Human rights and the United States

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The Statue of Liberty, America's iconic statement in support of human rights and freedom from tyranny.
The Statue of Liberty, America's iconic statement in support of human rights and freedom from tyranny.

The human rights record of the United States of America is a controversial and complex issue here. The U.S. has been praised for its progressive human rights record at times and strongly criticized for some of its policies and practices at other times. Criticism has come from both United States citizens and from critics in other countries of the world.

Historically, the United States has been committed to the protection of specific personal political, religious and other freedoms. It has sheltered many political and economic refugees in times of international strife, and has been the final destination of many immigrants from around the world. It has a powerful and often independent judiciary and a constitution that attempts in many areas to enforce separation of powers to prevent tyranny.

At the same time, the U.S. has had a history of legally permitted slavery, and both racial and ethnic–religious discrimination at times. The United States government is still criticized for human rights violations, particularly in the criminal justice system and where national security is a concern. Some critics (in both friendly and hostile countries) have criticized the U.S. Government for complicity in supporting serious human rights abuses (including torture, abduction, assasination, and imprisonment without trial). At times the U.S. government has also been criticized for covert destabilization activity aimed at the overthrow or subversion of foreign democratic governments, individuals or parties.

Supporters of the United States Government point out that a disproportionately high level of attention is given to given the U.S. human rights record in comparison with attention given to other nations with egregious human rights records.

Contents

[edit] Overview

The principles of legal egalitarianism underlying the United States Constitution, upon which the United States is founded, were and are tempered with a political pragmatism that has occasionally undercut the human rights ideals that the document espouses. The Constitution created what was, in 1787, a distinguished progressive democracy that guaranteed unprecedented social and economic rights for much of its citizenry. Yet at the same time, the very same founding document implicitly [3] sanctioned slavery, which was not completely abolished until 1865 after the American Civil War, and lynching of blacks was relatively common into the middle 1900s. Only in 1968 did the Supreme Court rule explicitly against racial segregation laws.

This mixture of idealism and compromise has produced a paradoxical human rights record. The American system aims at a free society where life, liberty and a host of inalienable human rights are guaranteed by its Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence. Human rights in the United States of America are built on what has been described as a self-evident truth that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with natural human rights. Some confuse equal rights with equal authority and thus assume that those with less authority lack these rights which gives birth to the mistaken hypothesis that by "men" the Declaration of Independence meant, white males.

The Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to a fair trial, freedom of religion, equal suffrage, and property rights. Such affirmations of human rights are the product of nearly four centuries of struggle and social progress aiming for a fair and just society, with its beginnings in 1634 when the first colonies in Maryland were founded on the basis of religious tolerance. However, some Americans attempting to exercise these fundamental human rights have been persecuted at various times throughout the country's history.

Most citizens tend to be optimistic about the United States Constitution and point out it is still a work in progress and changes to it are continuously under consideration as the needs of the society of the United States change. An example of this is how the status of human rights in the United States recently have come under scrutiny for the government's positions on capital punishment, police brutality, the War on Drugs, and sexual morality. 138

Finer points which are sometimes debated are a perceived media concentration that might drown out voices of dissent, campaign finance in the United States preventing a "fair" election, details of the justice system minimum sentencing guidelines, coercion into plea bargains and inadequate public defenders. Such issues often come up because of different interpretations of what is constitutional by the various authorities. Some rights issues are portrayed as a political split, pitching the rights of one group against another. For example, Americans have the right to form trade unions but some states have passed laws to guarantee an individual's right to work, a right not guaranteed in states with Collective bargaining statutes, and which have made it difficult for unions to negotiate contracts. However, in the more conservative states (red states), generally in the Deep South and Midwest, union influence is limited in general.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, pressure from the government for more surveillance of suspected terrorist cells activities has led to heightened criticism of the government's violation of suspected terrorists' privacy and of control measures that do not respect suspected terrorist prisoners' dignity. In the aftermath of those attacks, there have been signs from the federal government of the United States of a noticeable shift away from United States Constitution safeguards traditionally afforded American citizens, notably:

  • Two Pakistani Americans allegedly affiliated with the Islamic militant group Harakat ul-Ansar were arrested in Pakistan by Pakistani authorities and held and allegedly tortured in a Pakistani jail. The two allege that they were interrogated by men flashing FBI agent shields. [4]
  • The arrest, without charge, of large numbers of Muslim men as "material witnesses" in cases related to Terrorist activities in the United States.[5].

