Human Rights Archives - Foreign Policy In Focus

Hard-Learned Lessons: Plan Colombia and Democracy in Peru

by Carlos Reyna Izaguirre | May 1, 2001

For there to be a successful antidrug policy in Peru, two conditions must be met. First, there must be a clearly democratic government, with executive, legislative, judicial, police, and military institutions that effectively guarantee a balance of powers and enforcement of the rule of law-all of which will prevent impunity and increase government accountability to the country’s citizens. And second, there must be an economic policy that makes a priority of reducing unemployment and improving the rural economy.

U.S. Arrogance on Display in UN Human Rights Commission Flap

by Stephen Zunes | May 1, 2001

The decision by the U.S. Congress to withhold $244 million in dues owed to the United Nations only builds upon the growing global perception of U.S. arrogance. In recent days, both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have placed themselves to the right of even the Bush administration in their sharp anti-UN rhetoric.

UN Veto Reveals Bush Administration’s Contempt for Human Rights

by Stephen Zunes | Apr 1, 2001

The U.S. veto of a UN Security Council resolution calling for the deployment of unarmed monitors to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip demonstrates the new administration’s contempt for human rights. The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution, which came before the Security Council on March 28 after five days of tortuous negotiations that moderated the wording of the original draft. Still, this was not enough for the U.S., which vetoed its first UN Security Council resolution in five years.

Mr. Bush Goes to Mexico: Recommendations for Immigration Discussion

by Anne Seymour | Feb 1, 2001

Despite reports in the mainstream press to the contrary, the optimism sparked by Vicente Fox’s unprecedented electoral victory and the new political openness in Mexico, which he has inspired, are not likely to permanently reduce undocumented migration from Mexico to the United States. Rather, both the human rights situation on the border and the future stability of the U.S.-Mexico region necessitate a change in the way the U.S. and Mexico are handling crossborder migration.

The Bush Administration and Human Rights

by Neil Hicks | Jan 1, 2001

Human rights has been a central rhetorical foreign policy concern of successive U.S. presidents since the Carter administration. For all that, the international community remains deeply ambivalent about the American government’s self-appointed role as the world’s largest human rights organization. Many see self-interest behind U.S. claims to be upholding high moral principles, and they also see hypocrisy in the U.S. government’s reluctance to be bound by the same instruments it is so ready to apply to others.

Credit the Serbian People, Not NATO

by Stephen Zunes | Oct 1, 2000

The people of Yugoslavia did what NATO bombs could not. As in 1989, it was not the military prowess of the western alliance bringing freedom to an Eastern European country, but the power of nonviolent action by the subjugated peoples themselves.

U.S., Greece, and Turkey

by Stephen Zunes | Nov 1, 1999

President Bill Clinton’s visit to NATO allies Greece and Turkey is raising new questions about the ongoing strategic relationship the United States has with these two historic rivals, particularly in the light of the anti-American demonstrations which delayed and shortened the planned presidential visit.

U.S. Democratization Assistance

by Elizabeth Cohn | Jul 1, 1999

Key Points

Turkey: Arms and Human Rights

by Tamar Gabelnick | May 1, 1999

Women and the U.S. Military in East Asia

by fpifadmin | Mar 1, 1999

Organizations in East Asia and the United States as well as international networks are developing alternatives to militarized security that address the security of women, children, and the physical environment.