American freedom

The US State Department made its annual report and accused Russia, China, Saudi Arabia of violating the human rights. The document also criticizes the government of Israel, several Arab armed groups and the countries of Central and South Asia – USA’s allies in the anti-terrorist operation. As far as Iran, Iraq and North Korea are concerned, they were also classified as the countries, which roughly violate the human rights.

Americans can be praised for their courage. Speaking about Russia and the countries of the so-called “axis of evil,” everything is clear: Chechnya, TV-6 and so on – this is the cross that we bear with our noses up proudly sometimes, but it more often happens vice versa. The criticism of Israel and the Asian countries of the former Soviet Union is surprising though, but the system of double standards is also in the picture in this respect. USA believes that there are no rights or liberties in the axis of evil countries, but there are certain violations of rights and liberties in USA’s allies.

It was said in the report that the Russian government on the whole respected the rights of its citizens in certain fields, but there still were serious problems in many spheres. It was also added that the government set a record in that respect as far as mass media’s freedom is concerned. The same record concerns Chechnya, where the security forces exercised their weak respect towards the basic human rights; there were murders without the trial and so on. the US Department of State has the true information, which says that the law-enforcement officers were torturing and beating up the detained and suspected people. Corruption in the police, detaining people for no reason was still a very serious problem. The government was making some efforts to put an end to that, but a lot of the officials were not punished at all.

At was also said in the document that the Russian government achieved a certain progress in the use of the measures for court procedures, stipulated by the Constitution. China was accused of the fact that the government was pursuing the Muslim Uigurs under the pretence of the participation in the international campaign against terrorism.

The State Department prepares such a report every year and hands it over to the Congress afterwards. The lawmakers consider this report as a very relevant document, for it can exert influence on the USA’s policy towards certain countries, as well as on the distribution of the foreign aid. The document is based on the reports of the American diplomatic governments in the countries of the world, on the messages from the human rights organizations.

By the way, everyone must have forgotten the scandal, which happened in America last year. The point of the scandal is as follows: the UN Committee for Human Rights will be working without the United States for three years. Washington was deprived of the voting right in the forum of the members of the UN Council for economy and public affairs from January 1. This happened for the first time since 1948, when the committee was founded. It would be good to remind that it was the USA that set up that commission, Eleanor Roosevelt was its first chairwoman.

Former deputy U.S. representative to the United Nations, William vanden Heuvel, said: “A lot of countries are disappointed that the USA is living contrary to their own declarations.” This estimation is more realistic.

International organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International repeatedly criticized the USA for numerous violations of rights and liberties. Pierre Sane, the Secretary General of Amnesty International said that the USA was far from observing the rights for all people, although America calls itself the defender of human rights.

The violation of human rights in the USA is of stable character, the representatives of the ethnic minorities are the victims of those violations, Pierre Sane said. He added that the bad attitude, the brutality of the police could be found all over the country. The people, who ask for a shelter, go to jail as a rule. Death penalty is in effect, all international norms are not used. The death penalty is even used against disabled and underage people.

The FBI’s activity has been criticized a lot, both by the Republicans and Democrats. The US Congress is still investigating numerous violations in the activity of the Bureau, in particular the illegal collection of information about the parties, public organizations and political figures of the USA.

The events of September 11 have changed a lot. FBI obtained the huge rights and privileges under the pretence of their wish to protect the American life-style. The single occasions of violation of human rights of the past turned to mass occasions. The hastily passed law, which they call the Patriotic Act allows to detain, search, expel the people from the country, if there is any suspicion of their connection with terrorism. Human Rights Watch said in its annual report that the criteria, which determined that connection were too broad and indefinite. Washington may lose its right to criticize the violation of human rights in other countries. No comments so to speak.

Dmitry Chirkin PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov