While we advance a large number of programmatic ideas in the attached, we are
sensitive to the need to assure that they are carefully attuned to the
evolution of global policy and specific-country situations.
I plan to send copies of the attached proposal to Public Affairs Officers in
selected countries abroad where human rights is a sensitive issue. Not only
do I want their comments on the proposal itself but I want them to begin
thinking now about specific plans for USIS
support of the Department’s human-rights plan for their country.
Enclosure
Paper Prepared in the United States Information
Agency5
USIA HUMAN RIGHTS ACTION PROPOSALS
—objectives, themes, treatment—
The purpose of the USIA plan of action
is to organize Agency resources for a sustained effort in the human
rights field. This plan will be coordinated with the Department’s human
rights plans for individual countries as they are developed.
Salient features of the Agency proposals are:
A. Objectives
The basic objective of the plan is to advance human rights. Special
attention will be given to:
—Increasing global understanding of, and support for, US policies relating to human rights;
—Strengthening understanding of the universality of basic human rights as
defined in the UN Charter and the UN Declaration of Human Rights;
—Providing support and encouragement, where appropriate, to individuals
and groups abroad who are actively involved in promoting human
rights;
—Creating an international atmosphere more conducive to extending and
promoting human rights;
—Describing challenges and responses to human rights issues in the United
States.
B. Themes
The following broad thematic categories will be given major emphasis:
—The policies of the Administration reflect historic American
concerns.
—The American record in strengthening human rights, while imperfect has
relevance to similar efforts in other nations.
[Page 184]
—Human rights are a multilateral concern. Positive achievements within
individual countries can reinforce each other in assuring a more humane
world order.
—Human rights include economic and social as well as political
rights.
C. Treatment
Human rights are an integral part of Agency information output, not the
subject of a separate “public relations” campaign.
Programming will be reasoned rather than strident. It will emphasize
human rights achievements but will not hesitate to address repressive
practices by foreign governments.
In coverage of U.S. human rights developments, our case will benefit in
the long run by balanced reporting of both achievements and continuing
problems.
Posts will evaluate local perceptions of human rights and take these
factors into consideration in their programs on this subject.
While bilateral efforts will be made to foster human rights in special
cases, multilateral approaches may stand better chances for success.
In USIA programming, care will be taken
to assure that human rights are considered in the overall context of
U.S. political, economic and social goals.
USIA will be sensitive to the fact
that, in some instances, human rights can be advanced more effectively
through quiet diplomacy than through appeal to public opinion.
The following are specific responses to the subject raised in Deputy
Secretary Christopher’s May 30
memorandum to Director Reinhardt:6
a. Proposals for providing information and guidance on
human rights to all USIS field
offices.
We shall use a multi-media approach in explicating U.S. policy and
promoting human rights. This includes a full range of print and
audiovisual materials, together with speakers. Guidance will be tailored
to statements and actions by U.S. or foreign officials, and to
significant events (e.g. CSCE
developments, UN Human Rights Commission
meetings, etc.).
We shall periodically explore with field posts their perceptions of local
human rights situations, and then develop supplemental programs which
are responsive to these conditions.
b. Recommendations of specific steps USIA might take in particular
countries to promote human rights.
[Page 185]
The following specialized projects will be proposed to support USIS posts in individual countries on the
human rights issue. These proposals are illustrative, not exhaustive, of
the possibilities open to the Administration via USIA’s programming potential abroad.
1. USIA will provide a phased series of
videotaped interviews or direct video statements by the President,
Secretary of State, other cabinet-level officials, and Assistant
Secretaries of State. These would provide an essential overview.
2. Agency elements and State/CU should
cooperate in the conduct of at least one, and possibly more,
International Visitor projects on an appropriate human rights topic. The
projects and visitors would be selected on the basis of their potential
for tangible follow-up programs (seminars, workshops, symposia, etc.)
and other activities overseas.
3. The Agency will provide directories of major American and
international human rights organizations to USIS posts and libraries for reference or for presentation
to indigenous organizations.
4. We will continue Agency/CU efforts to
foster inter-personal communication among officials, opinion leaders and
professionals in the human rights field. Three major programs including
speakers and media support will be conducted by USIS posts in the coming year:
(a) Human Rights Aspects of U.S. Foreign Policy:
e.g. the impact of human rights concerns on bilateral relations; the
relation of human rights to arms sales, aid, technology transfer, etc;
origins of U.S. foreign policy emphasis on human rights (national
beliefs, traditions, Congressional interest, public interests
groups).
