representatives:
If we do not [reassert our national sovereignty], rest assured that the U.N. will continue
to interfere not only in our nation’s foreign policy matters, but in our domestic policies as
well. U.N. globalists are not satisfied by meddling only in international disputes. They
increasingly want to influence our domestic environmental, trade, labor, tax, and gun
laws… The choice is very clear: We either follow the Constitution or submit to U.N.
global governance. American national sovereignty cannot survive if we allow our domestic laws to be crafted or even influenced by an international body.44
The United States’ veto on the Security Council, which precludes the United Nations’
“meddling” in U.S. affairs, and the fact that—short of genocide or ethnic cleansing—the
United Nations is by charter indisposed to interfere in matters of domestic sovereignty,
both mean that Paul would be hard pressed to back up his fears with concrete examples.
Related to this sovereignty argument, however, is the criticism by conservative theorists
that international law is not determined by majority vote of elected representatives of the
people and hence is less valid, credible, or “democratic” than domestic law. This criticism
is propagated despite the fact that (1) under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution (as
we have noted), treaties ratified by the Senate become the law of the land and (2) critics of
applying international law domestically rarely have any problem endorsing its use against
adversaries of the United States such as Saddam Hussein or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.45
For all these reasons, the application of human rights law and standards to American
policies and practices is controversial—so controversial in fact that resolutions have
repeatedly been introduced in Congress in recent years that would prohibit judges from
citing international law in their decisions and in some cases impeach them if they do.46
Nonetheless, more and more U.S. courts, particularly at the state level, are citing international human rights laws. Even Supreme Court justices—most notably moderate justices
such as Anthony Kennedy and former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor—have incorporated
references to international law and practice in their opinions to bolster some of their decisions. Despite these developments, international human rights law remains fundamentally
unenforceable because judges at all levels of government do not generally recognize its
applicability—at least in any consistent way—in U.S. courts.47
The use of a human rights lexicon in the United States is often politically unpalatable as
well. “If we want a piece of proposed legislation to pass the California Assembly,” one
water rights activist said, “we avoid inserting the word ‘rights’ into the draft at all costs.”48
Furthermore, even those politicians and policy analysts who are potential “friends” of
international human rights standards are frequently unaware of the ways in which the
standards’ use can expand horizons and clarify options for getting their rights-based public
policies adopted and enforced.

III. The reasons for resistance  |  www.americanprogress.org  17

State court rulings drawing on international human rights law
A number of state courts have drawn on key international treaties to mandate human rights protections
•	 California courts cited the Universal Declaration to support interpretations of the right to practice one’s trade, the right to privacy, the meaning of “physical handicap,” the right to freedom of movement, and the
scope of welfare provisions.

the state constitution’s provision on the treatment of prisoners.
•	 Commonwealth v. Sadler (1979): Pennsylvania trial court reviewed the
state’s failure to provide a 15-year-old defendant with schooling while
in custody in light of the Universal Declaration.

•	 Simmons v. Roper (2005): Missouri Supreme Court cited the Convention
on the Rights of the Child in striking down the juvenile death penalty.
•	 State v. Robert H. (1978): New Hampshire Supreme Court relied on the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant
on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in its interpretation of parental
rights under the state constitution.

•	 Bott v. DeLand (1996): Utah Supreme Court used the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to help define constitutional
standards for the treatment of prisoners.
•	 Eggert v. Seattle (1973): Washington Supreme Court looked to the
Universal Declaration to reject Seattle’s residency requirements for civil
service position applicants.

•	 New York courts invoked the Universal Declaration in cases involving
the rights to work and to strike, a transnational discovery dispute, and
the Act of State doctrine.

•	 Pauley v. Kelly (1979): West Virginia Supreme Court invoked the Universal Declaration to review the financing scheme for public schools and to
define the right to education.

•	 Sterling v. Cupp (1981): Oregon Supreme Court looked to the Universal
Declaration, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and
the European Convention on Human Rights to interpret the meaning of

Drawn from: Opportunity Agenda, “Human Rights in State Courts: An Overview and
Recommendations for Legal Advocacy” (2008).

So what use are international human rights standards to the struggle for a more just
America, given these hard facts? Some activists argue that it is best to avoid citing international law, treaties, and obligations when making appeals to public officials and policymakers because they tend to make listeners’ eyes glaze over, and can provoke outright hostility.
Others insist that reference to those obligations adds considerable power to their arguments. Deciding how best to use international human rights standards depends upon one’s
theory of human rights change and the audience to which one is appealing.

18  Center for American Progress  |  The Power of Justice

IV. International standards and
human rights change
Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh, in his oft-cited essay, “How is International
Human Rights Law Enforced?” asks why we buckle our seatbelts today when we didn’t 25
years ago—even though we know we are unlikely to get arrested for failing to do so. The
answer, he says, is that a mutually reinforcing combination of self interest, legal coercion,
community pressure, and ultimately a shift in personal identity has brought about a change
in norms. The last of those factors is the most important. “As always,” Koh goes on, “the
best way to enforce legal norms is not to coerce action, not to impose sanctions, but to
change the way people think about themselves…to bring rules home, to internalize rules
inside themselves…”49
If this is true, then the fact that international human rights law is not regularly cited by
Congress or the Supreme Court is less important than that the principles it embodies be
gradually incorporated—acculturated, as it were—into our thinking, our nomenclature,
and our identity as a people. Cynthia Soohoo has noted in her essay “Bringing Theories of
Human Right Change Home” in the Fordham Law Review that how that happens depends
largely upon the action of grassroots social movements, which often have their initial
impact at the local or state level. Those grassroots movements are particularly important
in bringing about human rights change because if the United States insists when it ratifies
international human rights treaties that those treaties are not self executing and require
legislation to put rights into effect, popular pressure for such legislation will be invaluable
if rights are to mean anything in an American context.

The overwhelming weight
of international opinion against the juvenile
death penalty…provides
respected and significant
confirmation for the Court’s
determination that the
penalty is disproportionate
punishment for offenders
under 18.
– Supreme Court Justice
	 Anthony Kennedy52

The seatbelt illustration is an enlightening one for understanding how norms change,
even though it hardly involves human rights. In 1954 the American Medical Association,
or AMA, first called for the installation of lap belts in all automobiles and that call was
magnified by advocates petitioning legislatures to require cars sold in their states to feature
lap belts. In 1961 New York State became the first state to do so. Over the next two years,
22 states followed suit and by 1965 all U.S. auto manufacturers had complied, recognizing
that a huge swath of their market would be off limits if they failed to install lap belts.50 The
automakers did not comply without stiff resistance, however, as Ralph Nader’s groundbreaking work, Unsafe At Any Speed, also published in 1965, made clear.51
But featuring seat belts in cars and getting people to wear them were two different
things. The first mandatory seatbelt law was not adopted until New York State did so in
1984— almost two decades after manufacturers had begun to carry the device as a mat-

