Leading By Example: The US and Human Rights Abuses

By Kari Lydersen, AlterNet. Posted August 20, 2003.

The US administration, in making the case for the Iraq War and justifying it afterwards, repeatedly invoked the concept of human rights abuses. They reminded us that Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against his own people and that he and his sons and cronies were known as perpetrators of frequent and brutal human rights abuses ranging from executions of political dissidents to rapes of women in nightclubs. But what about the United States’ own human rights record?

Thanks to highly visible solidarity campaigns and international trials in the past few years, it might be safe to say that public awareness of global human rights issues is higher than ever. But even as the US claims to be defending human rights in Iraq and Afghanistan, since the Sept. 11 attacks the administration has not only been violating the human rights of its own residents, citizens and detainees, but by the examples it is setting, undermining overall gains in the international human rights landscape.

The concept of holding human rights abusers accountable for their actions rose to new prominence with the indictment of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet by a Spanish judge in 1998. There have been truth commissions, trials and tribunals regarding war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and other countries, and US civil courts have gotten into the act with the trials of Salvadoran and Honduran generals living in the US for crimes committed during the 1980s in their countries.

But now along with increasing human rights violations committed as part of the war on terror, the Bush administration has been actively seeking to undermine what could be a powerful new weapon in the fight for international human rights -- the International Criminal Court.

The International Criminal Court, which has been ratified by close to 100 countries and swore in its first prosecutor in June, will be the first permanent international judicial body capable of trying individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The US was one of only seven countries to vote against the court when it was introduced in 1998, though ironically the US was a leader in the post-World War II efforts to hold war criminals accountable, which were the seeds for the court. Ken Hurwitz, a senior attorney with the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, notes that while the Clinton administration had reservations about the court but was willing to keep the door open for future participation, the Bush administration has been outright hostile to the court, even though it was specifically constructed to meet concerns of the US including protections against its politicization.

"What we’re all concerned about is that the Bush administration refuses to take a policy of constructive engagement with the court," Hurwitz said. "The Clinton administration didn’t take part in the court, but it also didn’t undertake a campaign to kill it. The best thing would be for the US to watch it and see it develop. The US could provide prosecutors and staff members even if it’s not becoming a full-fledged party to the treaty. But that’s not what we’re doing. As respect for international law in many countries has grown enormously, I think the US has really undermined its position as a traditional champion of international law."

Additionally, the matter of which human rights abusers are brought to light by the US administration and media is a highly politicized matter. For example, the latest rounds of detentions and executions by Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba have drawn plenty of attention to Castro’s alleged status as a human rights abuser. But relatively few Americans know that while the US is carrying out its massive domestic war on terror, there are anti-Castro Cubans living within our borders with the knowledge and support of the current administration who meet every definition of "terrorist" and "human rights abuser."

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