At the UN, US lobbying against progressive rights

US Secretary Mike Pompeo called on diplomats around the world to reiterate their support for the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an opportunity to introduce the Committee for Inalienable Rights he created in 2019. REUTERS / Yuri Gripas

Text by: Carrie Nooten Follow

4 min

This week at the UN, the General Assembly is virtual and yet, the countries meet all the same for events on the sidelines of the High Mass, to discuss specific issues.

US Secretary Mike Pompeo has invited diplomats around the world to reiterate their support for the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, under a very innocent exterior, it seems that he wanted to make them rally to his conservative crusade, almost unbeknownst to themselves.

Publicity

Read more

From our correspondent in New York

,

You have to imagine the reaction of diplomats.

They are invited to reiterate their allegiance to the Declaration of Human Rights, which seems full of good intentions and then very quickly,

introduces them to the committee for inalienable rights that he created last year.

A committee which, if we are to believe the NGOs which monitor it like milk on the fire, places freedom of religion at the heart of everything, and it is also a vehicle suspected of reducing the rights of women or homosexuals .

The US Secretary of State is known to be a devout Christian, and his crusade for more conservative values ​​is not in doubt.

However, by placing the declaration dating back to 1948 at the heart of attention, it is a bit like denying any legislative text on freedoms that would have been promulgated afterwards.

So admit that all the rights acquired since that date, the rights of the child, the rights of LGBT communities, are not important.

European diplomats have not been fooled.

They had sensed the trap and did not send ambassadors.

Only Poland, Hungary and Romania have confirmed their support for Mike Pompeo.

The rest of Europeans launched a coordinated Twitter campaign around the time of the event to promote

rights for all.

The conservative face of Americans at the UN

This is not the first time that the United States has shown a very conservative face at the UN since the establishment of this Trump administration.

It has been more than three years since American diplomats at the UN attacked sexual and reproductive rights mentions, on orders from Washington of course.

There is Mike Pompeo, but also the ultra-conservative Christian movement of Mike Pence, the vice-president.

This was played out two years ago in a general assembly, for the first resolution on sexual harassment.

However, it was only a year after the launch of

.

In the end, the Americans lost the negotiation, and Saudi Arabia was on their side.

Then last fall, they tried to challenge all the resolutions proposed to the UN Commission on Human Rights referring to these terms, these “ 

 ”.

They never managed to win a vote, and found themselves very isolated.

For the moment, the other countries of the world are not following them.

The disagreement over sexual and reproductive health and rights

The United States has not hesitated to twist its arm on a country allied so far on human rights issues: Germany.

While chairing the Council, Germany introduced a landmark resolution on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of victims of sexual violence in conflict - SRHR, as they are called at the UN.

These rights cover very broad notions of medicine to which a rape victim can claim and they include

even if it is not mentioned in full.

This is where Washington blocked it, even threatening to veto it if the text was presented as is.

The Germans were forced to eliminate the mention of SDSR.

Even if they found a diplomatic trick to refer to it, what we will remember is the hindsight shown by the United States in the matter, they who were however leaders in progressive rights until now.

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

• United States

• UN

• Human rights

• Donald trump

On the same subject

Donald Trump takes part in the "March for Life" alongside anti-abortion campaigners