JBI Human Rights

JBI Welcomes President Obama’s Establishment of Atrocities Prevention Board

The Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) welcomes President Obama’s announcement today of the establishment of an interagency Atrocities Prevention Board (APB).  This important initiative, which follows the issuance of a Presidential Directive on Mass Atrocities in August 2011, institutionalizes the U.S. government’s ability to respond to and prevent genocide and mass atrocities worldwide. 

“This important act will elevate the prevention of mass atrocities and genocide to a core national security interest and create a mechanism to address prevention of genocide,” said E. Robert Goodkind, Chair of JBI.

JBI staff participated in early meetings on the implementation of the August 2011 directive and provided recommendations on the structure and functions of the APB.  JBI welcomes the Administration’s adoption of some of those recommendations, including comprising the APB of senior officials and ensuring that the APB will prioritize engagement with civil society.   JBI congratulates Samantha Power, Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights at the National Security Council, on her appointment as Chair of the APB.   

In his remarks, delivered at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, President Obama also outlined a new comprehensive strategy for preventing and responding to atrocities, including an Executive Order he signed yesterday that authorizes targeted sanctions against those who commit or facilitate serious human rights abuses in Iran and Syria using information technology. 

President Obama’s speech underscored how the creation of the APB and placing the prevention of atrocities as a key focus of the Administration’s foreign policy will help the U.S. remember the Holocaust and honor the pledge of “never again.” 

Genocide prevention has long been a priority issue for the Jacob Blaustein Institute.  In April 2011, JBI published Compilation of Risk Factors and Legal Norms for the Prevention of Genocide.  This compendium, assembled at the request of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide, Dr. Francis M. Deng, presents a set of risk factors for genocide and their normative bases in international law.

JBI Co-Sponsors Conference on Human Rights in North Korea

On April 10-11, AJC’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) and the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea convened an expert conference, “Hidden Gulag,” which called for closing down the extensive North Korean political prisoner camp system.  The conference launched a groundbreaking 200-page report by David Hawk pointing to over 150,000 persons incarcerated in these “kwan-li-so” camps, based on eyewitness testimony of former prisoners, guards, and satellite images of the camps.  JBI Director Felice Gaer, who moderated a conference panel on “Seeking Legal and International Human Rights Remedies,” commended the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, Marzuki Darusman, whose message to the Conference expressed interest in “setting up a more detailed method of inquiry such as a [UN] Commission of Inquiry” to investigate the government-run camps and hold those responsible accountable.  

(JBI Director Felice Gaer moderates conference panel on “Seeking Legal and International Human Rights Remedies”)

The conference, “Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea’s Political Prisoner Camp System,” took place in Washington DC and featured eye-witness analyses of former North Korean political prisoners; U.S., South Korean and Japanese government officials; human rights experts, including specialists on the dismantling of Nazi concentration camps and the Soviet Union’s “Gulag ”; and Korea specialists. A Washington Post editorial, calling the conference “unprecedented,” argued that governmental indifference to these camps is “inexcusable.”

Suzanne Nossel on UN Human Rights Council -- at JBI Meeting

As part of its long-standing study of the UN human rights institutions, the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement for Human Rights (JBI) convened a meeting in December 2011 with Suzanne Nossel, who had just stepped down after two years as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations. Nossel discussed the impact of U.S. membership in the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) and prospects for reform.

Nossel served at the State Department for two years, responsible for multilateral human rights and other issues, and played a leading role on U.S. policy at the UN Human Rights Council.  She left the government in November 2011, and, when she spoke at JBI, was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, prior to taking up a new position as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA.

In her remarks, Nossel frankly assesses the challenges she faced coming to the State Department as the U.S. re-joined the Human Rights Council (HRC), a body restructured from the UN Commission for Human Rights, criticized for its bias and cynical politicization by the world's worst human rights offenders.

During her two years in office, she and others were able to return a scrutiny to massive human rights violators such as Iran, Libya and Syria through new mandates to investigate situations. To some extent, they were also able to reduce somewhat the obsessive focus on Israel as compared to other countries, although the structural bias against Israel within the UN system continues.

In a lively question and answer session, Nossel addressed the imbalances at the HRC and US efforts to creatively push the human rights agenda, and debated the opportunities and challenges posed by the Arab Spring. Ultimately, Nossel encouraged the US government as well as NGOs to continue to participate in the HRC, to make an impact on human rights situations.

