7 Ways for Obama to REALLY Earn that Nobel Peace Prize

president obama

Photo: Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images

At the local level, Americans are demonstrating a strong commitment to advancing human rights. In recent elections, voters legalized marriage equality in nine states and passed the DREAM Act to expand educational opportunities for undocumented residents in Maryland. In addition, legislators in four states abolished the death penalty. The message to the nation’s leaders seems to be this: human rights still matter, and the task of “perfecting our union” remains incomplete.

As President Obama prepares to give his second inaugural address, he should embrace an ambitious rights agenda: enhancing our security without trampling on human rights; implementing a foreign policy that hold friends and foes alike accountable for human rights violations; and ensuring human rights for all in the United States without discrimination.

INCOMPLETE

Measured against international norms and his own aspirations, President Obama’s first term record on human rights merits an “incomplete.” While he made the bold move of issuing an executive order to close Guantánamo on his second day in office, he has yet to fulfill that promise. The U.S. government’s reliance on lethal drone strikes is growing steadily, but the administration has provided no clear legal justification for the program. Congress has abrogated its responsibility to exercise meaningful oversight of this most ubiquitous element of the “global war on terror,” a paradigm which is in and of itself problematic. Although President Obama has on occasion stood up for human rights defenders abroad — in China, Iran, Russia and Libya — his administration has often muted criticism when it comes to U.S. allies, in the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

And even on the home front, President Obama’s human rights legacy is far from assured, with women’s rights, immigrants’ rights and tackling discrimination all stacked in the “unfinished” pile.

A NOBEL-WORTHY AGENDA

President Obama — whose 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was granted as much for what he might accomplish as for what he had accomplished — has four years left to build a worthy legacy of respect for human rights at home and abroad.

GUANTANAMO

In 2008, candidate Obama called the Guantanamo Bay detention center “a dark chapter in American history.” Four years later, he renewed his pledge to shutter the offshore detention facility, but then failed to veto the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which greatly complicates his ability do so. Today, 166 men remain jailed at Guantanamo, most held without charge, all denied fair trials. There has been virtually no accountability for torture and other human rights violations committed against detainees. U.S. authorities have cleared 55 of the detainees for transfer: men like Shaker Aamer, who has languished in prison for 10 years, despite his country, the United Kingdom, expressing a willingness to welcome him home.

The president should promptly order the release of those detainees, including Shaker Aamer, whom the United States has no intention of prosecuting. As for the rest, his administration must find ways either to charge and try them fairly in federal court, or free them into the United States or any safe alternative. The United States cannot sustain its credibility as a defender of human rights abroad when it violates such a fundamental international human rights norm.

DRONES

The U.S. government has relied increasingly on drones to kill terror suspects. According to some reports, nearly 2,500 people have been killed in 300 drone strikes since Obama took office. U.S. drone attacks have doubled overall in Pakistan during the Obama administration, and drones are also being used far afield, from Yemen to Libya. The nomination of John Brennan to be the nation’s next director of the Central Intelligence Agency gives Congress a chance to ask some tough questions, including: what will he do to ensure that the U.S. government’s use of drones conforms to international laws that govern the use of lethal force? We must stop the use of drones once and for all. 

AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL

The rights of women and girls in Afghanistan need to be protected as NATO prepares for its 2014 withdrawal. Women in the region face torture and even death simply for defending their right to live with dignity. One of the best ways the United States can assist Afghanistan in preparing for the challenges ahead is to ensure women’s rights to political participation and invest in the people, administrative systems and physical infrastructure needed to promote justice, equality and freedom for all.

EQUAL FOREIGN POLICY

The United States should adhere to its international obligations and support UN human rights mechanisms. President Obama should drop the double standards when it comes to standing up for human rights abroad. Washington should tell Paris that it does not condone the forcible evictions of Roma minorities. In the Middle East, the administration is reluctant to criticize the leaders of Saudi Arabia or Bahrain, for example, at a time when it must rely on these states to advance U.S. policy objectives on Iran and Syria. Similar logic appears to be behind the administration’s failure to challenge the assault on civil society and rights activists in Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda. But banking on the long-term success of allies that arrest people for tweeting and deny equal rights to women and ethnic and religious minorities is foolhardy.

