Minority rights advocacy in the United States
Since the end of World War II, the global enforcement of human rights has been a crucial guiding principle of U.S. foreign policy. Given that European states strive for good relations with the United States, it is important how the U.S. assesses the human rights situation, including minority rights, in partner countries. This makes the U.S. an important arena for minority advocacy, where representatives of minorities can properly inform the key players shaping the country’s foreign policy about human rights violations affecting minorities.In Congress, it is not only necessary to inform individual representatives interested in the rights of national minorities, but the caucuses dealing with ethnic groups, such as the Hungarian Caucus, and various committees, particularly the foreign affairs committees (the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, House Foreign Affairs Committee), and the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, are also key actors. In the administration, the most important institution is the U.S. State Department, as it is the primary shaper of foreign policy. The State Department prepares the Annual Human Rights Reportsand the International Religious Freedom Reportsfor most countries. For the human rights report, the State Department utilizes insights from its Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, as well as reports from embassies operating in the examined countries. The latter significantly rely on information provided by local NGOs, making it particularly important for legitimate political representatives and human rights advocates of national minorities to maintain active relationships with relevant staff at American embassies, regularly and credibly informing them about the situation of minorities (in the form of shadow reports and personal consultations).