Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
US Judge Reports Massive US Human Rights Violations to UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva
Ginger says it is ironic that the Bush Administration demands reports from every grade school teacher on the performance of each pupil each year “And yet it refuses to file reports it made a commitment to file when the Presidents signed, and the Senate ratified three human rights treaties in 1992 and 1994. And it is particularly ironic,” according to Ginger, “since the three treaties simply spell out in detail the basic human rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights -- the habeas corpus right to know the charges on which one is being held, the right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, the right not to be discriminated against based on race or religion. And none of these rights in the Constitution are limited to people living in the fifty states.
October 24, 2005
Contact: Ann Fagan Ginger at afg [at] mcli.org or (510) 848-0599
U.S. JUDGE REPORTS MASSIVE U.S. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS TO UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE IN GENEVA
(ASKED BACK OCT. 24 ON TREATMENT OF KATRINA VICTIMS)
Geneva, Oct. 21. Detroit Circuit Court Judge Claudia Morcom, of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and Morton Sklar, of the World Organization for Human Rights USA, made unprecedented reports on U.S. Government human rights violations in the “war on terror” to the UN Human Rights Committee meeting in Geneva on Oct. 17. The U.S. representative on the 18-member Committee was not present to hear their reports, requested by the Committee, because the U.S. Government failed to file its second and third reports on human rights enforcement in the U.S., due to the Committee in 1998 and 2003.
The Committee enforces the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which entered into force in 1976 and was ratified by the U.S. under Pres. George Bush in 1992 and has now been signed by 155 countries. The treaty outlaws torture or degrading treatment, protects self-determination, and commits all signatory countries to enforce the human rights of all residents.
On August 3, 2005, the Committee had requested several U.S. NonGovernmental Organizations to send information on alleged U.S. human rights violations under the PATRIOT Act and in treatment of detainees in Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan. After Judge Morcom's presentation, the Committee asked her also to discuss alleged human rights violations in U.S. Government handling of Katrina victims at the NonGovernmental Organization briefing on Oct. 24 in Geneva.
Judge Morcom, of the Wayne County Circuit Court (retired), discussed some of the 71 reports submitted to the Committee by the City Council of Berkeley based on cases she said had been found by Amnesty International, the International Red Cross, the American Bar Association, the National Lawyers Guild, the ACLU, and reported by the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute in its book, “Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11.”
Judge Morcom described the case of a Pakistani citizen, Ahfaz Khan, who came to the U.S. in 1991, filed for political asylum in 1993, saying he would be persecuted if returned to his country. His U.S. citizen wife filed a petition to sponsor him for U.S. residence, but nothing was done till afar 9/11, when the FBI arrested him in a government sweep, and the Immigration Service deported him. “The INS has deported over 750 people with stories similar to Mr. Khan's,” Judge Morcom told the Committee. “None of them had been charged with any terrorist related crimes. Mr. Khan was murdered in his home town in Pakistan on March 26, 2003.”
Judge Morcom also cited the findings and recommendations adopted by the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association on August 9, 2004 criticizing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for approving “hard questioning techniques” in Guantanamo and Iraq, and the memo on this subject by Alberto Gonzales in 2002 when acting as counsel to Pres. Bush. The ABA called on the U.S. Government to obey the Constitution and laws of the U.S. and the treaties it has ratified, including the Geneva Convention, the Convention Against Torture, and the International hts Committee enforces.
Morton Sklar reported to the Committee on cases of “extraordinary rendition” in which the U.S. has sent suspected terrorists to nations where they can be interrogated using techniques not permitted in the U.S., and on the detention of “unlawful enemy combatants” for undefined reasons.
Edith Ballantyne was also present and delivered a report to the Committee for the U.S. Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom on violations of the rights of women and children since 9/11.
After her appearance before the Committee, Judge Morcom said she is “calling on the U.S. media to cover the UN Human Rights Committee meetings from now on, since the U.S. Government must eventually file its reports and they will be discussed by the Committee.”
At the Oct. 24th meeting of NGOs with the Committee, Morcom and Ballantyne will now discuss 17 types of human rights violations by FEMA and other federal agencies in their response to the Katrina hurricane. Morcom will use the report prepared by Meiklejohn Institute with the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, whose main office in New Orleans was totally destroyed. “The U.S. Government's lack of any enforceable evacuation plan put New Orleans residents in harm's way,” according to Daniel A. Buford, Regional Coordinator for the People's Institute in the report. “This contributed to a mounting death toll of numerous poor people. And the refusal of FEMA to adequately care for the dead in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is an affront to human dignity, and causes terror for bereaved family members.”
A SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON U.S. VIOLATIONS
After hearing many unofficial descriptions of human rights violations by U.S. Government agents at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, on April 21 the Ambassadors from the 53 member nations on the UN Human Rights Commission voted to appoint a Special Rapporteur to study human rights violations by the U.S. since 9/11 to follow the Special Rapporteurs on violations by the governments of Rwanda and Bosnia.