[edit] Well Documented violations of International Law

[edit] Alleged violations of national sovereignty

From around the 1950s, following both World Wars and the commencement of the Cold War, the United States disavowed to varying degrees its previous foreign policy stance of non-intervention and became more involved in the affairs of other countries. In various cases there is evidence that foreign policy included improper intervention aimed towards pro-American government[1], involving improper subversion, regime change, support for abusive dictatorships, and disregard for democratic processes when these threatened to lead to results which were not in its national interest. Examples where this is sometimes considered to have happened include:

  • Replacement of democratic government by the Shah (Iran, 1953) - British and American governments are claimed to have overthrown the democratic and progressive government of Mohammed Mossadegh, because his policies of nationalization (in particular of the oil industry) was perceived as threatening to their economic interests. Action is said to have included "bribery, libel and orchestrated riots". In place, the Shah, a brutal dictator was installed, who was dependent upon Western arms and financial aid. This change ultimately set the conditions for polarization of opposition through religion, and led to the Iranian Revolution and ensuing religious dictatorship in 1979. DemocracyNow.org NY Times
  • Removal of the government of Jacobo Arbenz (Guatemala, 1954) - CIA covertly ensured the overthrow of the reformist leader, whose policies of unused land redistribution were unsupportive of US economic interests. "Within a few years after the 1954 coup, Guatemala fell into a maelstrom of guerrilla war and state terror in which hundreds of thousands of people died", and starting a "cycle of violence, assassination and torture". NY Times
  • Support of military coup by Pinochet (Chile, 1973) - CIA alleged to have contributed to the downfall of the existing democratic government prior to the coup. 3,000 civilians are killed as well as the democratically elected president Salvador Allende. Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, is cited as having commented on this that "It is not a part of American history that we're proud of", in respect of the role of Nixon's administration in the coup. A large number of CIA documents were declassified in 2000 under the 'Chile Declassification Project', including minutes of the 40 Committee, said to document the involvement. [6] [7] [8] [9]

[edit] Torture, abduction and abuse

See also: Torture and the United States, Extraordinary rendition

Certain practices of the United States military, civilian agencies such as the CIA, and private contractors have been condemned both domestically and internationally as torture. A fierce debate regarding non-standard interrogation techniques[2] (a euphemism for torture) exists within the US civilian and military intelligence community, with no general consensus as to what practices under what conditions are acceptable. Such practices have resulted in a number of deaths. According to Human Rights First, at least as many as 46 detainees have been tortured to death in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan. [11]

Torture and abuse is strictly illegal and punishable within US territorial bounds. The legality of abuse occurring on foreign soil, outside of usual US territorial jurisdiction, is however somewhat murky. The United States Administration has categorized a large number of people as unlawful combatants under the Geneva Convention, a status which deprives them of protection as prisoners of war under that convention, and also keeps and interrogates them on foreign soil where US laws against torture can be contested in court as inapplicable. Both United States citizens and foreign nationals are occasionally captured (and at times claimed to be abducted) outside of the United States and transferred to secret US administered detention facilities, sometimes being held incommunicado for periods of months or years, a process known as extraordinary rendition. Overseas detention facilities are known to be or to have been maintained at least in Thailand, the Philippines, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Cyprus, Cuba, Diego Garcia, and unspecified South Pacific island nation(s). In addition, individuals are suspected to be or to have been held in temporary or permanent US controlled facilities in Indonesia, El Salvador, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Israel, Denmark, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Hungary, Germany, and Scotland. There are also allegations that persons categorized as prisoners of war have been tortured, abused or humiliated; or otherwise have had their rights afforded by the Geneva Convention violated. In 2004 photos showing humiliation and abuse of prisoners leaked from Abu Ghraib prison, causing a political and media scandal in the US. According to Indymedia (2007), "German prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for thirteen CIA operatives linked to the kidnapping and torture of German citizen Khaled El-Masri."[3]

See also specific cases: Maher Arar

[edit] Freedom of expression

Main article: Freedom of speech in the United States

In the United States, like other liberal democracies, freedom of expression (including speech, media, and public assembly) is seen as an important right and is given special protection. According to Supreme Court precedent, the federal and lower governments may not apply prior restraint to expression. There is no law punishing insults against the government, ethnic groups, or religious groups. Symbols of the government or its officials may be destroyed in protest, including the American flag. Significant legal limits on expression per se include:

Some laws remain controversial due to concerns that they infringe on freedom of expression. These include the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, and the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act (IMBRA). Such laws can be brought before the federal courts to determine their constitutionality, but the time and expense required is often prohibitive. Other recent issues include military censorship of blogs written by military personnel in Iraq.

