For original format, go directly to  http://amnestyusa.org/annualreport/
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ANNUAL REPORT 2002

Human Rights Violations by the United States Undermine Its Global Leadership, Amnesty International Charges


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The report online

AI Releases Its Annual Report (News release, May 28)

Video News Release
summarizing AI's concerns and activities in the past year. (Requires RealPlayer)


"Citizens around the world suffer the consequences when the US defaults on its responsibility to promote human rights. How can we pressure the Saudis to extradite Idi Amin when the US government fails to prosecute or extradite known torturers on American soil?"

William F. Schulz
Executive Director
Amnesty International USA

Many governments have scrimped on human rights following the September 11 attacks in the United States, using the "war on terrorism" to quash legitimate dissent or justify ongoing conflicts, Amnesty International charged as it released its 2002 Annual Report. The report documents the status of human rights in 152 countries. The organization also contended that the deficient human rights record of the US government erodes its capacity for human rights leadership, limiting the pressure the US can exert on other governments to improve their human rights practices. As evidence, it cited eight examples of actions by the US government that weaken its foreign policy hand, with dire consequences for people worldwide:


Eight Significant Human Rights Failings of the US Government that Undermine Its Global Leadership on Human Rights


that Undermine Its Global Leadership on Human Rights

1) Military Tribunals
Parallel system of justice that concentrates power in
executive branch, no appeals process


Find out more:
After Sept. 11
AI Memorandum to
the US Government
(April 15) Risk to Global Leadership Example
Erodes ability to criticize other countries for violations of due process, and endangers US citizens and troops overseas Saudi Arabia has a judicial system in which the accused have a limited right to defend themselves and a limited right to appeal; secretive trials are hidden from the public and are vulnerable to the undue influence of the executive branch - in this case the royal family - even in capital cases.

2) Selective Adherence to Geneva Conventions

US has selectively applied portions of the Geneva Conventions' guarantees to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay

Find out more:
After Sept. 11
AI Memorandum to
the US Government
(April 15)

Risk to Global Leadership Example
Dangerously signals that the US believes states can pick and choose which treaties and principles to uphold Russian government abuses against Chechens that violate Geneva Conventions.

3) Treaty Exceptionalism

The US has failed to ratify key treaties including the Convention on theRights of the Child and has "unsigned" the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

Find out more:
Convention on the
Rights of the Child
International
Criminal Court

Risk to Global Leadership Example
Undermines global consensus on human rights and sets dangerous precedent for other countries to similarly "unsign" treaties Pakistan's failure to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Post-September 11 Detentions of Foreigners

4) Mistreatment in detention, indefinite detention, lack of access to counsel

Find out more:
After Sept. 11

Amnesty International's Concerns Regarding Post September 11 Detentions in the USA - An Amnesty International report
PDF format | RTF format

Risk to Global Leadership Example
Overlooks mistreatment of ethnic minorities in other countries Ethiopia's detention of Oromos and Somalis without due process, including access to counsel; the detainees have been subject to indefinite detention and poor conditions.

5) Death Penalty

Execution of juveniles and the mentally retarded, failure to institute federal moratorium, first federal execution in 38 years (McVeigh), new anti-terrorism legislation with enhanced death penalty statutes, federal government bringing capital charges against defendants in non-death penalty states

Find out more:
AI's work to abolish
the Death Penalty

Risk to Global Leadership Example
Lends dangerous legitimacy to governments that execute China: During the government's national "strike hard" campaign, at least 1,781 people were executed between April and July 2001 -- more than the total number of people executed in the rest of the world in the previous three years. China executed at least 2,468 people in 2001.

6) Safe Haven for Torturers

Failure to prosecute or extradite known torturers whom the government knows or should know are traveling through or living in the US

Find out more:
Torturers in the
United States

Risk to Global Leadership Example
Sends the message that those who commit torture, genocide and war crimes can flee from justice Japan's refusal to either return Peru's former president Alberto Fujimori to Peru -- where he has been indicted on charges of crimes against humanity -- or open an investigation into his responsibility for the human rights violations committed while in office.

7) Mistreatment of Asylum-seekers
Imprisonment of non-criminal asylum-seekers

Find out more:
Refugees
After Sept. 11

Risk to Global Leadership Example
Signals that similar abuses against asylum-seekers elsewhere are acceptable Guinea: where Liberians and Sierra Leoneans in refugee camps are mistreated, including beatings and rapes, by Guinean security forces. In some instances, humanitarian assistance has been withheld.

8)Exporting Tools for Torture & Human Rights Violations


Find out more:
The Campaign to Stop
Torture

US Training of Foreign Military and Police Forces: the Human Rights Dimensions - An Amnesty International report
PDF format | RTF format

Risk to Global Leadership Example
Complicity in torture and other human rights violations by supplying US-made or supplied weapons and training used for abuse Spanish company markets restraint devices to countries including Pakistan and Yemen.