LISTEN: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks about resolutions at an event in Atlanta recognizing the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) Conference of the States Parties (COSP) is meeting at Atlanta's Georgia World Congress Center this week, bringing delegates from across the globe to mark Human Rights Day and to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
In a Dec. 8 press release, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. Departments of State and the Treasury imposed visa restrictions and sanctions on 37 individuals in 13 countries for human rights abuses and violations as part of its commitment to upholding the guiding principles of the document.
In taped remarks about the UDHR shown during the UNCAC gathering Monday, Blinken pledged to expand investment to defend media freedom and the safety of journalists, to protect human rights defenders, to ensure businesses and the government uphold labor rights, to keep technology companies from using their platforms as staging grounds for attacks, to promote racial justice and to address gender-based violence.
But at a separate forum hosted by the World Affairs Council of Atlanta at the Carter Center Monday, attendees were eager for specifics about how the UDHR applies to current U.S. foreign policy at a time when countries are grappling with the erosion of the rule of law and democracy amid human rights crises and atrocities of war.
In 1948 the United Nations adopted the UDHR document championed by Eleanor Roosevelt as a framework for international order after World War II. Its 30 articles — most famously No. 1, “All human beings are born free and equal”— have aided governments in setting standards for human dignity and worth, fundamental freedoms and shared goals in health care, education and social progress. The UDHR is referenced often in popular culture and in conjunction with the modern human rights movement.
The declaration also influenced the American civil rights movement, in 1960 prompting a Spelman College student, Roslyn Pope, to write "An Appeal for Human Rights," in which she justified reasons for the Atlanta Student Movement.
The UDHR is a cornerstone for the human rights program at the Carter Center, where former President Jimmy Carter carried a pocket version of the declaration and later annotated it with corresponding bible verses.
The United Nations chose Atlanta as the location for the 2023 UNCAC conference because of its “rich history” as a “home to many prominent civil rights leaders, such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis.”
At Monday’s World Affairs Council event, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander fielded questions from council president Rickey Bevington and written submissions by attendees, with topics ranging from Roosevelt's hand in the UDHR's creation and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's reliance upon it both during his presidency and afterward to how human rights influences decision-making about the Israel-Hamas war.
Alexander explained the "seismic change" when Carter, as President, approved the Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs and held "tyrants like Pinochet in Chile accountable."
"It was a freezing effect for a lot of authoritarian regimes throughout the world, realizing that suddenly the United States was going to do that," she said.
"The fight for human rights never ends," Thomas-Greenfield added later, mentioning the struggle for gender rights, China’s violations and the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan as examples. "It morphs. It changes to fit the authoritarian of the time. But we have this document that lays out the principles that we all have, we've all signed onto."
The council event celebrating the 75th anniversary of the UDHR was planned before the United States vetoed a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war at the United Nations Security Council on Friday, and an audience member asked Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield what action the U.S. is taking to show and promote human rights for both Israelis and Palestinians.
In response, she alluded to U.S. deputy representative to the U.N., Robert Wood's Friday statement that the vetoed resolution ignored U.S. diplomatic efforts to get more aid into Gaza and free hostages taken by Hamas militants in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
"When you look at the situation on the ground, it is American diplomacy," the ambassador said. "It is American presence that brought about the humanitarian pauses that led to over 100 hostages being released and tens of thousands of pounds of humanitarian assistance getting in. And there clearly are major pushes to have resolutions, to have resolutions that I think make us all feel good, because they say what we think. But the real action takes place by diplomats who are on the ground."
Throughout the Council’s panel discussion, the three women emphasized the imperfect nature of unending efforts toward improving human rights, saying that the UDHR is just that — a declaration, not a wholesale solution.
Jimmy Carter, who began hospice care in February, turned 99 in October, and lost his wife and partner of more than 77 years, Rosalynn, on Nov. 19, did not attend this week's events. But his most recent public appearances discussing human rights in 2018 and 2019 affirmed his unwavering belief in the usefulness and value of the UDHR as a constant reminder for countries to course-correct.
And the former president isn't alone in that estimation: the 75th anniversary spurred the Council on Foreign relations to suggest the declaration was worth "recharging" as The Wall Street Journal professed, "There’s Life Yet in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
In her final thoughts at the event, Alexander said Carter’s successes in human rights were due in part to perseverance and openness. "Jimmy Carter engaged with everyone about everything," she said. "... There's way too much polarization in the world, both domestically and internationally. And unless we're willing to talk and not ‘other’ each other or create enemies, we've got to try to create space to have these conversations. And I think that's a lasting legacy."
