NEW YORK -- The Bush administration's offensive to preserve Patriot Act counterterror legislation has plunged law reform advocates worldwide into despair.

Although U.S. foreign policy has puzzled, frustrated and angered many across the world, the clampdown on civil liberties in America itself hit especially hard. If left unchecked, the breach of basic freedoms in the name of fighting terror threatens America's traditional leadership in global law reform efforts.

Since World War II, the American legal system has been a vital symbol for law reformers everywhere. With its fabled Constitution, history of democratic governance and independent judiciary, the United States until recently was the touchstone for states in transition from colonial status, revolution or war.

This admiration was striking for those of us promoting justice reform in other countries. Rights defenders would cite the pillars of America's legal system - impartial judges, impassioned defense attorneys, landmark Supreme Court decisions - in support of their cause.

I worked with prosecutors in Romania, judges in Bosnia, antiapartheid activists in South Africa and human rights defenders in El Salvador who found succor in the perceived fairness of the U.S. justice system - even when they decried American foreign policy.

That international force of civil society soldiers marching for justice served America well, helping win wide support for the export of its legal and cultural ideals, and, as significantly, its economic products and political leadership.

The benefits flowed both ways. Dissidents struggling for change could point not just to the rhetoric of international treaties, but to the American court system as an example of how core principles - the right to a lawyer, the presumption of innocence, judicial review of executive and legislative action - could actually work

But the rollback of fundamental freedoms in the United States has wrought a sea change among America's admirers. Lawyers, judges and grassroots activists who once looked to the United States are dismayed as Washington resurrects antiterror tactics it earlier had condemned: military trials without independent appeal, indefinite and unacknowledged detentions, broad exceptions from basic rights for entire categories of people and relaxation of checks on internal surveillance activity.

Why does this growing disenchantment matter? First, it discredits an important force for reform and human rights around the world. For years the United States rightly lectured other governments on the futility of curbing liberty in the name of defending it. Now America's voice on behalf of political prisoners, victims of war and impartial justice rings hollow.

What can be done? First, the Bush administration should reverse or amend the most objectionable practices introduced since Sept. 11, 2001. Lift the blanket ban on access to deportation hearings for immigrants, afford access to counsel for all persons detained for criminal or terrorist activity and provide prompt, fair and open trials for the detainees held at Guantánamo Bay.

Second, the United States should not spare allies in the war on terror from criticism for human rights failings. Pakistan's lunge toward dictatorship, Russia's brutal prosecution of the war in Chechnya and Indonesia's failure to hold its own military responsible for atrocities in East Timor should be excoriated.

Third, until Washington takes corrective action, civil society advocates around the world urgently need to fill the vacuum of global leadership. Wherever possible they must push for legal reforms and develop models of justice that expand individual freedoms, enhance public security and promote accountability for gross abuse.

Ultimately, the strategy of "shock and awe" does not succeed off the battlefield. If the United States is to remain a leader in international law reform, it must inspire. In a globalized world, America's policies at home directly affect its image abroad. And right now, the picture is grim.

The writer is executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, a program engaged in rights-based law reform worldwide.

Copyright © 2003 The International Herald Tribune

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