Amnesty International and Human Rights
Back in the late 1980s, I had a membership in the human rights organization Amnesty International. I sent them money, I had a little AI bumper sticker on my car, and I participated in some of their letter writing campaigns. AI is, of course, one of the most respected human rights organizations in the world, having won a Nobel Prize for its efforts, and having established its reputation for scrupulous fairness in criticizing any nation anywhere when it violates human rights or engages in torture. For someone like me who rarely feels motivated to get involved in organized activism, I suppose that my involvement with their letter writing campaigns was the perfect sort of volunteer activity, since it was essentially solitary; I could quietly, in the comfort of my home, write my letters to human rights abusers overseas, without actually participating in any sort of organizational work.
I had forgotten about my involvement with AI until just now, as I reflect on this year's most recent human rights report by Amnesty International. What is interesting about this report is how much it singles out the United States for criticism. The AI Secretary General's forward to this report, which cites the "assault on fundamental values that is shaking the human rights world," pointedly states that "nowhere has this been more damaging than in the efforts by the US administration to weaken the absolute ban on torture."
Here is a pertinent section of that document:
AI is not, by the way, the only human rights organization that has severely criticized the Bush regime for its actions. The organization Human Rights Watch, for example, has been giving extensive coverage to this matter. One of the pages on their web site gives considerable coverage to the problem of Guantanamo detainees. Included on that page is a link to an article in which HRW expressed its opposition to Gonzalez as Attorney General. Also interesting is its article on the subject of US interrogators engaging in the religious humiliation of Moslem detainees.
The Bush regime managed to strong arm Newsweek into retracting its story about the desecration of the Koran by US interrogators (there's freedom of the press for you--when the US government can coerce a major news magazine into retracting a story that the government doesn't like), but, in fact, there is overwhelming evidence that this sort of thing has indeed been happening. For example, according to this article by the Chicago Tribune,
It is good to know that there are human rights organizations that will call Bush to task for his gross violations of human rights. Even if we can't prevent Bush from doing what he does, history will at least be able to judge him for his actions, and history will neither forget nor forgive him.
I had forgotten about my involvement with AI until just now, as I reflect on this year's most recent human rights report by Amnesty International. What is interesting about this report is how much it singles out the United States for criticism. The AI Secretary General's forward to this report, which cites the "assault on fundamental values that is shaking the human rights world," pointedly states that "nowhere has this been more damaging than in the efforts by the US administration to weaken the absolute ban on torture."
Here is a pertinent section of that document:
Despite the near-universal outrage generated by the photographs coming out of Abu Ghraib, and the evidence suggesting that such practices are being applied to other prisoners held by the USA in Afghanistan, Guantánamo and elsewhere, neither the US administration nor the US Congress has called for a full and independent investigation.These are powerful words, and serve as a stinging rebuke to the Bush regime. Not that it will make any difference in Bush's policies. Bush has never cared about international outrage over anything he has ever done, and he certainly won't do so this time either. It is worth remembering that Alberto Gonzalez, Bush's Attorney General, once described some of the provisions of the Geneva Conventions as "quaint" and "obsolete", so we know already where Bush stands on the principles of human rights.
Instead, the US government has gone to great lengths to restrict the application of the Geneva Conventions and to “re-define” torture. It has sought to justify the use of coercive interrogation techniques, the practice of holding “ghost detainees” (people in unacknowledged incommunicado detention) and the "rendering" or handing over of prisoners to third countries known to practise torture. The detention facility at Guantánamo Bay has become the gulag of our times, entrenching the practice of arbitrary and indefinite detention in violation of international law. Trials by military commissions have made a mockery of justice and due process.
The USA, as the unrivalled political, military and economic hyper-power, sets the tone for governmental behaviour worldwide. When the most powerful country in the world thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights, it grants a licence to others to commit abuse with impunity and audacity. From Israel to Uzbekistan, Egypt to Nepal, governments have openly defied human rights and international humanitarian law in the name of national security and “counter-terrorism”.
AI is not, by the way, the only human rights organization that has severely criticized the Bush regime for its actions. The organization Human Rights Watch, for example, has been giving extensive coverage to this matter. One of the pages on their web site gives considerable coverage to the problem of Guantanamo detainees. Included on that page is a link to an article in which HRW expressed its opposition to Gonzalez as Attorney General. Also interesting is its article on the subject of US interrogators engaging in the religious humiliation of Moslem detainees.
The Bush regime managed to strong arm Newsweek into retracting its story about the desecration of the Koran by US interrogators (there's freedom of the press for you--when the US government can coerce a major news magazine into retracting a story that the government doesn't like), but, in fact, there is overwhelming evidence that this sort of thing has indeed been happening. For example, according to this article by the Chicago Tribune,
Prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility told FBI interviewers in 2002 and 2003 that guards repeatedly desecrated the Koran and that perceived abuses of the Muslim holy book triggered unrest at the prison as well as possible suicide attempts, government documents showed Wednesday.The Human Rights Watch article on this subject reports:
The allegations include an incident in which guards "flushed a Koran in the toilet," the FBI documents show. In another incident, a detainee refused to cooperate with investigators because of an interrogator allegedly "humiliating the Koran" while questioning another inmate.
The documents, released as part of a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union seeking to shed light on U.S. treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo, parallel allegations of Koran desecration by prisoners in civil lawsuits against U.S. authorities and in interviews with news organizations.
The Chicago Tribune reported last week that the International Committee of the Red Cross had heard similar accounts from detainees that it deemed credible. An ICRC spokesman told the Tribune that its confidential reports to the Pentagon in 2002 and 2003 included allegations that U.S. personnel had mishandled Korans.
Human Rights Watch said that the dispute over the retracted allegations in Newsweek that U.S. interrogators had desecrated a Koran at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has overshadowed the fact that religious humiliation of detainees at Guantánamo and elsewhere has been widespread.Strictly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions or not, the Bush regime clearly doesn't care. Any provision of those Conventions that Bush doesn't care to obey can simply be dismissed as "quaint" and "obsolete".
“In detention centers around the world, the United States has been humiliating Muslim prisoners by offending their religious beliefs,” said Reed Brody, special counsel for Human Rights Watch.
On December 2, 2002, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld authorized a list of techniques for interrogation of prisoners at Guantánamo, which included “removal of all comfort items (including religious items),” “forced grooming (shaving of facial hair, etc.),” and “removal of clothing.” Each of these practices is considered offensive to many Muslims. These techniques were later applied in Afghanistan and Iraq as well.
The purpose of these techniques, Human Rights Watch said, is to inflict humiliation on detainees, which is strictly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.
It is good to know that there are human rights organizations that will call Bush to task for his gross violations of human rights. Even if we can't prevent Bush from doing what he does, history will at least be able to judge him for his actions, and history will neither forget nor forgive him.
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