Pompeo to form human rights panel

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday announced he is forming a new advisory panel to review the role of human rights in U.S. foreign policy. He said the panel would be “composed of human rights experts, philosophers, and activists,” adding, “Republicans, Democrats, and independents of varied backgrounds and beliefs will provide me with advice on human rights grounded in our nation’s founding principles and the principles of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Pompeo said the panel is necessary because some international groups aimed at protecting human rights have “drifted from their original mission” and that human rights discourse is sometimes “corrupted and hijacked for dubious or malignant purposes.”

Harvard Law School professor and former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Mary Ann Glendon will head up the new Commission on Unalienable Rights. “Basic human rights are being misunderstood by many, manipulated by many, and ignored by the world’s worst human rights violators,” she said in a statement.

In a letter last month, some Democratic senators expressed dismay that the State Department was assembling the commission without congressional oversight. They claimed several people reported to be on the panel have supported policies that discriminate against LGBT people.