The “Rights of the People” Initiative

Earlier in the year, Dr. Bahram M. Rajaee, director of Institutional and Research Support for the American Political Science Association, solicited interested individuals with experience in teaching civil liberties and making presentations to audiences overseas. After responding to Dr. Rajaee's request, I was contacted by a representative from the State Department's Office of Democracy and Human Rights—International Information Program. The representative informed me of a new publication from the State Department, entitled Rights of the People,¹

designed to promote civil liberties and the rule of law in countries struggling with transitions toward democracy. In conjunction with this publication, the State Department was interested in sending American academics overseas to lecture on specific topics related to individual rights. After discussing travel details, I committed to a trip to Eritrea.

An official Post Report, filed with the State Department on January 14, 2004, briefly details the history of Eritrea and the current political and social climate. According to this report:

Given the one-party system within Eritrea, and the ongoing border dispute with Ethiopia, the implementation of constitutional provisions protecting civil liberties has not occurred. It is in this political climate that I began a series of presentations on individual rights and the rule of law.

Class Presentations

The class presentations consisted of four primary areas of focus: equal protection under the law, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. Since I met with each class twice, I combined equal protection and freedom of religion into a single presentation and freedom of speech and of press into another. The presentations were delivered to a combination of undergraduate and law students studying international relations and human rights. All class presentations were well attended (rooms at capacity) and the students responded with intelligent comments and thought-provoking questions.

Based on early correspondence with the American Embassy, I initially developed the lectures using specific cases from the U.S. Supreme Court to illustrate important concepts. However, upon arriving in Eritrea and speaking with Dr. Albert Johnson, chair of the political science department at the University of Asmara, I realized that the presentations needed to cover information of a more general nature. Therefore, my first presentation focused on the nature and implementation of civil liberties (through an independent judiciary), the development of democracy, separation of powers, and the systems of checks and balances. Using equal protection under the law and freedom of religion as specific examples or discussion points for the primary concepts, the first presentation challenged students to think critically about the realistic obstacles facing societies involved in transitions toward democracy.

After the apparent success of the first presentation, I altered the second in a similar fashion. Rather than focus exclusively on freedom of speech and the press, I instead focused on the importance of the individual in society, relying on the former concepts as illustrations. Thus, I began the presentation discussing the need for courts to remain open to individual lawsuits. I realized this concept was foreign to the students; they had difficulty grasping the notion that individuals could sue government officials and consequently hold governments accountable before independent courts of law. We then used this discussion to move into the broader area of free speech and press rights.

At the end of each class, I reserved 20 to 30 minutes for questions. Initially, the students were hesitant. However, all it took to “open the flood gates” was a single individual. Once the ice was broken the first set of questions I received focused on the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the status of prisoners at Guantanemo Bay, and American perceptions of Islam. Eventually, the questions moved to a focus on the current political environment in Eritrea. I received numerous queries about the U.S. position on the Eritrean-Ethiopian border conflict (and the international commission's decision) and about implementation of civil liberties within Eritrea. While the students did not openly criticize government officials, it was obvious from their analogies that they are frustrated by the lack of democratic practices within their country. One student even went so far as to declare invalid any government that comes to power by a means other than through democratic election. Another student inquired about the specific steps necessary to get the international community more involved with the domestic politics of Eritrea.

Overall, I believe the presentations went extremely well. After each class, several students remained to ask further questions or provide specific comments about practices in Eritrea. For example, one individual remained to discuss a comment I made about the nature of politics and the law. He initially believed that the law possessed a degree of finality that could not be violated. When I explained that law and politics are often the same (and provided illustrations to support the claim), he declared he was satisfied by the answer, although frustrated by its implications. I am not sure about the impact my presence had on the students with whom I met, but the experience certainly affected the way I present this material to my students in the United States.