America Is Shamed
By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has given ‘failing grade’ to the United States on human rights.
A new report by the Committee excoriates the U.S. for its continued human rights violations. It focuses on violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the country is party.
The report mentions numerous human rights issues where the U.S. is failing: Guantanamo, NSA surveillance, accountability for human rights violations, drone strikes, racism in the prison system, racial profiling, police violence, and criminalization of the homeless.
The Committee says the U.S. was given an entire year to address its concerns, but the U.S. failed to act with a sense of urgency. It is utter disregard for the lives of people of color in policies, and in the daily actions of local law enforcement officials, who are positioned within the system to uphold these policies and the state's many systems of oppression.
As is, the U.S. is still pressing forward with military commissions, which violate international human rights standards. Torture corrupts everything it touches, and America’s military commissions are no exception.
The UN says detainees in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay remain in prison cells without charge or trial. There is no plan to abandon the dysfunctional and second-class legal system known as military commissions either.
Not only do those detainees lack rights to a fair trial, but they continue to endure torture and abuse as the political class in America ignores the fact that most never committed any crimes against the United States.
The UN committee is further concerned with "the limited number of investigations, prosecutions and convictions of members of the Armed Forces and other agents of the US government, including private contractors" for unlawful killings in its international operations" and "torture" in CIA black sites during the Bush years.
It welcomes the closing of the CIA black sites, but criticizes the "meager number of criminal charges brought against low-level operatives" for abuses carried out under the CIA's rendition, interrogation and detention program. The committee also finds fault with the fact that many details of the CIA's torture program "remain secret, thereby creating barriers to accountability and redress for victims".
In other words, rather than be held accountable, the top-level U.S. government officials responsible for authorizing torture and other crimes and violations have been given comfort in the public sphere.
There are international laws to protect those rights - laws with which the U.S. and every nation-state are bound to comply. Even as the U.S. commonly condemns other countries for their human rights abuses, it is yet to stop the same abuses, let alone commit itself to the noble struggle for human rights.
The report mentions numerous human rights issues where the U.S. is failing: Guantanamo, NSA surveillance, accountability for human rights violations, drone strikes, racism in the prison system, racial profiling, police violence, and criminalization of the homeless.
The Committee says the U.S. was given an entire year to address its concerns, but the U.S. failed to act with a sense of urgency. It is utter disregard for the lives of people of color in policies, and in the daily actions of local law enforcement officials, who are positioned within the system to uphold these policies and the state's many systems of oppression.
As is, the U.S. is still pressing forward with military commissions, which violate international human rights standards. Torture corrupts everything it touches, and America’s military commissions are no exception.
The UN says detainees in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay remain in prison cells without charge or trial. There is no plan to abandon the dysfunctional and second-class legal system known as military commissions either.
Not only do those detainees lack rights to a fair trial, but they continue to endure torture and abuse as the political class in America ignores the fact that most never committed any crimes against the United States.
The UN committee is further concerned with "the limited number of investigations, prosecutions and convictions of members of the Armed Forces and other agents of the US government, including private contractors" for unlawful killings in its international operations" and "torture" in CIA black sites during the Bush years.
It welcomes the closing of the CIA black sites, but criticizes the "meager number of criminal charges brought against low-level operatives" for abuses carried out under the CIA's rendition, interrogation and detention program. The committee also finds fault with the fact that many details of the CIA's torture program "remain secret, thereby creating barriers to accountability and redress for victims".
In other words, rather than be held accountable, the top-level U.S. government officials responsible for authorizing torture and other crimes and violations have been given comfort in the public sphere.
There are international laws to protect those rights - laws with which the U.S. and every nation-state are bound to comply. Even as the U.S. commonly condemns other countries for their human rights abuses, it is yet to stop the same abuses, let alone commit itself to the noble struggle for human rights.