News and Document archive source
copyrighted material disclaimer at bottom of page

NewsMinesecuritycivil-rights — Viewing Item


Rights abuses feared

Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
   http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030114/ap_on_re_us/human_rights_report_1

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030114/ap_on_re_us/human_rights_report_1

U.S. National - AP

Rights Abuses Feared in Anti-Terror War
Tue Jan 14,10:15 AM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!

By HARRY DUNPHY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Many countries resent or are reluctant to join the U.S. war on terrorism partly because of the government's tendency to ignore human rights in its conduct of the war, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

In several key countries involved in the campaign against terrorism, such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the report said even rhetorical U.S. support for human rights has been rare. When the United States does try to promote human rights, its authority has been undermined by its refusal to be bound by the standards it preaches to others, said the annual survey.

"Washington's tendency to ignore human rights in fighting terrorism is not only disturbing in its own right," the report said. "It is dangerously counterproductive. The smoldering resentment it breeds risks generating terrorist recruits, puts off potential anti-terrorism allies and weakens efforts to curb terrorist atrocities."

For example, the United States is generating popular resentment in Pakistan by uncritically backing President Pervez Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, Human Rights Watch said. In China, the Bush administration has played down the repression of Muslims in the Xinjiang province, which the Chinese government justifies as an anti-terrorism measure.

The 558-page Human Rights Watch World Report 2003 covers human rights in 58 countries in 2002. It identifies positive trends such as the formal end to wars in Angola and Sierra Leone and peace talks in Sri Lanka

But negative developments include the continued killings of civilians in wars from Colombia to Chechnya (news - web sites), from Congo to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The report by the human rights advocacy group said governments continued highly repressive policies in Myanmar, China, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Liberia and Vietnam.

"The United States is far from the world's worst human rights abuser," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of New York-based group. "But Washington has so much power that when it flouts human rights standards, it damages the human rights cause worldwide."

The report said that in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the United States clearly needed to take extra security measures.

"But the U.S. government must also pay attention to the pathology of terrorism, the set of beliefs that leads some people to join in attacking civilians," it said. "A strong human rights culture is an antidote to this pathology but in too many places Washington sees human rights mainly as an obstacle to its goals."

Human Rights Watch said the Bush administration seemed to recognize the connections between repression and terrorism in its National Security Strategy and had taken some steps to promote human rights in some countries directly involved in the struggle against terrorism, such as Egypt and Uzbekistan.

It said the 15-nation European Union (news - web sites) might have been expected to fill this leadership void, but because of its preoccupation with achieving consensus and other concerns, the EU frequently was paralyzed. European leaders virtually abandoned efforts to pressure Russia, an anti-terror ally, to end its abusive conduct of the war in Chechnya, the survey said.



habeas-corpus
police-swabbed-eyes-with-pepper-spray
1228 terror warrants 2002 { May 1 2003 }
Against counsel for suspects
Americans can be held
Americans would trade rights for security
Anti terror laws increasingly used against common criminals { September 9 2003 }
Bloomberg law tickets sitting people
Brit law destroys freedom better than terrorists { June 12 2008 }
Bush bans using race federal investigations { June 18 2003 }
Bush can order killing on US soil
Bush wants indefinitely detentions on suspicion alone { June 11 2007 }
Canada free speech curtailed by hate speech law { June 11 2008 }
Canadian mounties seize reporters files { January 22 2004 }
Cfr member urges domestic cia agency { September 26 2005 }
Citizen enemy combatants { January 8 2003 }
Citizens no rights { December 1 2002 }
Civil liberties timeline
Colorado bill 03 322 [pdf]
Colorado bill stigmatizes muslims
Crackdown on dissent { January 30 2001 }
Denied access to attorney
Deporting 13k arabs not terrorists { June 7 2003 }
Detainee trial allows hearsay and coerced statements { January 19 2007 }
Dirty bomb victims may be shot
Emergency room to contact fbi { May 9 2003 }
Fbi papers indicate surveillance violations { October 24 2005 }
FBI starts question muslin about 2004 summer attacks { July 18 2004 }
Feds hid potographs to win terror convictions { March 29 2006 }
Foreign student targeted { April 8 2003 }
Freedom to lose
G8 summit protected by preemtive state of emergency
Global threatening human rights
Homeland security given data on arab americans { July 30 2004 }
Homeland security suspicious of homeless { August 22 2005 }
Infringing human rights { December 17 2002 }
Local rights defense { November 22 2002 }
Louisiana court gives police search powers { March 27 2004 }
Louisiana police search without warrants { March 26 2004 }
Lynching law used against blacks
Man defends from warrantless plainclothes police
Mideast photos prints { November 7 2002 }
Mounted police assaulted anti war press conference
Muslim feel targeted by laws { July 9 2003 }
Muslim leader slams britain police state tactics
Nyc requires permit to use video camera { August 1 2007 }
Police can force person talk { May 28 2003 }
Police granted freedom to barge into homes { June 15 2006 }
Police kill wrong man because soda can { July 13 2004 }
Police need not explain arrests says high court
Police searching homes raises concerns
Police spray students for no reason { April 18 2004 }
Police stops violation seatbelt law
Random checks { November 12 2002 }
Rights abuses feared
Rights eroding { November 6 2002 }
Taser gun death is part of national pattern { July 29 2005 }
Terror court { November 14 2001 }
Terror laws used for non terror activities
Terrorist law nabs minor offenses not terrorists { June 12 2005 }
Tibetan nun detained for six months { February 3 2004 }
Us born citizens held without lawyer
US citizens can be declared enemy combatants { February 1 2007 }
US eroding human rights worldwide { May 23 2007 }
War on civilrights
War on terror trampled human rights { May 28 2003 }

Files Listed: 64



Correction/submissions

CIA FOIA Archive

National Security
Archives
Support one-state solution for Israel and Palestine Tea Party bumper stickers JFK for Dummies, The Assassination made simple