Trump administration to review 'role of human rights in public policy'

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has unveiled a new panel tasked with reviewing “the role of human rights in American public policy” in a move that some advocates warned could imperil LGBTQ and women’s reproductive freedoms.

Pompeo announced the launch of the “Commission on Unalienable Rights” at the state department in Washington on Monday, telling reporters: “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 added: “Nation states and international institutions remain confused about the respective responsibilities concerning human rights. We must, therefore, be vigilant that human rights discourse not be corrupted or hijacked or used for dubious or malignant purposes.”

Pompeo declared that the panel would be bipartisan and comprised of human rights experts “of varied background and beliefs”, but his decision to appoint Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon at its helm sparked immediate concerns among activists.

Glendon, a former ambassador to the Vatican under George W Bush, is a prominent social conservative who led efforts against enshrining abortion as an international human right at the 1995 UN women’s conference in Beijing.

Last year, the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Ethics and Culture awarded Glendon the Evangelium Vitae – a prestigious prize among anti-abortion activists – and was praised for having “consistently battled destructive forces against women, children – born and unborn – and the family in modern society with extraordinary grace, clarity, and compassion”.

The International Women’s Health Coalition said Glendon had supported attempts not just to block access to abortion but also to restrict same-sex marriage and the rights of transgender people.

Related: Revealed: the fringe rightwing group changing the UN agenda on abortion rights

“She has a long history of critiquing international human rights standards that recognize women’s and girls’ rights to autonomy and self-determination over all areas of their lives, especially when these rights come into conflict with their traditional roles within families,” said a statement from Françoise Girard, the group’s president.

“The Commission on Unalienable Rights is yet another example of the Trump administration prioritizing extreme religious doctrine over rights. By questioning decades of international human rights norms, the administration is threatening hard-won progress on issues like gender equality, abortion rights, same-sex marriage, and protections for marginalized groups.”

Others named to the 10-member panel include religious scholars such as Sheikh Hamza Yusuf Hanson, the influential Islamic scholar and co-founder of Zaytuna College, and Rabbi Meir Yaakov Soloveichik, a spiritual leader of Shearith Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in the US.

Also poised to sit on the panel is Kiron Skinner, the state department’s director of policy planning, who ignited controversy in May for framing the contentious US-China relationship as “the first time that we will have a great-power competitor that is not Caucasian”. Skinner’s staff, according to reports, was “preparing for a clash of civilizations” in developing its strategy against Beijing.

Appearing alongside Pompeo on Monday, Glendon said the commission would do its best “to carry out your marching orders”, while adding that “basic human rights are being misunderstood by many, manipulated by many, and ignored by the world’s worst human rights violators”.

The state department downplayed concerns over the panel’s influence on women’s issues or gay rights, stating those were domestic issues and outside of the commission’s current purview. The Trump administration has, however, come under fire for reimposing and expanding restrictions on US foreign aid to groups that discuss or provide abortion services.

Related: Trump administration wants to remove 'gender' from UN human rights documents

Amnesty International said the current administration “has actively worked to deny and take away long-standing human rights protections since [Donald] Trump’s inauguration”.

“If this administration truly wanted to support people’s rights, it would use the global framework that’s already in place. Instead, it wants to undermine rights for individuals, as well as the responsibilities of governments,” Joanne Lin, the national director of advocacy and government affairs at Amnesty International USA, said.

“This politicization of human rights in order to, what appears to be an attempt to further hateful policies aimed at women and LGBTQ people, is shameful.”

Last year, US officials at the United Nations attempted to remove the word “gender” from UN human rights documents, most often replacing it with “woman”.