Pompeo launches commission to study human rights role

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday launched a panel to re-examine the role of human rights in U.S. foreign policy, drawing criticism from lawmakers and activists who said it was an attempt to minimize abortion and gay rights, Trend reports citing Reuters.

Pompeo named Harvard Law School professor Mary Ann Glendon, a former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, to head the Commission on Unalienable Rights.

Pompeo, who did not take questions from reporters, said international institutions built to protect human rights had drifted from their mission.

"As human rights claims have proliferated, some claims have come into tension with one another provoking questions and clashes about which rights are entitled to gain respect,” he said.

"The time is right for an informed review of the role of human rights in American foreign policy.”