“Defending U.S. Diplomacy from Insider Attacks”: CEO Uzra Zeya Speaks at a rally for State Department public servants

Remarks by Uzra Zeya, CEO & President, Human Rights First

Non-partisan, selfless public service is the backbone of U.S. diplomacy that makes Americans safer, more prosperous, and secure. I learned that lesson first-hand as an American diplomat over three decades, when I served alongside courageous colleagues who faced down al Qaeda and ISIS, deployed far from their families, endured disease and Kremlin harassment, and saved fellow Americans and vulnerable civilians from peril – all with an ethos that I’d sum up in four words: we live to serve.  Some, like my friends Chris Stevens and Prabhi Kavaler, made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation. 321 names of fallen State Department heroes etched in stone in the lobby of the building behind us remind us that diplomacy is fraught with risk. But I never thought that ever-present danger would emerge from within the halls of the Harry S. Truman building itself.

Secretary Rubio’s unjust, cruel, and unprecedented firing of over 1,300 dedicated State Department public servants decimates U.S. diplomacy and weakens Americans’ well-being. Let’s be clear who loses and wins here.  The American people have lost tireless advocates for U.S. exports that generate jobs.  We have lost champions of a free and open internet and emerging tech that fuels innovation and respects rights.  We have lost America’s voice at UN bodies where our adversaries gladly will usurp U.S. leadership.  These mass layoffs also mean abandonment of human rights reformers abroad who challenged dictators, termination of conflict resolution support that stopped wars, repudiation of U.S. humanitarian leadership that staved off famine, and more kleptocrats, war criminals, and human traffickers escaping justice.

Rather than retaining skills and expertise honed over decades by those who live to serve, Rubio knee-capped American human rights and humanitarian leadership in one fell swoop – a Friday morning massacre. The over 1,300 workers kicked to the curb today include veterans, fluent linguists, policy visionaries, and shrewd negotiators who will no longer be promoting U.S. interests and values overseas. They include Civil Service stalwarts who pursued advanced degrees at night, honed world-class expertise countering chemical weapons, welcomed tens of thousands of Afghan allies to our shores, served with distinction as U.S. servicemembers, and brought Chinese and Arabic fluency to our ranks.  They include Foreign Service officers who signed on for worldwide service in some of the world’s most difficult environments, far from loved ones and adequate medical care, and who could readily fill endemic vacancies in U.S. embassies abroad, where Chinese diplomats now outnumber us.

In my three-plus years as Under Secretary, I saw their remarkable results firsthand. From community-run radio stations challenging Wagner group disinformation and violent extremist footholds in the Sahel, to the liberation of hundreds of political prisoners and survivors of religious persecution in Nicaragua, to uplifting the lives of women and preventing child malnutrition at the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh, to helping the Iranian Woman, Life Freedom movement stay connected with the world – these colleagues lived to serve and saved lives on a daily basis. Their termination is a travesty and extinguishes a beacon of hope that America, despite all its flaws, projected to the world for years.    

But let’s not forget who wins here. This is a happy day for autocrats, terrorists, and criminals alike, who are now freer to crack down on human rights, enjoy impunity, and foment conflict.  Governments from China to Iran can double down on transnational repression, including into the United States, now that 80 percent of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor has been gutted, along with earlier elimination of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force.  Russian war criminals must be rejoicing at the demise of the Office of Global Criminal Justice, which provided Ukrainian prosecutors with investigative tools to secure convictions in real-time as Russian aggression advanced. The erasure of the Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons is a bonanza for human enslavers, who can rest easier knowing its staffing and programs have been slashed. The elimination of the Bureau of Conflict Stabilization Operations abandons a ground-breaking, bipartisan strategy to counter fragility and leaves Coastal West African nations more vulnerable to violent extremist predation.

To conclude, too much of what I’m seeing these days at home mirrors the authoritarian playbook I countered for years abroad, and demands a decisive stand from all of us. Of course, the State Department, after the elimination of USAID, joins a long list of U.S. government agencies targeted for purges.  Donald Trump apparently believes that he, his family, and his cronies can flourish in an environment where the state’s capacity to function is degraded, following a long tradition of autocratic civil service purges from Russia to Turkey to Hungary.

If Congress abdicates its responsibilities on checks and balances, the rest of us will be left to suffer the consequences. So we must stand together and speak out. Let’s call upon bipartisan members of Congress to use their oversight authority to demand transparency about these self-inflicted hits to U.S. national security and seek their reversal. The Senate must also reject the rescissions package that will decimate U.S. human rights and humanitarian leadership, defy bipartisan directives, and leave a vacuum for Russia and China to fill.

Let’s honor the sacrifice of American diplomats who live to serve by stepping up for them, defending American diplomacy, and protecting our democracy. Let’s support bedrock legal protections and labor rights, including union representation, for our selfless, career public servants.  To quote President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “We must especially beware the small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.”  History will hold them to account, but we must do so first. Thank you.