Human Rights Policy under the Carter Administration

Abstract

I believe I speak for all of the participants in expressing appreciation to the International Law Society and Duke University School of Law for sponsoring this Symposium. What I have discovered is that there is a strong and renewed interest in the subject of human rights not only in the United States, but in other countries as well. Hopefully, we can explore not only what is being done, but what should be done in order to create a more effective U.S. human rights policy. I shall review the first year of the Carter Administration's human rights policy, examine what has been done to implement that policy, discuss its results, and in so doing, raise some questions as to its future. To begin, I have some good news to share with you, which I would like to announce in honor of this Symposium. Yesterday, the President submitted to the Senate for ratification four international human rights treaties: the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the American Convention on Human Rights. What is significant about this act is that all of these treaties had been sitting on government shelves between nine and thirteen years. Now the United States has recognized the importance of assuming its formal obligations under international human rights law. Upon taking office, President Carter-following a theme struck early in his campaign-set a new course for American foreign policy. It was an effort to bring our foreign policy into line with our domestic values. It was a policy that grew out of a decade of rising disillusionment with the war in Viet Nam. It was a policy that grew out of a sense of shame when news photos showed governments to which we had shipped guns and rifles turn those weapons against their own people. It was a policy that grew out of an undercurrent of resentment on the part of the American people. But it was a policy based on actions and initiatives taken earlier.