Resource Type:

Report-Paper

Posted On: Nov 24, 2008

Posted By: Rania Suidan

URL:

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/11/14/us-human-rights-agenda-new-administration

Description:

Human Rights Watch briefing paper:

President-elect Barack Obama will take office at a time when the credibility and effectiveness of the United States in combating human rights abuses abroad has been badly eroded by the US government’s own actions. There is an urgent need to remedy abuses on many fronts, but Human Rights Watch here highlights four crucial initiatives that President-elect Obama should take shortly after assuming office:

1. Ensure that US counterterrorism efforts comply with international human rights and humanitarian law;
2. Make human rights a central pillar of US foreign policy;
3. Rejoin the international human rights community; and
4. Demonstrate leadership on human rights issues at home.