what role has the U.S. played in advancing international justice?
A. During the last sixty years, U.S. leadership has been an essential and positive force in advancing international justice. The U.S. was instrumental in creating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), with Eleanor Roosevelt as head of the drafting committee and the U.S. Constitution as a principal model. The U.S. played a critical role in convening the Nuremberg Tribunal after World War II and in establishing the ad hoc international criminal tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. During the negotiations for the ICC Treaty in Rome, the U.S. delegation–one of the largest and most influential delegations–contributed to drafting a comprehensive and credible document to advance international justice. Even though the U.S. under the Bush Administration subsequently sought to marginalize and undermine the ICC, the U.S. is now getting back on track, having stated its support for the ICC’s cases concerning the Sudan and Uganda.
