Human wrongs: UN report misrepresents America’s struggle for human rights

We’ve come an awfully long way since Geneva.

No, we didn’t believe that either.

After being submitted last month, a report in which the U.N. Human Rights Council analyzes human rights records of every country in the world is being praised by many and scrutinized by even more.

Described as “largely upbeat,” the nonbonding, independent (read: It means absolutely nothing) report praises the U.S. for its almost uniform opposition to waterboarding, its pledge to close Guantanamo Bay and its health care overhaul leading to health care coverage for millions of poor Americans.

And we’re with you there, U.N. Although you might want to try to convince John McCain to vote for a waterboarding ban one of these days. But to euphemize the U.S.’s current climate as “largely upbeat” is a misrepresentation and a slap in the face to many who live in this nation of exclusion and inequalities where every man (and woman) is clearly not created equal.

Shall we return to the Abu Ghraib torture and prison abuse scandal? Geneva’s still over there crying like a little girl at how embarrassing that is for us. But we’re largely upbeat.

Leave it to the hipsters at American Apparel for bringing to light many of the human rights violations with shirts and accompanying messages such as “Legalize Gay” and “Legalize Arizona.” When we profile Hispanics with hopes of sending more people packing back south (although Arizona’s bill is totally applicable for every illegal immigrant, and Canadians are afraid of being sent back to Nova Scotia), and we prevent gay and lesbian Americans from marrying in about 90 percent of the U.S., we see a different forecast for human rights. How about we ask these groups if they see their future as largely upbeat?


(2010-09-08/alligator)