PHA-Exchange> Human rights memorandum to president Bush

[Claudio]

Pamela C 

A human rights memorandum to President Bush 

(US Human Rights Network, Feb 2005)  Excerpts

 

 

Every year, the US State Department releases its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices .

 

We welcome these reports. However, as an association of more than 160 US-based human rights organizations monitoring and promoting human rights in the US, we are concerned that these reports have been drained of moral value due to the level of human rights violations taking place under the watch of your administration, and it is for this reason that we are taking the unprecedented step of writing to you.

 

Our Network members have been monitoring a wide range of domestic human rights issues, and are concerned that under the watch of this administration and the full gaze of the rest of the world:

 

-          The US military has systematically committed acts of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay.

-          Hundreds have been detained indefinitely, without trial, and often in secret.

-          Criminal trials have been conducted in military tribunals that do not provide adequate transparency or due process protections.

-          Foreign nationals have been deported to third countries where it was likely they would be tortured.

-          Coercive and unreliable interrogation techniques that amount to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment have been defended and promoted.

-          More than one thousand immigrants in the US were rounded-up immediately after September 11th in a manner that was arbitrary, discriminatory and violated basic human rights.

 

Furthermore, the US has still failed to ratify half of the major international human rights treaties, including:

 

-          The Convention on the Rights of the Child (ratified by every other country in the world except Somalia).

-          The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (ratified by 177 countries -- over ninety percent of the members of the United Nations).

-          The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ratified by 149 countries).

-          The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ratified by 97 countries). 

 

 

Civil and political rights

 

The human right to be free of arbitrary arrest or detention

 

Thousands have been detained by the US based on government allegations that they pose a threat to security. A significant number have been arrested for no other reason than their ethnic background.  

 

Human rights and national security are not at odds.  They go hand in hand. The administration must review current arrest, prosecution and detention policies and practices with a view to bringing them in line with international human rights standards. 

 

The human right to be free of discrimination

 

Glaring racial disparities also continue to persist in the US criminal justice system, with approximately one-half of those incarcerated being African American. In fact, two-thirds of the adult prison population is Latino and African American - even though these two groups constitute only 25 percent of the overall population in the US combined.    

 

This administration has put forward no policies to address the systemic discrimination experienced by communities of color, immigrants, Native Americans, people with disabilities within the criminal justice system. Racial profiling has been evident during the "war on terror."  

 

The right to freedom of association and to form unions

 

The intensity of opposition to unionization which is exhibited by American employers has no parallel in the Western industrial world. Existing labor protections to form unions are not adequately enforced.  Moreover, certain categories of workers, such as agricultural workers and domestic workers, are not even afforded basic protections to unionize.  

 
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

 

The human right to health 

 

45 million US citizens - most of them working people - are denied the possibility of affordable health insurance and access to care. Rural areas and poor and minority communities suffer severe shortages of health care workers. Drug costs continue to rise far above what many sick and needy people are able to pay. Immigrant and low-income communities now have even less access to health care as result of recent changes in the Medicaid eligibility rules and a lack of employer-based health insurance plans in industries that employ the majority of immigrants. Restrictions on funding and services in the area of reproductive health threaten the health status of countless women.

 

The US health system ranks only 55th in the world in terms of fairness in the distribution of resources.  A human rights approach treats health care as a public good - not a private gain.  

 

The human right to education
 

There are deep inequities in the US educational system, with some receiving a high level of quality education and others barely being afforded basic literacy skills. 

 

In state after state across the US, courts are finding that local systems of funding for education are inequitable, fail to provide a basic sound education and are in violation of their respective state constitutional right to education. 

 

Furthermore, tens of thousands of young people are being prevented from pursuing a college education because they have no immigration papers, almost no access to financial aid, and no right to work to support themselves if they attend a university or college. 

 

The Right to Work for Fair Wages and Under Safe and Reasonable Conditions

 

The right to work has suffered grave deterioration in the US. People in the US now work more hours than workers in any other industrialized country (including Japan), and many of these additional work hours are mandatory. 

 

One in four workers, constituting 30 million people, survives on poverty wages. The minimum wage has dropped approximately 40 percent in real value since 1968.  Indeed most families that lack health insurance have one or two workers, and many people facing homelessness or overcrowding are working full-time at salary levels that do not cover basic housing costs in their areas. This violates the right to fair wages providing a decent living. 

 

Finally, five million workers suffer injuries on the job each year and then face a decrepit worker's compensation system that does not provide adequate benefits, routinely denies legitimate claims, and denies needed medical care. 

 

Conclusion
 

The human rights situation within the US calls for serious self-assessment and reflection.  Recent trends and events have raised significant doubts about this administration's commitment to human rights and have put the US at grave risk of becoming a place where human dignity and freedom are routinely denied.



Press release:

US Behavior Creates Credibility Gap for State Department's Human Rights Report says US Human Rights Network 

 

 

In an unprecedented move, the US Human Rights Network, a network of more than 160 US-based human rights organizations, today issued a memorandum to President George Bush decrying the current state of human rights in the US, as the US State Department released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.

 

"It is the height of hypocrisy for the US government to issue a report condemning human rights abuses in other countries at a time when it is violating these very same standards at home and abroad," said Ajamu Baraka, Executive Director of the US Human Rights Network (USHRN). 

 

The US State Department says that '.the central goal of US foreign policy has been the promotion of respect for human rights' and that the United States 'seeks to hold governments accountable to their obligations under universal human rights norms and international human rights instruments. 

 

"But who is holding the US to account to those very same obligations?" asked Baraka.

 

USHRN members are monitoring US human rights practice in a whole range of areas - from employment rights to torture, from discrimination to housing rights, from poverty and homelessness to abuses arising from the "war on terror" - and have found that not only is the US falling very far short of its obligations in all of these areas - it is actually practicing itself what it condemns in other countries.

 

"This is not a partisan political attack on President Bush," said Baraka, who noted that the more than 160 organizations affiliated with this Network span the political spectrum and are based throughout the country. "Their only interest is with the human rights of US citizens and residents and any others affected by US actions internationally - including as a result of current attempts by the federal government to legitimize the use of torture and ill-treatment against foreigners abroad in complete violation of international law, which explicitly prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under any circumstances."

 

"We are concerned that the behavior of the US government both domestically and internationally is bringing this nation into disrepute around the world - and this reflects on all of us as Americans," said Baraka.

 

"Good human rights practice begins at home," added Baraka. "Violations of human rights by the US government has not only created a climate of fear and repression at home - it has also provided fodder for those around the world who seek to undermine or ignore any legitimate calls for human rights that the US government may make - with US government representatives becoming an object of derision at international forums where human rights are discussed."

 

The US Human Rights Network plans to follow up today's memorandum with a detailed Human Rights Agenda for the Bush Administration, in which it will outline the main areas of human rights concern in the US, the government's international obligations with regard to these areas, and clear recommendations on how the administration can address the serious shortfall between the two.

 



 www.ushrnetwork.org.

 

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