Human Rights In

8/10/2019 Human Rights In

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Presented by:

Harshita Goel8 th Rose



HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the UNsystem made up of 47 States responsible for strengthening thepromotion and protection of human rights around the globe. TheCouncil was created by the UN General Assembly on 15 March 2006with the main purpose of addressing situations of human rightsviolations and make recommendations on them.

One year after holding its first meeting, on 18 June 2007, the Counciladopted its ―Institution-building package‖ [Word file] providing elementsto guide it in its future work. Among the elements is the new UniversalPeriodic Review mechanism which will assess the human rightssituations in all 192 UN Member States. Other features include anew Advisory Committee which serves as the Council’s ―think tank‖providing it with expertise and advice on thematic human rights issues

and the revised Complaints Procedure mechanism which allowsindividuals and organizations to bring complaints about human rightsviolations to the attention of the Council. The Human Rights Councilalso continues to work closely with the UN SpecialProcedures established by the former Commission on Human Rightsand assumed by the Council.



INTRODUCTION

Human rights in the United States are legally protected by the Constitution of the United

States and amendments, conferred by treaty, and enacted legislatively through Congress, state legislatures,

and plebiscites (state referenda). Federal courts in the United States have jurisdiction over internationalhuman rights laws as a federal question, arising under international law, which is part of the law of the United

States.

The first human rights organization in the Thirteen Colonies of British America, dedicated to the abolition of

slavery, was formed by Anthony Benezet in 1775. A year later, the Declaration of Independence would

advocate for civil liberties based on the self-evident truth ―that all men are created equal, that they are

endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit

of Happiness.‖ This view of human liberties postulates that fundamental rights are not granted by the

government but are inalienable and inherent to each individual, anteceding government.

Holding to these principles, the United States Constitution, adopted in 1787, created a republic that

guaranteed several rights and civil liberties. Those rights and liberties were further codified in the Bill of

Rights and subsequently extended over time to more universal applicability through judicial rulings and law

and reflecting the evolving norms of society — slavery being constitutionally abolished in 1865 and women's

suffrage being established nationally in 1920.

In the 20th century, the United States took a leading role in the creation of the United Nations and in the

drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Much of the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights was modeled in part on the U.S. Bill of Rights.[In the latter part of the 20th century, however, the US

has participated in few of the international human rights treaties, covenants and declarations adopted by the

UN member states.

In the 21st century, the US actively attempted to undermine the Rome Statute of the International Criminal

Court. The United States government has been criticized for human rights violations both domestically and

overseas, particularly in the criminal justice system and in national security issues, as well as for its

treatment of sexual orientation in the realms of anti-discrimination laws and same-sex marriage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_USA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_USA



INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON

SUPPORT

TREATIES RATIFIED

INTERNATIONAL BILL OF RIGHTS

OTHER TREATIES NOT SIGNED OR

SIGNED BUT NOT RATIFIED

COVERAGE OF VIOLATIONS IN THE

MEDIA



SUPPORT

The U.S. Department of State publishes a yearly report "Supporting Human Rights andDemocracy: The U.S. Record" in compliance with a 2002 law which requires the Department to

report on actions taken by the U.S. Government to encourage respect for human rights. It also

publishes a yearly "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.". In 2006 the United States

created a "Human Rights Defenders Fund" and "Freedom Awards." The "Ambassadorial

Roundtable Series", created in 2006, are informal discussions between newly-confirmed

U.S. Ambassadors and human rights and democracy non-governmental organizations. The

United States also support democracy and human rights through several other tools.

The "Human Rights and Democracy Achievement Award" recognizes the exceptional

achievement of officers of foreign affairs agencies posted abroad.

In 2006 the award went to Joshua Morris of the embassy in Mauritania who recognized

necessary democracy and human rights improvements in Mauritania and made democracy

promotion one of his primary responsibilities. He persuaded the Government of Mauritania to

re-open voter registration lists to an additional 85,000 citizens, which includes a significant

number of Afro-Mauritanian minority individuals. He also organized and managed the largest

youth-focused democracy project in Mauritania in 5 years.

Nathaniel Jensen of the embassy in Vietnam was runner-up. He successfully advanced the

human rights agenda on several fronts, including organizing the resumption of a bilateral

Human Rights Dialogue, pushing for the release of Vietnam’s prisoners of concern, and

dedicating himself to improving religion freedom in northern Vietnam.

Under legislation by congress, the United States declared that countries utilizing child soldiers

may no longer be eligible for US military assistance, in an attempt to end this practice.



