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Antony Blinken on Civil Rights |
"One of the core principles of human rights is that they are universal. All people are entitled to these rights, no matter where they're born, what they believe, whom they love, or any other characteristic," Blinken said. "Human rights are also co-equal; there is no hierarchy that makes some rights more important than others."
The Biden administration has already repealed several Trump-era human rights decisions. Those have included reengaging with the U.N. Human Rights Council, abandoning the so-called Geneva Consensus and Mexico City rule that oppose abortion rights and restoring LGBTQ protections as a matter of administration policy.
Blinken also reversed a Trump administration decision to remove sections on reproductive rights from the State Department's annual human rights reports on foreign countries. "Women's rights--including sexual and reproductive rights--are human rights," he said.
In presenting the annual human rights reports, Blinken said he had instructed the State Department to restore sections on reproductive rights to future editions [to replace sections prepared in the Trump administration]. He ordered the department to prepare addendums to the 2020 reports that include information about maternal mortality, discrimination against women in accessing sexual and reproductive health care and government policies about access to contraception and skilled health care during pregnancy and childbirth.