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ter of course. Did Americans really fail to understand for 19 years that wearing a seatbelt
increased their odds of surviving an auto accident unscathed?
The truth is that it took almost two decades for the norms about seatbelt use to change
sufficiently to overcome the resistance offered by the image of seatbelt wearers as “sissies,”
by plain old bad habits, and by a misplaced defense of personal liberty.53 That change came
about through a combination of dramatic advertisements and educational campaigns
sponsored by citizens’ groups, the Ad Council, and others about the ghastly consequences
of failing to use seat belts; a growing chorus of advice offered by opinion leaders, health
professionals, drivers’ education teachers, insurance companies, and parents that using
seat belts was the wise thing to do; and legislation pushed by advocacy groups that both
reinforced that wisdom and made seat belt use a mark of a law-abiding citizen.
The result today is that a majority of Americans use their seat belts not because they fear
the long arm of the law but because they don’t want to be thought of either as stupid or as
scofflaws. This point is reinforced by the fact that even though 68 percent of Americans
actually wear their belts, 80 percent say that they do.54

Advocacy: WEAK

What is the lesson to be drawn for the struggle for human rights from this brief case study
in social change? That to bring about changes in norms requires two things: First, social
movements must be engaged in strong advocacy for recognition of “rights,” often first at
a subfederal level; and second, legal mandates (or
changes in policy) must codify or recognize those
How successful change happens
“rights” as rights. Those norm changes will usually
Norm changes in society begin at the advocacy level and are then
be initiated at the advocacy level—sometimes they
instantiated in law or policy
may be initiated by a ruling of a court—but if they
remain uninstantiated in law or policy, they are all
Law/Policy: WEAK
STRONG
but useless.
Quadrant 1
When there is weak advocacy
support and no legal or policy
mandate nothing changes. This
is the case today with regard to
casting freedom from poverty as
a human right.

Quadrant 2
When there is a clear legal mandate but tepid grassroots support, rights are under continuing
attack. Supreme Court decisions
regarding prayer and other
religious expressions in schools
represent an example.

STRONG

Quadrant 3

Quadrant 4

When there is active advocacy
support but a weak or emerging
legal mandate, rights are in flux,
as is the case with the recognition
of same-sex marriage.

Where there are both strong
popular support and a clear legal
or policy mandate, rights have
been established, as with many
civil rights provisions today.

20  Center for American Progress  |  The Power of Justice

But the establishment of legal mandates and polices
is not the end of the story. By their very existence,
those laws and policies will change the behavior and
attitudes of a certain number of people who will conform to those mandates because they see themselves
as law-abiding citizens. But if a significant percentage of the public remains unconvinced and resists
implementation, those changes risk being denied
legitimacy and rolled back. Advocates therefore need
to remain ever vigilant.
For all the reasons outlined in the previous section,
the struggle to incorporate international human
rights standards into domestic law and practice is

still in its infancy and largely at the initial acculturation stage. Social movements themselves are only now beginning to appreciate the standards’ usefulness, and politicians,
policymakers, and jurists are often unaware, indifferent, or even hostile to their application. This means that to incorporate those standards into U.S. law and practice will require
different strategies for different audiences. The appeal of international human rights
standards to social movements may differ from the way the principles embodied in those
standards can be made appealing to lawmakers, public officials, and policy analysts—to
say nothing of judges.

Making human rights standards appealing to advocates
The first challenge to applying human rights standards to domestic policies is to convince
social justice activists and organizers at the grassroots and NGO levels that utilizing an
international human rights framework will in fact add value to their efforts.
International human rights standards can provide common measurements against
which to compare domestic policies and expose shortcomings. One of the characteris-

tics of almost all social justice movements is their fragmentation. There are often dozens
of NGOs, small and large, working on human rights change from a variety of different
perspectives. Such fragmentation often diminishes effectiveness and offers adversaries an
entry point to exploit weaknesses. International standards provide a common plumb line
that all can use to hold public officials and policymakers accountable.
They can provide a common language. “Human rights” refer to concepts that cut across

race, ethnicity, and culture. They describe universal problems and promises and claims to
justice that transcend any one nation but have the imprimatur of the global community.
When problems are framed in human rights terms, all affected groups can identify with
the issue and feel solidarity with one another, thus reducing competition for attention and
remediation. The human rights frame is especially important to some immigrant populations who come from countries where international standards offer the most protection—
sometimes the only protection—to individuals against human rights abuses.
They can provide a common vision and help build a “movement.” Social movements do

not emerge by magic. They require intentional organizing and entail frequent frustration,
not least regarding the agendas and priorities of putative allies. By offering common standards and language, as well as a common framework for understanding issues and potential solutions, human rights standards provide a vision around which disparate groups can
rally, network, create coalitions, and eventually build movements for change.
They can expand the circle of allies and help domestic struggles “go global.” Human

rights standards and language appeal to a wide variety of groups by the very fact that
they emerge from the global community. A message framed in human rights terms often

IV. International standards and human rights change  |  www.americanprogress.org  21

resonates in particular with potential allies across borders. And the impact of foreign governments raising concerns with U.S. authorities about American practices, as they did so
frequently regarding Guantanamo Bay, for example, ought not to be underestimated.
They can underscore the seriousness of a violation. U.S. Senator Robert Menendez

(D-NJ) said of mistreatment of immigrants in U.S. detention facilities, “At some point this
becomes more than a legal issue; it becomes a human rights issue.”55 Human rights violations carry a connotation in the United States (derived in part from the erroneous assumptions we described earlier) that they apply only to the most brutal foreign regimes and not
ourselves. This is particularly true of beatings, torture, slavery, and disappearances—the
most profound insults to human dignity. For an abuse to be elevated to the level of a
human rights violation, therefore, implies that it is very serious, deserving of international
censure, and certainly not worthy of the United States. If the violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered children in schools, for example, is
understood to be a violation not just of school rules or even U.S. laws but an infringement
upon those children’s human rights, the issue suddenly takes on a far different cast.56 If
not invoked so frequently that they lose their impact (and advocates must judge carefully
when such rhetoric really provides a “value-added” dimension to a strategy), human rights
standards and terminology can often be effective in making clear to the media and the
public that a community or the United States as a whole really has a problem on its hands.
They can put flesh on the concept of “the common good.” It is popular in progressive

circles to refer to “the common good,” “social goods,” or “public goods.” But it is not always
clear what that means or what should be included in those categories. Consultation with
international human rights law and standards can shed some light on these terms. By
definition, human rights describe the boundaries beyond which a nation may not go in
its treatment of its residents and still claim the mantle of a “civilized society.” These are
sometimes referred to as “negative liberties.” At the same time human rights delineate the
positive obligations a nation must fulfill in order for its residents to live fully human lives.
Collectively, these liberties and obligations define “the common good” and implicate government to be proactive in the establishment and maintenance of that good.
They can introduce new ways of thinking about old problems. To reorient our thinking to “public goods” derived from recognized human rights forces us to consider social
problems in new ways. If, for example, efforts to provide a decent living environment in
New Orleans or assure access to adequate health care for all are no longer understood to
be matters of charity or choice but common public goods that human beings have a right
to expect, then our thinking about the obligations of government changes.57 If human
rights are not something to be earned but something that automatically accompany
humanness—whether one is a citizen or an undocumented worker—all the debate about
whether undocumented workers and their children should be denied access to schools or
to anything beyond emergency health care melts away.

