Title: Human Rights Reporting as Human Rights Governance
Abstract:Contrary to the view that the rejection of human rights
treaty membership has left the United States outside the
formal international human rights system, the United
States has played a key role in...Contrary to the view that the rejection of human rights
treaty membership has left the United States outside the
formal international human rights system, the United
States has played a key role in international human
rights governance through congressionally mandated
human rights monitoring and reporting. Since the mid1970s, congressional oversight of human rights diplomacy, which requires reporting on global human rights
practices, has integrated international human rights
law and norms into the execution of U.S. foreign policy.
While the congressional human rights mandates have
drifted from their original purpose to condition allocation of foreign aid, they have effectively embedded international human rights norms and law into congressional decision-making and the operations of executive
branch agencies. Over the years, the reports issued
pursuant to the mandates have also become an important international source of human rights fact-finding, influencing the ways in which courts, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and international
human rights institutions themselves interpret and apply human rights law. In this respect, congressional
human rights reporting mandates—not congressional
human rights treaty policy—have evolved as a driver of
U.S. engagement with and interpretation of the protections of international human rights law. This Article
draws on a variety of sources, including diplomatic
correspondence, interviews with government officials,
caselaw in domestic courts, and reporting by international human rights NGOs, to explore the effects of the
congressional human rights reporting mandates. It
demonstrates that what was designed as unilateral policy to enforce human rights has affected the construction of the U.S. human rights identity within the international system and the international human rights
system itself. Operating separately and in parallel to
targeted human rights sanctions legislation, the human
rights reporting mandates demonstrate the active and
effective participation of the United States in international human rights governance.Read More
Publication Year: 2021
Publication Date: 2021-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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