IN THE UNITED STATES

Stark racial disparities persist in housing, health care, employment, education and the criminal justice system. These too are human rights issues, and President Obama’s leadership is crucially needed to address them. There needs to be a commitment at the highest level of government to uphold human rights domestically, including by addressing discrimination within the criminal justice system: enacting a federal law barring racial profiling in law enforcement, appointing a blue-ribbon commission on mass incarceration, ending harsh conditions in “supermaximum” security prisons, adopting stricter limits on the use of Taser devises, ending the practice of juvenile life without parole and by leading the United States away from the death penalty.

Furthermore, President Obama should lead a sometimes dysfunctional Congress to continue its work to “perfect our union” by advancing the rights of women, immigrants and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. In its final hours, a politically divided 112th Congress failed to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) for the first time in eighteen years, leaving some vulnerable, including Native American women who are 2.5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than the general U.S. female population. The president should remind Congress that every woman is entitled to protection from violence, regardless of race, class, religion, national origin or sexual orientation.

As for immigrant rights, the president should urge Congress to take a lesson from Maryland and pass a Federal DREAM Act to allow young people brought to this country as children to pursue their education without fear of deportation. This would be an important step towards more comprehensive immigration reform, rooted in respect for the human rights of all immigrants. And when it comes to marriage equality, the president should continue his “evolution” and work with Congress to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and provide marriage equality for all Americans.

It is time to put human rights at the center of the United States’ domestic and international political agendas. Ratification of all international human rights treaties and protocols is essential, as is taking concrete steps to help the United States live up to its human rights obligations at home.

The president’s second term is just about to begin. Here’s hoping he’s willing to do what it takes to turn his incomplete into an A (or at least a solid B… ).and earn that Nobel prize.

The contents of this blog were originally posted on the Huffington Post

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6 thoughts on “7 Ways for Obama to REALLY Earn that Nobel Peace Prize

  1. PART 1
    I agree that Obama needs to step up with human rights, especially right here in America. I am a bit troubled that this report said nothing about millions of USA sex workers that are being criminalized, harassed, raped, stalked, murdered + discriminated against and are forced to face a violent society that wants to harm them, and is funded by USA tax dollars, at the price of over 250 million a year under the GUISE of human trafficking. In REALITY 99% of it is consensual sex work.
    Lets not be IRRESPONSIBLE and IGNORE these problems, because in REALITY the adult community does want to SOLVE what little human trafficking there is, however, its law enforcement, the justice dept and the anti prostitution groups that REFUSE to COOPERATE and REDUCE HARM to EVERYONE.
    Lets take a look into REALITY as this report does not mention many facts:
    That we have over a half a million untested rape kits being held in evidence lockers as we claim we can't afford to test them. The average age of women arrested for prostitution in the USA last year was between 29 and 65.
    In the past 2 years over 300 cops in the USA have been ARRESTED for sexual abusing kids, most of them did not even spend 1 day in jail. Most kids are sexual abused by members of their community, coaches, priests, teacher, doctors and caretakers than exploited into prostitution. Dr Farely spends years publishing in the media that there was hundreds of thousands of teens being exploited and that Craigslist and Backpage were the bad guys. In reality the USA only had 347 actual victims exploited into prostitution last year.
    The HUGE FRAUD and CONSPIRACY between the justice dept/law enforcement/and anti prostitution groups like Dr Melissa Farely, who all PROFIT OFF criminalizing and harassing and creating direct harm and human rights violations the most vulnerable members of society and that costs 250 million tax dollars a year to fund.
    The criminal justice dept has ABUSED ITS AUTHORITY, and we need to move forward and CHALLENGE all laws surrounding indoor sex work between consenting adults as unconstitutional. The constitution promises us "a reasonable amount of privacy in our homes" and its 236 years after the 'separation of church and state', the Bible shouldn't be a political issue, but it is.
    We also have the anti prostitution pledge going to the supreme court as it is being challenged and is unconstitutional. The pledge prevents HIV money going to any country that does not oppose all forms of prostitution, and they must report all prostitution as human trafficking statistics, therefore, in REALITY these ANTI PORN + PROSTITUTION GROUPS are willing to allow MILLIONS of people to die around the world just so they can TRY to ABOLISH PROSTITUTION.
    We can't police even 1% of the sex industry in the US on a good day, and we have created the perfect playground for predators, serial killers pimps and bad cops to PREY on the most vulnerable members of society.
    We have allowed these HATERS, to dictate their religious beliefs off onto society, because they have the money and the power. Dr Farely published an article called "Behind closed doors", yet she had DEFRAUDED the government out of millions, and funded these human rights violations or WITCH HUNTS. Why are we not publishing the conspiracy and fraud she is pulling off behind closed doors.
    . Sex workers, refuse to work for slave wages we can't live on, and once we enter the sex industry society demands we never enter the work force again. (see the movie "Life After Porn" on netflix.)

