State Department ’s Human Rights Reports and Their Failures

Jordan CohenIn March 2023, the State Department released theirannual“Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.” While these reports do provide useful information about individual countries’ human rights practices that allow for better policy research, analysis, and implementation, they do little to stop human rights abusers from receiving U.S. aid. Considerin g a recipient ’s human rights record before sending military assistance is important as states who violate human rights tend to go towar more frequently, facerisks of political instability, and are the most likely todisperse U.S. weapons to terrorists and other international criminals. Thus, the limited impact of these State Department reports on who receives military aid hurts U.S. security interests.The main way that the U.S. government regulates military aid is through the ”LeahyLaws. ” These laws attempt to prevent U.S. security assistance from going to units who will use it to abuse human rights or use the weapons in ways inconsistent with U.S. foreign policy goals. The laws were passed in the wake ofmultiplereports that revealed that then President Bill Clinton was arming Colombian police forces who used U.S. weapons to violate human rights. These violations mobilized enough public opposition to give then ‐​Senator Patrick Leahy the support and political cover to pass this legislation.The overall point of the Leahy Laws is to prohibit Washington from sending military assistance to individual m...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 17, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jordan Cohen Source Type: blogs