Obama making rights progress, former Amnesty leader says

Updated: April 15, 2010 - 7:19 PM

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President Obama has mended fences with the international community, boosting the country's credibility as a human rights leader, but he must confront human rights violations in such countries as China, Myanmar and Zimbabwe to be considered successful, the former head of Amnesty International USA says.

Bill Schulz said Obama has put the United States back on the U.N. Human Rights Council, reached out to the Islamic world and shown respect for the opinions of other countries and world leaders.

"In the very broad sense, he has made a very important step in the project of restoring U.S. credibility as a human rights leader," he said.

Schulz, who is an ordained Unitarian-Universalist minister, will speak in Minneapolis on Obama's human rights record at 7 p.m. Saturday at the First Universalist Church, 3400 Dupont Av. S. He also will deliver sermons during the church's Sunday services. Both events are free and open to the public.

Schulz, who was executive director of the human rights organization from 1994 to 2006, said Obama is also a pragmatist who has put such things as international financial stability and the quest to control nuclear weapons at the forefront, trumping some human rights issues. But the administration cannot let human rights abusers such as China and Zimbabwe "off the hook, he said.

"To the extent to which the president takes a pragmatic approach to them without recognizing that at some point the United States does need to stand firm, that will be a measure of his ultimate human rights success or failure," he said.

MARK BRUNSWICK