The White House rebortedly is raising the possibility of not filling the position of Assistant Secretary of State for Human rights or even abolishing the Human Rights Bureau – and the idea is not without merit. The Reagan Administration’s nominee for the position having been shot down, confusion and uncertainty permeate the human rights scene. Ernest Lefever took his name out of nomination after a 13-4 rejection by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee rather than pursue the matter in a floor fight. No less an expert than Seymour Weiss, a former U.S. Ambassador and director of the State Departments Bureau of Po ‘tical-Military Affairs. believes the administration is right in considering abolishment. “During my 30 years of service in the State Department, no such bureau existed,” Weiss said in an article in The Wall Street Joumal, “In fact, during the entire history of the republic prior to the election of Jimmy Carter the nation carried on without such a bureau.” Weiss said the State Department traditionally has been organized along geographic and functional lines. There are bureaus for various areas of the world – Europe, Africa, East Asia, etc. as there are various functions such as economics, political affairs and intelligence, Human rights considerations were handled within that framework until 1977 when a new State Department Bureau for Human Rights came into being, “The question should have been raised, but was not, whether this was a legitimate and separable State Department function to be performed on behalf of the U.S. Government and its citizens,” Weiss observed. It does seem wise that before coming up with another nomination for chief spokesman for human rights, the administration should weigh accomplishments of the bureau in the past four years against effectiveness under the long-standing previous arrangement. Was elevating human rights to the status of a bureau in the State Department a mistake as Weiss believes? The issue deserves scrutiny. Since this broader foreign policy question has been raised, it ought to be settled as first priority. Selection of a new nominee for assistant secretary can await the outcome.