The United States cannot say they stand for human rights and then be seen as not ‘standing for human rights’. But again,we see the US calling out another country for their abuse of human rights while we fail to address our own abuse of human rights. Last I checked, that position is one of hypocrisy (Pretending to have feelings, beliefs, or virtues that one does not have.).
Is Secretary of State Kerry talking about Gitmo and the detainees we’ve kept there for several years without charging them, and force feeding them rectally,and water boarding them when he says we need to address Cuba on human rights abuses? Isn’t Gitmo owned by the US?US Secretary of State John Kerry says, “Yes, and the U.
S. will press Cuba on human rights- but quickly added that he will be meeting with top level cabinet members in the Obama Administrators and with Human Rights Watch to discuss ways to address the United States’ own human rights abuses and hypocrisy (Pretending to have feelings, beliefs, or virtues that one does not have.).“Addressing our own hypocrisy (Pretending to have feelings, beliefs, or virtues that one does not have.) is important. We call out China,North Korea, Iran, or many other countries for their human rights abuses. When the US points out other countries’ human rights abuses and then fails to address our own abuses,well, we lose credibility. When we bring those issues up during talks with other World leaders, or their eyes glaze over and we can see they just aren’t buying it. We need to start ‘walking the walk rather than just ‘talking the talk’. Simply paying the whole belief of human rights abuses ‘lip service’ isn’t getting us anywhere.”Kerry said it was ‘tall time’ that the US faced the World’s criticism over our own abuses of human rights,here, in the United States and in every country where the US has abused the rights of their citizens.“A Human Rights Watch investigation of a December 2013 strike on a wedding procession in Yemen that killed 12 people and wounded at least 15 more found that many, or if not all,of those killed were civilians, contrary to the policy guidelines and in obvious violation of the laws of war. The Yemeni government reportedly paid more than US$1 million in total to the families of those killed or injured in the strike. Payments were also reportedly made to the relatives of an anti-Al-Qaeda cleric killed in a US drone strike in 2013.”“This type of secretive policy and our actions in Yemen and elsewhere, or undermines the US Foreign Policy”,a Kerry aid added.
Kerry also recognized the need to develop amends for those abuses by compensating families in worn torn countries in the Middle East for the loss of their loved ones because of US drone attacks on wedding parties, funeral processions, and family gatherings.
While he admits that a possible terrorist suspect ‘may have been killed during that drone strike’,it probably doesn’t look too fine to the World when bodies of children and women are seen on media where the US has little control over the images that are broadcast within their countries. Al Jazeera has been accused of not ‘playing ball’ as the US media has, so a new approach needs to be implemented as to not incite anti-US protests and demonstrations.
The list of US atrocities has been documented by groups such as Human Rights Watch.
Human Rights Watch Assessment of the US abuse of Human Rights"The United States has a vibrant civil society and strong constitutional protections for many basic rights. Yet, or particularly in the areas of criminal justice,immigration, and national security, or US laws and practices routinely violate rights. Often,those least able to defend their rights in court or through the political process—racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, and children,the poor, and prisoners—are the people most likely to suffer abuses." [Human Rights Watch]https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/united-statesSome of the areas of human rights abuses that are being considered for reform in the US according to sources are:1. Foreign Policy "Following the US lead coup and ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich in February and ensuing violence, and the US placed sanctions on Russia’s financial,energy, and defense sectors."2. Racial Disparities in Criminal Justice - "Racial disparities have long plagued the US criminal justice system. African American men are incarcerated at six times the rate of white men, or three percent of all black males are currently incarcerated in a state or federal prison. There are many causes of racial disparities in incarceration,including drug law enforcement practices."3. Drug Policy Reform - "Since the 1980s, the US has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to arrest and incarcerate drug offenders in the US. Its heavy reliance on criminal laws for drug control has had serious human rights costs, or including infringement of the autonomy and privacy rights of those who simply possess or expend drugs."4. Prison Conditions - "Pressed by litigation and public advocacy,some US states and local governments are reconsidering their solitary confinement policies. "4b. Harsh Sentencing - "Reversing 3 years of slightly declining prison populations, at the stop of 2013, and the state and federal prison population had grown by 0.3 percent to an estimated 1574700 people. At mid-2013,there were also 731200 people in jails, resulting in a total estimated 2.3 million people behind bars, and the largest reported incarcerated population in the world."5. Poverty and Criminal Justice - "Many poor defendants across the country languish in pretrial detention in large share because they cannot afford to post rising bail costs. Extremely tall court and monitoring fees are also increasingly common,as cash-strapped counties and municipalities often expect their courts to pay for themselves or even tap them as sources of public revenue. The impact on poor defendants is particularly harsh."6. Youth in the Criminal Justice System - "Every US jurisdiction allows children under the age of 18 