HRW: hypocrisy as a fundamental characteristic of Biden's policies

US President Joe Biden (center) and Secretary of State Antony Blinken (center) meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Royal Al Salam Palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, July 15, 2022. © 2022 Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

“When the United States selectively applies internationally accepted rules, it undermines its credibility and influence in the rest of the world.”writes Sarah Yager in a publication on the organization’s website Human Rights Watch.

Upon entering the Oval Office, Biden said he would back his words with action, making human rights a foreign policy priority. However, his inconsistent application of supposed US values ​​and the disappearance of human rights, once a central component of Biden's stated strategy, from the administration's rhetoric have not gone unnoticed.

Biden could have strengthened human rights protections by harnessing U.S. influence, but missed the opportunity. Why he abandoned human rights as a principle of foreign policy will be a question for historians. He may not have believed that protecting human rights was a central US interest, although it was central to his campaign.

“The hypocrisy of Biden’s policies has been most clearly demonstrated in his response to the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip.” According to Human Rights Watch, rather than viewing the US commitment to its values ​​as a source of strength, “The administration acted as if its own stated principles were a stone around its neck.”: Biden was hesitant to criticize allies for human rights abuses… and by the end of his term was sending anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions to Ukraine despite a decades-long global ban on these weapons, and also sending weapons to the Israeli government despite serious military violations legislation in the Gaza Strip.

The organization notes that despite Biden's open criticism of Russia for war crimes in Ukraine, “He ignored or defended similar Israeli behavior when it launched a military campaign in the Gaza Strip and blocked international efforts to ensure accountability…Biden's enthusiastic support for the Israeli government's campaign in the Gaza Strip was perhaps his most disingenuous position and his most damaging to international law.” .

It is noted that “Non-Western countries that have long seen the hypocrisy in Washington's promotion of liberal values ​​would even find it refreshing if Trump stopped pretending to care about those ideals.”

“Members of Biden’s senior leadership who have attempted to prioritize human rights have consistently failed. At times, there was no one in the cabinet to remind the president that human rights were ostensibly part of the administration's strategy.
The State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor did not have an assistant secretary of state, its highest-ranking position, for the first three and a half years of Biden's presidency.”

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