WASHINGTON, 19 May 2004 — After a two-week delay following the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, and one day after a memo by White House counsel Alberto Gonzales became public, in which he dismissed some of the provisions of the Geneva Convention as “quaint” — the Bush administration released Monday its report on US efforts to promote human rights around the world.
The 265-page report, “Supporting Human Rights and Democracy, the US Record 2003-2004” (www.state.gov), is mandated by Congress and examines the human rights record of 101 countries. It follows the annual report on human rights practices around the world, which was released in February. The report is very critical of some of American’s strongest allies, including Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The report concludes that countries in the Middle East continue to be a “cause for concern, as many countries still suffer from systemic denials of freedom.” It says the combination of economic and political stagnation in the region would “breed greater political instability, insecurity and poverty if not overcome.”
The report is also highly critical of Israel’s human rights record in the West Bank and Gaza, which it said remained “poor” and had worsened the treatment of foreign human rights activists. “Israel’s security units often used excessive force in their operations that resulted in numerous deaths. Israel carried out polices of demolitions, strict curfews and closures that directly punished innocent civilians,” the report said.
In Washington, human rights officials said the harm caused by the prisoner abuse and the Gonzales memo, will make it much more difficult for the United States to speak with moral authority to nations that abuse their citizen’s rights.
“The biggest victims of this prison abuse scandal are the people in countries like China, Egypt and Zimbabwe who depend on the United States for their rights,” Tom Malinozski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, told journalists. “These governments will exploit this and have a readymade argument to demoralize democracy advocates: ‘Even the United States, your biggest champion, abuses people.’”
Senior administration officials admitted the Abu Ghraib pictures hurt Washington’s credibility abroad: “We have seen some of our ideals and institutions rocked in recent week by the shocking revelations of American human rights violations in Iraq,” Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told reporters.
“It is simply not enough to punish those who fall short of our high standards,” he said. “We must do more than that. We must create a constructive legacy, one that promotes and protects human rights and democracy around the world.”
News of the Gonzales memo revealed a debate within the administration in early 2002 over whether international treaties and laws should apply to enemies. Detainees at the US Guantanamo Bay detention facility have not been covered by the Geneva Convention.
