Amnesty Int'l: BUSH ADMIN Has Abandoned Notion Of Universal Human Rights & Rule Of Law

[kpete]

Amnesty International Challenges U.S. Government to Reverse Course on HumanRights - Restore Commitment and Integrity

12/5/2006 11:02:00 AM


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To: National Desk

Contact: Sharon Singh of Amnesty International USA, 202-544-0200 ext. 289

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In advance of Human Rights Day 2006, Amnesty International USA charged that United States' current actions, particularly in the war on terror, amount to the most significant abdication of the nation's commitment to human rights since the establishment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948.

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Today the Bush administration has practically abandoned the notion of universal human rights and the rule of law. Under the war on terror, the president has approved holding people in secret prisons without access to lawyers or their family, keeping detainees in indefinite detention without charge or trial and providing retroactive immunity for those who may be responsible for creating policies or participating in abuse and other acts believed to be torture.

Amnesty International USA, under Cox, is leading the charge to return the United States back to a leader on human rights through the new "America I Believe In" campaign under which tens of thousands of activists have already taken action http://www.amnestyusa/believe.org.

"Secret prisons, indefinite detention and torture send chills up the spines of Americans -- not terrorists," said Cox. "Americans want national security efforts that are consistent with the nation's traditional values of justice and the rule of law. It's time to reverse course and return this country to the America we believe in."

more at:
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=77091