Biden’s democracy summit is an effort to renew democratic practices all over the world by emphasizing the need to eradicate the tyrannic ways of ruling the masses.
Just like the cold war when Russia and the US took steps forward to perpetuate their own ideologies of communism and capitalism, respectively, this effort of Biden is considered a US attempt to gather the democratic countries to counter Chinese ideology, which is supposedly the adversary of the US in the new Cold War of the 21st century.
That’s why China has already labeled the Democracy summit a “joke,” announcing holding its own democracy summit in parallel to the US summit.
Using the democracy summit, the United States can incent more and more countries to adopt modern-day governance practices that uphold fundamental human rights.
Defending Human Rights and Renewing Democracy Ethos: The Major Goal for Biden’s Democracy Summit
At the summit, the central issue of discussion would be to renew democratic practice in countries that have diverted from the practice.
The summit can pave the way to set a global strategy to introduce democratic governments in African countries far away from this sort of governance.
For instance, out of 54 countries in Africa, only 17 were invited to Biden’s democracy summit, signifying the severity of the gap which needs to be bridged as soon as possible. Countries like Tanzania, for instance, recently started trying to be in the good books of the west by introducing eye-washing reforms that were noting but time wasted.
A country marred by widespread voter fraud and the authoritative leadership of the incumbent president has encouraged the west not to invite Tanzania to the summit.
Thus, countries like Tanzania and Sudan that are not invited from Africa should have much to worry about, as the decisions about their political future are about to be taken in meetings that they would not attend themselves.
The United States should lead the effort of introducing a new wave of sanctions against the countries that are not taking measures to restore fundamental human rights in their countries.
The threat of US sanctions which will be imposed after the democracy summit will mark the pinnacle of the summit when the verbal strategy is actualized.
These sanctions will vary based on defying human rights to curbing corruption and undermining democracy.
Human Rights Abuses: Russia-Ukraine Tussle Makes Democracy Summit More Important
Human rights sanctions should lead Biden’s democracy summit, and the end result should be capable enough to help those in trouble.
The US sanctions on human rights should revolve around China, Russia, and African nations, especially Tanzania, which have failed to uphold basic human rights time and time again.
While Biden is all set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the democracy summit, this meeting must not eyewash Biden from the repressive policies which Putin is expanding in Russia and Ukraine.
With the controversial recent election, a crackdown against social media, and jailing the opposition leader, Putin was at the forefront in denouncing basic human rights. Not only this, but the latest satellite imagery also shows that Russia is amassing nearly 140,000 troops on its border with Ukraine and could invade the country early next year. Thus for Biden, this democracy summit will help him in sanctioning Russia on various fronts to avert the imminent crisis.
China: The Biggest Human Rights Violator in Asia
Secondly, China always remains in the headline for suppressing its Uighur Muslims minority, and this event should also mark the outcome of Biden’s democracy summit.
While Russia is threatening Ukraine, China is doing the same with Taiwan, which is disturbing the balance of power in the region.
The Biden administration is likely to do a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics in retaliation to the recent US-China tussle. So, the democracy summit must gather like-minded countries of the United States to sanction China.
Africa: The Epicenter of Undemocratic Practices and Human Rights Abuses in the World
Then comes Africa, which is the epicenter of the autocratic regimes, as not even one-third of African nations have been invited to the democracy summit.
The Biden administration needs to see the democracy summit as a platform to be used to impose sanctions against those African nations.
The prevailing Ethiopian conflict is worsening with every passing day, and the US has a role to play in averting this crisis if it really cares about fundamental human rights. Secondly, Tanzania has consistently been abusing human rights by denying people free and fair elections. Similarly, the country is also involved in curbing the opposition voices by jailing the opposition leader Freeman Mbowe, who wanted a new constitution to help Tanzania out of the crisis.
However, the tyrant rule of Samia Suluu is not letting that happen, which is a sign of worry not only for democracy watchdogs but also for human rights groups that wanted to bring Tanzanians out of the socio-economic crisis.
Final Thoughts
The democracy summit is a good precedent which the United States should pursue every year in order to keep in touch with like-minded governments.
However, a verbal-only approach will not work; it must be followed up with practical actions in order to translate vision into reality.
Any country that defies the summit’s agenda should be sanctioned, even if it includes those that are attending the summit themselves. This could include Israel, which evades justice because of aligning itself with the west.
Eli is a Political Data Scientist with over thirty years of experience in Data Engineering, Analytics, and Digital Marketing. Eli uses his expertise to give the latest information and distinctive analysis on US Political News, US Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, and Racial Justice equipping readers with the inequivalent knowledge.