Elected officials’ assault on human rights detrimental to
U.S. and the world
Editing, brief ending comment by Carolyn Bennett
Espionage obstructs“free” press, right to know
The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of
Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) this week
has expressed its concern that the United States Department of Justice had
requested telephone companies to turn over telephone records of news agency
Associated Press (AP) journalists. “This type of practice could affect the free
exercise of journalism by putting the confidentiality of journalistic sources
at risk.”
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Freedom of press
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya
U.S.-born
Russian journalist
Writer, human rights
activist
August 30, 1958-October 7, 2006
|
In the statement, the Office of the Special Rapporteur said,
“the importance of the right to confidentiality of sources lies in the fact
that, in the context of journalists’ work ─ and in order to provide the public
with the information necessary to satisfy the right to receive information ─
journalists perform an important service to the public when they collect and
publish information that would otherwise not come to light if the
confidentiality of their sources were not protected.” In keeping with Principle
8 of the Declaration of
Principles on Freedom of Expression of the IACHR:
‘Every social communicator has the
right to keep his/her source of information, notes, personal and professional
archives confidential.’
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is a principal
and autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS) and derives
its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights.
Its mandate is to promote respect for human rights in the region and to act as
a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of
seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS
General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or
residence.
There seems no end to how far United States officials will go, with impunity ("getting away with murder"), in violating human rights and law.
Due process breached
In reports on its April 2013 hearing, this Commission on
Human Rights said, “With regard to persons deprived of liberty, the Commission
continues to be deeply concerned over the serious human rights situation in
prison facilities in all countries of the region.
uring the hearings, the Commission “received information of
utmost concern on the excessive use of pretrial detention and the use of
solitary confinement, as well as on detention conditions in Cuba and at the
Guantánamo Naval Base, United States.
“In particular, the IACHR expresses its deep concern over
the practice in the United States of incarcerating children under 18 years of
age in prisons for adults, without any effective separation between the two.
“It is also cause of concern to the Commission the abuses,
sexual rape and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, such as solitary
confinement.
“The Commission urges the United States to identify and
urgently implement a federal mechanism to identify anyone under the age of 18
as a child, to keep them from being tried as adults or incarcerated alongside
adults.”
CHINA logs U.S. neglect, abuse, crimes
After the U.S State Department released its selective human
rights reports of world nations, China released its report on the United
States’ human rights record within the United States and the world. In its
report, China argues that as the United States again poses as “‘the world judge
of human rights’ …
…there are serious human rights
problems in the United States that incur extensive criticism in the world
he latest China report said the U.S. reports “‘are full of
carping and irresponsible remarks on the human rights situation in more than
190 countries and regions including China … [but] the U.S. turned a blind eye
to its own woeful human rights situation and never said a word about it’ ─ namely ─
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| Self destruction |
government Surveillance, violence, domestic gun
deaths ─ U.S. citizens’
civil and political rights were further restricted by the government. The US
government continues to step up surveillance of ordinary citizens, restricting
and reducing the freedom of the U.S. society to a considerable extent, and
seriously violating the freedom of citizens.…
Police often abused their power, resulting in increasing
complaints and charges for infringement upon civil rights [while] the
proportion of women victims of domestic violence and sexual assault continued
to rise.
Americans are the most heavily armed people in the world per
capita and firearms-related violent crimes posed as one of the most serious
threats to human life and personal security [yet] the U.S. government has done
little in gun control
U.S. Constitutional rights breached ─ U.S. citizens have never … enjoyed
common and equal suffrage. U.S. elections like money wars [have] the country’s
policies deeply influenced by political donations: the 2012 election had an
estimated cost totaling $6 billion, both parties funded by business giants. In
the U.S. presidential election of 2012, voter turnout dropped five million
(despite a rise of more than eight million eligible voters) from the four years
before.
As $6 million bought a presidential election (and/or
government), the gap between rich and poor rose and U.S. poverty rose to 15
percent in 2011 (U.S. Census: 46.2 million people in poverty); additionally,
when compared with other developed countries (ref. the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development), the United States “has the fourth worst
income inequality.” Since the global
financial crisis in 2008, poverty in the United States has increasingly
worsened.
