Recently,
some protesters in Ukraine have been on the streets in a show of
force in favour of greater political alignment with Europe, instead
of Russia. Their government is currently torn between the two:
geographically situated between Europe and Russia, they have a choice
between the two for trade agreements and international funding (such
as an International Monetary Fund loan) to help out their economy.
The president is pro-Russia, but many people are pro-Europe, and are
protesting in that regard.
some protesters in Ukraine have been on the streets in a show of
force in favour of greater political alignment with Europe, instead
of Russia. Their government is currently torn between the two:
geographically situated between Europe and Russia, they have a choice
between the two for trade agreements and international funding (such
as an International Monetary Fund loan) to help out their economy.
The president is pro-Russia, but many people are pro-Europe, and are
protesting in that regard.
Anyway,
there was some relatively peaceful protest which the police were
allegedly tough on. I’m unsure on specifics, but there were
allegations of violence and unnecessary arrests against the police.
America decided to throw its weight around and released a couple of
statements, such as by John Kerry, the Secretary of State, who talked
of a lack of “respect for democratic principles, including freedom
of assembly” and a “universal value, not just an American one”.
A Senator Cardin said that “the international community should
seriously consider undertaking additional measures such as the
imposition of targeted sanctions against Ukrainian officials
responsible for human rights abuses, including the suppression of
peaceful protests.”1.
there was some relatively peaceful protest which the police were
allegedly tough on. I’m unsure on specifics, but there were
allegations of violence and unnecessary arrests against the police.
America decided to throw its weight around and released a couple of
statements, such as by John Kerry, the Secretary of State, who talked
of a lack of “respect for democratic principles, including freedom
of assembly” and a “universal value, not just an American one”.
A Senator Cardin said that “the international community should
seriously consider undertaking additional measures such as the
imposition of targeted sanctions against Ukrainian officials
responsible for human rights abuses, including the suppression of
peaceful protests.”1.
(Thankfully, on the topic of Ukraine, the protesters are being treated much better now. It’s also worth pointing out that they are blocking a place that probably needs to have at least some access.)
Looking
at the international politics, it’s obviously a load of rubbish, as
international politics is. America, as the UK often does, is only
playing the moral card when it suits them. They want Ukraine to side
with Europe instead of Russia, so are calling Ukraine out on human
rights abuses. There’s more about this international politics on many
other websites, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. Here I’m
talking about American hypocrisy.
at the international politics, it’s obviously a load of rubbish, as
international politics is. America, as the UK often does, is only
playing the moral card when it suits them. They want Ukraine to side
with Europe instead of Russia, so are calling Ukraine out on human
rights abuses. There’s more about this international politics on many
other websites, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. Here I’m
talking about American hypocrisy.
(Team)
America acts like the world police. They talk about human rights,
democracy and international law when it suits them, but it isn’t
something they actually care about. America hasn’t actually signed up
to the International Bill of Human Rights, something we have in
Europe, Africa and South America. In the face of that, I’m not sure
how they can talk about other peoples’ human rights.
America acts like the world police. They talk about human rights,
democracy and international law when it suits them, but it isn’t
something they actually care about. America hasn’t actually signed up
to the International Bill of Human Rights, something we have in
Europe, Africa and South America. In the face of that, I’m not sure
how they can talk about other peoples’ human rights.
Here’s
a quick list of a few things I can think of America has done against
human rights:2
a quick list of a few things I can think of America has done against
human rights:2
-
Guantanamo
bay. Kept on purpose outside American jurisdiction (so that their
own law doesn’t apply), they take prisoners without trial and
torture them. That people need to be charged with a crime to be kept
prisoner is a fundamental right, one England
has had for a long time. As the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (the same as the International Bill of Human Rights, the
Declaration is contained in that), “everyone is entitled
in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and
impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and
obligations and of any criminal charge against him”.
Guantanamo is terrible – America can abduct “terrorists” and
torture them – but its worse than I thought. Obama promised that
he would shut it in his election manifesto and has set up committees
to look into it, but even the detainees who have been recommended
for release have been kept. The people shouldn’t be there in the
first place, and the ones who have been told to be let out by
the committee he set up himself have
not been.3
-
NSA
spying on people. “Everyone has the right
for his private and
family life, his home and his correspondence”.
It’s pretty obvious why this is bad and lots has been said
elsewhere. The main problem is that people don’t care as much as
they should and don’t realise why this is so bad, but that’s not the
point here. This is bad.
-
Searching
houses without warrants. Another part of privacy is that the state
shouldn’t force its way into people’s houses. In the Boston Marathon
bombings, police and army searching thousands of houses in Boston
without any warrants to look for the “terrorists”*.4 That’s not
on.
-
The
right to protest. I don’t know loads about this, but for example,
when Occupy Wall Street was happening, the FBI worked with the banks
and had informants in the movement to try to disrupt it. The
government collaborated with banks against protesters. Protesting is
democratic. This is the sort of thing that happens in Russia and we
think is bad (state helping private business).5. Also, contrast this with their comments about the Ukraine protests.
-
Police
violence. America is bad for this, we all know it, but its accepted.
There are loads of reports, videos out there of people being cavity
searched (stripped naked and the police look inside their bum) as a
punishment, shooting people while handcuffed, being very aggressive
in their arrest techniques. A fundamental human right is the idea of
human dignity, which means that if somebody is being arrested then
the police should tell them as much and do it in the most respectful
and least invasive manner. Violence should only be used when it
needs to be; I don’t even think suspects should be handcuffed unless they are resisting, but it often goes much further than this.6
-
Edward
Snowden. Sure, he ran away from being tried, but it doesn’t look
like he would have a fair trial. America had a big hissy fit at
Russia, and in statements about it the government made statements
explicitly saying “we aren’t happy with Russia because they
allowed Snowden a platform to speak”. They allowed him to speak.
