US Quietly Breaks UN Treaty
On Friday, at a United Nations meeting in Geneva, the United States broke a series of legal promises. Keeping those promises would have proved extremely embarrassing to the United States government by pointing out that human rights abuses are being committed here at home, and at U.S. military installations abroad.
In 1994 the United States senate ratified the U.N. Convention on Elimination of all forms of racial discrimination promising to provide reports every two years on racial discrimination in the United States. The reports were to include anywhere in the world where the U.S. military is in charge. In other words, the United States military no matter where it was on the globe, agreed to report discrimination. That now includes Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.
The treaty is the “supreme law of the land” under the U.S. Constitution, article 6, clause 2. Every nation that signed the treaty was charged with giving a national report on such basic areas of discrimination as health care, education, and prison terms. According to the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute and the National Lawyers Guild, the United States on Friday presented a report to the United Nations Committee, never mentioning Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, or the behavior of U.S. corporations working under U.S. military contracts.
Instead, U.S. officials presented facts on the federal level explaining (for instance) how much money was given to education, how much money was supplied to prisons etc. Only four states: Oregon, Illinois, New Mexico and South Carolina were mentioned, and officials in those states who were contacted by local activists, say they never received any phone calls of inquiry by government officials.
At least one hundred human rights groups were represented in Geneva on Friday anxious to hear what the government had to say about racism here at home and abroad.
According to the founder of the Meiklejohn Institute, Ann Fagan Ginger, her organization’s independent report also delivered in Geneva on Friday, provides statistics on racism toward Katrina victims, as well as discrepancies in life expectancy and other health care problems among African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans and Native Americans. In regard to U.S. military interrogation centers, Wayne county circuit court judge Claudia Morcom, (ret.) representing the Meiklejohn Institute, told U.N. officials in Geneva what the world now knows.
The basic racism practiced by the U.S. military in both Abu Ghraib and in the detention centers of Guantanamo includes torture, degradation, and illegal detention of hundreds of prisoners in these two facilities based on race, nationality, ethnicity and religions of those arrested.
Meiklejohn founder, attorney Ann Fagan Ginger wrote,”There is no way any U.S. citizen will be safe, even if Caucasian and native born, if the United States government can treat human beings as the U.S. military has treated the men it sent to those two facilities.”
To view the reports, go to www.mcli.org
Leslie Griffith has been a journalist in newspaper, radio and television for 25 years. She is currently working on a book about corporate censorship of the media called Shut-up and Read.
Copyright © 2008 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
It’s all in a nutshell…right there in print, thanks to Ann Fagan Ginger:
Meiklejohn founder, attorney Ann Fagan Ginger wrote,”There is no way any U.S. citizen will be safe, even if Caucasian and native born, if the United States government can treat human beings as the U.S. military has treated the men it sent to those two facilities.”
It seems to this citizen that repeated violations of the “supreme law of the land” under the U.S. Constitution by all branches of our government is treason.
The US Constitution is just “a god-damned piece of paper”…
…and the USA is just another expansionist Imperial Facist State
back in the 30’s, the entire planet mobilized in order to rid the world of just this kind of regime.
What will this generation do about it?
The US government subverting or violating the constitution? Again? I honestly wish that I was surprised.
Talking about having the rest of the world unite and take up arms against the Fourth Reich is just not going to happen. It’s not cowardace either, it’s a recognition that war isn’t the answer to all problems. The existance of a nuclear arsenal prevents the notion of launching a WWII type of conflict. Even if the ROTW united in military opposition to the usa, the moment the us gov’t’s leaders thought they’d really lose a war the nukes would fly and we’d all die.
As I see it the ROTW is dealing with you in the only way your leaders will understand, cash. Your economy is not performing as well as it should, credit is still being extended to you in spite of the fact that it’s more and more unlikely that you’ll ever be able to pay the money back. Sooner or later the dealer will cut off your access to credit-smack, by then you’re not going to be in much of a position to do anything… Well that is unless your idiot presnut decides to go out in a Hitlerian blaze of nuke fire…
Shit, we’re all going to die anyway.
Thanks again, Leslie.
And of course the MSM ignored this item at the request of the Uberfeuhrers in power.
Oh, it was a quiet violation of a UN treaty for a change.
US out of the UN.
I’m sure glad Nancy’s first official act as speaker of the house was to take impeachment off the table.
If they do it to anyone, it is the same as if they do it to me.
I think it is time to clean house and throw some corrupt politicians in jail. Let’s start with the folks at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
If a person did good deeds his whole life and then in one bad moment committed an evil act of premeditated murder, should the judge let him off easy because he had been a good guy for so many years? What if his underlying motives were “good”?
In 1976, around the same time daddy Bush was the CIA chief, the Pike (Report) Committee investigated and speared the immoral and illegal activities of the USA via intelligence agencies (CIA). According to the report the CIA was “a rogue elephant.” Assassinations of foreign leaders were found to be commonplace.
Today, ex-CIA chief’s son has started a prolonged war on terror that is primarily an intelligence war. The “terrorists” we kill are allegedly terrorists. We must take the CIA’s word for everything.
In 1976 the intelligence community fought back saying, “the (Pike) report focused almost exclusively on negative matters and totally lacked balance. It gave the American public a distorted view of US intelligence, thereby ’severely limiting its impact, credibility, and the important work of your committee.’”
Ah, in a perfect world for evil politicians from every corner of the globe and every political party, the end justifies the means.
These ideologues believe America is the chosen nation. They are as prejudiced as Osama bin Laden with their disrespect for human life. Osama believes Islam is the chosen religion, right? Infidels have it coming. Kill ‘em all and let God sort out the sinners, right?
Frankly, I don’t want anyone such as these rogue murderers representing my country.
Treaty obligation? What treaty? Supreme law of the land? What law? What constitution? We need a strong military to protect our global interests and we will expand our military presence as far as it takes to protect our interests worldwide. When I’m President of the United States, I won’t be distracted by any treaties, any laws or any constitutions. God Bless our CORPORATIONS, our MILITARY, and God Bless AMERICA! (applause)
All nations could be found guilty of doing wrong at some point or time, but does this mean all countries are bad?
The people who represent a nation and in its behalf committ crimes must be punishable. Otherwise, there is no rule of law. The Bush administration by opting out of the ICC and other treaties is showing the rest of the world that America accepts its role as a rogue nation.
How long will the world put up with this? The dollar is already declining and American interests WILL BE SABOTAGED by people of conscience all over the world so long as we flout crimes against the human species and th3 planet for whatever reason.
andrew.herman,
I basically agree with you, but I am troubled by the following statements as they relate to the standard framing of the issues:
“If a person did good deeds his whole life and then in one bad moment committed an evil act of premeditated murder … What if his underlying motives were “good”?”
and…
“Ah, in a perfect world for evil politicians from every corner of the globe and every political party, the end justifies the means.”
I believe it would be helpful to abandon this framing that the CIA and others act as if “the end justifies the means.” The “end” includes the justification of state-sanctioned murder, and so the “end” is seriously flawed, and the costs to the stability and security of our legal system and political system are part of that “end.” We should not allow the perpetrators to frame the “end” as they wish, but instead we should endeavor to make sure it includes the costs of a nation burdened with a weaker rule of law and a history of state-sanctioned murder, and the high probability that such rogue behavior will become known and so will reduce trust and respect of the US by others.