The Human Rights Watch (HRW) released its annual “World Report.” It is instructive to take a look at how the American press reported the publication.
A brief news search shows that there were basically two different stories on the report. The first type of article reports the HRW has concluded that the U.S. has fallen behind on human rights and the European Union must now take the lead. Their are more articles of the second type which reports on the organization’s criticism of Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez.
For anyone who even skimmed the World Report, it is clear that HRW was significantly more critical of the United States than Venezuela. The human rights organization, however, offers a critique on most major players of the world and does specifically single out any single country as the worst offender. The report recognized that the current trajectory of human rights in the United States is very disturbing and worrisome for the entire world.
In their 2004 report, the organization warned of Bush’s dangerous moves to consolidate power while removing protection of individual rights. After this year they realize they “underestimated the extent and tenacity of those efforts.”
In the past five years the administration has authorized torture and other abusive interrogation techniques, “disappeared” dozens of suspected terrorists into secret prisons, twisted domestic law to permit indefinite detention without charge of persons suspected of links to terrorism, and confined hundreds at Guantanamo Bay without charge while denying them information about the basis for their detention and meaningful opportunity to contest it. The administration has sought to exempt its actions from court oversight.
They cite that in 2006, George Bush was undeterred by constitutional checks to his rights abuses. Following the Supreme Courts ruling that even “unlawful combatants” are “legally entitled to humane treatment ‘in all circumstances,’” the President responded by asking “Congress to authorize a system of military commissions akin to those that had been struck down.” Additionally he asked Congress to “rewrite and to redefine the humane treatment requirements of the Geneva Conventions so that the CIA’s ‘enhanced’—and abusive—interrogation program could continue”
As a result of the legislation that he pushed through, Bush secured protection for his administration from being tried for War Crimes that they are surely guilty of. The World Report touches on a few of these crimes. Most of the report focuses on Guantanomo Bay and the unlawful and inhumane detainment of those deemed “enemy combatants”.
Approximately 450 men remain in long-term, indefinite, and largely incommunicado detention at Guantanamo Bay. The United States continues to assert its authority to hold these men as “unlawful enemy combatants” without charge and without regard to the laws of armed conflict.
Concerning the Military Commissions Act, “Most seriously,” the HRW cites, “the legislation prohibits any detainee the US government has labeled an ‘unlawful enemy combatant’ from ever challenging in court his treatment while in US custody, even after his release.”
The report touches briefly on the practice of America sending detainees abroad to “secret prisons” in countries known for their human rights abuses. The administration has shut down the secret prisons, but assures us they still maintain the right to continue secretly out sourcing torture at any point.
Not all of the rights abuses concern “counterterroism” issues. HRW politely points out that the United States currently has “the highest incarceration rate in the world,” and furthermore poor people and minorities are disproportionately imprisoned. The organization mentions the horrible condition of U.S. prisons including cases of sexual abuse, staff violence, and a policy of controlling prisoners with attack dogs.
The American press mentions very little about the actual content of the HRW’s report on U.S. human rights abuses. Instead it focuses on the groups recommendation that the European Union take the lead in human rights since “Washington’s once-powerful role as a prime defender of human rights had effectively ended.”
Several reports were published with titles like “Rights group blasts Chavez over courts.” The group did, in fact, “blast” the Venezuelan government, along with the United States and ten other countries in the Western Hemisphere.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Chavez was singled out by the American press. Chavez has been a strong critic of neoliberal globalization and American military and economic imperialism. And to make matters worse, he just dealt a huge blow to corporate media by denying a Venezuelan media company their license renewal, drawing “harsh criticism” from American critics. Nevermind the fact that the company assisted in the coup attempt of Chavez in 2002.
One does not have to think too hard about how the United States would respond to a similar situation here. An independent journal calls for the forceful, violent removal of the President from office. The offending journalist would certainly be thrown in jail, most likely labeled an “enemy combatant” and handled accordingly.
In the United States, we throw our suspected “enemy combatants” in secret prisons and strip them of their rights and dignity. In Venezuela, they wait until their enemy’s license is up for renewal and then deny them the right to control public air waves.
Nevertheless, there is certainly room to criticize Venezuela. But as always, we are responsible first and foremost for our own crimes and those crimes we support. In America, a country once described by Martin Luther King Jr. as the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world,” there is even greater importance for us to take responsibility for our crimes. Ending the human rights breaches that we carry out and directly support goes a long way to stopping abuses worldwide.