So because America doesn’t like Snowden, he doesn’t have freedom of
expression. An actual quote from this is “we are upset that there is a platform for someone who has been accused of felony crimes” – that he was allowed to talk.
7
-
Hating
on gay people. -
The
Death Penalty. This is outlawed by the Human Rights Declaration, but
America still does it.
There’s
a brief list about America’s lack of human rights.
a brief list about America’s lack of human rights.
I also
want to draw attention to their hypocrisy in international law.10
want to draw attention to their hypocrisy in international law.10
International
law isn’t really law as such. Law works by having someone who can
enforce it (ie, a court), and typically international “law” is
just a political agreement and doesn’t have this. The International
Criminal Court can only try people when that country asks it to.
America has expressly said that it is immune. As said at the start,
America picks and chooses when to deploy moral arguments to a
ridiculously hypocritical degree.
law isn’t really law as such. Law works by having someone who can
enforce it (ie, a court), and typically international “law” is
just a political agreement and doesn’t have this. The International
Criminal Court can only try people when that country asks it to.
America has expressly said that it is immune. As said at the start,
America picks and chooses when to deploy moral arguments to a
ridiculously hypocritical degree.
-
Chemical
weapons. When Syria is alleged to have used chemical weapons
(America probably lied about this intelligence8), America
describes this as a “line which cannot be crossed”. Yet America
themselves use chemical weapons: in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, and
more recently, in Iraq. Israel, a close ally of America, refuse to
sign up to international conventions on chemical weapons and use
chemical weapons in war, but America does nothing. Back in 1980 in
the first gulf war, America worked with their ally Saddam Hussein
while he used chemical weapons against Iran (which was later an
excuse to attack Saddam in the second gulf war). America itself is
breaking treaties about disarmament it has signed up to, not getting
rid of their chemical weapons and even developing new ones.9
-
Terrorism
and war. America is flying drones above countries such as Pakistan,
shooting down missiles and blowing people up. There are so many
problems with this. Firstly, the high number of civilian casualties.
Secondly, the fact the people they are killing haven’t been tried.
Thirdly, the lack of permission of the country involved – in once
instance they killed a high-ranking Taleban officer days before he
was meeting the Pakistani government for a peace agreement. And even
aside from this, the policy inspires more people to hate America
than it kills, so it doesn’t even work. Under the definition of
“terrorist” used by Obama, America’s drone strikes definitely
count, and this is also an act of war. One reason America is
avoiding the International Criminal Court is because they are
committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.11
-
The
United Nations Security Council. The idea behind the UN is that
people are only allowed to do international violence with their
permission, so that individual countries don’t go to war. At the top
of the UN is the Security Council, comprising of five big powerful
countries: UK, US, Russia, France, and China. They all have the veto
power, so any one of them can reject a motion to take action. This
does have the positive of meaning the big five don’t disagree and go
to war, but does mean they can all keep their own agenda. America
repeatedly uses this veto to stop sanctions against Israel, and this
is after they have been voted on by all the other countries in the
general assembly. Then, when Russia and China say that the US can’t
get involved in Syria, Obama criticises the veto idea.12
Hopefully
this post has given an introduction to America as the big bully in
the international world, throwing its weight around for its own
interests while still pretending to be the land of the free with
democratic values. The point here isn’t that other countries are any
better, but at least we know they’re bad. People don’t always realise
that America is a big human rights abuser. Sure, it doesn’t have the same generational imprisonment North Korea does, doesn’t bulldoze loads of homes without recompense, etc, but it does have a huge disrespect for human rights.
this post has given an introduction to America as the big bully in
the international world, throwing its weight around for its own
interests while still pretending to be the land of the free with
democratic values. The point here isn’t that other countries are any
better, but at least we know they’re bad. People don’t always realise
that America is a big human rights abuser. Sure, it doesn’t have the same generational imprisonment North Korea does, doesn’t bulldoze loads of homes without recompense, etc, but it does have a huge disrespect for human rights.
I guess the purpose of this is to raise this awareness so that we can see America more for what they are and, hopefully, improve the humans whose rights they trample down.
Also, America is controlling a lot of the narrative. Familiarity is hard to tell apart from truth, and “if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people come to believe it”, a quote ascribed to either Hitler or Joseph Goebbels, his propaganda minister. Knowledge helps to combat that.
This post almost certainly has some errors as it is factually dense, I’ve tried my best but please correct me on any. I’ve tried to give references for as much as I can below too, but if anything is lacking feel free to ask.
1
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/12/the-us-should-lead-on-ukraine
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/12/11/western-envoys-head-to-ukraine-hoping-to-defuse-crisis/
2
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
3 http://www.closeguantanamo.org/Articles/69-Who-Are-the-55-Cleared-Guantanamo-Prisoners-on-the-List-Released-by-the-Obama-Administration↩
4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRqCWFmfnsI↩
5
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/29/fbi-coordinated-crackdown-occupy
↩
6
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/24/us-police-brutality-worst-examples↩
7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDFIVVmXE-g The first two minutes of this cover the idea, and the quote I gave comes at 12:46.
↩
8 http://news.yahoo.com/seymour-hersh-alleges-obama-administration-lied-syria-gas-204437397.html
↩
9
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/nov/22/usa.iraq1↩
10 http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/09/obama-rogue-state-tramples-every-law↩
11
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/20/us-drone-strikes-pakistan-legal-debate↩
12 http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/09/obama-rogue-state-tramples-every-law↩