Human Rights and Obama’s Policies in the Arab World

Speakers: Michael Posner, Bahey El Din Hassan, Amal Basha, Tamara Cofman, and Michele Dunne

A year after President Obama called for a new beginning in U.S. relations with the Muslim world, it is still unclear how important human rights are for Washington’s policies in the Arab countries. While the recently released National Security Strategy includes the promotion of democracy and human rights abroad as a core foreign policy value, there are lingering questions as to how this will be translated into action. Is it possible for the U.S. administration to engage strategically with governments in the region and consistently defend human rights?

Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, will discuss the role of human rights in the National Security Strategy at an event cosponsored by the Carnegie Endowment and Heinrich Boll Foundation. Two leading Arab human rights advocates—Bahey El Din Hassan of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies and Amal Basha of the Sisters' Arab Forum for Human Rights in Yemen—and Tamara Cofman Wittes, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, will discuss the human rights situation in the region. Carnegie's Michele Dunne will moderate. 

To RSVP please contact Sebastian Graefe at sebastian.graefe@boell.org