Theodore Roosevelt, een van de grondleggers van het Amerikaans imperium omschreef zijn politiek adagium als volgt: "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." We kunnen veel van de huidige generatie Amerikaanse presidenten zeggen, maar niet dat ze zacht spreken, wel dat ze nog steeds een knuppel bij zich dragen.
'Rights: US ''Moral Authority'' Rests on Big Stick.
by Thalif Deen
by Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - When the 192-member U.N. General Assembly meets in mid-May to elect 14 new members to the 47-nation Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC), the United States will be conspicuous by its absence and missing from the ballot.
Justifying its decision, Washington says it will skip the elections because the HRC has lost its “credibility” for focusing primarily on one country — Israel — and ignoring “human rights abusers” such as Myanmar (Burma), Iran, Zimbabwe and North Korea.
But U.N. diplomats, human rights activists and legal experts point out that the administration of President George W. Bush has no legitimate right to sit in judgment over the transgressions of others while its own “abusive behaviour” is not under scrutiny by any international body.
“The United States does not have a shred of moral authority left; its only authority is the big stick,” Michael Ratner, president of the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, told IPS.
He argued that the U.S. claim it is staying away from the elections because the Council has lost its credibility is “bogus”.
“It is the United States that has lost its credibility, and that is why it would never be elected. Ask almost anyone in the world whether the U.S. engages in torture — sadly the answer will be affirmative,” he added.
When the United States ran for a seat back in May 2001, it was ousted from the former 53-member U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since its creation in 1947.
The Commission was replaced by a Council last year. But Washington also bypassed the first election, possibly fearing defeat. This is the second consecutive year it has avoided elections to the U.N.’s supreme human rights body.
An Asian diplomat told IPS that the resentment against Washington was so intense at that time that many of the member states, including U.S. allies, who publicly pledged their votes reneged on their promises privately — and got away with it in a secret ballot voting.
The U.S. refusal to stand for elections has triggered sharp criticism from at least one U.S. Congressman — Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California — who described the decision as “an act of unparalleled defeatism”.
Lantos went one step further by accusing the Bush administration of surrendering the HRC to “a cabal of military juntas, single-party states and tin-pot dictators” who will retain “their death grip on the world’s human rights machinery.”'
Justifying its decision, Washington says it will skip the elections because the HRC has lost its “credibility” for focusing primarily on one country — Israel — and ignoring “human rights abusers” such as Myanmar (Burma), Iran, Zimbabwe and North Korea.
But U.N. diplomats, human rights activists and legal experts point out that the administration of President George W. Bush has no legitimate right to sit in judgment over the transgressions of others while its own “abusive behaviour” is not under scrutiny by any international body.
“The United States does not have a shred of moral authority left; its only authority is the big stick,” Michael Ratner, president of the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, told IPS.
He argued that the U.S. claim it is staying away from the elections because the Council has lost its credibility is “bogus”.
“It is the United States that has lost its credibility, and that is why it would never be elected. Ask almost anyone in the world whether the U.S. engages in torture — sadly the answer will be affirmative,” he added.
When the United States ran for a seat back in May 2001, it was ousted from the former 53-member U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since its creation in 1947.
The Commission was replaced by a Council last year. But Washington also bypassed the first election, possibly fearing defeat. This is the second consecutive year it has avoided elections to the U.N.’s supreme human rights body.
An Asian diplomat told IPS that the resentment against Washington was so intense at that time that many of the member states, including U.S. allies, who publicly pledged their votes reneged on their promises privately — and got away with it in a secret ballot voting.
The U.S. refusal to stand for elections has triggered sharp criticism from at least one U.S. Congressman — Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California — who described the decision as “an act of unparalleled defeatism”.
Lantos went one step further by accusing the Bush administration of surrendering the HRC to “a cabal of military juntas, single-party states and tin-pot dictators” who will retain “their death grip on the world’s human rights machinery.”'
Lees verder: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/04/955/ Of:
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