POLITICO: State Department to launch new human rights panel stressing ‘natural law’
“The Trump administration plans to launch a new panel to offer ‘fresh thinking’ on international human rights and ‘natural law,’ … The new body, to be called the Commission on Unalienable Rights, will advise Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to a notice the State Department quietly published Thursday on the Federal Register. … Some [human rights activists] privately said they worry that talk of the ‘nation’s founding principles’ and ‘natural law’ are coded signals of plans to focus less on protecting women and LGBT people. The word ‘natural’ in such context is often interpreted to mean ‘God-given,’ a phrasing that is less common in modern human rights literature but which could signal a religious component, experts said. … It is not clear who will serve on the panel or when their appointments will take effect, but activists and former U.S. officials noted that its composition will greatly affect the policies it promotes” (Toosi, 5/30).