Advancing human rights

RAKOW, Poland -- During the 1980s, many Polish organizations fighting for their country's freedom received logistical support as well as funding from the U.S. government and other American organizations. In 1983, Washington established the National Endowment for Democracy, which would funnel a good portion of Western aid to Solidarity. As Solidarity was primarily a labor organization, unions under the umbrella of the AFL-CIO aided the fight for Polish democracy as well. \nAs recently as last summer, in an editorial to the Wall Street Journal, Lech Wa³sa, leader of Poland's Solidarity movement in the 1980s, said the people of Eastern Europe owed their liberty to such American support, particularly that of the late Ronald Reagan.\nLike in the 1980s, Washington again reverberates with rhetoric to promote democracy abroad. Yet, unlike 20 years ago, little physical action has been taken to back up the speeches and press releases. But a bill recently introduced in the Senate could dramatically fill the void.\nOn Mar. 3, a bipartisan coalition, consisting of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Vt.), Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), introduced to their respective houses of Congress the ADVANCE Democracy Act. \nPrimarily, the bill reforms the State Department to make it an international democracy promoter, greatly enlarges the Human Rights and Democracy Fund to $250 million and establishes a Democracy Promotion Advisory Board to give outside advice to the U.S. government. \nThe bill aims to force Foggy Bottom to discard an old stability-at-all-costs mindset in favor of new thinking that values human liberty more than cordial relations. The act insists on the creation of "regional democracy hubs" that would coordinate efforts to reform authoritarian regimes in separate regions of the world. Finally, the legislation also mandates "democracy training" for State Department officers and proposes financial incentives for those employees who perform particularly well in promoting political liberties. \nThe relatively high proposed amount of the Human Rights and Democracy Fund alone makes it a significant action. Although the bill spreads the total amount over two years -- $100 million for fiscal year 2006 and $150 million for fiscal year 2007 -- nothing coming from the U.S. government right now approaches anything close to these figures. According to the bill's own text, previous funding "for fiscal years 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003 have been $9,000,000, $13,421,000, $13,000,000 and $31,448,000, respectively."\nWhen an organization does not undergo scrutiny from the outside, an internal groupthink often develops, causing it to discard high-minded ideals for the sake of seeking what's believed best for the organization. The proposed Democracy Promotion Advisory Board will help weed out such contamination and ensure the state department remains true to its new mission. \nIndeed, the very creation of this board recognizes that a good amount of the support for this bill came largely from outside the government. Former Ambassador Mark Palmer in particular provided the impetus for the bill through written scholarship and frenetic behind-the-scenes work. His book, Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2005, serves as one of the latest manifestos for those working for political liberties worldwide.\nThe ADVANCE Democracy act, while likely passing easily through Congress, will probably face difficulty in implementation. After all, it proposes to reform the basic mindset of one of America's largest bureaucracies and seeks an additional $250 million worth of funding in an increasingly tight budget atmosphere. \nBut whatever the tedious details of the bill's final realization, dissidents will receive active support from the world's most powerful country. The path undertaken by those who demand truth in their political systems will become a little less lonely and perhaps a little easier.