22  Center for American Progress  |  The Power of Justice

A society that wants to affirm the public good of avoiding cruel and inhuman treatment of
prisoners will reconsider the use of long-term solitary confinement to which at least 25,000
prisoners are currently being subjected in U.S. super-maximum prisons and which has been
shown to lead to severe forms of mental illness.58 Such reconceptualization of issues can be
particularly effective at the local level. A few years ago, the Atlanta Transportation Board
proposed to raise bus and commuter train fares and eliminate routes that were serving
poorer communities. Activists posed their objections in terms of damage to rights, such as
the right to work or access to health care, since jobs and hospitals would be harder for the
poor to reach. Startled by this reframing, the board backed down from its proposals.59
They can provide new language that helps reframe an issue. Sometimes merely the

use of language derived from international human rights instruments can prompt new
thinking. Northwestern University Law Professor Bernardine Dohrn has described how
discourse informed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child—referring to the “child”
rather than the “juvenile” or the “delinquent” in describing those under the age of 18 who
are accused and convicted of criminal offenses, for example, or “children deprived of their
liberty” rather than “incarcerated minors”—encourages authorities to understand the
responsibility of the criminal justice system toward children in creative new terms. 60
They can discourage the “blame game” and encourage a focus on problem-solving.

How international human rights instrumentalities determine whether violations exist
or their degree of severity is sometimes different from traditional American standards
and those different measurements provide a resource for encouraging review of current
conditions. The United States, for example, is accustomed to judging the existence of racial
discrimination by whether the accused party intended to discriminate, i.e., by whether
discrimination was the purpose of the act or condition. But the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, or CERD, to which the United States is
a states party, defines discrimination not only in terms of “purpose” but “effect.”
“In seeking to determine whether an action has an effect contrary to the Convention,” the
CERD general recommendations say, “[the Committee on Racial Discrimination] will
look to see whether that action has an unjustifiable disparate impact upon a group distinguished by race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin.”61 This means, for example,
that the existence of a higher percentage of people of color in U.S. prisons proportionate
to their representation in the total population is worthy of inquiry whether or not it results
from intentional discrimination.
Similarly, after the City of San Francisco committed in 1998 to standards derived from the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, local officials began examining whether conditions existed that implicitly prevented women from
accessing work—for instance, lack of available child care—even though those conditions
were not the result of intentional discrimination. One of the advantages of approaching
social justice issues through an international human rights lens is that it shifts the conver-

IV. International standards and human rights change  |  www.americanprogress.org  23

sation from one seeking to blame people for intentional acts to one that asks, “Do we have
a systemic problem here, and if so, what can we collectively do about it?”
They give voice to the victims of violations. One of the features of many international

human rights instrumentalities is that they require sensitivity to the cultural contexts in
which government authorities act—to the social, religious, and linguistic needs of people
affected—and that, when people experience discrimination, mistreatment, or a failure by
government to help meet basic human needs, they be consulted about the redress of their
grievances. In this way a human rights lens empowers victims of violations to be heard and
to participate in the repair of conditions.
They expand accountability from government to other power structures. While governments are the focus of international human rights law and standards, they are not the only
ones to whom these standards apply. Increasingly, human rights expectations are being
extended to corporations and international financial institutions. John Ruggie, the U.N.
secretary general’s special representative on human rights and transnational corporations,
for example, has described in considerable detail the obligations corporations have to
respect human rights and remedy their violation.62 These emerging norms provide activists additional ways to hold power structures other than governments to account for
their performances.
They can provide alternative channels for review of cases beyond the U.S. justice or
political systems. Despite a restraining order against him, Jessica Lenahan Gonzalez’s

husband abducted and killed their three children. When her domestic violence protection claims against Colorado police for failing to enforce the restraining order were denied
by the U.S. Supreme Court, Gonzalez took her case to the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights, which heard it in October 2008 and where a decision is pending.63 In
2006, local activists conveyed their frustration to the U.N. Committee on Torture about
a lack of action on torture by the Chicago Police. The committee subsequently noted
its concerns about the impunity that exists within the Chicago Police Department and
called on the United States to “promptly, thoroughly, and impartially” investigate the
allegations.64 The U.S. Human Rights Network, the American Civil Liberties Union, the
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and others have submitted “shadow reports” on
U.S. compliance with CERD to the U.N. Committee on Racial Discrimination, which in
turn has highlighted a host of areas of concern that require government attention.65 These
are but three examples of ways in which international human rights mechanisms can be
used to keep attention focused on a case and pressure focused on American authorities.
They can help protect against rollback. Once a public good has been established as

a “right,” it is far easier for that good to be sustained and far more difficult, though not
impossible, for opponents to foster regression. It is almost inconceivable, for example, that
the right not to be subjected to discrimination in the workplace could ever be formally
vitiated (which is not to say of course that discrimination does not still occur). The right to

24  Center for American Progress  |  The Power of Justice

same-sex marriage, on the other hand, has not yet been widely established and therefore,
as Proposition 8 in California attests, is still vulnerable to rollback. Framing issues in terms
of “rights” congruent with international standards, where that is appropriate and defensible, lends them a degree of protection when they are ultimately recognized as rights that
they would not otherwise have.

Making human rights standards appealing to public officials, policy
analysts, and policymakers
Convincing grassroots activists to use international human rights standards in the pursuit
of domestic social justice is, however, the easier part of the struggle since these activists are
often already committed to and familiar with human rights concepts. The more difficult
task is to introduce those standards and their principles to public officials and policymakers at both the federal and subfederal levels. Many are unaware that international human
rights standards apply in their own states or districts. Others are reticent or even outright
hostile to adopting the international human rights frame for many of the reasons outlined in
Section III above, including a misplaced concern for protection of American sovereignty.
Occasionally the federal government has responded positively to international human
rights obligations. It did so, for example, when the State Department advised states with
capital punishment that, under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, they had
to inform foreign nationals accused of crimes of their right to consult their consulates.
Rights language can also be useful when federal officials are in conversation with their
international counterparts dealing with issues such as extradition or migration. But invoking obligations the United States has incurred as a result of its treaty obligations or citing
international law to bolster a political argument with public officials is rarely an effective
tactic for all the reasons outlined earlier. Far better is to stress the ways in which a commitment to the principles of international human rights can advance interests and solve
practical problems.
A commitment to international human rights principles increases American security.

