The US Presidential Candidates Ignore Human Rights
Vice President Al Gore, Democratic Party candidate
did not respond to two letters sent to him. Although he has the most foreign policy experience of all the candidates he is as inexperienced as any of them on issues relating to human rights.
Gore’s central human rights policies are aimed at issues regarding the environment (about which he is very strong, but not as strong as Ralph Nader), health care and social security. Gore appears to believe that there is a right to a livable environment and to social security. He does not, however, appear to believe that trade unions have rights to strike, that the death penalty violates the right to life, nor that individuals have other social and economic rights such as the right to work, the right to an education, etc.. An except is the right to health on which Gore is very strong, but not, apparently, because he thinks it is a right. Like the other candidates Gore has been very ambiguous about what he will do to ensure that the United States promotes human rights around the world.
Gore has shown himslef to be a coward on human rights issues related to standing up to other relatively powerful countries. Like boss, Bill Clinton, Gore appears to prefer appleasement rather than confrontation and thus does little to respond to China's human rights record or to human rights problems emanating from friendly countries like Canada where Talisman oil company continues to do business in Sudan, despite a finding that there presence contributes to serious violations of human rights.
Governor George W. Bush, Republican Party candidate
did respond to the letter sent to him on 4 July 1999 by saying he would explain his views on human rights at a later date. He has not responded to a second follow-up letter sent to him in July 2000. In response to a secoindHe has not done so.
Bush appears to much more limited government responsibility for human rights. Not only does he believe that the government should allow the free market to provide social and economic rights like the right to work, to fair work conditions, to health care, to social security—which he believes are not rights at all—but he also appears to believe that even in relation to civil and political rights the government bears little responsibility. With Bush in office we can expect human rights to become rather irrelevant to the administration.
Patrick Buchanan, the Radical Party candidate
also did not respond to the 4 July 2000 letter. The best that can be said in the defense of Buchanan's ignorance about human rights is that he appears not to understand human rights. For him human rights are only less government and less government action. His understanding of the government responsibilities is that the government should essentially do nothing and that things will straighten themselves out by themselves in a free market. Although Buchanan is more of an outsider that than Nader, he is also much less interesting because it would foolish to even hypothesize about him trying to understand human rights. If Buchanan gets any votes it is surely from people who share his ignorance about human rights.
Other less significant candidates have usually expressed more comprehensive views on human rights and have often sown greater respect for international human rights law. For example,
Pacifist Party candidate Brad Little
has expressed a full commitment to international human rights and made it the cornerstone of his policies. Brad is a devote pacificist and that is about his only platform. At least he seems to got human rights 'right' in his only articulated policy position buthis voice in the wilderness is unlikely to be hard in too many quarters.
Write to your candidates yourself
You don't believe me that the next President of the United States is ignorant about human rights? Well write them yourself and find out. Her are the candidates addresses...and a drfat letter follows as a guide if you think you need help.
The Honorable Al Gore Al Gore for President P.O. Box 24837 Nashville, Tennessee 37202
Please let me know if any of them reply, especially if any of them have anything intelligent to say abuot human rights.
Model letter
Dear Mr. {candidate},
As a concerned voter, I am writing to you as a candidate for our nation's highest office to enquire about your policies concerning human rights. br> Please inform me of the following:
1. Will you press the Congress to ratify human rights treaties? And if so, which ones? 2. Do you view the United States government as bound to the international legal obligations it has undertaken by ratifying international human rights treaties?
3. Will you pledge to respect and obey all decisions by international human rights bodies concerning human rights in the United States of America?
4. Will you take steps to ensure that the United States brings all of its laws in to accordance with its international human rights obligations?
5. Will you agree to take action against all other countries that violate international human rights law regardless of whether they are friendly or unfriendly, important trading partners or not?
6. Will you, if elected, publicly profess your respect for human rights and constantly speak out in defense of human rights while you are president?
7. Will you ensure that the United States ratifies the Convention on the Rights of the Child during your tenure?
These questions are vitally important for me in deciding for whom to vote in the November 2000 election, Please provide me your answers to these questions as soon as possible.