(b) U.S. Challenges and Responses in the Human Rights
Field, e.g.: civil rights—voting,
political participation, the legitimacy of opposition, peaceful transfer
of power, equal opportunity, minority rights, freedom of expression and
movement; civil liberties—freedom of information,
privacy, legal representation, habeus corpus; “human
fulfillment”.
(c) Human Rights Questions and Economic
Development e.g.: the question of whether economic mobilization
can occur without suppression of political freedoms and individual
rights; North-South issues of distribution of wealth.
5. The Department and USIA should issue
guidelines and provide whatever support necessary for Missions to
encourage foreign leaders and internationally respected individuals to
speak out in support of human rights.
6. The Agency, through its Washington and New York Press Centers, will
organize a series of tours for foreign journalists resident in the U.S.,
including official briefings on human rights concerns and American
responses.
7. An international conference on human rights
should be proposed for September–October 1978 or in 1979. It would
provide a focus for [Page 186]
strengthening international understanding of human rights questions,
reinforcing commitments to human rights progress, and providing for
followup programming overseas by US
Missions with Agency and CU support.
The Conference should be structured to maximize constructive exchanges of
experience and views in the human rights field, and to minimize
polemical or political confrontations.
8. Establish a Human Rights Alert Service, which
would use Agency radio and press facilities to call attention to human
rights abuses and progress where and as they occur.
In order to ensure that the U.S. effort is fully implemented in the
field, the Department should consider establishing a human rights
coordinating committee at overseas missions. The committee would consist
of representatives from the embassy’s substantive elements including
USIS. Its purpose should be
two-fold: (1) report on the status of human rights issues in the host
country and (2) recommend programs designed to increase understanding of
U.S. human rights policies (public affairs goal) and, equally important,
encourage promotion of human rights in the host country (political
goal). USIS posts would designate a
human rights officer who would be a member of the mission’s human rights
committee. This officer would help identify target audience members and
organizations committed to strengthening human rights (e.g. religious
groups, the bar, labor unions, political parties). The USIS human rights officer would also plan
and implement public affairs efforts involving human rights.
To take advantage of audience data gained in this way, posts will be
asked to broaden their audience lists to include human rights opinion
leaders to be reached with program materials and through personal
contact.
Specific Agency actions in particular countries will be determined by the
political and other factors in the Department’s human rights plan of
action for each country. Pending the issuance of these plans, the
following approaches could be taken regionally:
LATIN AMERICA
In Latin America, the Agency will attempt to make our policies better
understood, particularly in view of the bilateral disputes that have
arisen over human rights between the United States and many governments
in the hemisphere.
Because Latin American posts continue to have regular access to mass
media outlets, the Agency will rely heavily on the press, radio and
television to influence opinion leaders and the public at large. This is
particularly useful in countries where the United States is engaged in
human rights questions with authoritarian governments and where [Page 187] we may not be able openly to
sponsor lectures and seminar discussions on the subject. Paradoxically,
the media in these countries are generally free to report and comment on
human rights issues.
Despite potential local difficulties, posts in Central America, Mexico,
Argentina, and Brazil have asked for speakers on human rights while
USIS posts in Guatemala and
Paraguay have asked for exhibits demonstrating the historic U.S.
commitment to human rights. USIS
Caracas proposes a television co-production with Venezuelan national
television on the Administration’s human rights policy.
In addition to these field proposals, the Agency will: (1) produce a
television and radio series dramatizing human rights causes out of Latin
American and world history; (2) publish a 12-page insert on human rights
in the regional edition of the Agency magazine Horizons; (3) publish human rights-oriented books for the
Agency’s book translation program for general distribution and
introduction into school curricula; (4) recommend that high-ranking
USG officials who travel to Latin
America be available as voluntary speakers for human rights programming;
(5) produce a radio and press series to create greater recognition and
prestige for international and private organizations devoted to human
rights, with emphasis on the work of the Inter-American Human Rights
Commission.
AFRICA
African nations tend to applaud human rights concepts in the abstract but
many fail to put them into practice. Most African countries are quick to
condemn human rights violations elsewhere but are reluctant to make a
public denunciation of misdeeds in other OAU countries.