In two high profile cases, grand juries have decided that Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller must reveal their sources in cases involving CIA leaks. Time magazine cooperated with authorities after exhausting its legal appeals, and Mr. Cooper eventually agreed to testify. Ms. Miller was jailed for 85 days before cooperating. U.S. District Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan ruled that the First Amendment does not insulate Time magazine reporters from a requirement to testify before a criminal grand jury that's conducting the investigation into the possible illegal disclosure of classified information.

Other journalists who've been legally pressured to provide information to investigators include Tim Russert, who moderates NBC's "Meet the Press," Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus, and syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak.

Several foreign journalists including British reporter Elena Lappin who arrived in the USA without an I-visa have been jailed and deported since the 2001 terrorists attacks. Citizens of many Western countries are exempt from a U.S. visa requirement intended mainly for tourists. However, they must declare that they are not representing the "foreign information media." This requirement is outside the norms of other democratic countries, and many journalists entering the USA were not aware of it. In 2005, the United States territory was ranked 44th in the annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders.

[edit] Death penalty

See also: Capital punishment in the United States and Capital punishment in Texas

The United States, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore are the only developed nations to use capital punishment in practice. This practice is controversial. Death penalty opponents regard the death penalty as inhumane and criticize it for its irreversibility and claim that it lacks a deterrent effect. Further, opponents often point to overrepresentation of blacks on death row as evidence of the unequal racial application of the death penalty (2003 [12]). It is the official policy of the European Union and of a number of non-EU nations to achieve global abolition of the death penalty. For this reason the EU is vocal in its criticism of the death penalty in the US and has submitted amicus curiae briefs in a number of important US court cases related to capital punishment. While criticism of the death penalty within the United States is strong among activist groups, public support varies regionally. The death penalty has been largely abolished in the Northeast, while the South and West continue to conduct executions. Texas overwhelmingly leads the United States in executions, with 359 executions from 1976 to 2006. The second-highest ranking state is Virginia, with 94. A 2002 Houston Chronicle poll of Texans found that when asked "Do you support the death penalty?" 69.1% responded that they did, 21.9% did not support and 9.1% were not sure or gave no answer.[citation needed]

A ruling on March 1, 2005 by the United States Supreme Court prohibits the execution of people who committed their crimes when they were under the age of 18. Between 1990 and 2005, Amnesty International recorded 19 executions in the United States for crime committed by a juvenile.

[edit] National security exceptions

Further information: National Security Strategy of the United States

The United States government has on several occasions suspended (or claimed exceptions to) various guaranteed rights on national security grounds, typically in wartime and conflicts (such as the Cold War or the War against Terror), and also sometimes in a pre-emptive manner against a potential or perceived threat by some group (Japanese American internment and the McCarthy era). In some instances the federal courts have allowed these exceptions, while in others the courts have decided that the national security interest was insufficient.

Sedition laws have sometimes placed restrictions on freedom of expression. The Alien and Sedition Acts, passed by President John Adams during an undeclared naval conflict with France, allowed the government to punish "false" statements about the government and to deport "dangerous" immigrants. The Federalist Party used these acts to harass supporters of the Democratic-Republican Party. While Woodrow Wilson was president, another broad sedition law called the Sedition Act of 1918, was passed during World War I. Its provisions were so strict that the government imprisoned for 10-years, one Hollywood director for making a film about the American Revolution because it depicted the British unfavorably.[citation needed] It also caused the arrest and ten year sentencing of Socialist Party of America Presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs for speaking out against the atrocities of WWI, although he would later be released early by President Warren G. Harding. Countless others, labeled as "subverts" (especially the Wobblies), were persecuted by the Woodrow Wilson Administration.

