IS THE US 2-FACED ON HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS?

A wide-ranging United Nations report released Thursday strongly criticizes the United States for a host of human rights concerns — from jailing the homeless and sentencing juveniles to life sentences to drone warfare and spying by the National Security Agency.

While the U.N. praised some steps the U.S. government has taken, like curbing human trafficking and a 2009 ban on Central Intelligence Agency torture and secret detention, the report’s authors found the U.S. wanting on 25 human rights issues.

“The U.S. is adept at demanding human rights change from other governments while failing to meet international standards itself,” said José Luis Díaz, Amnesty International’s representative at the U.N.

He welcomed the U.N.’s recommendations on torture transparency and calls for ending the death penalty nationwide as well as limiting the use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. 

The U.S. “must implement the recommendations of the Human Rights Committee without delay,” said Díaz.

Regarding the use of torture, reforming interrogation techniques does not go far enough, according to the U.N’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. It called for an investigation and prosecution of members of the “armed forces and other agents of the U.S. government” allegedly involved in torturing detainees. It also urged the U.S. to shutter the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba and transfer its prisoners.

“The state party [the United States] should ensure that all cases of unlawful killing, torture or other ill-treatment, unlawful detention or enforced disappearance are effectively, independently and impartially investigated, that perpetrators, including, in particular, persons in command positions, are prosecuted and sanctioned and that victims are provided with effective remedies,” the report reads.2f