The U.S. Position on the Extraterritorial Application of Human Rights Obligations

The paper argues that the United States should abandon an increasingly untenable position on the extraterritorial application of certain human rights treaty norms. The failure to acknowledge limited, well-established, and principled exceptions to a strictly territorial application of its human rights obligations ultimately undermines the legitimacy of U.S. arguments in human rights fora as well as its commitment to the human rights project more broadly.  The change of course advocated will not prejudice, and may actually enhance, more meritorious arguments at the United States’ disposal.