What You Might Have Missed . . . the Helsinki Commission Hearing on Human Rights at Home

On July 2, the Helsinki Commission conducted a virtual hearing entitled Human Rights at Home: Implications for U.S. Leadership. A video of the hearing is available on-line.

The Commission is an independent U.S. government agency created by Congress in 1975 to monitor and encourage compliance with U.S. commitments to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).  Membership in the Commission consists of 9 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 9 U.S. Senators, and one representative from each of the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, and Defense. It appears that the current Administration has left these Department positions vacant.  Further, while the Commission’s membership is bi-partisan, no members of the Republican delegation attended the hearing.

Commissioner Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (MO-05), chaired the hearing. In his opening remarks, he observed, “The United States has long been a champion of human rights and democracy in our foreign policy.  Many of the OSCE’s groundbreaking commitments were actually spearheaded by the United States, including those relating to anti-Semitism, freedom of religion, free elections, and the rule of law, to name only a few…Today, we look inward as we examine the Black Lives Matter protests and related domestic compliance issues in the context of our OSCE human dimensions commitments and implications for U.S. foreign policy.”

Witnesses included Nkechi Taifa, Founding Principal & CEO of The Taifa Group, LLC, Convener of the Justice Roundtable, and Senior Fellow, Center for Justice, Columbia University; the Honorable Malcolm Momodou Jallow, Member of Parliament (Sweden) and General Rapporteur on Combating Racism and Intolerance, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE); and Ambassador (ret.) Ian Kelly, former U.S. Permanent Representative to the OSCE. 

During the hearing, Commission members noted that the world was watching U.S. responses to the human rights violations within its borders. The video of the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing protests received wall-to-wall coverage throughout most of the OSCE participating States. Further, George Floyd’s death in police custody prompted demonstrations in nearly all western OSCE participating States, including more than 25 of the 30 NATO member states, supporting the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and protesting systemic racism.

Commenting on the impact of events in the U.S., Ambassador Kelly testified that security among states depends on respect for human rights within states. According to Kelly, actions clearing peaceful protesters, at the expense of their basic rights, cost the United States moral authority to call other countries to account.