Given such sensitivities, USIS
programming in Africa must be carefully handled in order to avoid the
appearance of preaching and charges of interference in local affairs.
One approach will be to call on State/CU
resources to arrange two-way exchanges of persons in fields of key
importance to human rights, particularly in law and jurisprudence.
Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union should be
utilized, both as resources for these visitors and as sources of
speakers for overseas programming.
A second approach will be to publicize, especially through the Voice of
America and through post programming in individual countries, the
efforts of African countries such as Botswana, Mauritius and Gambia
which have good human rights records.
Finally, through consultation with field posts, other media products will
be developed to further human rights goals. Exhibits, if discreetly
done, are an indispensable tool in closed societies such as Guinea and
Somalia, where they are often the post’s most effective information
resource.
[Page 188]
EUROPE
USIA’s approach to promoting human
rights in Europe must take into account political realities on that
continent.
In the communist states, we are obviously
restricted in what we can do but not in what we say. Our most important
medium is in VOA. We know, for example,
that our international radio programs have been welcomed by human rights
groups in communist societies. Indeed, our unjammed broadcasts often
have had an immediate and direct effect on the governments of these
countries. Western publicity about and support for these activities have
reinforced the resolve of human rights leaders in the USSR and Eastern Europe. They also appear
to have had some restraining effect on the authorities. We should
continue to broadcast human rights and to reject charges that this is
interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
In Western Europe, our objectives should be to 1)
gain support for U.S. human rights policy, and 2) attempt to motivate
the Europeans to become more involved in promoting human rights
elsewhere. We can do so by strengthening and/or initiating ties with
those European institutions and organizations which are concerned with
human rights. This includes those European youth organizations whose
views are similar to ours in the human rights field. Our aim should be
to encourage the exchange of ideas and information between like-minded
people and organizations so that we can support each other’s efforts. We
should also strengthen U.S.—European parliamentary links where the
subject of human rights could be discussed. This is of particular
importance in view of the European Community’s plan to hold direct
elections to the European Parliament in 1978. The CU exchange program should support this as
one of its primary objectives.
It has been our experience that when we coordinate a particular policy
with our European allies we not only get their support, but we are often
able to project a common policy. For example, NATO is the forum where we have coordinated western CSCE strategy including Basket III
initiatives.7 There is another forum
where we could pursue a common human rights policy—the OECD. It is an organization comprising
most of the western industrial world plus Japan where we now coordinate
aid to LDCs and carry on the
North-South dialogue. At a forthcoming OECD ministerial meeting, the U.S. will propose further
cooperation on member-states’ unemployment policies—a subject which
impacts on human rights.8
[Page 189]
EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC
The following projects for East Asian countries merit special
attention.
Philippines—The major human rights issue in the
Philippines involves political detainees. The Mission’s basic tool so
far has been quiet but firm diplomacy, avoiding high profile public
dialogue in favor of subtle but unequivocal pressure. The post has a
program scheduled on the legal aspects of human rights and will
follow-up with speakers, films and press items. Here again the key to
programming is to avoid preaching and to depict candidly both the
successes and failures of the U.S. efforts to protect human rights.
Indonesia—As in the Philippines, the major
concern is political detainees. The post will continue to follow a low
profile approach while discussing the issues with influential contacts
and disseminating the statements of U.S. officials. It will also
organize meetings and seminars for American experts who can underscore
the fundamental strength of our commitment to civil liberties.
The following specific USIS programs
and supporting actions are planned:
—Preparation of background papers by Embassy and USIS officers for press and electronic
media representatives on the future thrust of US foreign policy. These will emphasize human rights as a
key element in our policy.
—Developing library collections for “outreach” programming, documenting
the fundamental concern Americans have for human rights, as well as the
successes and failures of our efforts.
Korea—One of this post’s major program objectives
addresses the human rights issue. Seminars and discussion programs
planned under this objective will seek understanding of how American
values are formed and expressed and establish a dialogue with Koreans on
common values. ROKG sensitivities and
policy guidance by the Mission will be taken into account in program
planning.
U.S. concerns and pronouncements on this issue will be fully reflected in
VOA Korean language broadcasts. The
post will publicize such programs with the primary audience in advance
of the broadcasts. Similar programs will be made available for broadcast
through the U.S. Armed Forces radio stations, which have a substantial
Korean listenership.
