Failure of Human Rights Watch in Venezuela and Haiti

[magbana]

Lousy liberals.

In addition to Joe Emersberger article below, you might want to check out an article I wrote in October 2005: “Haiti, Imperialism and the Treachery of Liberals” at http://hcvanalysis.wordpress.com/haiti-background/
It is the third article down the page.


The Failure of Human Rights Watch in Venezuela and Haiti
By: Joe Emersberger - HaitiAnalysis
http://www.haitianalysis.com/2008/2/23/the-failure-of-human-rights-
watch-in-venezuela-and-haiti

The way Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Haiti and Venezuela in
its 2008 World Report reveals an underlying assumption that the U.S.
and its allies have the right to overthrow democratic governments.<1>

The Venezuela section of the report said nothing about ongoing
attempts by the U.S. to overthrow the Chavez government. It is a
matter of public record that the U.S. funded groups who were involved
in the coup of 2002 and continued to do so after the coup took place.
<2>

Rather than denounce or even acknowledge U.S. destabilization efforts
in Venezuela, HRW continues to complain about the non-renewal of
RCTV's public broadcasting license. RCTV was one of big television
networks that aided and abetted the coup. HRW objects that RCTV's
involvement in the coup "was not proven in a proceeding in which RCTV
had an opportunity to present a defense." It is impossible to imagine
a non-farcical proceeding that would conclude otherwise, especially
when coup's perpetrators thanked the private media, of which RCTV was
a major part, for its help. Before the coup was reversed Vice-Admiral
Ramirez Perez told a Venezuelan reporter:

"We had a deadly weapon: the media. And now that I have the
opportunity, let me congratulate you."

Judging by it reports, HRW is completely uninterested in whether the
broadcaster that replaced RCTV on the public airwaves, TVes, offers
viewers a wider variety views or greater accountability. "Freedom of
the Press Barons" to perpetrate coups appears to be HRW's concern,
not freedom of expression.<3>

HRW also used the 2008 World Report to criticize, yet again, a
judicial reform law that was passed by the Chavez administration in
2004. In contrast, HRW's summary about Haiti said nothing about the
coup that ousted Jean Bertrand Aristide's democratic government in
2004; nothing about the subsequent murder of thousands of people who
supported Aristide's Lavalas movement (the word "Lavalas" does not
even appear in the summary); nothing about the fact that Haiti's
police and judiciary remain stacked with appointees from the
dictatorship of 2004-2006; nothing about Father Gerard Jean Juste,
the most prominent political prisoner of that period, who continues
to be hounded Haiti's legal system. <4>

Even if HRW's criticism of Venezuela's judicial reform law of 2004
were reasonable (and it isn't) it cannot deserve more attention than
the coup that took place in Haiti and that led to a human
rightscatastrophe. <5>

On a positive note, HRW's Haiti section of the 2008 World Report
belatedly gave some attention to the disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre
Antoine, a prominent Haitian human rights worker and opponent of the
2004 coup:

"In August 2007 a well known human rights advocate, Lovinsky Pierre-
Antoine, was abducted. At this writing his whereabouts remain unknown."

Again, the absence of the word "Lavalas" is telling. Pierre-Antoine
disappeared days after he had announced that he would run for the
Haitian senate as a Fanmi Lavalas Party candidate. The goal of the
2004 coup and the massive respiration that followed was to eliminate
Lavalas movement - the same goal with basically the same perpetrators
as during the 1991-1994 period about which HRW reported extensively. <6>

At first glance, Human Rights Watch 2008 World Report seems to
provide courageous and much needed criticism of powerful countries
like the U.S. HRW is willing to contradict the Bush Administration.
For example, in a press conference about the 2008 World Report, HRW
director Ken Roth refused to label Venezuela as a "closed country".
However, Roth went on to say that human rights "trends were negative
in Venezuela". Such a conclusion is justified only if one assumes
that supporting coups and other acts of sabotage against a democratic
government should have no legal repercussions at all. Meanwhile, in
Haiti, when human rights trends really were disastrously negative
thanks to a coup backed by the US France and Canada HRW displayed a
chilling lack of interest.<7>

US imperialism cannot succeed with Neocons alone. It needs the
assistance of other countries. It needs the help of transnationals
and NGOs like Human Rights Watch. <8> This is an important lesson to
remember from the coups that took place in Haiti and Venezuela.





