All US military detainees, including those at Guantanamo Bay, are to be treated in line with the minimum standards of the Geneva Conventions.
The White House announced the shift in policy on Tuesday, almost two weeks after the US Supreme Court ruled that the conventions applied to detainees.
President Bush had long fought the idea that US detainees were prisoners of war entitled to Geneva Convention rights.
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Former Liberal Cabinet Minister David Kilgour speaks during a news conference on the release of a report looking into organ harvesting from prisoners in China on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, July 6, 2006. (REUTERS/Chris Wattie)
OTTAWA (Reuters) – A respected Canadian human rights lawyer and a former Canadian cabinet member lent their weight on Thursday to charges that China has been killing Falun Gong dissidents so it can use their organs.The two men — lawyer David Matas, and David Kilgour, former secretary of state for Asia and the Pacific — spent two months investigating the accusations, which China has regularly denied.
“It is simply inescapable that this is going on,” Kilgour told reporters as he and Matas released their findings.
They provided transcripts of phone calls placed in Chinese to detention centers and organ transplant clinics in which officials said organs from Falun Gong practitioners could be made available for speedy use.
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In 1994 we spent three weeks in India and Nepal. I was deeply struck then with the disparity between the Hi-Tech image India was projecting into the world and what the actual reality on the street was like.
While we were there, an outbreak of the Black Plague occurred. For a week or two, countries adjoining India closed their borders to her. It caused us some grief because our travel arrangements required us to be in Nepal by a certain date and our flights were canceled. I still remember well the all-night cab ride across the boonies to reach a Nepalese border station where they hadn’t yet received the closure news. We ended up reaching a small airport in eastern Nepal just minutes before the connecting flight to Katmandu took off.
When news of the plague first broke out, we were in New Delhi. We called the American Embassy and learned that just $2 worth of Tetracycline Antibiotic each, obtainable at any pharmacy, was the answer. In the unlikely case that we saw any symptoms in ourselves, we just had to take it and the problem would be handled. We got some of course and went on about our business.
But, it turned out that $2 was beyond the spending horizon for most of India’s poor so they just had to wait and hope for the best.
A rather large scandal broke when we were there over all of this. 10 years or more earlier, the government had established a series of local heath clinics in preparation for events as this. When the newspaper reporters went out the see these health clinics in action, in most cases they simply found the empty shells of buildings and the rubble within. The clinics had simply been forgotten by the Indian bureaucracy and had died on the vine without anyone noticing – until the day came when they were needed.
In Calcutta, I still remember the local guide in the cab telling us how wonderful and advanced Calcutta was as we rolled through a late afternoon miasma of smoke as thick as fog. Garbage was piled up on the sides of the road as tall as a man with people sitting and lying upon it. Starving women clutching scrawny babies would step out the fog and try to pass the babies into us through the cab windows. Eventually, after listening in disbelief to this fellow and watching the insanity for 15 or 20 minutes, we turned a sharp corner, went up a short alley through a gate and entered a five-star hotel in the midst of the city. A very plush hotel that didn’t seem to have any windows.
So, I can relate to the story, below. Poverty is perhaps understandable but denial on this level is not.
I’ve categorized this story under ‘The Perfect Storm’ because the rising disparity between the haves and the have-nots is, indeed, one of the growing factors of destabilization in this world. And I’ve also categorized it under ‘Politics – How not to do it’ with obvious reference to the Indian government.
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By PANKAJ MISHRA – in the NY Times
INDIA is a roaring capitalist success story.” So says the latest issue of Foreign Affairs; and last week many leading business executives and politicians in India celebrated as Lakshmi Mittal, the fifth richest man in the world, finally succeeded in his hostile takeover of the Luxembourgian steel company Arcelor. India’s leading business newspaper, The Economic Times, summed up the general euphoria over the event in its regular feature, “The Global Indian Takeover”: “For India, it is a harbinger of things to come — economic superstardom.”
This sounds persuasive as long as you don’t know that Mr. Mittal, who lives in Britain, announced his first investment in India only last year. He is as much an Indian success story as Sergey Brin, the Russian-born co-founder of Google, is proof of Russia’s imminent economic superstardom.
In recent weeks, India seemed an unlikely capitalist success story as communist parties decisively won elections to state legislatures, and the stock market, which had enjoyed record growth in the last two years, fell nearly 20 percent in two weeks, wiping out some $2.4 billion in investor wealth in just four days. This week India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, made it clear that only a small minority of Indians will enjoy “Western standards of living and high consumption.”
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I’d like to see the United States ratify the Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption.
Here’s the beginning of the convention:
The States signatory to the present Convention,
Recognizing that the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding,
Recalling that each State should take, as a matter of priority, appropriate measures to enable the child to remain in the care of his or her family of origin,
Recognizing that intercountry adoption may offer the advantage of a permanent family to a child for whom a suitable family cannot be found in his or her State of origin, …
The full convention text is here… ➡
My full list of things I wish my country would do is here… ➡
Research credit to John – thx
I love this country but I am one of those who think that it could do better – that it could live up to the ideals they taught us in school more than it does and that it could be a more exemplary world citizen.
In Red Sky at Morning, James Speth has this to say about negative perceptions of America overseas:
At the root of America’s negative role is what can only be described as a persistent American exceptionalism, at times tinged with arrogance. It appears in many guises, including not feeling it necessary to participate in international treaties.