Because there are definite limits within the ROK to a full discussion of U.S. concerns on this issue,
consideration will be given to organizing special seminars or symposia
in the United States to which key Koreans will be invited to
participate. This approach will only be effective if the scope of
discussion is not confined to the problems of one country. [Page 190] Multi-country participation
and a broad-gauged discussion of the issues are more likely to improve
understanding of the U.S. position.
NORTH AFRICA, NEAR EAST AND SOUTH ASIA
Countries in this area have such varying perceptions of human rights that
both the frequency and type of program approach must be tailored to each
country. For example, a wide range of programs about human rights for
diverse audiences would be fruitful in India, but only carefully chosen
programs involving outstanding experts before small, selected audiences
are acceptable in Iran. On the other hand, in Algeria, programming
opportunities are rare, and even then limited to subjects related to
economic or social rights.
In Iran the recent human rights dialogue between U.S. political analyst
Ben J. Wattenberg and Iranian government officials apparently struck a
positive chord. However, this type of programming may not be as well
received by similar audiences in other NEA countries.
Examples of specific program proposals for this area are:
—expansion of USIA’s book programs to
include outstanding works (foreign and domestic including translations)
on human rights subjects;
—expansion of CU’s International Visitor
program to involve more human rights activists; foreign journalists’
tours of the U.S. organized around human rights themes;
—more speaker and seminar programs focused on salient aspects of human
rights that have relevance in specific countries or groups of countries
in this geographic area.
c. Proposals for using the Voice of America, the Press
Service (IPS) and other functional
arms of the Agency to increase popular attention to human
rights.
Agency print, radio and film/videotape will continue to report official
policies, statements and other activities of Administration officials
and members of Congress to overseas audiences. The Agency’s media
services will also increase coverage of national and international human
rights events such as the signing of the American Convention of Human
Rights,9 U.N. Human Rights Day
and the CSCE meetings in
Belgrade.10
Agency media will also report on private domestic and international
organizations which monitor and advocate human rights [Page 191] (Amnesty International, ACLU, NAACP, etc.), as well as statements and activities by
prominent American scholars, writers and scientists. Examples of this
are the recent protests by the National Academy of Science over the
arrest and torture of a group of physicists in Uruguay,11 and protests by Saul Bellow and Arthur Miller concerning
the harsh treatment of writers in many countries for their human rights
stand.
The Voice of America will produce a series honoring human rights
statesmen and stateswomen in American history. Included will be Justice
Oliver Wendell Holmes; Charles Houston, the late black lawyer and leader
in the civil rights struggle; Eleanor Roosevelt, Ralph Bunche and
others. Such programs will illustrate the historical basis of human
rights in the U.S. The Voice will produce a “VOA Forum Series” of twenty half-hour programs treating
human rights. Examples of program themes will be important Supreme Court
decisions dealing with human rights and the concept of due process in
the 14th amendment. Prominent jurists and civil rights activists will be
featured speakers for the Forum series. The Voice will also schedule
prominent American and foreign speakers for interviews and panel
programs.
The Press and Publications Service (IPS)
will commission articles and acquire byliners by American and
non-American scholars on the origins and record of human rights in the
United States. IPS will produce an
illustrated pamphlet on the origins and development of human rights in
the U.S.
Special articles on human rights will be placed in Agency publications
such as Problems of Communism, Horizons, Dialogue, Economic Impact, and Economic
Portfolio.12 The March–April 1977 issue of Problems of Communism featured a review-essay of six books
entitled “Detente and Soviet Dissidents” by Sovietologist Harvey
Fireside.
Problems of Communism has developed a
distinguished world-wide reputation. We will consider initiating a new
publication, perhaps to be entitled Problems of
Democracy, which could afford distinguished American—and
foreign—political philosophers, politicians, humanitarians a forum in
which to explore the ideas, values and processes which lie beneath both
liberty and democracy.
For selected audiences, the Agency’s Film and Television Service (IMV) will continue videotape coverage of
official statements. It will [Page 192]
acquire commercial films and videotapes, feature films, network specials
and documentaries. Examples of acquired commercial productions are the
two recent NBC programs on human
rights—the recent Soviet-American debate at Georgetown University13 and the documentary on the Belgrade CSCE meeting.14 For more general television audiences, the Agency will
increase output on human rights subjects in its current newsclip service
and in its regular TV series which are
seen on several hundred foreign stations. The Agency will also cooperate
with foreign television broadcast companies sending production teams to
the U.S. to make programs about human rights.
