US getting a reputation -- Human rights in the United States
30 May 2001
Joe's Garage <swatron@xenu.net>
People are beginning to say the emporer has no clothes when it comes to
human rights. This is in spite of the fact that the US State Department
has been reporting Europe's resistance to Scientology as a human rights
violation. How could that be?
Top Stories - Associated Press - updated 6:25 PM ET May 30
Wednesday May 30 4:24 PM ET
Amnesty: US Not Leader in Human Rights
- The United States no longer leads on international human rights
issues and often sacrifices its concerns for political expediency,
the U.S. branch of Amnesty International said Wednesday as it marked
its 40th anniversary.
``We have no prominent leaders in government sounding the clarion call for human
rights,'' said William Schulz, the executive director of Amnesty
International USA. ``Instead, we have a U.S. government that has abdicated
its duty to lead.'' Presenting the organization's annual report, Schulz
said the group's greatest disappointment was the decline of U.S.
leadership on human rights. As examples he cited the U.S. failure to
ratify a convention to ban anti-personnel land mines and opposition to
establishment of an international criminal court.
``It is no wonder that
the U.S. was ousted from the United Nations Human Rights Commission,''
Schulz said. ``That defea t was precipitated by waning U.S. influence and
double standards practiced by various administrations and Congresses.''
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said he disagreed with Schulz's
criticism of the U.S. human rights record.
``Anybody who has followed the
cause of human rights around the world over the years will realize the
United States has been and will remain the leading advocate of human
rights,'' Reeker said. He said the U.S. record ``speaks for itself,'' as
do the annual reports the d epartment issues that ``painstakingly document
the human rights situation in countries around the world.''
Amnesty International provided a platform for the husband of an American
University researcher detained in China. He urged the Bush administration
to step up efforts to get her released now that a U.S. Navy reconnaissance
plane is being returned. Xue Donghua said he had written President Bush
to tell him ``human beings are more important than expensive airplanes.''
His wife, Gao Zahn, has been hel d in China since Feb. 11.
China has
accused Gao of ``activities that undermine state security.'' Xue said the
case of his wife and at least four other detained academics is ``just the
tip of an iceberg. A lot of other people who are detained and released
choose to keep silent.'' Xue said when he asked the State Department for
an update on efforts to get Gao freed, he was told the return of the
aircraft from China was a diplomatic and military priority.
The Pentagon
said Tuesday the plane will be returned home aboard a cargo plane and
then repaired so it can resume surveillance flights. It has been stranded
in China for nearly two months after it collided with a Chinese fighter
jet and made an emergency landing on China's Hainan island. Schulz said
th e group was doing everything it could to obtain the release of Gao and
the other detained academics in China.
Reeker said the State Department
most recently raised Gao's case with the Chinese in a meeting May 23.
Reeker didn't offer details. Amnesty International was born on May 28,
1961, when The Observer newspaper in London published a piece by London
lawyer Peter Benenson calling for the release of ``prisoners of
conscience'' incarcerated because of their beliefs or origins.
Forty years later, the g roup employs more than 350 staff and has an annual
budget of almost $28 million. It says it has so far dealt with the cases
of 47,000 prisoners of conscience. This year's annual report documents
executions outside the bounds of judicial process in 61 cou ntries,
prisoners of conscience in at least 63 countries and cases of torture and
ill treatment in 125 countries.
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By HARRY DUNPHY,
Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP)
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