HRW Highlights Biggest Threats

This might make big news but regardless, there are threats the world needs to start focusing in on: Darfur, Sudan and the Abu Ghraib Scandal. (*It is a scandal but has yet to receive the status that the Clinton Scandal did.)

From the report:

''While the two threats are not equivalent, the vitality of global human rights depends on a firm response to each-on stopping the Sudanese government’s slaughter in Darfur and on fully investigating and prosecuting all those responsible for torture and mistreatment in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo''

Darfur needs some desperate attention. No question that a lot of people look to the U.S. to help move the world's attention to Sudan. We captured people's attention in Iraq. I hope that as soon as possible we turn away from Iraq and look to Sudan. The genocide and violation of human rights is awful. But the other part of the report calls for the U.S. to change it's direction and stop human rights' violations in Abu Ghraib. Is it possible?

Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) says, "The U.S. government is less and less able to push for justice abroad, because it’s unwilling to see justice done at home." The loosening of rules and regulations in interrogation techniques have led to problems as well as the idea that "enemy combatants" have no rights. The HRW director has provided reasons for why international human rights laws have been weakened:

By ignoring human rights standards in its reaction to September 11, the Bush administration has made it easier for governments around the world to cite the U.S. example as an excuse to ignore human rights. Egypt has defended a decision to renew its problematic "emergency law" by referring to U.S. anti-terror legislation. The Malaysian government justifies detention without trial by invoking Guantánamo. Russia cites Abu Ghraib to blame abuses in Chechnya solely on low-level soldiers. Cuba now claims the Bush administration had "no moral authority" to accuse it of human rights violations

HRW urges that the Bush administration hire a team to investigate "responsible senior officials" in the administration. People who participated in, ordered, or had command responsibility for torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment should be investigated. The officials have tried to blame the young soldiers but the HRW wants the people who weakened the rules against torture and inhumane treatment to be examined. I think this is fair. The only problem is that this would work like a commission. The 9/11 commission, if you recall, was alright but much was done to stifle the information and the changes that could have taken place.

Responsibility lies in the hands of the U.S. to come clean. Human rights' violations have happened and fingers can be pointed towards many. Overall, someone just needs to take action and find a way to prosecute crimes in Darfur and investigate the use of torture in the U.S.