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NOTES

<1> See Human Rights Watch. World Report. 2008. wr2k8_web.pdf]

<2> See Eva Gollinger's "The Chavez Code" for details on US funding
of groups that participated in the coup. HRW's response to the 2002
coup itself was appalling. Al Girodano of Narco New summed it up well
in an exchange with a HRW employee: "They recognized an illegitimate
'authority' as legitimate. They failed to call for the removal of
that dictatorial regime. They failed to call on other nations and the
OAS to refuse to recognize it. They failed to call for invoking the
OAS Democratic Charter for the one event it was intended to prevent.
And after the dust settled and the people restored their elected
president, HRW and Vivanco tried to change the subject from the
priority of bringing the coup plotters to justice, with a smokescreen
over the demonstrations and shootings before the coup." HRW reacted
similarly after the coup in Haiti in 2004. See note 6.

<3> There is good reason to believe that freedom of expression on the
public airwaves has been improved by replacing RCTV with TVES James
Jordan notes: "The new broadcasting license is being given to a
public station, TVes-Venezuela Social Television, which will run
shows produced mainly by independent parties. The station will be
controlled not by the government, but by a foundation of community
members, with one chair reserved for a government
representative." <http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2416> For
more specifics about RCTV's involvement in the coup see www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/venezuela/2974.html]

<4> For more about the coup and Haiti and its consequences see Kolbe
and Hudson. Lancet Study. 2006. <http://www.ijdh.org/pdf/Lancet% [br />20Article%208-06.pdf] <http://www.haitianalysis.com/2 007/7/31/ [br />interview-with-athena-kolbe-co-author-of-lancet-study-on-haiti]
<http://www.haitianalysis.com/2007/7/31/interview-with-athena-kolbe- [br />co-author-of-lancet-study-on-haiti]

<5> The judicial reform law broke the stranglehold of Venezuelan
elite on the judiciary. For more discussion of the law and HRW's
objections see Al Giordano's lively exchange with HRW over their
criticism of the judicial reform law. narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2004/6/17/15422/6410]

<6> For more discussion of how HRW responded to coups in Haiti see
<http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10011>

<7> See <http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_dade/story/ [br />401747.html] ''We did not include Venezuela in the list of closed
countries because it is not,'' Human Rights Watch executive director
Kenneth Roth said, unveiling the organization's 2008 World Report,
which highlighted leaders who claim to be democratic but take
autocratic measures. Roth acknowledged that ''the trends were
negative in Venezuela,'' saying Chávez stacked the Supreme Court and
denied an opposition station a broadcast license, among other excesses.

<8> The priorities displayed in HRW reports are well aligned with
those of liberal imperialists like Lloyd Axworthy, a former Canadian
External Affairs minister who sits on HRW's board. See www.hrw.org/about/info/board.html] For more about Axworthy's liberal
imperialism see <http://www.killingtrain.com/node/397>

[Bacchus39]

1. not a failure to report human rights abuses

no country is beyond reproach. what we don't need is politicized human rights organization like at the UN which devoted 90% of its time criticizing Israel in the face of numerous if not worse abuses worldwide.

[magbana]

2. You Will Get Your Wish

Dear Bacchus, don’t worry, you shall get your wish. As of May 2006, the UN was forced to form a more representative human rights body that now includes many countries of the Non-Aligned Movement. You can expect the UN Human Rights Council to continue to hit Israel hard, as it should, AND to pursue numerous human rights abuses long ignored by the previous US-dominated human rights committee.

[Bacchus39]

5. if it were dominated by the US, it would not have been focused exclusively

on Israel. even with reform its doubtful that they would even publish something as comprehensive as the HRW due to politics. afterall, the UN is an organization of world governments.

[EFerrari]

3. I guess that footage of the coup plotters in the RCTV studios

wasn't convincing enough for HRW. Very disappointing, on the whole.

[Bacchus39]

4. I think HRW was more interested in the extrajudicial killings and abuses of the Chavez government

than politics