The world’s governments’ human rights records scrutinised, except America’s.
The US’s Department of State has released its annual report on the state of human rights around the world. A weighty document, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2011 covers in detail 199 countries, though not the US.
Called an ‘invaluable reference point’ by human rights activists, the report painstakingly breaks down each country’s human rights record for that year.
The report is not brazen propaganda for America’s allies.
Bahrain
It does not paper over the egregious abuses in Bahrain for example. Throughout 2011, popular protests in the country were suppressed by the ruling royal family, with help from the small archipelago state’s neighbours like Saudi Arabia.
Emulating the activism of the Arab Spring, Bahrainis initially called for more rights but when met with violence they quickly clamoured for a new government.
The presence of the warships of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and support structures was touted as why America remained almost mute while the Khalifa regime meted out abuses on its citizens.
One of the most distressing events of the year in Bahrain was the violence, arbitrary arrest and torture of medical workers and the Department of State report picks this out as among ‘the most egregious human rights problems reported in 2011′.
Although a comprehensive document, the Country Reports carries with it a faint whiff of hypocrisy.
Targeted killings
The US government officially acknowledged its targeted killing programme on April 30 this year. President Obama’s counter terrorism adviser John Brennan openly discussed some aspects of America’s controversial policy of assassinating terrorists around the world in a speech in Washington.
Brennan declared the ongoing use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to kill suspected terrorists is not only legal but moral and wise. This is despite the US targeting and killing with drones as well as other weapons at least 2,454 people in Pakistan, at least 296 in Yemen and at least 58 in Somalia, according to research conducted by the Bureau.
Brennan declared the ongoing use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to kill suspected terrorists is not only legal but moral and wise.
Brennan’s self-proclaimed rectitude is not reflected by human rights groups like the American Council of Civil Liberties and Reprieve in the UK who are challenging the legality of the US assassination policy.
There are significant legal questions about the practice. The US defence is that it has a right to defend itself against al Qaeda and its affiliates and, as America is at war with al Qaeda, it has the right to kill these enemy combatants.
But civilians continue to perish in these strikes. As many as eight civilians died in the latest strike on May 24. Forty-one civilians died on December 17 2009 when a US warship launched a cruise missile at a Yemeni home.
And tactics used by the US have being questioned by experts. The ‘follow-up strike’ for example, where a drone hits a target once, then waits to hit it again to target rescuers is legally dubious according to experts. A three month investigation by the Bureau and The Sunday Times uncovered the CIA killed at least 50 civilians using this tactic.
Practising what they preach
In Pakistan up to 659 people died in US done strikes in 2011 according to Bureau research. However in the 2011 report, the US Department of State identifies among the most serious human rights problems in the country were ‘extrajudicial killings’ committed by the government or its agents.
The Country Reports’ entry for Somalia rightly highlights the appalling state of the country’s prison system. But there is no mention of the allegations that some Somalis are incarcerated in these cells at the behest of the CIA.
In Yemen public protest broke out on January 23 – the people demanding the ousting of President Saleh after 30 years in power. The international community brokered an agreement that saw Saleh out of office but immune from prosecution on November 23.
The Department of State report identifies ‘numerous reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings’ during 2011. The Yemeni state security forces responded to the protests with brutality.
But research by the Bureau showed that during the Arab Spring protests in Yemen, American targeted killings also increased in frequency.
You can read the report here.
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June 11th, 2012 at 1:16 pm (#)
Many thanks to release these issues to alert the people in the world who are not aware of the true policy of those that allege their intervention in the world is for the sake of “democracy” but,in fact they want to rule the world with brutality, conspiracy and killing the Innocent people that most of them are women and children.