U.S. Commits, Lies About Domestic Human Rights Violations

[babylonsister]

U.S. Commits, Lies About Domestic Human Rights Violations

By Alex Jung, AlterNet. Posted December 12, 2007.

Human rights violations taint almost every social sector in the U.S.


The Geneva conventions aren't the only humanitarian standards the United States ignores. Under the Bush administration, the United States routinely commits human rights violations within its borders, according to a new report by the U.S. Human Rights Network.

The USHRN, a coalition of over 250 social justice and human rights organizations, published its report to challenge the findings of a self-assessment the U.S. government filed with the U.N. Committee on Ending Discrimination (CERD) last April.

The United States ratified human rights standards from the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) in 1994 (meaning they have the force of domestic law), but according to the USHRN, has failed to live up to them.

The picture of human rights within the United States is bleak. Blacks and Latino/as constitute over 60 percent of the incarcerated, while only making up a quarter of the general population. Youth of color are overrepresented in juvenile detention centers and are disproportionately tried and sentenced as adults. Once out of prison, formerly incarcerated persons are often denied access to public housing, voting rights and financial aid for post-secondary education -- all crucial elements for reintegrating them back into community life.

Minorities also face rampant labor discrimination. Nonwhites are twice as likely as their white counterparts to be stuck in low-wage, dead-end jobs. People of color are likewise overrepresented in dirty or dangerous industries such as food service and manufacturing.

Such racial disparities taint almost every social sector. Public transportation, education, healthcare and even the housing market are all rife with abuse. For example, in housing disputes between landlords and tenants in New York, almost all landlords have legal representation, while only about one in eight tenants do. Most of these unrepresented tenants are low-income women of color who have limited resources to hire representation.

more...

http://alternet.org/rights/70353/

[ixion]

1. warrantless wiretapping, violation of Posse Comitatus

the TSA... the list goes on and on.

[babylonsister]

2. And the sad thing is we've all become immune to all the injustices.

There're been so many of them, seems like a daily torrent, that we've grown a protective layer so this is 'just another story'. Sigh. I hate what this admin has done to me. :cry:

[ixion]

4. yep, tragic and true

I've been outraged and disgusted with what has been happening for so long that I'm starting to become desensitized to it, which bothers me as much as what they're doing. It has cost me friendships and created a void that didn't exist before in the relationships with my family, much as it has done with the nation and the world.

When the year 2000 heralded the Age of Information I had renewed hope that societies around the world would start working together to make our short lives on this planet more bearable. Now that the Age of Information has been brutalized and replaced with the Neo Dark Ages, I feel foolish for having believed that, and I've pretty much given up hope that we'll pull out of this nose-dive into barbarianism. :(

[Double T]

3. Our leaders are a bunch of criminal hypocrites..............

THEY 'defend' NOTHING but their own GD reelection and job.