by Ivan Eland

Independent Institute

02/28/05

There are several problems with wearing human rights advocacy on your sleeve. The first is that merely holding a vote doesn't mean that a country will eventually be free. Even the Nazis in Germany initially took power by a democratic election. In the case of Iraq, we are a long way from having a genuine republic that safeguards the human rights of minorities.

The second problem, which Carter experienced acutely, is that rhetorically lambasting countries publicly about their human rights policies or their domestic systems of governance often leads to a vitriolic response. For example, the more Carter (and other presidents) pressured China to improve its human rights conditions, the more the Chinese government cracked down on dissent.

Other governments feel that the U.S. government should worry about affairs within its own borders rather than meddling in their affairs...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1469


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp