Washington Post: Why Trump’s new Commission on Unalienable Rights is likely to upset the human rights community
Clifford Bob, professor and chair of political science at Duquesne University

“…[L]ate last week, the Trump State Department announced a new Commission on Unalienable Rights to provide advice and recommendations regarding international human rights policy. … As its anachronistic title suggests, the Commission on Unalienable Rights will focus on how current ‘human rights discourse’ has ‘departed from our nation’s founding principles of natural law and natural rights.’ … [A]ny group with any ideology can use the resonant language of rights to push its own agenda. … As one of its first official acts, the Trump administration reimposed the ‘Mexico City policy,’ also known as the global gag rule, banning [U.S. global health] support for international [nongovernmental organizations] … that perform, promote, or offer information about abortion. The United States has sought to purge all references to ‘sexual and reproductive health’ at the United Nations since 2017. … The conservative goals [the new Commission] portrays in rights language will appeal to an important segment of world opinion. But they will leave mainstream NGOs and their left-leaning audiences unmoved and still committed to defending their own vision of society. The battle over the political content of ‘human rights’ will continue” (6/6).