He trumpeted the US government’s rejoining of the Paris Climate Agreement and its re-embrace of the World Health Organization but said nothing about re-engaging with the United Nations Human Rights Council, which Trump abandoned, or lifting Trump’s outrageous sanctions on the International Criminal Court, an affront to the rule of law. The US government’s task is to join that multilateral effort, not supplant it.ĭespite Biden’s rightful endorsement of international institutions, he left two key human rights bodies dangling. Arguably, the defense of human rights is more powerful today than four years ago because it is more genuinely global. While Trump largely abandoned the defense of human rights, other governments came to the fore-Latin American democracies on Venezuela, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation for Rohingya Muslims, various Western governments on China, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, among others. The US government should have nothing to do with that, either.īiden addressed the importance of alliances and partnerships. But he didn’t address other abuses by one-time members of the Saudi-led coalition, such as the United Arab Emirates, which has been supporting highly abusive forces in Libya. Biden rightfully will have nothing to do with it.īiden noted that the US government would continue to help Saudi Arabia to defend itself from missile and drone attacks. Trump closed his eyes to all that in the name of (illusory) US jobs. That’s an important step, given the Saudi-led coalition’s disturbing pattern of using US precision weapons and intelligence to hit Yemeni civilian targets such as markets, funerals, and even a school bus.

In his biggest policy announcement, he said the US government would end support for offensive operations in Yemen. He also connected the defense of human rights at home to the effectiveness of US promotion of human rights abroad. He promised to stand up to the Chinese government’s global attacks on human rights, to push the Russian government to release Alexei Navalny, and to impose “consequences” for the military coup in Myanmar. Human rights were central to the vision he articulated in declaring that “America is back.” © 2021 AP Photo/Evan VucciĪfter four years of watching former United States President Donald Trump cozy up to friendly autocrats, it was heartening to hear President Joe Biden vow to stand up for democracy and human rights around the world.

President Joe Biden speaks about foreign policy, at the State Department in Washington, February 4, 2021.

Biden speech central time