I’ve started a list of things I wish my country would do and this is my first installment.
The list’s initial entries:
At last count, 192 countries had ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). This treaty has been ratified by virtually every country in the world and the United States is not among them. The Convention on the Rights of the Child sets out the rights that must be realized for children to develop their full potential, free from hunger and want, neglect and abuse. It reflects a new vision of the child. Children are neither the property of their parents nor are they helpless objects of charity. They are human beings and are the subject of their own rights. The Convention offers a vision of the child as an individual and as a member of a family and community, with rights and responsibilities appropriate to his or her age and stage of development. By recognizing children’s rights in this way, the Convention firmly sets the focus on the whole child.
182 countries have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The United States is the only industrialized country not among them. Here we join Iran, Sudan and Somalia.
The United States has not ratified the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (The Ottawa Treaty). Some of the other countries joining us in this position are Cuba, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Libya. 151 countries have ratified this treaty.
The United States has not ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and we are joined here again by Libya. 167 countries have signed this treaty. The CBD establishes three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources.
The Law of the Sea Treaty has been ratified by 143 nations, including the European Union – but not by the United States. Among its many provisions, the Convention limits coastal nations to a 12-mile territorial sea, establishes 200-mile exclusive economic zones, requires nations to work together to conserve high seas fisheries, and establishes a legal regime for the creation of property rights in minerals found beneath the deep ocean floor.
The International Criminal Court (ICC). 98 countries have ratified it but the United States is not among them. The ICC conducts trials of individuals accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity when there is no other recourse for justice. The ICC identifies gender crimes and the crime of apartheid as crimes against humanity. Article 7 of the Statute presents clear language that defines rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity as gender crimes.
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) has been ratified by 149 countries but not the United States. The ICESCR requires states to promote and protect a wide range of social, economic and cultural rights, including the right to health, to an adequate standard of living, to education, and to social protection. It is often referred to as the “International Bill of Rights.”
And then, of course, there is the Kyoto Protocol. 141 countries have signed it but the United States, which is the largest producer of CO2 emissions in the world, has not.
The full list of things I wish my country would do may be found here: ➡
BEIJING, July 3 — A Chinese draft law that threatens to fine news media for reporting on “sudden incidents” without permission applies to foreign as well as domestic news organizations, an official involved in preparing the legislation said today.
The law, now under consideration by the Communist Party-run legislature, calls for fines of up to $12,500 if news media produce unauthorized reports on outbreaks of disease, natural disasters, social disturbances or other so-called sudden incidents that officials deem false or harmful to China’s social order.
Wang Yongqing, vice minister of the legislative affairs office of China’s State Council, or cabinet, told reporters at a news briefing that the law should apply to all news organizations, including foreign newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets that usually operate under different rules than local Chinese media.
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It would be nice if the courts could get this country out of idle and into motion on the Global Warming issue. One can only hope.ÂÂ
WASHINGTON, June 26 — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether the federal government is required to control vehicle emissions of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas that scientists have linked to global warming.
In accepting a petition from states, cities and environmental groups, the justices agreed to hear arguments on whether the Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon dioxide and other gases as air pollutants that may affect public health or the climate.
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Research by John. Thx.
How the GOP Summer Agenda Would Remove Penalties for Religious Freedom Violations
House Republicans have announced their legislative plan for the rest of the summer, leading up to the mid-term elections in November. Hidden in the “American Values Agenda,” amid the traditional fare is the “Public Expression of Religion Act (HR 2679).” The bill, which got a hearing in the House Constitution Subcommittee last week after the sexual harassment fiasco covered by every news outlet. This bill, would keep state and local governments from having to pay damages or attorney’s fees as a result of violating the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
Think about that. Imagine your local government decides to teach a version of creationism in science class, or promote atheism in social studies, lead evangelistic prayers during official government meetings, or offer government grants for Christian conversion efforts. This bill would effectively remove your ability to hold the government accountable. And, to add insult to that injury to your religious liberty (…and it is your religious liberty. When the religious freedom of any of us is threatened, we are all threatened.), you as the plaintiff would be required to pay the massive legal fees it takes to bring such a lawsuit proving unconstitutional actions.
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The Supreme Court’s decision striking down the military tribunals set up to try the detainees being held in Guantánamo Bay is far more than a narrow ruling on the issue of military courts. It is an important and welcome reaffirmation that even in times of war, the law is what the Constitution, the statute books and the Geneva Conventions say it is — not what the president wants it to be.
Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni being held in Guantánamo, has been charged with conspiring to help Al Qaeda. The Bush administration has contended that he and the other prisoners there are not covered either by Congressional laws governing military trials or by the Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners of war. Instead, Mr. Hamdan was put on trial before a military tribunal where defendants can be excluded from the proceedings and convicted based on evidence kept secret from them and their lawyers. Prosecutors can also rely on hearsay, coerced testimony and unsworn statements.
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What a simple and bold idea. And some states have already done it. If this would catch on, government might become truly responsive to the people rather than big money.
With the likes of Diebold on the voting scene, this idea may be rendered moot — but it does cause one to pause for a moment, realizing that we could, given enough political will, be free from the distorting influence of money in the electoral process. ➡
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