Letter of the Day

I was very surprised to learn that Iowa Council for International Understanding declined to endorse the anti-bullying policy adopted by 49 other organizations, and objected to including sexual orientation in diversity training, apparently because these are not international concerns (“Man Quits Board Over 'Snub’ of Gay Issues,” March 31).

I have been a freedom writer for Amnesty International, writing governments about their human rights abuses for 20 years. The first response of any government to international inquiry about a human-rights abuse is that it isn’t an international concern.

The world has come to understand that it is the right of all people on this planet to live without discrimination or abuse including, in the view of Amnesty International, freedom from discrimination or abuse because of sexual orientation.

It should not come as a surprise to an organization promoting international understanding that all of us have a duty as Iowans and as part of the international web of humanity to protect human rights and promote an understanding of human rights everywhere, including Iowa.

That the Iowa Council for International Understanding doesn’t understand that basic human rights are an international concern is not surprising, it is shocking.
— Ivan T. Webber, West Des Moines.

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