Strong U.S. Commitment to Human Rights is Essential for National Security

December 10 is International Human Rights Day. Our celebration of this day marks the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations in 1948 as a testament to the idea that all people are born “free and equal in dignity and rights.” Almost 70 years later, what does it mean to observe International Human Rights Day in 2017?

I was a human rights diplomat at the State Department from 2009 to 2013. Much as it had been in the previous six decades, advancing human rights in U.S. foreign policy at that time meant embracing the fundamental tension in America’s role in the world: We are the leading force globally for human rights and the rules-based international order, even as we also have a mixed and often painful record of violating human rights at home.

Like a lot of Truman members, 9/11 and the Iraq War are the touchstones of my early adulthood. Viewed through those lenses, there is a temptation toward skepticism about American moral leadership. But my experience at the State Department affirmed that despite our flaws, people around the world — and their governments — look to America as the leading force for a rules-based international order that includes a strong defense of human rights.

Today, America looks much less like a champion of global stability, rules, and human rights than it did just a year ago. In an early address to State Department staff, Secretary Rex Tillerson argued that human rights and a values-based foreign policy should take a back seat to economic and security interests. As evidence of this approach, he quickly removed any human rights requirements from Bahrain’s ability to buy American military equipment. Today, the Department has yet to appoint an assistant secretary for human rights or any of the senior positions responsible for advancing labor rights, disability rights, or women’s rights. The secretary broke with longstanding tradition by declining to host an event celebrating the Department’s release of its annual human rights reports. And he and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley have floated the prospect that America will soon withdraw from the Human Rights Council.

In the absence of American leadership to strengthen the international order, including by championing human rights, our own mixed record on human rights is more starkly visible. The themes of the annual human rights report by which we evaluate other countries will feel familiar to anyone living through America’s current political moment: “freedom of speech and press,” “official corruption and government transparency,” “acts of violence, discrimination, and other abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” to name a few.

Whenever the post-Trump era begins, most Truman members will be in our 30s and 40s. Restoring — and then expanding — the rules-based international order, backed by American leadership, will be our generational challenge.

Since before the end of WWII when International Human Rights Day was first observed, the idea that America is great because it is good has been a foundational assumption of our foreign policy. Those of us with careers in national security should be paying particular attention to how the Trump Administration is eroding America’s reputation for goodness. If we want to be part of the forward-looking project of restoring American leadership in the world, we have to be part of healing the social and economic divides that threaten our country right now.

I left New York and moved to Houston a few months ago. Like a lot of my Truman friends in the first part of this year, I was feeling lost: What’s a human rights and foreign policy wonk to do when human rights and foreign policy are so out of favor?

For me, the answer has been to look more closely and more clearly at America’s human rights record at home and to find ways to participate in strengthening respect for those rights. When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in August, it laid bare stark inequities in one of our largest cities. I’m now working to advance racial justice, income equality, and workers’ rights in Houston’s recovery from Harvey.

No matter which party is in power, there’s a tendency in national security to view human rights as a “soft” or non-essential component of our foreign policy. In 2017, we can’t take for granted the idea that a commitment to principles, rules, and individual rights are a source of national strength. December 10 has renewed meaning for me this year, as I hope it does for all of us. Our national security depends on it.

Sarah Labowitz is the Interim Director of HOUSTON RISING, a grassroots coalition in Houston advocating for equity in disaster recovery. Previously, she co-founded the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights and was a policy adviser on democracy, human rights, and cyber policy at the U.S. Department of State. Labowitz is a Security Fellow with Truman National Security Project. Views expressed are her own.