Geoffrey Robertson has a good piece in today’s Independent about President-elect Barack Obama’s potential to become a global human rights defender.  How will this impact relations with Russia?  He also points out the careful line Obama will have to tread in terms of international law to correct the many abuses of the Bush administration.

The Obama administration will have no difficulty in closing Guantanamo. But how can the US atone for the use of torture on Donald Rumsfeld’s watch? By ratifying the Torture Convention, for a start. And then by taking an initiative that would, for the first time, provide a meaningful safeguard for its prisoners of war, namely by waiving its right to confidentiality in Red Cross prison visitation reports.