By exempting not just military spending, but also non-military international engagement and homeland security from his proposed spending freeze, the president has sent an important message: Strengthening non-military tools is essential to U.S. security.
Obama’s first year has come and gone, and not much has changed in U.S. policy toward Africa. The next year will thus be critical for Obama and for Africa. He should take the opportunity to begin a new era in U.S.-Africa relations by putting people at the center of development and placing respect for human rights, the environment, peace, and justice at center stage.
Obama’s first year has come and gone, and not much has changed in U.S. policy toward Africa. The next year will thus be critical for Obama and for Africa. He should take the opportunity to begin a new era in U.S.-Africa relations by putting people at the center of development and placing respect for human rights, the environment, peace, and justice at center stage.
On January 3, 2010, the Peruvian Supreme Court handed down its decision to uphold the April 2009 conviction of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) for four cases of human rights violations. “My son must be very content, as I am, with the judges’ ratification [of the verdict],” said a visibly moved Raida Cóndor in a press conference the morning the ruling was made public. Raida’s son, Armando Amaro Cóndor, was one of the nine students that the Colina Group death-squad kidnapped from their dorm rooms at the Cantuta University and brutally killed in July 1992. “God does exist, and it is He who has given us the strength to persist in this struggle.” Gisela Ortiz, whose brother Luis Enrique was also one of the Cantuta victims, reminded her compatriots just how long a struggle it has been: The confirmation of the verdict represents the culmination of nearly two decades of searching for truth and justice by the family members of the victims.
The Obama administration has gotten at least one thing right on U.S. foreign policy: its emphasis on empowering women and their rights around the world.
Understandably preoccupied the economic crisis and health care reform, the Obama administration has failed to deliver on the multilateral front. Still awaiting signatures and ratification are the Law of the Sea (wanted by the Pentagon), the Comprehensive Test Ban treaty (crucial to the administration’s nonproliferation policy), the Conventions on Land Mines and Child Soldiers (both popular with Obama’s base), and, of course, the International Criminal Court (ICC).
This week, Sri Lankan voters go to the polls to elect a new president. No matter the victor, neither of the two main candidates is likely to provide the justice and closure that Sri Lanka’s thousands of war victims deserve.
The Obama administration’s record on human rights has been a major disappointment.
When Barack Obama was elected president, many climate activists were thrilled. With the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere reaching dangerous levels, and Democrats controlling the House and Senate, hopes couldn’t have been higher among climate campaigners that Obama would act swiftly to make energy and climate change one of his top priorities.
Barack Obama raised the hopes of global justice advocates by committing to significant changes in our international economic policies. As president, however, his efforts to implement alternatives have been slow to get off the ground.