At the end of February or the first week of March 2007, the State Department will release its 2006 "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices." An annual report that is "a full and complete report regarding the status of internationally recognized human rights, within the meaning of subsection (A) in countries that receive assistance under this part, and (B) in all other foreign countries which are members of the United Nations and which are not otherwise the subject of a human rights report under this Act."
"The report entitled
"Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" is submitted to the Congress by the Department of State in compliance with sections 116(d) and 502B(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA), as amended, and section 504 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended. The law provides that the Secretary of State shall transmit to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, by February 25"
It's the report where the United States lists those nations that have violated human rights. The report is issued during the first part of the new year, after the year in review has ended.
The report claims to:
"The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
These rights include freedom from torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, from prolonged detention without charges, from disappearance or clandestine detention, and from other flagrant violations of the right to life, liberty and the security of the person. I already dread this report. I already feel the shame of it. That America, a country that water-boards people, would dare issue a report regarding human rights practices.
The issuing of the report has embarrassed me greatly over the last several years, but now that feeling has gotten so much worse.
So I live in dread of a future time.
A time when America's lack of shame will be (once again) so fully exposed by the arrogance and pathological denial it takes to point the finger at others while America is indefinitely detaining people without charges, operating secret prisons, using extraordinary rendition, and water-boarding people.
Crimes which no one is being held accountable for... and this report will highlight that fact even more. That America will point the finger at everyone but itself. That America lives in denial of its own crimes. That America just doesn't care.
How am I supposed to believe in a government that tortures? How am I supposed to be proud of my country when my country is a war crime nation? What kind of hope or "way forward" can such a government offer anyone?
The State Department will tell you that they are required by law to issue the report - and they are - it is the law.
But what about other laws? What about international law? What about federal law? Laws that ban torture? Don't those laws matter?
What about laws that claim those who engage in such actions are held accountable?
Exactly what is the "rule" of law in America?
That America is free to break any law it wants? That the U.S. government gets a pass on any law it breaks? That accountability is for other countries but not America?
I don't consent to this kind of governing.
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