bon voyage
i was stumbling around the internet today and discovered a BBC summary of Amnesty International's annual human right's report. i noticed right away, that that the summary only discussed human rights records in africa. then i noticed that the language used to decribe the abuses was the
Mind you, I think the allegations are terrible. However, apparently, there are two types of African countries.
Category ONE
Burundi
-Scores of civilians killed in armed conflict by government forces and armed groups
Recruitment of child soldiers as combatants and sex slaves
-Women and girls raped and sexually abused by perpetrators from different parties to the conflict
Central African Republic
-Recruitment of child soldiers as combatants and sex slaves during armed conflict
-Women and girls raped and sexually abused by perpetrators from different parties to the conflict
Category Two
Ivory Coast
-Recruitment of child soldiers as combatants and sex slaves
-Women and girls raped and sexually abused by perpetrators from different parties to the conflict
Cameroon
-Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression
Chad
-Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression
Eritrea
-Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression
-Widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspects
Ethiopia
-Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression
-Widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspects
Rwanda
-Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression
Togo
-Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression
-Widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspects
Finally, I realized that many of the charges being raised were absolutely absurd, in every way i can imagine.
Take Chad for example. In it's abuse citation, Amnesty/BBC writes:
"Nine men [were] executed in the first death sentences carried out since 1991," certaintly nothing to appalud. However, if I'm not mistaken, the state of Texas executed more people then that alone last year. Amnesty frowns upon the US death penalty, sure, but that hasn't led them to call us a human rights monster.
Then, in its comments about South Africa and Swaziland, the article states that both expressed a "failure to protect women effectively from criminally motivated sexual violence or to support them as survivors of violence - largely due to inadequate law enforcement and judicial process". In addition, more than 10 other countries were written up on the charge that "women and girls were raped and sexually abused by perpetrators from different parties to the conflict."
Uh.. and in the Western World? At Yale, assaulting someone won't even get you kicked out of school.
Its no secret that I've been enamored with human rights for the past gazillion years. My fascination with it has even motivated me to consider law school. However, when I recently read a book on how human rights are racist and bogus (written by a legal scholar named Makau Mutua), I couldn't agree with him more. The Doctrine of Human Rights was dreamed up by white people (Europeans, during the Nuremberg trials, specifically), and its eye is fixed upon the developing world. The last white people to be accused of human rights violations were the Nazis. Well, perhaps thats slight exaggeration.. however, there is an embedded East- West divide in the canon -- a split which Mutua calls the "Savage-Victims-Saviors" metaphor. In this framework, essentially the West tries to save the East from itself..
We need to dignfty and respect all peoples.. however, we need to stop acting as though bad shit only happens in other hemispheres. hell, compared to Canada and Sweeden, the US is a fucking human rights disaster. I commend the infrequent attempts that Amensty and Human Rights Watch make to "globalize" human rights and make it apply to the fuck-ups of the Western World, cause it damn well should.
In fact, I decided to help them along with the project:
United States
- torture and ill-treatment of suspects
- dismissal of the Geneva Conventions regarding prisoners of war
- Scores of civilians killed in armed conflict by government forces and armed groups
-Failure to protect women effectively from criminally motivated sexual violence or to support them as survivors of violence - largely due to inadequate law enforcement and judicial process
-Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression (Try the Patriot Act. Or, ask dearprudence about her arrest experience last March
- Recruitment of Black and Hispanic urban poor as combattants (try the ROTC and its recuritment programs)
- Recruitment of Black and Hispanic urban poor as forced laborers and chattle in the Prison Industrial Complex
All that said, we'll see how I fare as an intern at the Kenya Human Rights Commission this summer. I'm off to Nairobi in two days.
Mind you, I think the allegations are terrible. However, apparently, there are two types of African countries.
Category ONE
Burundi
-Scores of civilians killed in armed conflict by government forces and armed groups
Recruitment of child soldiers as combatants and sex slaves
-Women and girls raped and sexually abused by perpetrators from different parties to the conflict
Central African Republic
-Recruitment of child soldiers as combatants and sex slaves during armed conflict
-Women and girls raped and sexually abused by perpetrators from different parties to the conflict
Category Two
Ivory Coast
-Recruitment of child soldiers as combatants and sex slaves
-Women and girls raped and sexually abused by perpetrators from different parties to the conflict
Cameroon
-Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression
Chad
-Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression
Eritrea
-Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression
-Widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspects
Ethiopia
-Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression
-Widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspects
Rwanda
-Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression
Togo
-Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression
-Widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspects
Finally, I realized that many of the charges being raised were absolutely absurd, in every way i can imagine.
Take Chad for example. In it's abuse citation, Amnesty/BBC writes:
"Nine men [were] executed in the first death sentences carried out since 1991," certaintly nothing to appalud. However, if I'm not mistaken, the state of Texas executed more people then that alone last year. Amnesty frowns upon the US death penalty, sure, but that hasn't led them to call us a human rights monster.
Then, in its comments about South Africa and Swaziland, the article states that both expressed a "failure to protect women effectively from criminally motivated sexual violence or to support them as survivors of violence - largely due to inadequate law enforcement and judicial process". In addition, more than 10 other countries were written up on the charge that "women and girls were raped and sexually abused by perpetrators from different parties to the conflict."
Uh.. and in the Western World? At Yale, assaulting someone won't even get you kicked out of school.
Its no secret that I've been enamored with human rights for the past gazillion years. My fascination with it has even motivated me to consider law school. However, when I recently read a book on how human rights are racist and bogus (written by a legal scholar named Makau Mutua), I couldn't agree with him more. The Doctrine of Human Rights was dreamed up by white people (Europeans, during the Nuremberg trials, specifically), and its eye is fixed upon the developing world. The last white people to be accused of human rights violations were the Nazis. Well, perhaps thats slight exaggeration.. however, there is an embedded East- West divide in the canon -- a split which Mutua calls the "Savage-Victims-Saviors" metaphor. In this framework, essentially the West tries to save the East from itself..
We need to dignfty and respect all peoples.. however, we need to stop acting as though bad shit only happens in other hemispheres. hell, compared to Canada and Sweeden, the US is a fucking human rights disaster. I commend the infrequent attempts that Amensty and Human Rights Watch make to "globalize" human rights and make it apply to the fuck-ups of the Western World, cause it damn well should.
In fact, I decided to help them along with the project:
United States
- torture and ill-treatment of suspects
- dismissal of the Geneva Conventions regarding prisoners of war
- Scores of civilians killed in armed conflict by government forces and armed groups
-Failure to protect women effectively from criminally motivated sexual violence or to support them as survivors of violence - largely due to inadequate law enforcement and judicial process
-Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression (Try the Patriot Act. Or, ask dearprudence about her arrest experience last March
- Recruitment of Black and Hispanic urban poor as combattants (try the ROTC and its recuritment programs)
- Recruitment of Black and Hispanic urban poor as forced laborers and chattle in the Prison Industrial Complex
All that said, we'll see how I fare as an intern at the Kenya Human Rights Commission this summer. I'm off to Nairobi in two days.