The UN appointed Prof. Robert K. Goldman, of the Washington College of Law at American University, to “address the compatibility of national counterterrorism measures with international human rights obligations.” He will report each year for the next three years to the Commission.
U.S. REFUSES TO DISCUSS ABU GHRAIB OR GUANTANAMO
On May 6, the U.S. Department of State refused to describe or discuss torture and death of U.S. prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo in its very tardy second report to the UN Committee Against Torture, due in 1999. The 95-page report specifically said these detention centers are not governed by “U.S. statutes and regulations”, nor by the Convention Against Torture.
“The unprecedented actions of the UN Human Rights Committee and the UN Human Rights Commission raise many questions for the American people,” says Ann Fagan Ginger, who edited the “Challenging” report for Meiklejohn Institute. “The reason for the UN to seek information from U.S. NonGovernmental Organizations on the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and on violations under the PATRIOT Act, was apparently the U.S. refusal to discuss these matters in its report to the Committee Against Torture. This came after the U.S. refusal to file the two other reports due to the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination in the face of innumerable descriptions of U.S. Government actions against 'Muslims, Arabs, people from the Middle East' in the fifty states and overseas.”
REPORTS MAKE A DIFFERENCE
According to Ginger, “The Committee's expansion of the subjects to be reported to the Committee in the absence of the official U.S. report proves again the value of concerned organizations making reports. If Judge Morcom had not submitted copies of our report on Katrina victims, the Committee would not have added this terrible subject to its current agenda.”
When nations have made reports to the UN human rights committees, Ginger says, violations have been reported in the media of that nation, and internationally. “This is the first step in the mobilization of shame that helped to bring down the apartheid government of South Africa and led other nations to change specific practices.”
Ginger says it is ironic that the Bush Administration demands reports from every grade school teacher on the performance of each pupil each year “And yet it refuses to file reports it made a commitment to file when the Presidents signed, and the Senate ratified three human rights treaties in 1992 and 1994. And it is particularly ironic,” according to Ginger, “since the three treaties simply spell out in detail the basic human rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights -- the habeas corpus right to know the charges on which one is being held, the right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, the right not to be discriminated against based on race or religion. And none of these rights in the Constitution are limited to people living in the fifty states.
http://www.mcli.org/
Contact: Ann Fagan Ginger at afg [at] mcli.org or (510) 848-0599
U.S. JUDGE REPORTS MASSIVE U.S. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS TO UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE IN GENEVA
(ASKED BACK OCT. 24 ON TREATMENT OF KATRINA VICTIMS)
Geneva, Oct. 21. Detroit Circuit Court Judge Claudia Morcom, of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and Morton Sklar, of the World Organization for Human Rights USA, made unprecedented reports on U.S. Government human rights violations in the “war on terror” to the UN Human Rights Committee meeting in Geneva on Oct. 17. The U.S. representative on the 18-member Committee was not present to hear their reports, requested by the Committee, because the U.S. Government failed to file its second and third reports on human rights enforcement in the U.S., due to the Committee in 1998 and 2003.
The Committee enforces the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which entered into force in 1976 and was ratified by the U.S. under Pres. George Bush in 1992 and has now been signed by 155 countries. The treaty outlaws torture or degrading treatment, protects self-determination, and commits all signatory countries to enforce the human rights of all residents.
On August 3, 2005, the Committee had requested several U.S. NonGovernmental Organizations to send information on alleged U.S. human rights violations under the PATRIOT Act and in treatment of detainees in Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan. After Judge Morcom's presentation, the Committee asked her also to discuss alleged human rights violations in U.S. Government handling of Katrina victims at the NonGovernmental Organization briefing on Oct. 24 in Geneva.
Judge Morcom, of the Wayne County Circuit Court (retired), discussed some of the 71 reports submitted to the Committee by the City Council of Berkeley based on cases she said had been found by Amnesty International, the International Red Cross, the American Bar Association, the National Lawyers Guild, the ACLU, and reported by the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute in its book, “Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11.”
Judge Morcom described the case of a Pakistani citizen, Ahfaz Khan, who came to the U.S. in 1991, filed for political asylum in 1993, saying he would be persecuted if returned to his country. His U.S. citizen wife filed a petition to sponsor him for U.S. residence, but nothing was done till afar 9/11, when the FBI arrested him in a government sweep, and the Immigration Service deported him. “The INS has deported over 750 people with stories similar to Mr. Khan's,” Judge Morcom told the Committee. “None of them had been charged with any terrorist related crimes. Mr. Khan was murdered in his home town in Pakistan on March 26, 2003.”
