Torture Allegations, Racial Conflicts…and Leadership on Human Rights?

In this article, Professor Eric Heinze of QMUL's School of Law, argues that the United States, whose government has "has committed grave violations" in the area of human rights, has placed its leadership role in question. 'We stand today', proclaimed Eleanor Roosevelt in 1948, 'at the threshold of a great event'. As Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Mrs Roosevelt was presenting to the world the newly drafted Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 'This declaration', she continued, 'may well become the international Magna Carta'. In those years, the United States could still take pride in sending its First Lady to lead that eminently humanist project. The US had assured the defeat of both Nazi Germany and imperial Japan. While Stalinism had already destroyed millions of lives, the US was promising to protect democracy at home and abroad.