TREATIES RATIFIED

The U.S. has signed and ratified the following humanrights treaties: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

(ratified with 5 reservations, 5 understandings, and 4declarations.)

Optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms ofRacial Discrimination

Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman orDegrading Treatment or Punishment

Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees

Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on

the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography Non-binding documents voted for:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights



INTERNATIONAL BILL OF RIGHTS

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and

the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural

Rights (ICESCR) are the legal treaties that enshrine the rights which areoutlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Together, and along

with the first and second optional protocols of the ICCPR they constitute

the International bill of rights. The US has not ratified the ICESCR or either

of the optional protocols of the ICCPR.

The US's ratification of the ICCPR was done with five reservations – or

limits – on the treaty, 5 understandings and 4 declarations. Among these isthe rejection of sections of the treaty which prohibit capital

punishment. Included in the Senate's ratification was the declaration that

"the provisions of Article 1 through 27 of the Covenant are not self-

executing", and in a Senate Executive Report stated that the declaration

was meant to "clarify that the Covenant will not create a private cause of

action in U.S. Courts." This way of ratifying the treaty was criticized as

incompatible with the Supremacy Clause by Louis Henkin. As a reservation that is "incompatible with the object and purpose" of a

treaty is void as a matter of international law, Vienna Convention on the Law

of Treaties, art. 19, 1155 U.N.T.S. 331 (entered into force Jan. 27, 1980)

(specifying conditions under which signatory States can offer

"reservations"), there is some issue as to whether the non-self-execution

declaration is even legal under domestic law. At any rate, the United Statesis but a signatory in name only.



OTHER TREATIES NOT SIGNED

OR SIGNED BUT NOT RATIFIED

Where the signature is subject to ratification, acceptance or approval, the signature does notestablish the consent to be bound. However, it is a means of authentication and expresses thewillingness of the signatory state to continue the treaty-making process. The signature qualifiesthe signatory state to proceed to ratification, acceptance or approval. It also creates an obligationto refrain, in good faith, from acts that would defeat the object and the purpose of the treaty.

The U.S. has not ratified the following international human rights treaties:

First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming

at the abolition of the death penalty Optional Protocol to CEDAW

Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture

Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951)

Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (1954)

Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961)

International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Membersof their Families

The US has signed but not ratified the following treaties: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

(signed but not ratified)

Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (signed but not ratified)

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (signed but not ratified)

Non-binding documents voted against:

Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in September 2007.



COVERAGE OF VIOLATIONS IN

THE MEDIA

Studies have found that the New YorkTimes coverage of worldwide human rights violationsis biased, predominantly focusing on the humanrights violations in nations where there is clear U.S.involvement, while having relatively little coverage of

the human rights violations in other nations. AmnestyInternational's Secretary General IreneKhan explains, "If we focus on the U.S. it's becausewe believe that the U.S. is a country whoseenormous influence and power has to be usedconstructively ... When countries like the U.S. are

seen to undermine or ignore human rights, it sends avery powerful message to others





GUANTÁNAMO BAY

Guantánamo Bay is a detainment facility of the United States located in Cuba. The facility was

established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and

later Iraq. It is operated by the Joint Task Force Guantánamo of the United States

government in Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, which is on the shore of Guantánamo Bay. The detainmentareas consist of three camps: Camp Delta (which includes Camp Echo), Camp Iguana, and Camp X-Ray,

the last of which has been closed. The facility is often referred to as Guantánamo, or Gitmo, and has the

military abbreviation GTMO.

After the Justice Department advised that the Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp could be considered

outside U.S. legal jurisdiction, the first twenty captives arrived at Guantánamo on January 11, 2002. After

the Bush administration asserted that detainees were not entitled to any of the protections of the Geneva

Conventions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld on June 29, 2006, that they wereentitled to the minimal protections listed under Common Article 3of the Geneva Conventions.] Following

this, on July 7, 2006, the Department of Defense issued an internal memo stating that prisoners would in

the future be entitled to protection under Common Article 3. The detainees held as of June 2008 have been

classified by the United States as "enemy combatants".

On January 22, 2009, the White House announced that President Barack Obama had signed an order to

suspend the proceedings of the Guantanamo military commission for 120 days and that the detention

facility would be shut down within the year. On January 29, 2009, a military judge at Guantánamo rejectedthe White House request in the case of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, creating an unexpected challenge for the

administration as it reviews how America puts Guantánamo detainees on trial.