U.S. Human rights international breached ─ In the Post-Cold War era, the United
States most frequently has waged wars on other countries: both started by the United States, the wars
on Iraq and Afghanistan have caused massive civilian Casualties. The U.S.-led
‘war on terror’ between 2001 and 2011 killed 14,000 to 110,000 a year (ref.
Stop the War Coalition); in 2012, U.S. military operations in Yemen,
Afghanistan and Pakistan caused massive civilian casualties; U.S. soldiers
“severely blasphemed against local residents’ religion by burning copies of the
Muslim holy book, the Koran, and insulting bodies of the dead.” In post-war
Iraq, “there was a huge rise in birth defects” reportedly caused by U.S.
military forces’ “use of metal contaminant-releasing white phosphorus shells
and depleted uranium bombs.”
Against domestic and international law, the United States
army has detained foreigners for long periods at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba. OUTSIDE THE LAW: The United States “remains a country that has not
participated in ─or ratified ─ a series of core UN conventions on human rights
such as ─
… the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
WJ CLINTON (1993-2001) -
BH OBAMA (2009 - governments deepen long train of abuses
linton Doctrine of
Humanitarian Intervention ─ “Shortly after the Kosovo crisis ended, the
[William Jefferson] Clinton Administration came out with the “Clinton
doctrine.” This doctrine basically stated that the United States would
forcefully intervene to prevent human rights abuses when it can do so without
suffering substantial casualties, without the authority of the UN Security
Council.”
South Africa’s Nelson Mandela reportedly responded that he
was: “‘resentful about” the joint United States-United Kingdom desire
“to be the policemen of the world. “‘It’s a totally wrong attitude,’” he said.
“‘They must persuade those countries like China or Russia who threaten to veto
their decisions at the UN.
‘They must sit down and talk to
them.
‘They can’t just ignore them and
start their own actions.’
Clinton's WAR on Belgrade: May 7, 1999: NATO bombs Yugoslavia (Operation Allied
Force); five U.S. JDAM guided bombs hit the People’s Republic of China embassy
in the Belgrade district of New Belgrade.
Three Chinese reporters died. U.S. CIA
director George Tenet testified before a congressional committee saying that this
CIA bombing, the only one in the bombing campaign organized and directed by his
agency, had identified the wrong coordinates for a Yugoslav military target on
the same street [Wikipedia].
Writing in early 2005 on the United States and Human
Rights, Anup Shah commented said that
the “Clinton Doctrine” was “a pretty serious precedent for a powerful
country to set” because, in effect, the policy “undermines international law
and treaty obligations.” He went on to recall that in the past, the United
States has been “extremely selective in the determination of where humanitarian
intervention is needed” or even if mere concern is required.
“Allies of the U.S. have often been gross human rights
violators, but those abuses have been conveniently ignored by the U.S. to be
able to pursue its national interests (i.e. economic liberalization of other
nations, ensuring resources ‘needed’ by U.S. remain as cheap as practically
possible and so on).”
[In later contexts, one need only think of convenient allies or enemies: Iran, Libya, Bahrain,
Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Israel]
“In some regions,” Shah continues, “the U.S. continues to
provide arms to ‘allies’ that use [lethal weaponry, various sprays, gases,
other chemicals, and large-scale weapons of mass destruction] to commit gross
violations of human rights” ─ as it serves the U.S. pursuit of its ‘national
interests.’ “After all,” he asks, “why else would they knowingly support human
rights violators?” The Clinton Doctrine operating ─
‘Without the authority of the UN
Security Council’ basically implies another step to undermine the UN.
While the UN “does have its flaws which need to be addressed
(for example, the U.N. Security Council, plus the idea of 5 permanent (nuclear)
members of the Council, is not exactly very democratic), “it is also the main
international body set up to promote universal human rights.
