| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Dermot Donovan" |
| Date: |
15 Jan 2005 10:46:21 AM |
| Object: |
HRW: Call for Prosecutions on Darfur, Abu Ghraib |
Abu Ghraib, Darfur: Call for Prosecutions
Human Rights Watch's 2005 Report Covers 60-Plus Countries
(Washington D.C., January 13, 2005) -The worldwide system for
protecting human rights was significantly weakened in 2004 by the
crisis in Darfur and the Abu Ghraib scandal, Human Rights Watch
said in releasing its annual world survey today.
While the two threats are not equivalent, the vitality of global human
rights depends on a firm response to each-on stopping the Sudanese
government's slaughter in Darfur and on fully investigating and
prosecuting all those responsible for torture and mistreatment in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Guantanamo.
"The U.S. government is less and less able to push for justice abroad,
because it's unwilling to see justice done at home," said Kenneth Roth,
executive director of Human Rights Watch.
Human Rights Watch urged the Bush administration to appoint a special
prosecutor to investigate any U.S. officials who participated in, ordered
or had command responsibility for torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment. Human Rights Watch pointed out that senior administration
officials have sought to blame the scandal on the young soldiers they sent
to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, instead of accepting responsibility
themselves for the policies and orders that weakened the rules against
torture and inhumane treatment.
The Human Rights Watch World Report 2005 contains survey information
on human rights developments in more than 60 countries in 2004. In
addition to the introductory essay on Darfur and Abu Ghraib, the volume
contains three essays on broad human rights issues: religion and human
rights, sexuality and the cultural attack on human rights, and an in-depth
analysis of the Darfur crisis.
In the volume's introductory essay, Roth argues that a large U.N.-
authorized military force is needed to protect Darfur residents and to
create conditions of security that might allow them to return home safely.
The United States and other Western governments, he contends, are wrong
simply to hand the problem to the African Union, a new institution with
few resources and no experience with military operations of the scale
needed.
"Darfur is making a mockery of our vows of 'never again,'" said Roth.
Roth also urged that, once the United Nations Commission of Inquiry
reports to the U.N. Security Council on January 25 on the crimes
committed in Darfur, the Security Council should refer the Darfur case
to the new International Criminal Court.
"The crimes committed in Darfur must not go unpunished," said Roth.
"The International Criminal Court would be the most efficient and
effective institution to prosecute these crimes. The permanent members
of the Security Council should not stand in the way of bringing the mass
murderers in Darfur to justice."
Human Rights Watch said that the crisis in Darfur cries out for
involvement by the major military powers, but they have chosen to be
unavailable. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia are
bogged down in Iraq, with the United States going so far as to say that
"no new action is dictated" by its determination that the killing in
Darfur amounts to genocide. France is committed elsewhere in Africa, and
Canada is cutting back its peacekeeping commitments, despite promoting
the "responsibility to protect." NATO is preoccupied in Afghanistan; the
European Union is deploying forces in Bosnia.
"Everyone has something more important to do than to save the people of
Darfur," said Roth.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government's systematic use of coercive interrogation
has weakened a pillar of international human rights law - the requirement
that governments should never subject detainees to torture or other
mistreatment, even in the face of war or other serious threat. Yet
in fighting terrorism, the U.S. government has treated this cornerstone
obligation as a matter of choice, not duty.
By ignoring human rights standards in its reaction to September 11, the
Bush administration has made it easier for governments around the world
to cite the U.S. example as an excuse to ignore human rights. Egypt has
defended a decision to renew its problematic "emergency law" by
referring to U.S. anti-terror legislation. The Malaysian government
justifies detention without trial by invoking Guantánamo. Russia cites
Abu Ghraib to blame abuses in Chechnya solely on low-level soldiers. Cuba
now claims the Bush administration had "no moral authority to accuse" it
of human rights violations.
"Governments facing human rights pressure from the United States now
find it easy to turn the tables," said Roth. "Washington can't very well
uphold principles that it violates itself."
-----------
Please help support the research that made this bulletin possible. In order
to protect our objectivity, Human Rights Watch does not accept funding from
any government. We depend entirely on the generosity of people like you.
To make a contribution, please visit
http://hrw-news-unitedstates.c.topica.com/maac4zkabdjqoa6gpbwb/
.
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