  2. PART 1
    I agree that Obama needs to step up with human rights, especially right here in America. I am a bit troubled that this report said nothing about millions of USA sex workers that are being criminalized, harassed, raped, stalked, murdered + discriminated against and are forced to face a violent society that wants to harm them, and is funded by USA tax dollars, at the price of over 250 million a year under the GUISE of human trafficking. In REALITY 99% of it is consensual sex work.
    Lets not be IRRESPONSIBLE and IGNORE these problems, because in REALITY the adult community does want to SOLVE what little human trafficking there is, however, its law enforcement, the justice dept and the anti prostitution groups that REFUSE to COOPERATE and REDUCE HARM to EVERYONE.
    Lets take a look into REALITY as this report does not mention many facts:
    That we have over a half a million untested rape kits being held in evidence lockers as we claim we can't afford to test them. The average age of women arrested for prostitution in the USA last year was between 29 and 65.
    In the past 2 years over 300 cops in the USA have been ARRESTED for sexual abusing kids, most of them did not even spend 1 day in jail. Most kids are sexual abused by members of their community, coaches, priests, teacher, doctors and caretakers than exploited into prostitution. Dr Farely spends years publishing in the media that there was hundreds of thousands of teens being exploited and that Craigslist and Backpage were the bad guys. In reality the USA only had 347 actual victims exploited into prostitution last year.
    The HUGE FRAUD and CONSPIRACY between the justice dept/law enforcement/and anti prostitution groups like Dr Melissa Farely, who all PROFIT OFF criminalizing and harassing and creating direct harm and human rights violations the most vulnerable members of society and that costs 250 million tax dollars a year to fund.
    The criminal justice dept has ABUSED ITS AUTHORITY, and we need to move forward and CHALLENGE all laws surrounding indoor sex work between consenting adults as unconstitutional. The constitution promises us "a reasonable amount of privacy in our homes" and its 236 years after the 'separation of church and state', the Bible shouldn't be a political issue, but it is.
    We also have the anti prostitution pledge going to the supreme court as it is being challenged and is unconstitutional. The pledge prevents HIV money going to any country that does not oppose all forms of prostitution, and they must report all prostitution as human trafficking statistics, therefore, in REALITY these ANTI PORN + PROSTITUTION GROUPS are willing to allow MILLIONS of people to die around the world just so they can TRY to ABOLISH PROSTITUTION.
    We can't police even 1% of the sex industry in the US on a good day, and we have created the perfect playground for predators, serial killers pimps and bad cops to PREY on the most vulnerable members of society.
    We have allowed these HATERS, to dictate their religious beliefs off onto society, because they have the money and the power. Dr Farely published an article called "Behind closed doors", yet she had DEFRAUDED the government out of millions, and funded these human rights violations or WITCH HUNTS. Why are we not publishing the conspiracy and fraud she is pulling off behind closed doors.
    . Sex workers, refuse to work for slave wages we can't live on, and once we enter the sex industry society demands we never enter the work force again. (see the movie "Life After Porn" on netflix.)

  3. I agree that Obama needs to step up with human rights, especially right here in America. I am a bit troubled that this report said nothing about millions of USA sex workers that are being criminalized, harassed, raped, stalked, murdered + discriminated against and are forced to face a violent society that wants to harm them, and is funded by USA tax dollars, at the price of over 250 million a year under the GUISE of human trafficking. In REALITY 99% of it is consensual sex work.
    Lets not be IRRESPONSIBLE and IGNORE these problems, because in REALITY the adult community does want to SOLVE what little human trafficking there is, however, its law enforcement, the justice dept and the anti prostitution groups that REFUSE to COOPERATE and REDUCE HARM to EVERYONE.

  4. I feel like there is a lot of talk and too little action. A lot of his ideas are really good in theory but if you take a closer look you see that that's just what they are: ideas. We need to act on these so they can be worth anything.

  5. I think Obama knows very well what he has to do to win that nobel peace prize, and it's not one of these things…

  6. first off he has to stop the whole drone stupidity. a lot of innocent people, women and children are being killed. this does not make for a peace prize