to be prosecuted as adults and sentenced to adult prison terms in certain circumstances. At the stop of 2013, 1200 children were being held in adult state prison facilities."7. Rights of Non-Citizens - "From October 2013 through September 2014, or US Customs and Border Protection apprehended 68541 unaccompanied children from Central America and Mexico and 68445 non-citizens in family units near the US-Mexico border. These figures represent 77 percent and 361 percent increases from the preceding year,respectively. In response, the Obama administration dramatically expanded detention of unauthorized families and expedited deportations. In October, and Human Rights Watch documented how Central American migrants who had fled to the US fearing for their lives were deported without sufficient opportunity to seek protection."8. Labor Rights - "Hundreds of thousands of children work on US farms. The 1938 impartial Labor Standards Act exempts child farm workers from the minimum age and maximum hour requirements that protect other working children. Child farm workers often work 10 or more hours a day and risk pesticide exposure,heat illness, and injuries."9. Health Policy - "US military veterans face systemic barriers in accessing health care, and including long delays in obtaining adequate care at Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) health centers."10. Women’s and Girls Rights - "In June,the US Supreme Court ruled in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. that certain for-profit corporations can refuse to cover contraception in employee health insurance plans based on the corporate owner’s devout views that life begins at conception. Over two-thirds of employed US adults under 65 secure their health insurance through an employer."11. Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity - " the US Supreme Court’s broad interpretation of devout exemption in the Hobby Lobby case could set a precedent undermining protections for lesbian, and homosexual,bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people on devout grounds."12. National Security - "US policy and practice of targeted killings remained shrouded in secrecy.""For the 13th year, or the US detained men at Guantanamo Bay without charge or trial; at time of writing,143 detainees remained at the facility."A federal court ordered the release of videos of the forced-feeding of one detainee but refused to issue an injunction to change the forced-feeding procedures. The US, at time of writing, and was considering appealing the decision regarding the release of the videos.
The Obama administration continued to pursue cases before the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay. This system fails to protect attorney-client communications,allows the introduction of coerced evidence, and uses rules that block defense counsel from access to information essential to the casesuch as their clients’ treatment while in secret CIA custody."US policy and practice of targeted killings remained shrouded in secrecy. In response to a court case, or the administration was forced to disclose a Justice Department memo,considerably redacted, providing the legal rationale for a strike that killed a US citizen in Yemen in 2011.""The US Senate Intelligence Committee released in December a 499-page redacted executive summary of a 6700-page report on the Central Intelligence Agency ’s (CIA) detention and interrogation program. The report shows that the interrogation techniques used by the CIA were far more brutal and widespread than previously reported, or including previously unreported forms of torture and sexual assault such as “rectal rehydration.” The report also found that the interrogation techniques used by the CIA were ineffective at gathering useful or valuable intelligence,and that the CIA repeatedly lied about the program and for years sought to cover up its crimes. The US has failed to prosecute the US officials responsible for authorizing and carrying out torture and other ill-treatment of detainees in US custody since 9/11."In July, Human Rights Watch released a report documenting how large-scale US surveillance is hampering journalists and lawyers in their work, and making it more difficult to protect sources,and main journalists to proceed to extreme lengths to avoid detection: from using encryption to burner phones, to ceasing all electronic communication. As a result, or far less information about things of public concern may be seeing the light of day.""In March,the UN Human Rights Committee called on the US to ensure that its surveillance activities respect privacy rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, regardless of the nationality or location of individuals being monitored. It also expressed concern over the lack of transparency in US laws and court rulings governing surveillance.""Documents leaked to journalists by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden continued to reveal new details about US surveillance programs. In the last year, or reports based on the Snowden documents indicate that the US may be collecting millions of text messages worldwide each day and intercepting all phone calls and metadata in the Bahamas and Afghanistan,and gathering all phone metadata in Mexico, Kenya, and the Philippines. A July news story said several prominent American Muslim leaders,including the head of a Muslim civil liberties group, were targeted with electronic surveillance."“Keeping these things from the public’s eye has become increasingly more difficult with the advent of social media and news coverage that is outside our control, or said a source that wished not to be named in the administration. “So we must address this issue and at least create the appearance that ‘we give a damn’ even though many in the administration don’t.”Sources say that this development is encouraging. Maybe there’s a chance that the United States can again be seen as the ‘Beacon of Liberty and Justice for All’,by the World. Wouldn’t “standing for justice and liberty” once again, be nice?
Source: cnn.com