A new State Department body should be disbanded, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and close to 200 other organizations are urging in a letter. Hundreds of former officials, academics and activists have also signed on to the letter originating with Human Rights First.
FFRF and all these groups and individuals are calling on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to dissolve the recently announced Commission on Unalienable Rights.
āWe object to the commissionās stated purpose, which we find harmful to the global effort to protect the rights of all people and a waste of resources; the commissionās makeup, which lacks ideological diversity and appears to reflect a clear interest in limiting human rights, including the rights of women and LGBTQI individuals; and the process by which the commission came into being and is being administered, which has sidelined human rights experts in the State Departmentās own Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor,ā the letter states. āWe urge you to immediately disband this body.ā
The commissionās shortcomings start with its title itself, the letter points out.
āWe view with great misgiving a body established by the U.S. government aimed expressly at circumscribing rights through an artificial sorting of those that are āunalienableā and those to be now deemed āad hoc,ā says the letter. āThese terms simply have no place in human rights discourse. It is a fundamental tenet of human rights that all rights are universal and equal.ā
And the composition of the entity does little to inspire confidence.
āThe commission clearly fails to achieve the legal requirement that a federal advisory committee ābe fairly balanced in its membership in terms of the points of view represented and the functions to be performed,āā asserts the letter. āThe commissionās chair and members are overwhelmingly clergy or scholars known for extreme positions opposing LGBTQI and reproductive rights, and some have taken public stances in support of indefensible human rights violations.ā
FFRF and the other groups strongly advise that ātaxpayer resources should simply not be wasted on this commission,ā since āits findings will have no weight or ability to redefine human rights.ā
The joint letter, released today, is already receiving coverage in major media outlets.
FFRF has been ahead of the curve when it comes to the āCommission on Unalienable Rights,ā getting wind of it early last month and immediately asking for records on the body, which FFRF awaits. The state/church watchdog has been concerned from the get-go that the group will redefine human rights through the Christian nationalism that the secretary of state promotes.
āThe distinctive mark of Western civilization is the belief in the inherent worth of human beings, with the attendant respect for God-authored rights and liberties,ā Pompeo said in May. This conflation of āGod-given rightsā and āhuman rightsā seems to be a hallmark of the commission. Speaking to the National Catholic Register, one State Department official said, āWe believe by our nature as human beings that we enjoy unalienable rights and our Founders believed in God,ā adding that the Founders ābelieved that God gave us these unalienable rights.ā
FFRFās Director of Strategic Response Andrew L. Seidel has explained, āThis language is worrisome. The Founders, Thomas Jefferson in particular, focused on human rights, not Pompeoās āGod-given rights.āā
FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor adds a warning: āWhen government officials imagine they have a pipeline to a divinity or āknowā what āGodā wants, watch out!ā
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is more than happy to join in the call for the āCommission on Unalienable Rightsā to be shut down.
Photo via Shutterstock by Lev Radi