Presidents have claimed the power to imprison summarily, under military jurisdiction, those suspected of being combatants for states or groups at war against the United States. Abraham Lincoln invoked this power in the American Civil War to imprison Maryland secessionists. In that case, the Supreme Court concluded that only Congress could suspend the writ of habeas corpus, and the government released the detainees. During World War II, the United States interned thousands of Japanese-Americans on fears that Japan might use them as saboteurs. In the recent campaign against terrorist groups, the government has detained suspected al Qaeda affiliates like Yaser Esam Hamdi, who also had his citizenship revoked.[citation needed] More recently President George Bush has asserted that the granting of Authorization for Use of Military Force by Congress implied the right as President to summarily override FISA, the law protecting US citizens from unlawful communications surveillance.

The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution forbids unreasonable search and seizure without a warrant, but some administrations have claimed exceptions to this rule to investigate alleged conspiracies against the government. During the Cold War, the FBI established COINTELPRO to infiltrate and disrupt left-wing organizations, including those that supported the rights of black Americans. More recently the USA PATRIOT Act has been attacked as eroding Fourth Amendment protections.

National security, as well as other concerns like unemployment, has sometimes led the United States to toughen its generally liberal immigration policy. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 all but banned Chinese immigrants, who were accused of crowding out American workers. Today foreign nationals can be detained or deported for minor infractions, although deportation is not as common as it use to be. The government is sometimes accused of skirting the required legal procedures. Tracking of immigrants has also increased as part of the anti-terrorism campaign, so that foreigners arriving by air are now subject to mandatory fingerprinting and photography. Since 2002, male adults from any of two dozen countries, most of them Muslim, have been subject to Special Registration. The United States is sometimes criticized for the effects of its border control efforts; for instance, between 1998 and 2004, 1,954 persons are officially reported to have died along the U.S.-Mexico border.

[edit] Mass surveillance

Main article: NSA warrantless surveillance controversy

In early 2006, several major telephone companies were found to have co-operated with covert requests by the National Security Agency to allow mass monitoring and data mining of the phone records of U.S. citizens. This report came on the heels of allegations that the U.S. government had been conducting electronic surveillance of domestic telephone calls without warrants. Many of the phone companies listed in the report have refuted this claim. [4] In ACLU v. NSA (August 2006), the program was ruled unlawful. The ruling is suspended pending appeal. There have been further reports since that time that the NSA has also been gathering information on financial records, internet surfing habits, monitoring e-mails, and performing citizen surveillance on social networks such as Myspace.[5]

[edit] Prison

Main article: Prisons in the United States

As of 2004 the United States had the highest percentage of people in prison of any nation. At a rate of incarceration of 726 inmates per 100,000, the United States has the highest reported rate in the world, well ahead of the Russian rate of 532 per 100,000. In 2004, more than 2.1 million Americans, or roughly 1 out of every 138, were in prisons or jails, a figure which represented one third of the world's prison population. To illustrate these figures, if the United States had the same rate of incarceration as Japan or China, only about 100,000 people would be in jail. [13]

Specific issues within prisons which are relevant to human rights include:

  • Widespread de facto policies and acceptance of excessive force. For example a report in Journal of Law & Policy[6] cites the case Madrid v. Gomez that:
"the extent to which force is misused at Pelican Bay, combined with the flagrant and pervasive failures in defendants’ systems for controlling the use of force reveal more than just deliberate indifference: they reveal an affirmative management strategy to permit the use of excessive force for the purposes of punishment and deterrence."
Examples of mistreatment reported in the US prison system include prisoners left naked and exposed in harsh weather or cold air,[6] [7] "routine" use of rubber bullets [6] and pepper spray,[6] [7] forced immersion in scalding water causing second and third degree burns,[6], 4-point restraint of the mentally ill for many hours or days without break,[8] [7] and a range of injuries from serious injury to fatal gunshot wounds,[6] with force "often vastly disproportionate to the actual need or risk that prison staff faced" [6] with "a pattern clearly emerg[ing] indicating that the chemical agent had become a means to immediately impose de facto corporal punishment on prisoners violating any facility rule, regardless of the threat".[6]

[edit] Health and the family

Several issues regarding health and the family which borderline between human rights and ordinary legislative decision-making are hotly debated across the United States, and are considered significant socio-political issues. Major debates include:

  • Termination of pregnancy - The debate over acceptability of abortion is sometimes framed as a human rights issue, either of the mother (to choose), or the fetus (to live). Roe v. Wade (1973) established that most laws against abortion violate a constitutional right to privacy. However, public debate continues, and the constitutionality of both positions are frequently challenged.
  • Euthanasia - The debate whether a terminally-ill person has the right to decide the time of death (euthanasia) and whether the families of patients who have permanently lost all brain activity can end medical care or stop feeding. At present such debates frequently end up being re-enacted in court as opposing sides fight for their views.

