5 Ways President Biden Can Fulfill His Pledge on Human Rights

During his 2020 campaign, President Biden pledged to make human rights central to his administration.  As a matter of simple moral decency and his legacy, President Biden can – and must – take bold action now.

To save lives and protect human rights, here are five bold actions President Biden must take before the end of his term:

1. Commute the sentences of those on federal and military death row

As the first major party presidential nominee to openly oppose the death penalty, President Biden must use his constitutional authority to commute the death sentences of all those on federal and military death row. This includes Billie Allen, who has spent well over half his life on death row, despite the lack of DNA evidence linking him to the crime, racial bias affecting his case, and his young age (19) at the time of the crime. Billie’s case is illustrative of many issues plaguing this practice throughout the USA.

There have been 16 executions under the federal death penalty since its reinstatement in 1988, 13 of which President-elect Trump oversaw during the final six months of his first term. The urgent need for President Biden to act could not be clearer. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. President Biden must live up to his campaign promise and commute these 44 sentences.

2. Grant clemency to Indigenous elder and activist Leonard Peltier and release him.

Leonard Peltier has been incarcerated for nearly 50 years, despite serious and ongoing concerns about the fairness of his trial. He is now 80 years old and has been in and out of the hospital in recent months due to numerous health issues. Leonard Peltier should not die in prison.

Amnesty International and many others, including Tribal nations, Tribal leaders, Members of Congress, former FBI agents, Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and the former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds, whose office handled Peltier’s prosecution and appeal, have urged his release. This would be the right step for human rights and to also help mend the fractured relationship between Native Americans and the U.S. government, which could be forever part of Biden’s legacy.  

3. Transfer the detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention center who have not been charged with crimes.

This would be a critical step toward finally closing the detention center, which has long been a glaring stain on the United States’ human rights record. President Biden has for many years supported and committed to Guantanamo’s closure. The time for him to act is now.

The U.S. government continues to violate the human rights of 30 Muslim men who have been detained indefinitely for nearly 23 years at Guantanamo Bay. Most are being held without charge, and those who have been charged were denied a fair trial. Sixteen men have been cleared for release from the prison, some for over a decade, yet remain stuck there. President Biden can act quickly to transfer the men not charged with crimes to countries where their human rights will be respected. Those charged with crimes must be given the opportunity for fair judicial resolution of their cases.

4. Protect immigrants and people seeking safety both at the border and within the United States.

With the incoming Trump administration planning mass deportations and increased cruelty at the border, President Biden has a choice – he can continue to grease the wheels of the deportation machine or put sand in those wheels.

Specifically, he must expand protections for those already in the U.S. including by surging resources to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to ensure people with pending applications get the protections they deserve, expanding Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) protections, and taking action to protect Dreamers and farmworkers. Trump’s mass deportation agenda relies on mass detention, and Biden must take action to stop detention expansion, close the most problematic facilities, and release vulnerable people. This is President Biden’s last chance to show moral leadership on immigration before he leaves office.

5. Stop the transfer and sale of weapons to the Israeli government as it commits genocide in Gaza.

Extensive evidence has shown that Israeli forces are using U.S.-origin weapons in violation of both U.S. and international law. President Biden has himself expressed concern about the actions of Israeli forces and paused one weapons shipment of 2,000-pound bombs. In his final weeks as president, he must not risk U.S. complicity in the ongoing genocide and immediately suspend the transfer and sale of weapons to the government of Israel.