Section II above describes the multitude of ways in which guaranteeing justice at home
contributes to American security abroad: by increasing respect for the United States, its
political system, and its ideals; by removing taints on our reputation that our adversaries
can exploit to their advantage; by positioning the United States as a model for others to
emulate; by making it easier for our allies to cooperate with us; and by contributing to
our capacity to compete economically. In these and other ways, abiding by human rights
standards is good for American interests.
It boosts our credibility as a critic and a generous leader. The United States has long
taken pride in its willingness—through the annual State Department Human Rights
Reports, for example, or various diplomatic demarches—to speak out on behalf of dis-

IV. International standards and human rights change  |  www.americanprogress.org  25

sidents or victims of human rights abuse. It often boasts of its generosity to those who
are suffering. How can we maintain those claims without risking charges of hypocrisy if
our own record is checkered—if we are failing to supply humane treatment to those in
our custody or to meet our own people’s basic needs? When we are radically out of step
with the rest of the world—for example, by being the only nation to sentence children to
life imprisonment without parole—we handicap our capacity to call others to account.
Senator Robert Menendez, expanding on his criticism of mistreatment of immigrants in
detention that was quoted above, said, “We must hold onto our moral ground as a beacon
of democracy and a leader in human rights around the world.”66	
It is a fulfillment of our heritage. The sense of exceptionalism that has characterized the
American experience, as described in Section I, has positive elements as well as negative.
The United States as a nation was founded on a doctrine of natural rights and the conviction that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It has long
seen itself as a haven for the oppressed, a land of unlimited opportunity, and, especially
since the triumphs of the civil rights movement, a place where people are judged “on
the contents of their character, not the color of their skins.” Even modern conceptions
of economic and social rights—as much as the country has shied away from embracing
them—emerged out of an American president’s vision: Franklin Roosevelt’s commitment
to “freedom from want,” as articulated in his Four Freedom’s speech, and the Atlantic
Charter’s call for nations to cooperate in order to secure for all people “improved labor
standards, economic advancement, and social security.”67 Far from being of foreign origin,
therefore, contemporary notions of human rights have American roots and values and
their fulfillment is a fulfillment of our own heritage.
It benefits American society. Human rights are about meeting basic human needs. The

role of democratic government is to make it as easy as possible for people to be their best,
most productive selves. When people feel they are being treated fairly by those in authority and when people’s basic needs are met—for food, education, and health care—they
can support themselves, achieve economic independence, and contribute to the welfare of
society. In this way, respect for human rights is not only a mark of good government—it is
a benefit to the community as a whole.
It can help solve problems and avoid litigation. If, indeed, the point of a human rights

analysis is to identify basic human needs and how to meet them—needs that may at the
moment be going unfulfilled—then such an analysis can be a valuable tool for public
officials. When we frame questions in terms of human needs, the focus shifts from “Why
aren’t we providing universal access to health care?” or “Who is to blame for inequities
in the educational system?” to “Are our health care and educational systems meeting our
needs in a globalized world?” Such a pragmatic approach reduces defensiveness and poses
a common problem for us all to help solve.

26  Center for American Progress  |  The Power of Justice

Moreover, as we have noted in the section above on “advocates,” human rights treaties and
principles often contain within them the seeds of solutions to those common problems.
The fact that CERD, for example, defines racial discrimination in terms of impact requires
impact analyses based on disaggregated data regarding who is and is not being served by a
particular policy or set of programs. Such an analysis can anticipate ways to resolve issues
proactively before they reach the level of litigation. It focuses attention not on who the
“bad guys” are, but on whether the system is working properly and, if not, whether we can
devise a win-win solution for all. This type of approach may be particularly appealing to
authorities at the local and state level.

IV. International standards and human rights change  |  www.americanprogress.org  27

V. Recommendations

The right the petitioners seek
in this case [decriminalization of same-sex conduct]
has been accepted as an
integral part of human
freedom in many other
countries. There has been no
showing that in this country
the governmental interest
in circumscribing personal
choice is somehow more
legitimate or urgent
– Supreme Court Justice
	 Anthony Kennedy68

We conclude this paper by offering a sample of recommendations for advocates, policy
analysts, legislators, and policymakers that will advance the application of international
human rights standards and principles to domestic issues within the United States.

Advocates
Focus major, though not exclusive, attention on the local and state level. Paradoxically,
local and state officials may be even less aware than federal officials of international human
rights instruments. But once educated, these officials can be more receptive to their application. Research conducted by Human Rights Watch, for example, revealed that many
state attorneys general were not aware that some of their state’s incarceration practices
violated the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, or CERD standards.
While some of the attorneys general claimed (erroneously, given the U.S. Constitution’s
Supremacy Clause) that they were not bound by CERD because it was ratified by the
federal government rather than the state governments, others were conciliatory and open
to incorporating the standards.69

The Chicago City Council recently passed a resolution that committed the city to conform its policies and practices to the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, or CRC, in all city agencies and organizations that address issues directly affecting children.70 (It joins at least 12 state legislatures that have called for ratification of the
CRC.) The Health Board of Lewis and Clark County in Montana affirmed in December
2008 that “health and health care are basic human rights, such that everyone has a right
to access to a universal healthcare system.”71 And San Francisco has been committed for
many years to applying gender analyses derived from the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, or CEDAW, directly to its policies and
programs.72 Los Angeles and Berkeley have taken on a similar commitment and New York
City, Pennsylvania, and California have considered it as well. Many other cities and states
have taken or considered taking action in relation to CEDAW, with most of them calling
for the United States to ratify the treaty.73

28  Center for American Progress  |  The Power of Justice

Similarly, when concerns about local and state officials or conditions are elevated to an international level—when, for example, complaints about a local prison or sheriff are registered
with a U.N. treaty body—it tends to draw more attention from the hometown press and
political leaders than it might at the federal level. It is not just that local activists often have
more direct influence over subfederal officials. It is that given the system of federalism in our
government, the implementation of human rights principles requires state cooperation as
well as that of the national government. And once practices are shown to have worked at the
local level, federal officials are often more open to trying them in a broader field.

San Francisco commits to women’s rights
San Francisco has become a model for proactive human rights policy by implementing CEDAW at the local level
In April of 1998, the board of supervisors of the City and County of San
Francisco voted unanimously to pass municipal ordinance 128-98, which
called on all local government agencies in San Francisco to implement
the standards of the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women, or CEDAW.*
At the time CEDAW had been ratified by 165 countries, leaving the
United States as a notable outlier. The ordinance required the city to
take concrete steps toward “integrating gender equity and human rights
principles into all of its operations.” It committed San Francisco to a broad
human rights agenda that extended beyond simply reacting to explicit
gender-based discrimination. The city was also to identify the ways in
which seemingly gender-neutral practices and policies inadvertently
reinforced historic patterns of inequality.
The city established a CEDAW task force in response to the ordinance and
developed a gender analysis tool which city departments and commissions used to identify unanticipated effects their policies and practices
had on female employees. The departments—the Arts Commission,
the Department of the Environment, the Department of Public Works,
the Adult Probation Department, and the Residential Rent Stabilization
and Arbitration Board, among others—discovered that many female
employees—especially minority women and those who had limited
earning power—experienced a disproportionate caretaking burden that
inhibited their ability to equally participate in the work force.