JBI Director Felice Gaer, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Suzanne Nossel, and JBI Chair E. Robert Goodkind at the JBI event.

JBI on Human Rights in Burma

On November 28, 2011, the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) and 12 other prominent human rights actors urged U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to focus on important human rights issues during her upcoming visit to Burma.  In the letter, JBI calls for the immediate unconditional release of all political prisoners; cessation of crimes against humanity the Burmese Army continues to commit against ethnic minority civilians; unhindered humanitarian access to populations affected by civil wars and natural disasters; impartial enforcement of recent electoral law changes; participatory, inclusive, and transparent by-elections monitored by reputable international election observers; laws that better protect freedom of expression, assembly, and association; meaningful political dialogue with democratic opposition and ethnic nationality leaders; promotion of the rule of law; and implementation of the recent resolution on Burma adopted by the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, and expected to be adopted by the plenary in the coming weeks. 

Secretary Clinton will visit Burma from November 30 to December 2, 2011.  This will be the first visit of a U.S. Secretary of State to Burma in over 50 years, and comes at a critical juncture when the political landscape in the country may be transforming from a military dictatorship. 

 

Helsinki Commission Pressed to Strengthen OSCE Human Rights Protections

On July 28, a joint State Department-Congressional commission devoted to integrating security and human rights concerns in Europe held a high-level hearing with US assistant secretaries of state to discuss reforms to the multilateral regional organization founded by the 1975 Helsinki Accords.

Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) consultant Catherine Fitzpatrick testified before the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), an independent US government body, on the subject of US policy regarding the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), an inter-governmental organization comprised of 56 Member States from Europe, Central Asia and North America. In testimony at the session, entitled "U.S. Policy and the OSCE: Making Good on Commitments," Fitzpatrick offered recommendations for strengthening the OSCE's ability to respond to serious human rights violations.

Featured at the hearing were Philip Gordon, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Alexander Vershbow, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, and Dr. Michael Halzel, Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations. 

Fitzpatrick's testimony stressed that US officials should focus on strengthening the organization's capacity to investigate and condemn allegations of human rights abuse by OSCE Member States.  She noted that although fact-finding into allegations of serious human rights violations is at the heart of the organization's mission, recent years have seen OSCE fact-finding attempts in Central Asia and beyond thwarted by  governments that refuse to tolerate criticism of their human rights records.  Fitzpatrick called for the U.S. to work to strengthen and coordinate the efforts of the various OSCE bodies that have been tasked with fact-finding responsibilities in the past, so that future fact-finding efforts might function more independently and professionally. 

JBI on US Participation at UN Human Rights Council

On April 5, following the March 30 announcement by the United States that it would seek reelection to the UN Human Rights Council when its first term expires in 2012, the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Human Rights (JBI) joined ten prominent NGOs in urging the US to continue to seek improvement in the Council's performance.  In their letter, the groups stressed several important accomplishments at the Council's recent session, along with the importance of eliminating the Council’s disproportionate focus on Israel, increasing attention on other ongoing and emerging human rights priorities, and improving the Council's membership.

To read the letter on US participation at the Human Rights Council, see: Download Joint Statement on US at HRC.

 

JBI Remembers Beijing: The Ferraro Factor

Geraldine A. Ferraro, who passed away this weekend, is a symbol of women’s rights advocacy.

As America’s first female candidate of a major party for vice-president, she broke barriers. But readers of IntLawGrrls may not know how actively and directly she influenced women’s rights issues in the international legal context as well.

Appalled by televised reports about the use of rape as a weapon of war by Serbs in the Bosnian conflict, Gerry contacted Madeleine Albright to ask what the new Clinton Administration was doing about it. She was immediately asked to join the Administration’s first delegation to the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, in February 1993, where she helped convince Member States to adopt a separate resolution addressing rape in war.

As Gerry told it, accomplishing this task required her to conduct gender-sensitivity training, too. For example, she found herself telling the male diplomats from the Islamic Conference that they needed to recognize that such sexual violence was not so much an insult to THEIR "honor" (which was all they were prepared to declare) but rather a very real lasting physical and psychological abuse of the women who were victimized. Gerry emphasized that something serious had to be done by the Commission to name it, stop it, punish the perpetrators and aid the survivors. As a result, the Commission adopted a resolution that called for "joint and separate action to end this despicable practice," as well as for investigations, accountability and assistance to the victims.

