The Birth of US Human Rights Policy

Justice Matters

On this episode of Justice Matters, co-host Kathryn Sikkink, the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, speaks with two veterans of the human rights movement, John Salzberg and Joe Eldridge. John Salzberg was the key staff member working with Representative Don Fraser to hold the first set of hearings about the US and human rights in 1973, and later went on to work at the Human Rights Bureau at the US State Department. Prior to 1973, human rights were not explicitly incorporated into US foreign policy. Also in 1973, Joe Eldridge founded the Washington Office of Latin America (WOLA), an early human rights NGO, to lobby for support and criticize US human rights policy. Eldridge and Salzberg worked closely for many years. Together they discuss the “golden age” of US human rights policy; the work of congressman Don Fraser; the creation of the Bureau for Human Rights in the US State Department; US human rights foreign policy under Presidents Nixon, Carter, and Reagan; and the legacy of human rights reports on the larger field of human rights. Be sure to check out Harvard' Kennedy Schools newest podcast, Policy Cast: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policycast/more-indigenous-nations-self-govern-more-they-succeed