The departments implemented a variety of simple changes to their
work day policies based on these findings, including telecommuting,
alternative work schedules, emergency ride home programs, and making
day care providers available during nontraditional hours. These simple
solutions drastically reduced unintended gender-based employment
discrimination, alleviated some race-based discrimination, and ultimately
had a positive impact on both male and female employees.
San Francisco initiated a large-scale survey on work-life policies and practices in addition to these departmental changes, and it passed new laws
requiring flexible work standards and paid parental leave requirements.
In 2003, when city departments faced large-scale budget cuts, they
evaluated the impacts of these budget cuts according to race and gender
and found that, in a handful of cases, their budget cut approaches would
have inadvertently but severely affected women, especially women of
color. The initiative helped educate and sensitize decision makers about
the unintended discriminatory effects of their budget choices.
San Francisco encountered several issues and roadblocks to eliminating
gender-based discrimination, including limited resources and concerns
about susceptibility to litigation. But despite its commitment to CEDAW
standards, the biggest challenge the city faced—and continues to
face—in applying these nondiscriminatory standards is understanding
that a city’s responsibility to human rights extends far beyond having
antidiscrimination laws and that a true human rights agenda requires a
proactive, ongoing commitment to identify and ameliorate inequities.

Source: Adapted from Women’s Institute for Leadership Development for Human Rights, “Respect, Protect, Fulfill: Raising the Bar on Women’s Rights in San Francisco” (2008), available at http://www.wildforhumanrights.org/
documents/resources/respectprotect.pdf.
	 *	 “San Francisco Releases the First U.S. City Human Rights Report on Women,” San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women, November 5, 1999, available at http://www.sfgov.org/site/cosw_page.asp?id=10877.

V. Recommendations  |  www.americanprogress.org  29

Frame standards derived from human rights treaties not yet ratified by the United
States as guiding norms, not obligations. Those human rights principles and approaches

that do not have force of law in the United States can still be useful, as we have described
earlier. But public officials will be far more receptive to them if they are presented as internationally recognized guidelines (norms/values) and resources (“best practices of a just and
democratic society”) which can help solve problems rather than obligations or imperatives.
Translate standards into plain English. Very few public officials will be convinced to
do something because it is mandated by international law. But presenting human rights
principles in plain English—in terms, for example, of “fairness” or “meeting basic human
needs”—helps transcend political divisions and avoid highly technical debate.
Remind officials of the American heritage. As we have described earlier, international

human rights standards were derived in large measure from the American tradition, from
American values and Constitutional norms. They are not foreign concepts but reflect the
best of what the United States stands for. Educating officials about this congruency can
help dissipate suspicion about those standards’ applicability to American society.
Become proficient in using the U.N. Universal Periodic Review, or UPR process and
other international mechanisms. Every four years, every country in the world undergoes

review of its human rights practices by the U.N. Human Rights Council. Many U.N. treaty
bodies also review the records of countries that have ratified the treaties. NGOs are invited
to participate in these processes and governments are obligated to respond to the UPR and
treaty body reviews. These are therefore invaluable contexts in which to raise critical questions and expose abuses. But in order to take advantage of them, NGOs need to educate
themselves about how to use them. The United Nations itself and several international
organizations—such as the International Service for Human Rights and the Canadian
group, Rights & Democracy—provide such training.
Link the use of international mechanisms to specific campaigns in the United States.

Scatter-shot indictments of U.S. practices will rarely result in measurable change. By integrating the use of international mechanisms into larger strategies designed to accomplish
specific policy changes—by inviting a special rapporteur, for example, to investigate an
issue around which significant organizing is already taking place—those mechanisms can
yield added value to the strategies.
Make health care reform a “rights” issue. The new administration is committed to health

care reform. The president has declared health care a right. The American public overwhelmingly supports health care reform and understands health care to be a right. The
Opportunity Agenda—an NGO that, among other things, tests communication tools on
social issues—has gathered data on how best to convince legislators that health care is a
right.74 What better issue to select than this one to introduce the country to the notion that
some fundamental human needs are a matter of human rights?75

30  Center for American Progress  |  The Power of Justice

Policy analysts, legislators, and policymakers
Policy analysts: Frame issues in human rights terms. Policy analysts at influential “think
tanks” such as the Center for American Progress, the Brookings Institution, or others
are not used to employing human rights language in presenting proposals for changes in
domestic policy. Such analysts are highly influential in determining how opinion leaders
and policymakers will understand issues, and they should be encouraged, wherever possible, to consider whether a human rights analysis might add value to their work.
Legislators: Introduce reference to international human rights instrumentalities into
legislation and conform U.S. law to treaty obligations. Referencing human rights treaties
in relevant legislation is one way to begin acquainting policymakers with the norms and
values such treaties contain—whether the United States has or has not ratified the international human rights instrumentality. Moreover, given the non-self-executing nature of the
treaties the United States has ratified, it becomes more important than ever that legislators
meet their responsibility to see that American law and policy conform to the country’s
international obligations (To do otherwise is to cede congressional authority entirely to
the executive). In 2008, for example, Congress passed the Child Soldiers Accountability
Act which gives the United States the power to
deny admission to or deport individuals involved in
recruiting, enlisting, or conscripting child soldiers
in accordance with American obligations under the
States across the country call for
U.S. ratification of CEDAW
Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children
76
in Armed Conflict, ratified in 2002.
Seventeen states (shaded below), 19 counties, and 47 cities in the
Legislators: Ratify key human rights treaties. The

United States have passed resolutions urging on the U.S. government to ratify CEDAW.

fact that the United States, along with Somalia,
remains one of only two countries in the world not
to have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, or CRC, reinforces the notion that the United
States is badly out of step with the rest of the globe.
Now that the Supreme Court has removed one of
the main obstacles to ratification by ruling unconstitutional the execution of juveniles, there is even less
reason not to ratify the treaty. Congress should make
ratification of CRC and CEDAW—another treaty
with wide international support—a priority.
Legislators: Consider requiring human rights
impact assessments of appropriate legislation
and policies. Just as Congress regularly requires

environmental impact assessments, so Congress
and state legislatures should include human rights
impact assessments in appropriate legislation and

Source: “CEDAW: Treaty for the Rights of Women,” available at
http://www.womenstreaty.org/facts_history.htm#chron.
See also: Judith Resnik, “Law’s Migration: American Exceptionalism, Silent Dialogues, and Federalism’s
Multiple Ports of Entry,” Yale Law Journal 115 (May 2006), available at http://www.yalelawjournal.org/
pdf/115-7/Resnik.pdf.