On May 20, 2009, the United States Senate passed an amendment to the Supplemental Appropriations Act

of 2009 (H.R. 2346) by a 90-6 vote to block funds needed for the transfer or release of prisoners held at

the Guantánamo Bay detention camp. As of November 2010, 174 detainees remain at Guantanamo.[

President Barack Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum dated December 15, 2009, ordering the

preparation of the Thomson Correctional Center, Thomson,Illinois so as to enable the transfer of

Guantanamo prisoners there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp






CONDITIONS

One of the allegations of abuse at the camp is the abuse of thereligion of the detainees.The U.S. government has claimed thatthey respect all religious and cultural sensitivities. However,prisoners released from the camp have alleged that abuse ofreligion including flushing the Qur'an down the toilet, defacingthe Qur'an, writing comments and remarks on the Qur'an,

tearing pages out of the Qur'an and denying detainees a copyof the Qur'an. These allegations were highlighted by Pakistanipolitician Imran Khan. Some of these abuses have been seenas emblematic of the whole military leadership's approachtoward treatment of the prisoners while others argue that manyabuses are performed and directed on an individual level withsevere disciplinary repercussions if discovered. One of the

justifications offered for the continued detention of Mesut Sen,during his Administrative Review Board hearing, was:

"Emerging as a leader, the detainee has been leading thedetainees around him in prayer. The detainees listen to himspeak and follow his actions during prayer."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesut_Sen








Prisoner complaints

Three British Muslim prisoners, now known in the media as the "Tipton Three", were released in

2004 without charge. The three have alleged ongoing torture, sexual degradation, forced drugging

and religious persecution being committed by U.S. forces at GuantánamoBay. Former Guantánamo

detainee Mehdi Ghezali was freed without charge on July 9, 2004, after two and a half yearsinternment. Ghezali has claimed that he was the victim of repeated torture. Omar Deghayes alleges

he was blinded by pepper spray during his detention. Juma Al Dossary claims he was interrogated

hundreds of times, beaten, tortured with broken glass, barbed wire, burning cigarettes, and sexual

assaults. David Hicks also made allegations of torture and mistreatment in Guantánamo Bay, but as

part of his plea bargain Hicks withdrew the allegations.

Forced feeding accusations by hunger-striking detainees began in the fall of 2005: "Detainees said

large feeding tubes were forcibly shoved up their noses and down into their stomachs, with guardsusing the same tubes from one patient to another. The detainees say no sedatives were provided

during these procedures, which they allege took place in front of U.S. physicians, including the head

of the prison hospital. A hunger striking detainee at Guantánamo Bay wants a judge to order the

removal of his feeding tube so he can be allowed to die, one of his lawyers has said."] Within a few

weeks, the Department of Defense "extended an invitation to United Nations Special Rapporteurs to

visit detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay Naval Station". This was rejected by the U.N. considering

the restrictions "that [the] three human rights officials invited to Guantánamo Bay wouldn't be allowed

to conduct private interviews" with prisoners. Simultaneously, media reports ensued surrounding thequestion of prisoner treatment. "District Court Judge Gladys Kessler also ordered the U.S.

government to give medical records going back a week before such feedings take place."[In early

November 2005, the U.S. suddenly accelerated, for unknown reasons, the rate of prisoner release,

but this was un -sustained.

In 2005, it was reported that sexual methods were allegedly used by female interrogators to break

Muslim prisoners.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehdi_Ghezali

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juma_Al_Dossary












Suicides and suicide attempts

By 2008 there had been at least four suicides and hundreds of suicide attemptsin Guantánamo that are in public knowledge. There is no information availableon the number suicide attempts that may be classified secret, if any.

During August 2003, there were 23 suicide attempts. The U.S. officials wouldnot say why they had not previously reported the incident.

After this event the Pentagon reclassified suicides as "manipulative self-injurious behaviors" because it is alleged by camp physicians that detainees donot genuinely wish to end their lives.[

Guantánamo officials have reported 41 unsuccessful suicide attempts by 25detainees since the U.S. began taking prisoners to the base in January 2002.Defense lawyers contend the number of suicide attempts is higher. On May 19,2002, a UN panel said that holding detainees indefinitely at Guantánamoviolated the world's ban on torture and that the United States should close thedetention center. Mark Denbeaux, a law professor at Seton Hall

University in New Jersey who represents two Tunisians at Guantánamo, saidhe believes others are candidates for suicide.

In 2008 a video was released of an interrogation between Canadian SecurityIntelligence Service, and a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer and OmarKhadr, a youth held in Guantánamo Bay, in which Khadr repeatedly cries,saying what sounds to be either "help me", "kill me" or calling for his mother, in

Arabic.



