At long last the UN Human Rights Council will be reviewing the US Human Right’s Record. Personally, I’d feel a lot better about the outcome if we could approach this with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and quite a few more in a jail cell.
The United States’s [sic] human rights record at home and abroad will come under the spotlight at the UN’s top rights assembly on Friday, exposing Washington to criticism from some of its foes.
The half day public debate in the UN Human Rights Council comes just two weeks after whistleblowing website WikiLeaks published 400,000 classified US documents on the Iraq war, reviving concern about unresolved allegations of torture and abuse stretching back to the Bush administration.
But the sesson will also bring some awkward domestic issues for President Barack Obama’s administration into the limelight at the 47 member Council, campaigners said.
“The United States is going to be on the spot over some glaring problems in its human rights record — from the death penalty to unnecessary detention of immigrants,” said Antonio Ginatta, US advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.
“This is a chance for the US to confirm its commitment to human rights by accepting the criticism and making improvements,” he added.
A European diplomat said the US treatment of terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre — which the Obama administration is struggling to shut down — would also be up for debate…
…More than 300 US civil liberties and community groups in the US Human Rights Network criticised [sic] “glaring inadequacies in the US human rights record” in a 400 page report.
Speaking ahead of the session, campaigners also expressed disappointment at the Obama administration, claiming it had failed to live up to its early promise of remedying abuse in Iraq and bringing those behind torture of terror suspects to justice.
“Until today not a single victim of torture has had their day in a US court. This is very sad,” Jamil Dakwar of the American Civil Liberties Union said.
On the eve of the meeting, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called on the United States to open up “instead of covering up” after the website leaked secret documents detailing abuses committed during the Iraq war… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Expatica Switzerland>
This is one area where I am completely unsatisfied with Obama’s policies. He ought to realize that Al Dubya is a far greater threat to America and act accordingly by instructing Holder to focus on Republican war crimes, not Julian Assange. He ought to end the illegal wiretaps. He ought to close the GOP Gitmo Gulag.
4 Responses to “We Got Some ‘Splaining to Do”
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I sincerely hope the UN will do a very thorough and accurate job and will also take a close look at the economic genocide being practiced by multinational corporations and our wealthiest 1% on our middle class and poor!
Jack, that’s not the kind of thing this group looks at. They figure that’s something Americans do to themselves with their votes,
It saddens me that neither Bush nor Cheney will ever be held accountable for their hideous decisions.
It angers me!