Judge Morcom also cited the findings and recommendations adopted by the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association on August 9, 2004 criticizing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for approving “hard questioning techniques” in Guantanamo and Iraq, and the memo on this subject by Alberto Gonzales in 2002 when acting as counsel to Pres. Bush. The ABA called on the U.S. Government to obey the Constitution and laws of the U.S. and the treaties it has ratified, including the Geneva Convention, the Convention Against Torture, and the International hts Committee enforces.
Morton Sklar reported to the Committee on cases of “extraordinary rendition” in which the U.S. has sent suspected terrorists to nations where they can be interrogated using techniques not permitted in the U.S., and on the detention of “unlawful enemy combatants” for undefined reasons.
Edith Ballantyne was also present and delivered a report to the Committee for the U.S. Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom on violations of the rights of women and children since 9/11.
After her appearance before the Committee, Judge Morcom said she is “calling on the U.S. media to cover the UN Human Rights Committee meetings from now on, since the U.S. Government must eventually file its reports and they will be discussed by the Committee.”
At the Oct. 24th meeting of NGOs with the Committee, Morcom and Ballantyne will now discuss 17 types of human rights violations by FEMA and other federal agencies in their response to the Katrina hurricane. Morcom will use the report prepared by Meiklejohn Institute with the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, whose main office in New Orleans was totally destroyed. “The U.S. Government's lack of any enforceable evacuation plan put New Orleans residents in harm's way,” according to Daniel A. Buford, Regional Coordinator for the People's Institute in the report. “This contributed to a mounting death toll of numerous poor people. And the refusal of FEMA to adequately care for the dead in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is an affront to human dignity, and causes terror for bereaved family members.”
A SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON U.S. VIOLATIONS
After hearing many unofficial descriptions of human rights violations by U.S. Government agents at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, on April 21 the Ambassadors from the 53 member nations on the UN Human Rights Commission voted to appoint a Special Rapporteur to study human rights violations by the U.S. since 9/11 to follow the Special Rapporteurs on violations by the governments of Rwanda and Bosnia.
The UN appointed Prof. Robert K. Goldman, of the Washington College of Law at American University, to “address the compatibility of national counterterrorism measures with international human rights obligations.” He will report each year for the next three years to the Commission.
U.S. REFUSES TO DISCUSS ABU GHRAIB OR GUANTANAMO
On May 6, the U.S. Department of State refused to describe or discuss torture and death of U.S. prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo in its very tardy second report to the UN Committee Against Torture, due in 1999. The 95-page report specifically said these detention centers are not governed by “U.S. statutes and regulations”, nor by the Convention Against Torture.
“The unprecedented actions of the UN Human Rights Committee and the UN Human Rights Commission raise many questions for the American people,” says Ann Fagan Ginger, who edited the “Challenging” report for Meiklejohn Institute. “The reason for the UN to seek information from U.S. NonGovernmental Organizations on the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and on violations under the PATRIOT Act, was apparently the U.S. refusal to discuss these matters in its report to the Committee Against Torture. This came after the U.S. refusal to file the two other reports due to the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination in the face of innumerable descriptions of U.S. Government actions against 'Muslims, Arabs, people from the Middle East' in the fifty states and overseas.”
REPORTS MAKE A DIFFERENCE
According to Ginger, “The Committee's expansion of the subjects to be reported to the Committee in the absence of the official U.S. report proves again the value of concerned organizations making reports. If Judge Morcom had not submitted copies of our report on Katrina victims, the Committee would not have added this terrible subject to its current agenda.”
When nations have made reports to the UN human rights committees, Ginger says, violations have been reported in the media of that nation, and internationally. “This is the first step in the mobilization of shame that helped to bring down the apartheid government of South Africa and led other nations to change specific practices.”
Ginger says it is ironic that the Bush Administration demands reports from every grade school teacher on the performance of each pupil each year “And yet it refuses to file reports it made a commitment to file when the Presidents signed, and the Senate ratified three human rights treaties in 1992 and 1994. And it is particularly ironic,” according to Ginger, “since the three treaties simply spell out in detail the basic human rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights -- the habeas corpus right to know the charges on which one is being held, the right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, the right not to be discriminated against based on race or religion. And none of these rights in the Constitution are limited to people living in the fifty states.
http://www.mcli.org/
For more information:
http://www.mcli.org/morcom-un.pr.html
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$230.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network
BY JUDGE CLAUDIA MORCOM (ret.) -- October 17, 2005
I am Judge Claudia Morcom, retired from the Wayne County Circuit Court in Detroit, MI, USA. I am appearing under the auspices of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers of which I am a member. I'm presenting the report requested by the Committee in August and submitted by the city Council of Berkeley, CA. The report was prepared by the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, a center for human rights and peace law and given to the Committee members in the book, "Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11," with citations to sources.
http://www.mcli.org/morcom-un.html