In the exhibits field, the Agency will highlight salient passages of the
Secretary of State’s April 30 speech,15
including human rights statements by prominent American and foreign
advocates of human rights.
The Agency will support multi-regional International Visitor programs,
bringing human rights advocates from a number of countries together with
their American counterparts. The Agency will compile a directory of
American and international human rights organizations for use by the
posts in providing orientation to prospective international visitors.
The concept of multi-regional international visitor programs might, as
suggested earlier, be expanded to the level of an International Human
Rights Conference to be held in late 1978 or 1979. Such a meeting would
bring together some 200–300 human rights advocates from around the world
and would provide a very visible focal point for the subject.
d. Proposals for coordinating the public diplomacy
dimension of human rights issues with other relevant foreign affairs
agencies, particularly, AID, D/HA and CU.
We propose that the Agency’s Human Rights Advisor serve as our primary
liaison with the Department’s Human Rights Coordinator’s [Page 193] (D/HA)
staff. In this capacity he would be a participant in cooperative human
rights public diplomacy efforts with members of the Department, AID and other agencies. Currently the
Agency’s Human Rights Advisor is actively involved in cooperative
projects resulting from attendance at weekly meetings of Department
regional and functional bureau human rights officers.
e. Formal structure within USIA
The Deputy Director will be the interim USIA representative on the Department’s Human Rights
Coordinating Group (HRCG). The
Department may also wish to consider having Mr. Bray serve as the public affairs
advisor to the HRCG. In this capacity
he could suggest public affairs approaches as U.S. human rights policies
and actions develop.
A USIA ad hoc Human Rights Coordinating
Committee has been established to provide information policy guidance
and review Agency human rights programming to ensure that the Agency’s
effort is on target. The committee is a “working level” group which is
chaired by the Human Rights Advisor who reports to the Deputy
Director.
f.
Steps USIA has
already taken to achieve human rights objectives.
Human rights is a primary theme and prominent feature of Agency
programs.
All Agency communications media are being used to present the
Administration’s human rights policies to overseas audiences. Radio has
been the primary direct channel to audiences, particularly in closed or
authoritarian societies, where local media are controlled and where
human rights problems are usually most acute.
In the early months of the new Administration, the Voice of America gave
extensive coverage (news analyses, features and editorials) to
statements by the President and other Administration officials which
emphasized the heightened importance of human rights in U.S. foreign
policy.
Congressman Dante Fascell,
Chairman, Joint Legislative-Executive Commission on CSCE, was interviewed in December on
VOA’s “Press Conference-USA.” Human rights provisions of the
CSCE Helsinki Final Act16 was a primary subject of this
interview.
In the field of television placement the Agency has provided extensive
coverage of official USG statements,
speeches and comments on human rights and its role in U.S. foreign
policy. Since President Carter’s
[Page 194] inauguration 18 different
videotapes on human rights subjects have been made available to posts.
Examples are:
—Secretary Vance’s April 30 human
rights policy speech before the University of Georgia Law School;
—President Carter’s March 17
UN speech;17 his April 14 Organization of American States
speech and the recent speech at the University of Notre Dame;18
—interview by U.S. and European journalists on April 30 with Congressman
Fascell;
—US human rights policy interview with
Ms. Patricia M. Derian,
Coordinator, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs (D/HA);
The Agency overseas speakers program incorporates U.S. and international
human rights subjects by selected speakers. For example, Allard Lowenstein, head of the U.S.
delegation to the recent UN Human Rights
Commission, was programmed recently in five European cities where he
discussed U.S. human rights policy before selected audiences. Mr.
Lowenstein received
extensive and favorable media coverage in each of the capitals he
visited.
Special information kits and background papers have been provided to all
posts. The kits highlight press treatment of the Administration’s
emphasis on human rights and provide texts of the UN Charter relevant to human rights as well
as copies of human rights covenants and conventions. The background
papers presented information and guidance on human rights provisions of
U.S. security assistance legislation and the role of human rights in
U.S. foreign policy.
