Enter Task

Faculty:

Study area:

Subject:

Section:

Type:

Curriculum:

Sequence:

Title:

Wording:

Time:

hours

Introduction:

Most people around the world find the human rights described in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in national constitutions and in other documents to be important. Most governments have signed on to treaties guaranteeing the human rights for people in their own and other countries.

Still, there are no international systems for securing the human rights of people. National and local governments routinely disregard human rights and are never punished. Imperial powers commit war crimes and are never punished.

This situation breads cynicism, and you ask: &ldquo;Are human rights more than nice words on paper?&rdquo;

The UN has a commissioner for human rights and a council on human rights (UNHRC) that publishes a review every four years on the human rights situation in all member countries. The UN General Assembly and the Security Council sometimes discuss the issue of Human Rights but often in a highly politicised way, and there is no effective way to enforce Human Rights.

In 2002, the UN established the International Criminal Court to prosecute individuals for crimes against humanity. Various African and some Serbian leaders&nbsp; have been prosecuted, but there is no talk of prosecuting war criminals in rich and powerful countries. USA and Russia have not ratified the treaty. USA has stated they will never hand over a US soldier or politician to be tried in the court. USA, however, supports that the court prosecutes suspected criminals from other countries.

&nbsp;

The idea of crimes against humanity and of war crimes was widely discussed after World War II, where USA as an occupation force conducted trials against German Nazi leaders. These open trials taught the world about serious Nazi crimes. USA and Britain were seen as the good guys. Therefore it was considered unthinkable that they could have committed war crimes - even though USA at the end of the war exploded two nuclear bombs over Japan, killing hundreds of thousands when they actually knew the Japanese were prepared to surrender. Great Britain had, during the war, deliberately diverted food from India to the battlefields in Europe during a draught that caused 3 million Indians to die from hunger.

&nbsp;

Crimes against humanity do not expire and can be prosecuted anywhere. A Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzon, in 1998 tried to go after the cruel former dictator of Chile, Pinochet. For a time Pinochet was arrested in England, but his lawyers kept him out of Spain. Garzon made many enemies in high places, as the former dictator had come to power with the assistance of USA. In 2009, he considered two different cases to prosecute Bush officials for torture. He was removed from one of the cases by the chief prosecutor, but he managed to continue with the other. A WikiLeaks cable later showed that the US Embassy was involved. In 2012 the Spanish government managed to remove Garzon from his job, because he had made a technical error as an investigating judge in a case about money laundering.

A court in Malaysia has more recently gone after American and British leaders for starting a war in Iraq based on false claims of weapons of mass destruction. The court has also convicted Bush and his officials of torture. The USA, however, does not care about this.

&nbsp;

Torture is a crime according to human rights laws, and to other laws in all Western countries. USA has, nevertheless, been a leader in torture for decades. It was CIA agents that trained Latin American militaries in how to conduct torture. Resulting in tens of thousands of people being tortured by right wing military governments.

Later US soldiers and military contractors became directly involved in torture in Afghanistan and Iraq, in the so-called war on terror. Bush has in his biography confessed to ordering torture. Of course he does not call it torture, other words are used such as "robust investigation methods" or "enhanced interrogation techniques", and in the worst cases they are called &ldquo;abuse&rdquo; of prisoners. This &ldquo;abuse&rdquo; is then blamed on soldiers and prison guards who, their officers pretend, did not follow orders.

If journalists or peace groups do something not to the liking of the US government, they risk being accused of a crime. When a soldier, Bradley Manning, copied thousands of secret government reports that showed crimes committed by the government, he was put in isolation and accused of treason, while none of the crimes he had uncovered were punished. When WikiLeaks published the documents, USA leaders accused the journalist Julian Assange of being a traitor even though he is not an American. He is now in the Ecuadorian embassy in London - if he leaves he will be arrested and may end up in a US prison for life.

&nbsp;

According to an article in New York Times on May 29, 2012, the CIA presents a so-called &ldquo;kill list&rdquo; to the US president every Tuesday. He then decides which persons on the list he will authorise CIA to kill. No court is convened. No defence lawyer is present. The doomed man is not informed before he is shot dead. This is a crime against humanity and against the US constitution and several treaties signed by the USA. Yet, it goes on.

Directive:

1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Read the files.

2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Together with a few other students use F3 &ldquo;This House would use torture&rdquo;. One student reads aloud the points &ndash; another all the counter points. You discuss them together and conclude on each of them.

3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Discuss also why you think there are limits to justice &ndash; and conclude.

4.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; If you/people around the world were to establish a just international system of justice &ndash; how would that look?&nbsp; Write your conclusion.

5.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Send your conclusions to the above points to your teacher.&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 
&nbsp;

&nbsp;

FILES:&nbsp; &nbsp;

F1.&nbsp; &nbsp;ICC - About The International Criminal Court, The Hague Netherland, ICC-CPI / associated 
 
F2.&nbsp; &nbsp;The Criminalization of Global Justice. Freedom Rider. The ICC is criminal. 
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; by Margaret Kimberley, April 15 2012 
 
F3.&nbsp; &nbsp;This house would use torture to obtain information from suspected terrorists.&nbsp;

From: http://idebate.org/debatabase/debates/peace-security-human-rights/house-would-usetorture-obtain-information-suspected-terrorists

F4.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;BREAKING: HISTORIC JUDGMENT. Bush &amp; Associates Found Guilty of 
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Torture | Global Research, May 12,&nbsp;&nbsp;Mathaba 12 May 2012 
 
F5.&nbsp; &nbsp;The Dirty War on WikiLeaks by John Pilger. 
 
F6.&nbsp; &nbsp;US has become a nation of assassins, from Common Dreams.org by Jeremy Scahill. 
 
, 
&nbsp;

Preview:

Files:

Requirement:

No.

Title

Type

Edit

Delete

Examination:

Language:

Search words:

Status:

Vouching: