A sad reflection on the media in the USA - and a shallow appreciation by Americans of their country's abuses of human rights.
"The United States is, fortunately and unfortunately, the best friend and the worst friend of human rights all at the same time. Our leaders champion human rights across the globe, but at the same time they mold their concept of human rights to our national interests and make them not apply to us. This has become particularly true in this age of the so-called war on terrorism.
Our leaders preach obedience by others to rules we choose not to follow, and criticize other countries for violating treaty norms that we have not accepted to become bound by ourselves. When accused of acting inconsistently with human rights, our leaders employ plausible deniability, diplomatic doublespeak and spin, or the trump card of national or even global security.
Then those leaders ask people around the world -- as well as their own people -- to trust them, even though they resist any oversight of their own actions.
And they can count on getting away with it because of the American public's profound ignorance of what human rights really are.
Human rights are not a few vague liberal-sounding concepts. They are the fundamental rights of all men and women, articulated in the Declaration of Independence and, since World War II, established as 30-plus different normative standards in international treaties and customary international law.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for instance, proclaims that all humans -- just because they are humans -- have the inherent right to such things as equal protection under the law, freedom of expression,and the freedom to work and form labor unions; to freedom from slavery, forced labor, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and arbitrary arrest or detention; to a standard of living adequate for health and well being; and to be recognised as a person before the law. And all these rights are inalienable and have as their goal the protection of human dignity and fullest development of the human personality.
They are a distinct part of the body of international law. Their purpose is to limit the power of government vis a vis the individual human being to protect inherent human dignity and equality.
Human rights are the reason why America was established. They form a complete, though new, independent field of academic study in the world of education -- not only relating to law, but to philosophy, history, religion, anthropology and, of course, political science and international relations."
Continue reading here - for 12 instances of what the media is missing to report.
"The United States is, fortunately and unfortunately, the best friend and the worst friend of human rights all at the same time. Our leaders champion human rights across the globe, but at the same time they mold their concept of human rights to our national interests and make them not apply to us. This has become particularly true in this age of the so-called war on terrorism.
Our leaders preach obedience by others to rules we choose not to follow, and criticize other countries for violating treaty norms that we have not accepted to become bound by ourselves. When accused of acting inconsistently with human rights, our leaders employ plausible deniability, diplomatic doublespeak and spin, or the trump card of national or even global security.
Then those leaders ask people around the world -- as well as their own people -- to trust them, even though they resist any oversight of their own actions.
And they can count on getting away with it because of the American public's profound ignorance of what human rights really are.
Human rights are not a few vague liberal-sounding concepts. They are the fundamental rights of all men and women, articulated in the Declaration of Independence and, since World War II, established as 30-plus different normative standards in international treaties and customary international law.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for instance, proclaims that all humans -- just because they are humans -- have the inherent right to such things as equal protection under the law, freedom of expression,and the freedom to work and form labor unions; to freedom from slavery, forced labor, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and arbitrary arrest or detention; to a standard of living adequate for health and well being; and to be recognised as a person before the law. And all these rights are inalienable and have as their goal the protection of human dignity and fullest development of the human personality.
They are a distinct part of the body of international law. Their purpose is to limit the power of government vis a vis the individual human being to protect inherent human dignity and equality.
Human rights are the reason why America was established. They form a complete, though new, independent field of academic study in the world of education -- not only relating to law, but to philosophy, history, religion, anthropology and, of course, political science and international relations."
Continue reading here - for 12 instances of what the media is missing to report.
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