[edit] Assessments of human rights organizations

Amnesty International states for the year 2000:

Police brutality, disputed shootings and ill-treatment in prisons and jails were reported. In May the U.N. Committee against Torture considered the initial report of the USA on implementation of the U.N. Convention against Torture. Eighty-five prisoners were executed in 14 states bringing to 683 the total number of people executed since 1976. Those executed included individuals who were children under 18 at the time of their crimes, and the mentally impaired.

In 2005 the organization expressed alarm at the erosion in civil liberties since the 9/11 attacks. According to Amnesty International:

The Guantánamo Bay detention camp has become a symbol of the United States administration’s refusal to put human rights and the rule of law at the heart of its response to the atrocities of 11 September 2001. It has become synonymous with the United States executive’s pursuit of unfettered power, and has become firmly associated with the systematic denial of human dignity and resort to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment that has marked the USA’s detentions and interrogations in the "war on terror".[14]

Amnesty International also condemned the Guantánamo facility as "the gulag of our times," [15] which raised heated conversation in the United States. The purported legal status of "unlawful combatants" in those nations currently holding detainees under that name has been the subject of criticism by other nations and international human rights institutions including Human Rights Watch and the International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC, in response to the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan, published a paper on the subject The legal situation of unlawful/unprivileged combatants (IRRC March 2003 Vol.85 No 849). See Unlawful combatant. China has criticized racial discrimination in its annual Human Rights Record of the United States. HRW cites two sergeants and a captain accusing U.S. troops of torturing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. [16]

[edit] See also

[edit] History

[edit] US related topics

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[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ NY Times 2003 - "What the United States wanted in Guatemala — and in Iran, where the C.I.A. also deposed a government in the early 1950's — was pro-American stability. In the long run, though, neither Colonel Castillo Armas nor his Iranian counterpart, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, provided it. Instead, both led their countries away from democracy and toward repression and tragedy. How did this happen? From the perspective of half a century, what is the legacy of these two coups?"
  2. ^ "Non-standard interrogation techniques" are alleged to have at times included:
    Extended forced maintenance of "stress positions" such as standing or squatting; psychological tricks and "mind games"; sensory deprivation; exposure to loud music and noises; extended exposure to flashing lights; prolonged solitary confinement; denigration of religion; withholding of food, drink, or medical care; withholding of hygienic care or toilet facilities; prolonged hooding; forced injections of unknown substances; sleep deprivation; magneto-cranial stimulation resulting in mental confusion; threats of bodily harm; threats of rendition to torture-friendly states or Guantánamo; threats of rape or sodomy; threats of harm to family members; threats of imminent execution; prolonged constraint in contorted positions (including strappado, or "Palestinian hanging"); facial smearing of real or simulated feces, urine, menstrual blood, or semen; sexual humiliation; beatings, often requiring surgery or resulting in permanent physical or mental disability; release or threat of release to attack dogs, both muzzled or un-muzzled; near-suffocation or asphyxiation via multiple detainment hoods, plastic bags, water-soaked towels or blankets, duct tape, or ligatures; gassing and chemical spraying resulting in unconsciousness; confinement in small chambers too small to fully stand or recline; prolonged underwaffler immersion just short of drowning (i.e. dunking); and extended exposure to extreme temperatures below freezing or above 120 °F (48 °C).
  3. ^ http://indymedia.us/en/2007/02/22702.shtml
  4. ^ http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm
  5. ^ http://news.com.com/2061-10789_3-6082047.html
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Journal of Law & Policy Vol 22:145 - http://law.wustl.edu/Journal/22/p145Martin.pdf
  7. ^ a b c Speech by Bonnie Kerness, January 14, 2006, before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women [1]
  8. ^ a b Amnesty International Report 1998 [2]
  9. ^ For example: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/split/documents/garfield_county_findlet.pdf
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