, Columnist
What Are Human Rights? Pompeo’s Panel Is Right to Ask
Critics are bashing it as a forum for Christian haters of gay rights, but that’s all wrong.
Handmaids and human rights.
Photographer: EMILY KASK/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
This article is for subscribers only.
When Rex Tillerson was secretary of state, he came under criticism for saying that promoting human rights in other countries sometimes conflicts with U.S. economic and national-security interests. Much of the press portrayed Tillerson as being uninterested in human rights.
Now Tillerson’s successor, Mike Pompeo, has started another controversy by being too interested in them. Pompeo is starting a commission on human rights to rethink what they are and how they should fit into U.S. foreign policy.