The world was ecstatic when it heard that Barack Obama was going to be the next president of the United States. With Barack Obama as president, everyone knew that everything was going to be okay whether it was ending the two ongoing wars or defending and properly understanding Human Rights worldwide. Jimmy Carter, the founder of The Carter Center, has said in a recent interview with CNN, “a high priority will be the restoration of human rights, which have been badly eroded in recent years.” The reason Jimmy Carter decided to focus and address this topic is because he believes that the United States should focus more on enforcing Human Rights around the world. According to Jimmy Carter, activists from around the world join his annual conferences and say that the US is not advocating and encouraging other countries to engage in Human Rights acts. Because the US is not encouraging those acts, countries do not feel the need to do so. “For years, these activists have told us that when the United States engaged in torture and indefinite detention, their decades of struggle for rights began to erode. Dictators who had felt pressure from the United States to improve rights were suddenly off the hook. With new leadership in Washington, a clear and principled message on the centrality of human rights can help set a new tone.” Jimmy Carter believes that the United States is the main and higher power in which developing countries can look up to when it comes to issues regarding Human Rights. The main purpose of Jimmy Carter’s interview was to show that when humans are taken advantage of, used and abused, peace could never be achieved. He also encourages people to listen to Human Right activists when they speak about problems within their own communities. We need to be aware of those problems and help solve them before they escalate and become more dangerous and harder to handle.
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2 comments:
One wonders, if such high minded considerations past through Mr. Carter's mind as he learned that his mission of "Elders" would be denied entrance into Zimbabwe by Mugabe, a man that the former President was integral in getting elected and whose dereliction and murder has caused a state that was regarded as the bread basket of Africa to sink into ruin. That Carter as President insisted that another election be held after Mugabe's Communist financed Zanu-PF boycotted the first, which had been won by a moderate preacher, and that the subsiquent election was won by terror and intimidation in the hinterlands of that country, is just one of the many examples of what Jimmy Carter's "good intentions" have wrought on the world. So far in Obama we seem to be seeing a better caliber of politician.
Human rights are indeed commonly overlooked in the political realm, yet it is an issue that deserves the utmost attention on the world stage.
You had stated, "activists from around the world join his annual conferences and say that the US is not advocating and encouraging other countries to engage in Human Rights acts. Because the US is not encouraging those acts, countries do not feel the need to do so." I couldn't agree more. Though some tend to disagree with the notion of the United States being a "policing" nation, it cannot be ignored that the United States has a tremendous voice on the world stage - it has considerable influence and serves as a critical model to other nations. Though it can be argued that, when carried too far, other nations break off and disassociate themselves with the policies and decisions the United States makes, it is still difficult to ignore the United States' influence over other nations. Basically put, if the United States became a more pronounced and enthusiastic advocate for human rights, it would almost undoubtedly command attention to such critical issues from other nations worldwide.
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