V. Recommendations  |  www.americanprogress.org  31

for appropriate proposed changes in policy. Florida State University Law Professor Lesley
Wexler has outlined how this might take place.77
Legislators and policymakers: Respond promptly to reporting requirements. U.S. treaty

obligations include supplying regular reports on compliance with treaty provisions and
responding promptly and thoroughly to treaty bodies’ questions and concerns. The United
States has often lagged in meeting both these requirements. The Obama administration
should establish a clear locus of responsibility for meeting these obligations and Congress
should monitor implementation in a consistent fashion.
Policymakers: Create more effective human rights enforcement and monitoring mechanisms
by reforming the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. A coalition of groups known as the Campaign

for a New Human Rights Agenda has called for reconstitution of the U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights as a Commission on Civil and Human Rights in order to expand its authority
and reach as well as offer greater support to local and state human rights commissions.78
Policymakers: Seek opportunities to conform policy to treaty obligations. Beyond report-

ing requirements, treaty bodies often make substantive recommendations to governments
as to how to meet their treaty obligations. The ACLU has urged the secretary of education,
for example, to use stimulus funds to fulfill recommendations of the Committee on Racial
Discrimination regarding equitable education and affirmative action as well as broader
education about human rights. Policymakers in all relevant departments should consult
recommendations of treaty bodies to determine if they provide useful guidance for policy
formation. The president, to see that this happens more systematically, should reestablish
an Interagency Working Group on Human Rights that, among other things, would track
implementation of treaty obligations.
Legislators and policymakers: Become educated about implementing social and economic rights. Public officials are often under the impression that to affirm a human need

as a social or economic “right” is to automatically take on significant financial burdens—
something which at a time of economic distress may discourage even the most sympathetic
from adopting a rights framework. But it is commonly understood that to affirm a basic need
as a right is (1) not to dictate the specific systems or policies by which that need/right is to
be met and (2) to allow for the meeting of that need/right over a reasonable period of time,
i.e., so-called “progressive realization.”
Governments that respect social and economic rights are not required to hand out willynilly free housing and medical care to everyone. Those who have the capacity to work to
attain those goods may of course be expected to do so. But governments are required to
structure access to basic human needs—food, clothing, housing, work, and health care—in
ways that make them readily available to everyone, regardless of their economic capacity.
Legislators and other public officials would be well served to educate themselves about
implementing social and economic rights in order to reduce confusion about and resistance
to adopting a rights framework.

32  Center for American Progress  |  The Power of Justice

Conclusion
If advocates adopted a more robust human rights framework for their work, it would enhance
the kind of grassroots movements for social change that are so essential to shifting norms
regarding domestic policy, as we previously described in Section IV. And if legislators and
policymakers responded to such appeals in the ways we have recommended, it would not only
solidify those norms in law and practice but advance fundamental American interests both at
home and abroad.
At heart human rights are about fairness. Not just procedural fairness—fair trials, fair treatment by authorities, a fair chance to practice one’s faith—but fair breaks. As John F. Kennedy
so famously put it, “Life is not fair.” But government and other wielders of power have it within
their reach to make it fairer than it might otherwise be.
No government or corporation, for example, can guarantee that a person will not get cancer.
But they can certainly reduce the odds of a person getting it or dying from it by insuring access
to such things as decent food, clean water, a toxic-free environment, and access to quality
health care. Those public goods designed to meet basic human needs are human rights that
help make life as fair as it can possibly be.
For all the reasons described earlier in this paper, the United States has resisted recognizing those
public goods as rights to which human beings are entitled by virtue of their being human. The
American emphasis upon rugged individualism has come at the expense of a full appreciation of
how we need to support one another. Formal recognition of some rights, such as that articulated
in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that, “Everyone has a
right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care”—a right, in other words, to be free from poverty
(or, in Franklin Roosevelt’s words, from “want”)—still seems like only a remote possibility.
But as Americans grow more aware of their interdependence with the rest of the world and begin
to see the world as others see it, and as they begin to understand that how we treat our neighbors at home has a direct impact on how we are perceived abroad, as well as on our security and
economic health, appreciation for the full range of human rights will grow.
President Obama has said, “our power alone cannot protect us…our security emanates from the
force of our example…” The question is of course, “example of what?” And the answer is “a just
society.” The explanation of what that means goes by the name “human rights.”

Conclusion  |  www.americanprogress.org  33

Endnotes
	 1 	Bob Abernethy, “Juvenile Life Without Parole,” Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, January 30, 2009, available at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/january-30-2009/juvenile-life-without-parole/2081/
(last accessed April, 2009).
	 2 	John Halpin and Karl Agne, “State of American Political Ideology, 2009”
(Washington: Center for American Progress, 2009).
	 3 	“60th Anniversary: New poll shows vast support for Universal Declaration
of Human Rights principles,” available at http://opportunityagenda.
org/60th_anniversary_poll_day_great_degree_consensus_among_
americans_principles_enunciated_universal_dec (last accessed April
2009).
	 4 	See: ACLU, “Human Rights Begin at Home,” available at http://www.
udhr60.org/human_rights_full.pdf (last accessed May, 2009); “NAACP
President: ‘Human Rights’ to be focus,” available at http://www.naacp.
org/news/press/2009-02-04/index.htm (last accessed April 2009); and
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, “2009 Programs
and Emerging Issues” (2009), p. 6.
	 5 	U. S. Human Rights Network, http://www.ushrnetwork.org/.

	 17 	See: Thomas A. Bailey, A Diplomatic History of the American People (New
York: Meredith, 1964), pp. 317.
	 18 	Ibid. p. 394.
	 19 	John Toland, Adolf Hitler (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1976), p. 702.
	 20 	Edwin Black, “Eugenics and the Nazis—the California Connection,” San
Francisco Chronicle, November 9, 2003, available at http://www.sfgate.com/
cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/11/09/ING9C2QSKB1.DTL&hw=nazi+eugenics
&sn=001&sc=1000 (last accessed April, 2009).
	 21 	Jonathan Moreno, “Eugenic Statecraft in the Operating Room: An Interview
with Paul Lombardo,” Science Progress, January 14, 2009, available at http://
www.scienceprogress.org/2009/01/eugenic-statecraft-in-the-operatingroom/ (last accessed April, 2009).
	 22 	Arthur Herman. Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of
America’s Most Hated Senator (New York: Free Press, 2000), p. 131.
	 23 	“‘Mob Rule Cannot Be Allowed to Override the Decisions of Our Courts’: President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1957 Address on Little Rock, Arkansas,” available
at http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6335/ (last accessed April 2009).

	 6 	CNN, “Transcript of second McCain, Obama debate,”, October 7, 2008,
available at http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/07/presidential.
debate.transcript/ (last accessed May, 2009).

	 24 	Mary Dudziak, Cold War and Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American
Democracy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000).

	 7 	Barack Obama, “Statement by the President-Elect on Human Rights Day,”
December 10, 2008, available at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/
index.php?pid=85043 (last accessed April, 2009).

	 26 	Felix Rohatyn, “Dead to the World,” The New York Times, January 26, 2006,
available at http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE4D8103F
F935A15752C0A9609C8B63 (last accessed April, 2009).

	 8 	Lawrence v. Texas (02-102) 539 U.S. 558 (2003), slip op. at 14 (Scalia, J.,
dissenting).

	 27 	ACLU, “How the Death Penalty Weakens U. S. International Interests,” available
at http://www.aclu.org/FilesPDFs/idp_report.pdf (last accessed May, 2009).

	 9 	Associated Press, “DeLay Slams Supreme Court Justice Kennedy,” April 20,
2005, available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7550959/ (last accessed
April, 2009).