“The U.S. was [a] key in helping establish [the UNSC]
shortly after the Second World War. Various UN treaties and charters, one of
which is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ─
which the U.S. has signed ─ form parts of international law, which all member
states are bound to. So, to ‘prevent human rights abuses’ by by-passing the
United Nations suggests that ─
the definition of human rights the
U.S. wishes to uphold is DIFFERENT FROM what they (the United States) helped
create and sign. It also suggests that the U.S. has other motives when choosing
to intervene in other countries.
he United States during the Clinton administration
apologized (March 1999) for U.S. support of successive right-wing governments
in Guatemala (which got a brief mention in U.S. mainstream media compared to
all the things that could have been revealed) but what was really needed and is
yet to come among mounting human rights abuses “was a U.S. Truth Commission to
look into and expose Washington’s similar aid (sometimes worse) during the Cold
War to repressive government regimes in other nations, especially in Latin
America. (It didn’t happen and practices worsened).
Also in the 1999 session of the United Nations Commission
for Human Rights, Amnesty International put the United
States on a list of
persistent violators of human rights ─ higher than China and excluding Cuba. In
May 2001, the United States lost (retrieved in 2002) its seat on the United
Nations Human Rights Commission. This was the first time since the
establishment of the Commission in 1947.
Train of rights abuses endless as U.S. wars
member of the
Committee to Stop FBI Repression today told Press TV, “The Obama
administration has in some respects been ‘the most repressive ever’; and the
main target of repression by the U.S. government has been the ‘Muslim
population.’”
In light of the latest revelations of domestic targeting of
individuals, organizations and the press, Joe Isobaker said yesterday in a
phone interview with Press TV’s U.S. Desk, “In some respects, this current
administration is the most repressive ever. The reason,” he said, “is the U.S.
government is in a terrible crisis; they are losing wars; they have an economic
crisis that is not solvable; and they greatly fear the prospects of unrest by
the American people.”
wo years ago, filmmaker Judith Ehrlich told the Guardian
(UK) that U.S. President “Barack Obama has the worst record of any U.S.
president when it comes to dealing with whistleblowers.” His government at that
time “had indicted five alleged whistleblowers (including Bradley Manning) ─
making him the ‘worst president in terms of his record on whistle blowing’.”
Ehrlich was the Oscar-nominated director of the 2009 film/documentary about the
man who leaked the Pentagon Papers in the 1970s: “The Most Dangerous Man in
America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” explored the 1970s leak of
U.S. government documents on the Vietnam War.
etired veteran Asif Haroon Raja wrote in 2010, “It is
paradoxical that the U.S. notorious for worst human rights violations and being
the biggest violator of law today stands up as pleader for human rights and
upholder of law. [The United States’] past gory acts are too many to recount.
“It has turned Iraq and Afghanistan into killing grounds
where over 1.6 million have been hacked to death; millions injured critically,
tens of thousands rendered homeless, widowed and orphaned.
 |
U.S. targeting Iran as
Serbia, Libya, Somalia,
Syria,
Central America, etal. |
“Thousands have suffered gruesome tortures in U.S. run
infamous jails, which have so far not been closed despite world protest and
commitment given by Obama. [Former U.S. President] George W. Bush and his team
of neo-cons along with [former British Prime Minister] Tony Blair should have
been tried as war criminals for the crimes committed against humanity ─ and
that too under false pretexts.
“Till November 2009, ruthless killing of militants as well
as civilians was justified under the comical label of collateral damage. Deaths
of civilians in each cross fire or aerial attacks were taken as a natural
phenomenon in war conditions.
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| Post-war Iraq |
“…With this kind of track record it makes one laugh to hear
U.S. officials sermonizing about abuses in Swat and gloating over U.S. laws and
principles of counter insurgency and trying to show the right path to Pakistan.
“ … The U.S. has earned the dubious reputation of pursuing
double standards and making unsubstantiated allegations against a country which
it wants to browbeat. These unholy tactics are applicable to friends and foes
alike except for Israel, India and western world. The ironic part of the story
is that it doesn’t feel an iota of embarrassment in leveling accusations on
aspects which are the most applicable to the United States, Israel and India.”
What a pity
expect Eleanor
Roosevelt not to mention Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams as well as Sally
Hemings and Dolley and Abigail are rolling over in their graves.
A country which refuses to learn from the best of its past (a
country led by corrupt, self-absorbed, inept, mostly but not only men), a
country which refuses to better its best in genuinely progressive effort in
service to the public good is a nation not only in decline; but a nation of
great danger to itself and the world ─ a nation on a road of painful self
annihilation. What a pity indeed.