Reported suicides of June

2 6

On June 10, 2006, three detainees were found dead, who, according to thePentagon, "killed themselves in an apparent suicide pact". Prison commanderRear Admiral Harry Harris claimed this was not an act of desperation,despite prisoners' pleas to the contrary, but rather "an act of asymmetricwarfare committed against us―. According to a study published by Seton HallLaw's Center for Policy and Research on December 7, 2009, titled "Death inCamp Delta," the government's investigation does not support that these mencommitted suicide by hanging themselves inside of their cells.

Homicide accusations

Four members of the Military Intelligence unit assigned to guard Camp Delta, including adecorated non-commissioned Army officer who was on duty as sergeant of the guard thenight of June 9 –10, 2006, have presented an account that contradicts the reportpublished by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service(NCIS). According to itsspokeswoman Laura Sweeney, the Department of Justice has disputed certain factscontained in the article about the soldiers' account, which was published by themagazine Harper's.

Statements by human rights organizations

At the time, human rights groups called for an independent public inquiry into the deaths.

Amnesty International said the apparent suicides "are the tragic results of years ofarbitrary and indefinite detention" and called the prison "an indictment" of the George W.Bush administration's human rights record. Saudi Arabia's state-sponsored Saudi HumanRights group blamed the U.S. for the deaths. "There are no independent monitors at thedetention camp so it is easy to pin the crime on the prisoners... it's possible they weretortured," said Mufleh al-Qahtani, the group's deputy director, in a statement to the local Al-Riyadh newspaper.



RELEASE OF PRISONERS

In late January 2004, U.S. officials released three children aged 13 to 15 and returned them to Afghanistan. In

March 2004, twenty-three adult prisoners were released to Afghanistan, five were released to the United

Kingdom (the final four British detainees were released in January 2005), and three were sent to Pakistan.

On July 27, 2004, four French detainees were repatriated and remanded in custody by the French intelligence

agency Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire. The remaining three French detainees were released in

March 2005.

On August 4, 2004, the three ex-detainees who had been returned to the UK in March of that year (and freed

by the British authorities within 24 hours of their return) filed a report in the U.S. claiming persistent severeabuse at the camp, of themselves and others. They claimed that false confessions were extracted from them

under duress, in conditions that amounted to torture. They alleged that conditions deteriorated when Major

General Geoffrey D. Miller took charge of the camp, including increased periods of solitary confinement for the

detainees. They claimed that the abuse took place with the knowledge of the intelligence forces. Their claims

are currently being investigated by the British government. There are five British residents remaining: Bisher

Amin Khalil Al-Rawi, Jamil al Banna,Shaker Abdur-Raheem Aamer, Jamal Abdullah and Omar Deghayes.

Italy agreed on June 15, 2009, to accept three prisoners. Ireland agreed on July 29, 2009, to accept twoprisoners. The same day, the European Union said that its member states would accept some detainees.

The Guantanamo Review Task Force issued a Final Report January 22, 2010, but did not publicly release it

until May 28, 2010. The report recommended releasing 126 current detainees to their homes or to a third

country, 36 be prosecuted in either federal court or a military commission, and 48 be held indefinitely under

the laws of war. In addition, 30 Yemenis were approved for release if security conditions in their home country

improve.





NGO REPORTS

On November 30, 2009, The New York Times published excerpts from an internalmemo leaked from the U.S. administration, referring to a report from the InternationalCommittee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC reports of several activities that, it said,were "tantamount to torture": exposure to loud noise or music, prolonged extremetemperatures, or beatings. It also reported that a Behavioral Science ConsultationTeam (BSCT), also called 'Biscuit,' and military physicians communicated confidentialmedical information to the interrogation teams (weaknesses, phobias, etc.), resulting inthe prisoners losing confidence in their medical care.

Access of the ICRC to the base was conditional, as is normal forICRC humanitarian operations, on the confidentiality of their report; sources havereported heated debates had taken place at the ICRC headquarters, as some of thoseinvolved wanted to make the report public, or confront the U.S. administration. Thenewspaper said the administration and the Pentagon had seen the ICRC report in July2004 but rejected its findings. The story was originally reported in several newspapers,including The Guardian, and the ICRC reacted to the article when the report wasleaked in May.

In a foreword to Amnesty International's International Report 2005, the SecretaryGeneral, Irene Khan, made a passing reference to the Guantánamo Bay prison as

"the gulag of our times," breaking an internal AI policy on not comparing differenthuman rights abuses. The report reflected ongoing claims of prisoner abuse atGuantánamo and other military prisons.