	 28 	Inter Press Service, “U.N. Passes Arms Trade Treaty Over U.S. Opposition,”
October 27, 2006.

	 10 	Jeffrey Laurenti, comment on “The Koh Firestorm,” Taking Note: A Century
Foundation Group Blog, comment posted April 3, 2009, available at http://
takingnote.tcf.org/2009/04/koh-firestorm-flags-bankruptcy-of-the-right.
html (last accessed April 2009).
	 11 	The United States has ratified the Convention on the Protection and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the Genocide Convention) (1988);
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (1992);
the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (CERD) (1994); the Convention Against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) (1994); and
the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on
the involvement of children in armed conflict (2002) and on the sale of
children, child prostitution and child pornography (2002).
	 12 	“The Constitution of the United States,” Article VI, Paragraph 2.
	 13 	Sandra Day O’Connor, Address at the Southern Center for International
Studies, October 28, 2003, available at http://www.southerncenter.org/
OConnor_transcript.pdf.
	 14 	John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity.” In Perry Miller, ed., The
American Puritans: Their Prose and Poetry (Garden City, NY: Doubleday &
Co., 1956), p. 83.
	 15 	Stephanie McCrummen and Colum Lynch, “Sudan Ousts Aid Groups After
Court Pursues President,” Washington Post, March 5, 2009, available at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/04/
AR2009030400870.html.
	 16 	George H. W. Bush, Letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
in 1991, urging the Senate to give its advice and consent to ratification
of the ICCPR; from Henry J. Steiner, Philip Alston, and Ryan Goodman,
International Human Rights in Context (Oxford University Press, 2008),
available at http://books.google.com/books?id=9NKaXYtw9YUC&pg=PA1
139&lpg=PA1139&dq=george+h+w+bush+ratified+iccpr&source=bl&ot
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mQBYKHtgeHprjnBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1.

34  Center for American Progress  |  The Power of Justice

	 25 	Ibid, p. 185.

	 29 	United Nations Human Rights Committee, “Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 40 of the Covenant [on Civil and Political
Rights]: Concluding Observations of the Human Rights Committee, United
States of America” (2006), available at http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/
docid/45c30bb20.html, para. 34 (last accessed April, 2009).
	 30 	United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination,
“Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 9 of
the Convention [on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination]:
Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, United States of America” (2008), available at http://www1.umn.
edu/humanrts/CERDConcludingComments2008.pdf, para. 21 (last accessed
April, 2009).
	 31 	United Nations Economic and Social Council Commission on the Status of
Women, “Agreed Conclusions on Financing for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women” (2008), available at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/
daw/csw/csw52/AC_resolutions/L.8_Advance%20unedited_as%20corrected.
pdf (last accessed April, 2009).
	 32 	“Publics in Europe and India See U.S. as Violating International Law at
Guantanamo,” World Public Opinion.org, July 17, 2006, available at http://
www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/btjusticehuman_rightsra/229.
php?lb=bthr&pnt=229&nid=&id= (last accessed April, 2009).
	 33 	See American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, “ADC Launches ‘End the
Shame of NSEERS’ Ad Campaign,” http://www.adc/org/index.php?id=3078
(last accessed May, 2009) and Richard Serrano, “Muslims angered by FBI
radiation checks at mosques,” Los Angeles Times, December 24, 2005, available at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002702126_
mosques24.html (last accessed April, 2009).
	 34 	Joseph Nye, The Paradox of American Power (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2002), p. 119;

	 35 	Damien Cave and Yolanne Almanzar, “Tactics Used in U.S. Raid Draw
Claims of Brutality,” The New York Times, December 10, 2008, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/us/10florida.html?_
r=1&scp=1&sq=tactics%20used%20in%20us&st=cse (last accessed April,
2009); Nina Bernstein, “Immigrant Detainee Dies, and a Life is Buried,
Too,” The New York Times, April 2, 2009, available at http://www.nytimes.
com/2008/12/10/us/10florida.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=tactics%20used%20
in%20us&st=cse.(last accessed April, 2009).
	 36 	Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat (New York Farrar: Straus and Giroux,
2005), p. 283.
	 37 	Nye, The Paradox of American Power. According to Nye, “A national assessment of educational progress found that between a fifth and a quarter of students were at or above the proficient level in math and between
a third and two-fifths scored at that level in reading.. .In adult literacy
24 percent of Americans fell in the lowest category of comprehending
documents (twice as bad as Germany, four times worse than Sweden)…,”
pp. 129-130.
	 38 	Helene Cooper, “Obama Will Face a Defiant World on Foreign Visit,” The
New York Times, March 29, 2009, available at http://www.nytimes.
com/2009/03/29/washington/29global.html?scp=1&sq=Obama%20
Will%20Face%20a%20Defiant%20&st=cse (last accessed April, 2009).
	 39 	Obama, “Statement by the President-Elect on Human Rights Day.”
	 40 	Colum Lynch, “U.S. to Join U.N. Human Rights Council, Reversing Bush
Policy,” The Washington Post, March 31, 2009, available at http://
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/31/
AR2009033102782.html?hpid=topnews (last accessed April, 2009).
	 41 	Dwight D. Eisenhower, Second Inaugural Address, January 21, 1957, available at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/eisen2.asp.
	 42 	Black Past, “Civil Rights Congress (1946-1956),” http://www.blackpast.
org/?q=aah/civil-rights-congress-1946-1956 (last accessed May, 2009).
	 43 	See Russell Shorti, “How I Learned to Love the European Welfare State,”
The New York Times Magazine, May 3, 2009.
	 44 	Ron Paul, “America National Sovereignty vs. UN “International Law” April
29, 2003, available at http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2003/
cr042903.htm (last accessed April, 2009).
	 45 	David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey, “A Legal Case Against Iran,” The
Washington Post, June 6, 2006, available at http://www.washingtonpost.
com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/05/AR2006060501283.html (last
accessed April, 2009).
	 46 	Chimene I. Keitner, “International and Foreign Law Sources: Siren Song
for U.S. Judges?” (Washington: American Constitution Society for Law and
Policy, 2007).
	 47 	See: The Opportunity Agenda, “Human Rights in State Courts: An
Overview and Recommendations for Legal Advocacy” (2008) and ACLU,
“Human Rights on the Judicial Front: Litigating Protection in U. S. Courts,”
http://www.udhr60.org/hr_on_judicial_front.pdf (last accessed May,
2009). Among the most notable Supreme Court cases in which international law played a part are Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551, 575-78
(2005), on the execution of juveniles; Lawrence v. Texas, 539 . S. 558,
576-77 (2003), striking down sodomy laws; and Grutter v. Bollinger, 539
U.S. 306, 342-43 (2003) on affirmative action.
	 48 	Water rights activist, in a meeting with the board of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, February 7, 2009, Oakland, CA.
	 49 	Harold Hongju Koh, “How Is international Human Rights Law Enforced?”
in Richard Pierre Claude and Burns H Weston, eds., Human Rights in the
World Community (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006),
pp. 305-314.
	 50 	“Seat Belt Laws, Usage, History & Chronology,” available at http://www.
seatbeltdefects.com/history/index.html (last accessed April 2009).
	 51 	Ralph Nader, Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of The
American Automobile (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1965).
	 52 	Roper v. Simons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005), prohibiting the use of the death
penalty on children under 18 years of age.
	 53 	This latter took the form of the contention that failure to use seat belts
was a victimless crime and hence that mandating such use was an
infringement upon Americans’ liberty—an argument that failed to take
into account both the fact that drivers who used seat belts tended to have
fewer accidents and that higher injury rates increased health insurance
premiums for everybody.
	 54 	“Encyclopedia of Everyday Law: Seat Belt Usage,” available at http://www.
enotes.com/everyday-law-encyclopedia/seat-belt-usage (last accessed
April 2009).
	 55 	Julia Dahl, “Private Prison Co. Again Accused of Human Rights Abuses,”
ABC News, August 5, 2008, available at http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/
story?id=5466166&page=1 (last accessed April, 2009).

