First of all, given that it's just been exposed that a teacher and a doctor who were being bankrolled by the UN have been keeping Israeli hostages for the last two months, forgive me if I don't give two fucks about the UN's assessment of our track record on human rights.
No, I don't think that we should establish a national human rights institution. Yeesh, this administration already tried to establish a ministry of truth. Our declaration of human rights is our constitution, and our Bill of Right. The Supreme Court is supposed to be the institution that vets the law on the basis of those declarations. They're imperfect; but, all human institutions are imperfect.
Now, in regard to criminal justice...I mean... holy hell seven years ago I was the hippy liberal who was breaking bread with convicted and confessed murderers and talking about how these people have changed and deserve another chance at life.
I haven't changed that view at all. It's just that states like New York, California, and Illinois have gone pro-criminal to an extent I never thought possible.
I've been against the death penalty for a long time; but, if you rape a baby to death, I don't want you to be eligible for parole. I want you to die by incarceration. Ideally, somebody will give you a taste of your own medicine in prison.
The reality is that the ACLU is no longer concerned with civil liberties. They, just like the UN, have dumped negative rights for positive rights.
It's laughable that the ACLU condemned our track record on free speech when one of their ranking members has already called for a book to be disappeared because he didn't like it.