A number of children are interned at Guantanamo Bay, in apparent contravention ofinternational law.





Criticism and condemnation

European Union members and the Organization of American States, as well as non-

governmental organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have

protested the legal status and physical condition of detainees at Guantánamo. The human

rights organization Human Rights Watch has criticized the Bush administration over thisdesignation in its 2003 world report, stating: "Washington has ignored human rights

standards in its own treatment of terrorism suspects. It has refused to apply the Geneva

Conventions to prisoners of war from Afghanistan, and has misused the designation of 'illegal

combatant' to apply to criminal suspects on U.S. soil.‖.‖ The New York Times and other

newspapers are critical of the camp; columnist Thomas Friedman urged George W. Bush to

"just shut it down", calling Camp Delta "... worse than an embarrassment.―[ Another New York

Times editorial supported Friedman's proposal, arguing that Guantánamo is part of "... a

chain of shadowy detention camps that includes Abu Ghraib in Iraq, the military

prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and other secret locations run by the intelligence

agencies" that are "part of a tightly linked global detention system with no accountability in

law

In November 2005, a group of experts from the United Nations Commission on Human

Rights called off their visit to Camp Delta, originally scheduled for December 6, saying that

the United States was not allowing them to conduct private interviews with the prisoners."Since the Americans have not accepted the minimum requirements for such a visit, we must

cancel [it]," Manfred Nowak, the UN envoy in charge of investigating torture allegations

around the world, told AFP. The group, nevertheless, stated its intention to write a report on

conditions at the prison based on eyewitness accounts from released detainees, meetings

with lawyers and information from human rights groups.





Government and military

inquiries

Senior law enforcement agents with the Criminal Investigation Task Force toldmsnbc.com in 2006 that they began to complain inside the Defense Departmentin 2002 that the interrogation tactics used by a separate team of intelligenceinvestigators were unproductive, not likely to produce reliable information andprobably illegal. Unable to get satisfaction from the Army commanders runningthe detainee camp, they took their concerns to David Brant, director of the NavalCriminal Investigative Service (NCIS), who alerted Navy General Counsel Alberto

J. Mora.

General Counsel Mora and Navy Judge Advocate General Michael Lohr believedthe detainee treatment to be unlawful and campaigned among other top lawyersand officials in the Defense Department to investigate, and to provide clearstandards prohibiting coercive interrogation tactics. In response, on January 15,2003, Donald Rumsfeld suspended the approved interrogation tactics atGuantánamo until a new set of guidelines could be produced by a working group

headed by General Counsel of the Air Force Mary Walker. The working groupbased its new guidelines on a legal memo from the Department of Justice Officeof Legal Counsel written by John Yoo and signed by Jay S. Bybee, which wouldlater become widely known as the "Torture Memo". General Counsel Mora led afaction of the Working Group in arguing against these standards, and argued theissues with Yoo in person. The working group's final report, was signed anddelivered to Guantánamo without





FUTURE

During his 2008 Presidential campaign, Barack Obama described Guantanamo as a "sad chapter

in American history" and promised to close down the prison in 2009. After being elected, Obama

reiterated his campaign promise on 60 Minutes and the ABC program "This Week.―

On January 22, 2009, President Obama stated that he ordered the government to suspend

prosecutions of Guantanamo Bay detainees for 120 days to review all the detainees' cases to

determine whether and how each detainee should be prosecuted. A day later, Obama signed

an executive order stating that Guantanamo Detention Camp would be closed within the year. [ His

plan encountered a setback, however, when incoming officials of his administration discovered that

there were no comprehensive files concerning many of the detainees, so that merely assembling

the available evidence about them could take weeks or months.[ In May, Obama announced that

the prosecutions would be revived In November 2009, President Obama admitted that the "specific

deadline" he had set for closure of the Guantanamo Bay camp would be "missed." He said the

camp would probably be closed later in 2010, but did not set a specific deadline.

In 2009 the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the Standish Maximum

Correctional Facility in Standish, Michigan, were being considered as the United States site for

more than 220 prisoners. Kansas public officials including both of its senators and governor have

objected.However many in Standish where the unemployment rate is 17% are reported to bewelcoming the move.[

However, President Barack Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum dated December 15, 2009,

formally closing the detention center and ordering the transfer of prisoners to the Thomson

Correctional Center, Thomson, Illinois.[ Attorney Marc Falkoff, who represents some of the Yemeni

detainees, said that his clients might prefer to remain in Guantanamo rather than move into the

more stark conditions at Thomson.









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