State Department Human Rights Report 2011 and the inevitable hypocrisy.

The US State Department has released its annual world human rights report recently and it has made for some interesting reading.



I first wanted to see what it had to say about Cambodia. The overall sentiment was unsurprising, with statements such as "impunity for corruption and other abuses persisted." Well, it doesn't take a year-long report to find that out. A "weak judiciary" led to problems in the court system, allowing bribes and admitting evidence gained through torture. Security forces committed "arbitrary or unlawful killings" (still happening now) and "thousands of Thai and Cambodian villagers (were) temporarily displaced."

Freedom of expression was also criticised, quoting examples of government censorship and silencing.

Now while I expected this kind of consensus, I found it helpful to see a proper list of Cambodia's human rights problems. It's well set out and gets to the point, although it is mired in ridiculous euphemisms (get this: the first section is titled "deprivation of life").
It is the unfortunate truth that Cambodia remains an extremely corrupt and incompetent country. There is a lot of improving that needs to be done in all levels of government, and it's up to the NGOs to keep up the encouragement to move towards a better future.

Now what really interested me was this: there was no human rights report on America. Hmmm.
In light of this absence I have taken in upon myself to help out the State Department and add my own appraisal of human rights practices:

The NDAA (National Defense Authorisation Act) allows the arrest of any American citizen in any country who they suspect of "aiding terrorism" and hold them indefinitely.

A CIA drone strike in Yemen killed a 16 year old US citizen, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki in October 2011.


Guantanamo Bay remains open and continues to violate countless American and international laws.

Osama Bin Laden was illegally assassinated in Pakistan, and the government told blatant lies about his death (claimed he was armed, claimed he used women as human shields). They later admitted that these were false.

Bradley Manning is still punished for exposing war crimes.

America makes a mockery of international law with its frequent and unpunished violations of freedom and dignity. 
When their President has the Nobel Peace Prize and he orders drone strikes, bombings (without congressional approval) and continues wars, I lose all faith in any supposed 'freedom'. It is frightening to think that a country that does this

is heralded as a champion of human rights around the world. 

The day when the US government is held accountable for its terrible crimes is the day when my faith in international law restores.

In the words of George Carlin:

 "It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."