On the “champion and commissioner” of human rights in the world

PASCUAL SERRANO

If there is any country that boasts of defending human rights around the world, it is the United States. In the name of these rights, it imposes sanctions on countries, freezes funds from other governments abroad, orders the arrest of world leaders and even their relatives, and intervenes militarily anywhere in the world.

On the occasion of International Human Rights Day this December, let's take a look at that country that takes on the role of global watchdog.

The United States is the developed country that has ratified the fewest Human Rights treaties. It is the only one in the world that has not yet ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most revalidated human rights treaty in the world (195 states), the other country that remained to sign it was South Sudan, which did so in 2015. The United States has not ratified it because in some of its states the death penalty is in force. death to minors.

In fact, in his report 'Children and adolescents in the adult criminal system in the United States', the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) reported that two hundred thousand minors under 18 years of age are tried as adults in the United States each year, due to laws in specific states.

Nor has it ratified the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, nor the Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, nor several additional protocols to other conventions.

Another of the most insulting issues is that it has not ratified the International Criminal Court dedicated to prosecuting those accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. All this while he regularly threatens country leaders and other governments with that Criminal Court, but has made it clear that that court has no jurisdiction over Americans anywhere in the world.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights denounced and demanded that the United States stopImmediate reversal of his policy of separating children from their parents during the Trump administration. Some 5.500 minors were separated from their families on the border with Mexico within the framework of anti-immigration policy. We had to wait for this one month of December 2023 for a judge to rule on the prohibition of these separations.

This same year 2023, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism Ashwini K.P. denounced the United States in one of his reports by "racially discriminatory prison sentences and the disparate impact of prison sentences on people of African descent, Latino people, and people of other racial and ethnic groups, resulting in violations of international human rights law.”

El UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) mentioned lack of progress by the United States on several issues last year, including the prevalence of hate crimes, gun violence, excessive use of force by law enforcement officials, and violence against women.

For its part, Amnesty International's annual report denounced the end of federal mechanisms to protect the right to abortion, sexual violence against indigenous women, due to a law that guaranteed impunity when the aggressors were non-indigenous, and a system of arbitrary and massive detention of migrants that meant the daily confinement of 34.000 people in 2022.

There are other serious allegations included in this report. For example, that year at least 1.093 people died from shots fired by the police. Regarding the death penalty, 682 people are awaiting execution in the state of California alone. Dozens of detainees continue to be held arbitrarily and indefinitely in the detention center at the US naval base in Guantánamo (Cuba), in violation of international law. More than ten years after dozens of people were held in the context of a system of secret detention centers run by the CIA and authorized from 2001 to 2009, no one had been brought to justice for crimes under international law and violations systematic human rights violations - such as forced disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment - committed within the framework of that programme.

For American Civil Liberties Union, “The United States proclaims itself a global leader in human rights,” but the UN finds violations and abuses in various areas in this country, such as “the immense gap between US laws and international standards for the provision of fundamental guarantees for citizens,” citing in particular “the outrage to the rights of the indigenous population, to vote, to freedom of expression and assembly, gender equality and reproductive decisions, as well as the reform of criminal laws and guarantees for migrants,” among others.

And while this panorama is happening within the borders of the United States, its government, on the weekend that the world commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, once again reminded us that they are the guardians of human rights in the world. world and announced new sanctions on several people for violations of these fundamental guarantees in 13 countries. Of course, a few hours later, he vetoed a UN resolution to demand a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and sent more ammunition to Israel.

“The United States commemorates Human Rights Day and the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10 with actions to promote accountability for abuses and violations of civil rights,” declared Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Pascual Serrano is a journalist, media analyst and writer. His last book is "Forbidden to doubt. The ten weeks in which Ukraine changed the world”