	 56 	See: Michael Bochenek and Widney Brown, “Hatred in the Hallways: Violence
and Discrimination Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students
in U.S. Schools” (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2001).
	 57 	See: Alec Irwin, Leonard Rubenstein, Anne Cooper and Paul Farmer, “Fixing
the U.S. Healthcare System: What Role for Human Rights?” In Cynthia Soohoo,
Catherine Albisa, and Martha F. Davis, eds., Bringing Human Rights Home
(Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008), pp.173-208.
	 58 	See: Atul Gawande, “Hellhole,” The New Yorker, March 30, 2009.
	 59 	Ajamu Baraka, Executive Director of U.S. Human Rights Network, interview
with William F. Schulz, April 3, 2009.
	 60 	Bernardine Dohrn, “‘I’ll Try Anything Once:’ Using the Conceptual Framework
of Children’s Human Rights Norms in the United States,” University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform (Fall 2007).
	 61 	United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “General
Recommendation No. 14: Definition of Discrimination (Art. 1, par. 1)” (1993),
available at http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/d7bd5d2bf71258aa
c12563ee004b639e?Opendocument (last accessed April, 2009).
	 62 	See: United Nations Human Rights Council, “Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, John Ruggie: Summary”
(2008), available at http://www.reports-and-materials.org/Ruggie-report-7Apr-2008.pdf (last accessed April, 2009).
	 63 	“Domestic Violence Survivor Goes Before International Tribunal,” available at
http://www.aclu.org/womensrights/violence/index.html (last accessed April
2009).
	 64 	“Chicago Police Torture Cases: Justice Served: The Arrest of Jon Burge,” available at http://www.midwesthumanrights.org/chicago-police-torture-cases-0
(last accessed April 2009).
	 65 	United States of America, “Periodic Report of the United States of America
to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Concerning the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (2007), available at http://www.civilrights.org/assets/pdfs/
usreporttocerd.pdf (last accessed May, 2009); ACLU, “Race and Ethnicity in
America: Turning a Blind Eye to Injustice (2007);” Leadership Conference on
Civil Rights, “American Dream? American Reality! A Report on Race, Ethnicity,
and the Law in the United States” (2008); and “NGO Information relating to
United States of America,” available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/cerds72-ngos-usa.htm (last accessed April 2009).
	 66 	Op. Cit., Dahl, “Private Prison Co.”
	 67 	“Atlantic Charter,” available at http://www.internet-esq.com/ussaugusta/
atlantic1.htm (last accessed April 2009).
	 68 	Lawrence and Garner v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), prohibiting the criminalization of same-sex sexual conduct.
	 69 	Alison Parker, Deputy Director of the U.S. Program at Human Rights Watch,
interview with Sarah Dreier, February 10, 2009.
	 70 	“Chicago City Council Passes Resolution Supporting the U.N. Convention on
the Rights of the Child,” http://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/news/news/
chicago_city_council_passes_resolution_supporting_the_u_n_convention_on_the_rights_of_the_child (last accessed May, 2009).
	 71 	Lewis and Clark City-County Board of Health, “DRAFT Board Resolution: Local
Access to Universal Health Care Task Force” (December 2008), available at
http://www.nesri.org/programs/Local_Universal_Healthcare_Resolution_Final_December.pdf (last accessed April, 2009).
	 72 	As a result, new laws are in place supporting telecommuting, parental leave
and flex-time; the number of streetlights have been increased; gender
segregation in salaries between men and women has been addressed and
many other changes made. See WILD, “Respect, Protect, Fulfill: Raising the
Bar on Women’s Rights in San Francisco, http://www.wildforhumanrights.
org/documents/resources/respectprotect.pdf (last accessed May, 2009).
	 73 	Judith Resnik, “Law’s Migration: American Exceptionalism, Silent Dialogues,
and Federalism’s Multiple Ports of Entry,” Yale Law Journal 115 (May 2006),
available at http://www.yalelawjournal.org/pdf/115-7/Resnik.pdf.
	 74 	The Opportunity Agenda, “Public Opinion: State Policy Leaders’ on Social
Justice and Human Rights.”
	 75 	Given the current economic crisis, there may be openings to promote other
issues too, such as the right to housing.
	 76 	“Child Soldiers Accountability Act Passes,” available at http://www.afjn.org/
child_soldiers/news/child_soldiers_accountability_act_passes.html (last
accessed May, 2009).
	 77 	Lesley Wexler, “Human Rights Impact Statements: An Immigration Case
Study,” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, Vol. 22:285 (2008): 285-318.
	 78 	See “Human Rights at Home: A Domestic Policy Blueprint for the New Administration,” available at http://www.acslaw.org/files/C%20Powell%20Blueprint.
pdf (last accessed May, 2009) and “Restoring the Conscience of a Nation: A
Report on the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights,” available at http://www.
civilrights.org/publications/reports/commission (last accessed May, 2009).

Endnotes  |  www.americanprogress.org  35

Acknowledgments
The Center for American Progress and the author wish to thank the following people who
contributed their wisdom to this paper: Sarah Albert, Cathy Albisa, Jessica Arons, Ajamu
Baraka, Spencer Boyer, Vanessa Cárdenas, Tanya Coke, Lisa Crooms, Jamil Dakwar, Rudy
deLeon, Ejim Dike, Bernardine Dohrn, Julie Fernandes, Monique Hardin, Omar Jadwat,
Lenora Lapidus, Debra Liebowitz, Laura Murphy, Jumana Musa, Alison Parker, Wendy
Patton, Catherine Powell, Leonard Rubenstein, Shira Saperstein, Rebecca Smith, and
Cynthia Soohoo.
The author particularly would like to recognize and express deep appreciation to the U.S.
Human Rights Funds (in particular, to Tonya Coke and Sue Simon) for funding of the
project and to Sarah Dreier of the Center for American Progress for research assistance
during the preparation of this paper.
Needless to say, none of these people are responsible for the contents of the paper, which
is solely the work of the author.

About the author
William F. Schulz is a Senior Fellow in human rights policy at the Center for American
Progress and served as executive director of Amnesty International USA from 1994 to 2006.

36  Center for American Progress  |  The Power of Justice

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