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 Editorials | At Issue | July 2005 
Report of 180 Types of US Human Rights Violations Since 9/11
 Ann Fagan Ginger - t r u t h o u t
In celebration of Independence Day and the rights and freedoms of the peoples of the US, reports of more than 180 violations of human rights by the US Government since 9/11 were submitted to the UN Human Rights Committee, the UN Committee Against Torture, the UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and to the Bureau of International Organization Affairs in the US Department of State under a resolution adopted by the City Council of Berkeley, California.
"It is almost a secret," said Prof. Ann Fagan Ginger, editor of the reports, "that the US Senate ratified three human rights treaties in 1992 and 1994 that require the US Government to submit periodic reports to three UN human rights committees on how the US Government is enforcing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention Against Torture (CAT), and the Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)."
In March, the Berkeley Commission on Peace and Justice asked the Berkeley City Council to submit 180 reports of 30 types of violations prepared by Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, a Berkeley nongovernmental center for human rights and peace law.
The Meiklejohn Institute report is presented in a paperback book, "Challenging US Human Rights Violations Since 9/11," published March 31, 2005 by Prometheus Books. Lisa Kane Arnolds, MCLI intern from Loyola University in New Orleans, worked on the report to the Human Rights Committee. She said she found 157 reports of alleged violations of the ICCPR. Abigail Parolise, MCLI intern from Washington and Lee Law School, found 84 reports of violations of the CAT and 53 violations of the CERD.
When the State Department finally filed its second report to the UN Committee Against Torture on May 6, 2005, it rejected every one of the recommendations for improving enforcement of the CAT by the US Government that had been made by the Committee in 2000. And MCLI interns found that many agencies of the US Government have likewise ignored the recommendations made by the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination after meeting with US Government officials to go over the first reports filed by the US in 1995 and 2001.
The 180 reports start with:
1. The right not to be killed or disappeared
Report 1.1: Asylum Applicant Deported, Then Killed.
The categories continue:
2. The right not to be tortured or ordered to torture
3. Right peaceably to assemble and petition the government
4. Right to equal protection regardless of race or national origin
5. Right to equal protection for women
6. Right to free exercise of religion
7. Right of the media to report facts and not to be killed
8. Right to privacy vs. surveillance and registration
9. Right of libraries not to report on readers
10. Right of universities to accept foreign scholars and students
11. Right to travel
The reports then turn from the rights of the peoples living under US jurisdiction to the duties of the Government, including:
12. The Government's duty to count the votes accurately and report to the people honestly
13. The Government's duty not to send military for regime change in Afghanistan or Haiti
14. Not to send troops for invasion of Iraq
15. Not to support abusive regimes or violations of World Court Opinions
16. To deal fairly with conscientious objector claims and Stop-Loss orders
17. Not to maintain weapons of mass destruction or design new nukes
The reports then turn to the Government's duty to protect people's rights
18. To guarantee due process of law, right to counsel, and habeas corpus
19. Not to "detain" "enemy combatants" at Guantánamo Bay or anywhere else
20. To deal promptly and fairly with political asylum petitions
21. To protect the family, especially children
22. To enforce antitrust and anticorruption laws
23. To protect the rights of workers and unions
24. To release political prisoners; to stop capital punishment
The reports continue with the Government's duty to properly fund health and human services, education, and environmental protection, and the jury system. They conclude with the Government's duty to report violations to Congress and the UN bodies.
"When I spoke in Paris and Brussels and Toulouse about the reports in June," Ginger says, "I found out just how much friendship Americans have lost abroad because of the actions of the US Government in the 'war on terror.' The media constantly describes conditions at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and says they are a continuing problem. And," Ginger says, "many people abroad know professors and students who can't get back to the US on their visas, although they have done nothing wrong except have 'Arab-sounding' names."
For copies of the reports by Meiklejohn Institute, go to the MCLI web page or order a copy of the book, Challenging US Human Rights Violations Since 9/11 online or at your bookstore.
Resolution 62,841-N.S. passed by Berkeley City Council on March 15, 2005
Submitting the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute report on US Human Rights Violations since 9/11 to the US State Department, the UN High Commissioner for human rights, and the UN Human Rights Committee
WHEREAS, the Peace and Justice Commission proposed, and the City Council adopted, the Human Rights Ordinance in 1990, based on the UN Charter articles 55 and 56; and
WHEREAS, the Commission on Peace and Justice proposed, and the City Council in 1993 submitted reports of city agencies to the US State Department and to the UN Human Rights Committee to enforce the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the United States in 1992; and
WHEREAS, Ann Fagan Ginger and Ann Wagley represented the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, a Berkeley center for human rights and peace law, at the UN Human Rights Committee in 1995 in New York, and presented the Berkeley City report to the Committee, which was well received; and
WHEREAS, Meiklejohn Institute has now prepared 180 reports on 30 types of human rights violations by the US Government since 9/11 to submit to the US State Department and to the three UN human rights committees that administer the three human rights treaties ratified by the US; and
WHEREAS, this Report includes copies of the Berkeley Human Rights Ordinance, and the City Council resolutions proposed by the Peace and Justice Commission against the USA PATRIOT Act and against corporate personhood, and for the precautionary principles and for an excess profits tax on contracts during US wars; and
WHEREAS, segments of the Report were published in the Daily Planet from September 10 to October 22, 2004, and the Report will be published in book form on March 30, 2005 for presentation to the public, the US State Department, and the three UN Committees;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council submits a copy of the Report to the US State Department and to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and to the UN Human Rights Committee during its Spring 2005 meeting in New York as one step in upholding the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture, and the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be sent to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senators Boxer and Feinstein, Representatives Lee and Pelosi, and be made available to interested media and NGOs. |
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