US’ moral authority over HR in question

BEYOND any shadow of doubt, the United States image as the champion of human rights in the world is beginning to change. Prior to the advent of the social media and other sophisticated technologies, the US had somehow managed to keep a lid on various issues for decades due to its grip on the international media.

One of the main issues that has come to the fore is that how the US uses human rights issues in other countries as a tool to exert political pressure while it is involved in human rights violation in many parts of the world. These double standards have made people question the US’ moral authority to judge others while ignoring its own wrongdoings.

It is not just about violations of human rights in Vietnam and a number of other Central and South American countries in the past. The US continues to violate rights to the present day.

The US Senate Intelligence Committee’s majority report on the interrogation tactics employed by the CIA in the wake of 9/11 has revealed a litany of abuses against prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Not to mention the US deafening silence over Israeli aggression toward the Palestinian people.

In the yesteryears, the mainstream western media practiced censorship to keep all these issues from the public domain. However, the emergence of new media has changed the equation. Israel, for example, had to admit its media defeat following its war on the Gaza Strip after counter-campaigns worked to expose the brutality of Israel in the war leaving some pro- Israeli elements baffled.

It seems that the US judicial system follow and support different standards when it comes to human rights. It is different within the US and outside. We know that the US has good legislative and judicial internal systems that it has been portrayed as the standard system that the world should follow. However, this system is not infallible.

This perception recently received a painful blow from the new media after the whole world watched the protests in several American states against the killing of a young black man in the city of Ferguson, and the Attorney General’s acquittal of the white police officer who killed him. Internally and externally, the verdict was described as a racist one that doesn’t employ justice when it comes to black American citizens revealing also an excessive use of force against the black demonstrators.

A growing number of voices are criticizing the US’ bias and its political exploitation of human rights issues. China, for example has responded to the US annual human rights report by issuing another one that details US human rights violations inside and outside America.

The biggest loser from the declining US credibility in human rights issues is the international rights organizations that fall under the powers of the US pressure and at the same time it needs that power to advocate these rights in the world. The US needs to understand that many nations and governments in the region and the world support human rights issues, yet these rights can’t be imposed by any power. They require a just implementation without anybody using this issue as a political tool.