Civil Rights

• [New] At a time when only 20% of Americans believe public officials in Washington are capable of doing the right thing, the DOJ has the responsibility and opportunity to set a new standard of accountability in the federal government.
• [New] The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted health inequities, and the shift to a broader acceptance of telemedicine is an opportunity to improve health care in the United States.
• [New] The United States will play a lead role in defending democracy, freedom, and the rule of law, working with U.S. allies and partners abroad to restore and defend democratic institutions globally, and counter malign influence from China, Russia, and other authoritarian states.
• [New] China will continue to face pressure from the United States and other Western governments over human rights, democracy and freedom in Hong Kong, and activity in the South China Sea and Taiwan.
• [New] Japan has been wary of challenging China on rights issues, partly out of fear of economic retaliation from its largest trading partner, though it has also cited the lack of a domestic legal basis to enact sanctions.
• [New] Following the successful launch of Canada's centralized, government-controlled screening system and the Canadian Travel Number, Public Safety Canada will continue to support safe and secure air travel, while also protecting the rights and freedoms of travellers.
• [New] Public Safety Canada will continue to work with partners to address and combat hate groups, online hate and harassment, ideologically motivated violent extremism, and terrorist organizations.
• [New] Imposing sanctions over human rights issues could be seen as Japan sabotaging stable, smooth and amicable relations with a country on its own initiative, which would be regarded as a tremendous risk.
• [New] The Biden administration will likely follow the trend of the former Trump administration in increasing its use of country-specific sanctions programs for human rights - and corruption-related designations, as opposed to strictly using the Global Magnitsky Sanctions Program.
• [New] The Treasury Department and other U.S. government agencies possessing legal authority to impose economic sanctions will most likely continue expanding their sanctions programs to address human rights - and corruption-related activity.
• [New] There is a real danger that the British judge's ruling in the Julian Assange extradition case will encourage other governments to charge and seek to extradite journalists in the UK and elsewhere for exposing their military operations and human rights abuses.
• [New] A new allocation of the IMF special drawing rights will provide needed liquidity protection in what is still highly uncertain times.
• [New] To reduce UK aid during the Covid-19 crisis, when poverty and inequality is still so prevalent in the world and when millions of people are displaced, will have disastrous consequences.
• [New] More competition may be expected in defense technologies and technological areas, where China has explicit ambitions to become world leader.
• [New] There will be differences about how to deal with human rights issues vis-a-vis China, perhaps, and Myanmar, for example.
• [New] The Trump administration is moving to scrap an Obama-era policy that protected LGBTQ patients from discrimination, alarming health experts who warn that the regulatory rollback could harm vulnerable people during a pandemic.
• [New] Emerging markets and low-income countries will benefit from a new allocation of the IMF's special drawing rights and through pre-emptively availing themselves of the IMF's precautionary financing lines, such as the Flexible Credit Line and the Short-Term Liquidity Line.
• [New] Right now 100 countries do not have access to a COVID-19 vaccine, which is why the vaccine to be produced in Turkey will be offered for the whole of humanity.
• [New] Abandoning the right to seek asylum in the developed world runs the real risk of emulation in the global South, where 85% of the world's refugees reside.
• The Supreme Court's decision will impact whether parties in arbitrations taking place abroad will continue to have more extraterritorial discovery rights than parties in arbitrations taking place in the United States.
• The American Jobs Plan advances the US into a new digital future, one where every individual in America has a fair shot at success.

Last updated: 11 April 2021