Tuesday, July 18, 2006

U.S. forced to defend human rights record

Oh, how far we have fallen.

The United States once set the global standard for respect for human rights. Today, under the Bush regime, we find ourselves attempting to defend the questionable treatment of citizens and non-citizens alike.

Reuters reports from a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva.

Matthew Waxman, who lead the U.S. delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Committee, submitted a 66-page document offering legal justifications for policies ranging from renditions of foreign detainees to juvenile sentencing in the United States.

Acknowledging an "intense international interest" in U.S. activities abroad since the September 11, 2001, attacks propelled Washington into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and sparked an overhaul of many U.S. laws, Waxman said geopolitics had recently made rights protection more complicated.

[...]


The latest U.S. report to the committee on its rights performance, submitted in October, was seven years late.

The United States has argued "extra-territorial" issues, including the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are not covered under the civil and political rights covenant monitored by the committee.

"It is our firm belief that those issues in large part lie beyond the scope of the treaty," said Mark Lagon, deputy assistant U.S. secretary of state for international organizations.


"Nonetheless, the United States will answer those controversial questions as a courtesy to the committee and as a matter of openness to the international community," he added.
Under the leadership of George W. Bush, America has joined the community of nation-states who explain, justify and defend brutality, rather than repudiate it. All this, while global terroristic violence, the ostensible justification for our newfound fondness for savagery and oppression, is increasing due in no small part to the actions and policies of our government.

Heckuva job, Mr. President. Heckuva job.

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