Later that year, the protection of women’s rights was affirmed as a major focus of the UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna – only a few hundred miles from Bosnia itself.

JBI Welcomes Progress on Monitoring Iran, ‘Defamation of Religions’ at UN Human Rights Council

JBI congratulates US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the US delegation to the UN Human Rights Council for successfully pressing for the adoption of several positive measures by the Council at its recent session, which concluded Friday, March 25.  In a speech at the Council’s opening on February 28, Secretary Clinton pressed the Council to appoint a Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran and to move beyond its focus on “defamation of religions.” This week, following further active diplomacy by the US, the Council created the special post on Iran and, for the first time, refrained from adopting a “defamation of religions” resolution.  These changes follow the Council’s historic decision at a special session on February 25 to recommend that that the General Assembly suspend Libya’s membership on the Council in response to the Libyan authorities’ commission of gross and systematic violations of human rights. 

 

JBI and Africa Institute Condemn Murder of Ugandan LGBT Activist

The Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) and the American Jewish Committe's Africa Institute condemn the murder of David Kato, a prominent Ugandan human rights defender. 

Kato faced threats and harassment in the months preceding his death, fueled in part by a local newspaper’s publication in late 2010 of the names, images, and addresses of a number of LGBT activists, including Kato, alongside statements explicitly calling for them to be hanged.  Despite this, pending completion of the police investigation, Ugandan authorities have not yet attributed the motive of the killing to discrimination. 
 
“President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda should respond to this horrible event by ordering a thorough, impartial investigation and ensuring that those who murdered David Kato are apprehended and punished,” said Felice Gaer, Director of JBI.  “Only by countering hate-filled rhetoric against and harassment of LGBT individuals, and publicly reaffirming that all Ugandans are entitled to equal enjoyment of their rights, can Museveni hope to ensure that others do not share Kato’s tragic fate.”

JBI Calls for US Ratification of Women's Rights Treaty

On November 18, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law will hold a hearing on the importance of US ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).  It will be the first time in eight years that the Senate has held such a hearing on the women's rights treaty, which the US signed in 1980 but has never ratified, and on which the Senate has never held a full floor vote.

Today, JBI Director Felice Gaer submitted a statement in support of US ratification of the CEDAW for inclusion in the congressional record.  Drawing upon JBI's long history of support for US ratification of the CEDAW and on her perspective as the first American member of the Committee against Torture, the monitoring committee for a parallel UN treaty, Gaer urged all US senators to vote in favor of US ratification of the CEDAW, stating, "The United States has long accepted the principle that women's rights are human rights; it is time for the Senate to act on that principle and to approve US ratification of the international treaty that does the most to make this principle a reality." 

The letter argued that the CEDAW has been uniquely important to women worldwide struggling for non-discrimination and to exercise basic human rights, particularly because those States that ratify the CEDAW are required to report regularly to a monitoring committee composed of independent experts from 24 countries.  Those experts then examine the reports submitted by State parties and offer comments and suggestions concerning compliance in an inter-active dialogue. 

Gaer stated that the CEDAW Committee, like the Committee against Torture, on which she has served since 2000, offers the US an opportunity to engage directly with rogue regimes and violator countries on the advancement of women's rights.  CEDAW ratification would allow the United States not only to vote for the members of the CEDAW Committee but  to itself seek election to the Committee.  The letter noted that many of the members of the CEDAW Committee have called for US ratification of CEDAW, arguing that if it were to become a member of the Committee, it would strengthen the Committee's scrutiny of violator countries.

The letter noted that CEDAW ratification is consistent with the "principled engagement" strategy that the US government presently pursues in its relations with other UN bodies.  Conversely, the US's current status as one of only seven countries worldwide that have failed to ratify the CEDAW--a distinction it shares with Iran, Sudan, and Somalia--is an embarrassment, given the leadership that the US has shown in advancing women's rights and equality at home and abroad.  It also stated that US ratification of the CEDAW would result in few costs to the Unites States, because as a result of its longtime commitment to women's rights and equality, the US is already substantially in compliance with the treaty. 

The full statement is available here: Download JBI CEDAW statement

More information about the Senate's Nov. 18 hearing on CEDAW ratification and a link to the webcast is available here: Senate CEDAW hearing.