The United Nations will be reviewing US compliance with the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights today and tomorrow.
US arguments to the contrary, its record includes violations that must
be sanctioned.
Organizers in Iraq have been gathering reports from areas exposed to
US weapons containing depleted uranium. In Fallujah, the levels of
highly toxic materials are reportedly so high that Iraqi
parliamentarians debated in 2011 whether such attacks with these lasting
effects constituted genocide. A doctor at a Fallujah maternity hospital
reported last year that the rate of deformities is so high that up to a
dozen babies or fetuses die every month because of missing organs. In
Basra alone, the estimated volume of scraps of depleted uranium from the
1991 and 2003 invasions combined was 46,000 tons, with warnings that
the metal and contamination have spread.
Today and tomorrow, the United Nations will review the United States'
compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR), which requires signatories to respect individual rights
to (among others) life, due process and fair trials. The review comes as
the Obama administration weighs its options for winding down the war in Afghanistan and in the long wake of the president's acknowledgment
last spring that "a perpetual war [will] alter our country in troubling
ways." The truth is, the United States has already changed in profound
ways as a result of a decade-plus of global war, and US war-making has
profoundly altered the lives of those outside of our country. We cannot
simply end the "war on terror"; we must grapple with the world it has
created.
The Center for Constitutional Rights reported
to the UN Human Rights Committee on US compliance with the ICCPR in key
areas that relate to our work, urging the committee to hold the United
States accountable for its failures. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the United
States has yet to address the far-reaching and multi-generational
public health crisis resulting from toxic weaponry and waste; it has
failed to accurately calculate the number of casualties, both civilian
and combatant, that independent estimates suggest are approximately 1
million; and it has ignored the heightened effects of war on children,
including the fact that 60 percent of casualties caused by unexploded
submunitions in Iraq were children under 15. And yet, the United States
insists the ICCPR does not apply outside its territory - a position the
UN Committee previously rejected. It would be an anemic covenant that
required a self-proclaimed superpower to respect individual rights only
within its own borders.
The post-9/11 crimes committed by the United States did not occur
only in recognized war zones, such as Iraq and Afghanistan; US policy
now treats anywhere and everywhere in the world as a potential
battlefield. Nasser Al-Aulaqi lost his 16-year-old grandson, Abdulrahman,
to a US drone as a result of President Obama's targeted killing
program, just as thousands of families in Yemen, Pakistan and elsewhere
have similarly lost their loved ones. One hundred fifty-five men remain
arbitrarily detained at Guantanamo, 77 of whom have been cleared for
release for years and many of whom continue to be subjected to solitary
confinement, force-feeding and other degrading treatment, such as
genital searches before and after being moved for attorney meetings and
family phone calls. Guantanamo persists, despite Obama's recommitment in
May 2013 to closing it. And, despite lifting his self-imposed ban on
transfers to Yemen more than eight months ago, Obama has yet to transfer
anyone from Guantanamo to Yemen. Nearly two-thirds of the remaining
detainees are Yemeni citizens; the prison is devolving into a detention
facility that exclusively holds men of Yemeni descent.
Here at home, the United States essentially has abandoned its
veterans to post-deployment psychological trauma and service-related
illnesses. If that weren't enough, the United States is replicating
some of the same abuses found at Guantanamo and abroad when prosecuting
Muslim defendants under its domestic criminal justice system.
This post-9/11 global war paradigm flouts the ICCPR and other
international laws designed to protect against the worst human rights
abuses. By claiming that it is not bound to respect basic human rights
when acting abroad, while simultaneously claiming it is wartime anywhere
and everywhere in the world where it targets terrorism, the United
States attempts to render torture, crimes against humanity and war
crimes untouchable.
If we are ever to move beyond perpetual global war, we cannot simply
declare it over. Nor can we limit ourselves to ending current abuses. We
must grapple with - and provide accountability for - past abuses. The
ICCPR hearings this week are a chance to do that, and the US likely will
be asked some very tough questions. The ICCRP has reprimanded the
United States before, and yet Iraqis and Afghanis continue to suffer
from the fallouts of battle; veterans have yet to receive what they need
to heal from multiple traumas; Guantanamo is still open for business;
and the president remains committed to targeted killing wherever he
deems fit. If we are ever to end this war and fulfill our human rights
obligations, the United States must begin to take its international
obligations seriously, and the international community must begin
insisting that it does.
from here
'If we are ever to end this war - - -' and if we are to take the path to NO MORE WARS - then the real international community, ie worldwide citizenry as opposed to a set of leaders committed to the ideals of their capitalist puppet masters, must recognise that the only way ahead is a world community working together in the interests of all. For in depth articles and comment on this huge topic take a look in the right hand column at both the blog archive and the link to the Socialist Standard with its comprehensive archive.
Lets watch carefully the two day United Nations' review and see if the outcome will make any difference, considerable or otherwise.
JS
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