REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ON UNALIENABLE RIGHTS

Table of Contents

PREFATORY NOTE 4

I. INTRODUCTION 5

II. THE DISTINCTIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS TRADITION 8

A. The Declaration of Independence 9 B. The Constitution 15 C. Lincoln’s Return to the Declaration 18 D. Post–Civil War Reforms 20 E. America’s Founding Principles and the World 25

III. U.S. COMMITMENTS TO INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS PRINCIPLES 27

A. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United States 29 B. Reading the Universal Declaration 30 C. Persistent Questions Regarding the UDHR 33

1. National Sovereignty and Human Rights 33 2. Relation of Civil and Political Rights to Economic and Social Rights 33 3. Human Rights and States’ Obligations 36 4. Democracy and Human Rights 36 5. Hierarchy of Human Rights 37 6. The Emergence of New Rights 38 7. Human Rights and Positive Law after the UDHR 40 8. Human Rights Beyond Positive Law 41

IV. HUMAN RIGHTS IN U.S. FOREIGN POLICY 42

A. Foreign Policy and Freedom 42 B. Constitutional Structure, Statutory Context, and Treaty Obligations 45 C. New Challenges 49 D. Human Rights in a Multidimensional Foreign Policy 52

V. CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS 54