Sources and notes
“Office of the special Rapporteur for freedom of expression
expresses its concern over telephone records obtained from Associated Press
journalists ( PRESS RELEASE, R36/13),
http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/expression/showarticle.asp?artID=923&lID=1
“China hits back with report on US human rights record,” ─
The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2012 was released by the
Information Office of China’s State Council, or the Cabinet, in response to the
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012 issued by the U.S. State
Department], Updated April 21, 2013, http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-04/21/content_16427675.htm
“IACHR Wraps Up its 147th Session” (Press Release, No. 23/13),
April 5, 2013, http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2013/023.asp
“The USA and Human Rights ─ The United States ‘should not
employ military force for alleged humanitarian reasons without the explicit
approval of the Security Council” and “should end military support of nations
committing serious human rights violations” as well as “strengthen its own
participation in international human rights agreements’ [Humanitarian Military
Intervention, Vol. 5, Number 1, 2000, Foreign Policy in Focus] , Anthony Sampson, Mandela accuses
“policeman” Britain, the Guardian, April 5, 2000 cited, by Anup Shah, 2005, http://www.globalissues.org/article/139/the-usa-and-human-rights#HumanRightsWithintheUnitedStates
“‘Obama administration most repressive’” May 16, 2013, http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/303884.html
“Barack Obama worst president for whistleblowers, says
film-maker” (Ben Dowell, The Guardian), June 9, 2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jun/09/barack-obama-worst-president-for-whistleblowers?INTCMP=SRCH
Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is a
principal and autonomous organ of the Organization of American States (OAS)
whose mission is to promote and protect human rights in the American
hemisphere.
It is composed of seven independent members who serve in a
personal capacity. Created by the OAS in 1959, the Commission has its
headquarters in Washington, D.C. Together with the Inter-American Court of
Human Rights (“the Court” or “the I/A Court H.R.) installed in 1979, the
Commission is one of the institutions within the inter-American system for the
protection of human sights (“IAHRS”).
The formal beginning of the IAHRS was approval of the
American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man at the Ninth International
Conference of American States held in Bogota, Colombia, in 1948. There the OAS
Charter (hereinafter “the Charter”) was adopted, which declares that one of the
principles upon which the Organization is founded is the ‘fundamental rights of
the individual.’
Full respect for human rights appears in several sections of
the Charter, underscoring the importance that the Member States attach to it.
In the words of the Charter:
… ‘the true significance of
American solidarity and good neighborliness can only mean the consolidation on
this continent, within the framework of democratic institutions, of a system of
individual liberty and social justice based on respect for the essential rights
of man.’
The Charter establishes the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights (IACHR) as one of the principal organs of the OAS whose function
is to promote the observance and protection of human rights and to serve as a
consultative organ of the Organization in these matters.
The work of the IACHR rests on three main pillars:
… the individual petition system
… monitoring of the human rights
situation in the Member States
… the attention devoted to priority
thematic areas…
Operating within this framework, the Commission considers
that inasmuch as the rights of all persons subject to the jurisdiction of the
Member States are to be protected, special attention must be devoted to those
populations, communities and groups that have historically been the targets of
discrimination. However, the Commission’s work is also informed by other principles,
among them the following: the pro homine principle, whereby a law must be
interpreted in the manner most advantageous to the human being; the necessity
of access to justice, and the inclusion of the gender perspective in all
Commission activities.
http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/mandate/what.asp
“U.S. and Human Rights? Grow up” (Asif Haroon Raja, “the
writer is a retired Brig who writes regularly for various international and
national newspapers/websites,” August 22, 2010,
wrote in 2010http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/08/22/u-s-and-human-rights-grow-up/
SERBIA: For more than four decades after the Partisan
victory of 1945, Yugoslavia had functioned as a communist federation. LATER: Unlike other parts of the former
Yugoslav federation, Serbia received little foreign investment. The legacy of
warfare and sanctions by the United States and the EU, together with problems
of infrastructure decline, loss of human capital, and corruption, left the
country generally unattractive to foreign investors.
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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire
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Unless students can find alternatives to hookup culture,
Freitas argues, the vast majority will continue to associate sexuality with
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intimacy, and good sex they want and deserve.
