Amnesty to US: Respect people’s human rights

[dontsuspendme]

Amnesty International has said it is “deeply concerned” over US spying activities and has urged US President Barack Obama to consider “human rights” when introducing reforms to Washington’s spying programs.

In an open letter on January 9, Amnesty International said Obama has to “put human rights at the center of U.S. policy” in order to ensure real reform. The letter urged Obama to take the following steps:

Disclose the scope of U.S. surveillance to ensure comprehensive reform;

Respect the rights of all people, not only U.S. citizens;

Recognize the application of international human rights standards to U.S. practice;

Take into account the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance, which provide guidance in implementing these international standards;

Establish an independent privacy rights champion before the FISA Court;

Support encryption standards to increase security and trust;

Respect the rights of whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden.

On Wednesday, Obama met with the leaders of US spy agencies at the White House to discuss a number of changes to the National Security Agency’s spying programs.

White House officials have said Obama is to make an announcement about the reforms before his State of the Union address on January 28.

Steven W. Hawkins, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, said American whistleblower Edward Snowden’s human rights should also be respected if Obama intends to ensure “real reform.”

“Snowden should not be prosecuted for revelations about human rights violations by the U.S. government,” Hawkins said.

Snowden, whose leaks have brought to light the scope and scale of the US government’s spying activities across the globe, faces espionage charges in the US and even some former US officials have suggested that he should be “hanged” if convicted of treason.
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[pak-marine]

security first .. yes breach of privacy is a bad thing but unearthing so many terrorist attacks on home soil along with arresting so many they are doing a better job

 

[Informant]

Shieeeeeet Obama announced "changes". This Obama administration is a just a hogwash, more killings done by this administration extra judicially than dubya. Anyways as the Franklin said "Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither". This is true and the congress is just not taking concrete steps. All these republicunts and demoretards are the same. Just different label, rotten on the inside.

Sad state, you dont turn into a paranoid state in the guise of security. This is not the US how it should be.

 

[dontsuspendme]

A Cruel and Unusual Record
THE United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights.

Revelations that top officials are targeting people to be assassinated abroad, including American citizens, are only the most recent, disturbing proof of how far our nation’s violation of human rights has extended. This development began after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has been sanctioned and escalated by bipartisan executive and legislative actions, without dissent from the general public. As a result, our country can no longer speak with moral authority on these critical issues.

While the country has made mistakes in the past, the widespread abuse of human rights over the last decade has been a dramatic change from the past. With leadership from the United States, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948 as “the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” This was a bold and clear commitment that power would no longer serve as a cover to oppress or injure people, and it established equal rights of all people to life, liberty, security of person, equal protection of the law and freedom from torture, arbitrary detention or forced exile.

The declaration has been invoked by human rights activists and the international community to replace most of the world’s dictatorships with democracies and to promote the rule of law in domestic and global affairs. It is disturbing that, instead of strengthening these principles, our government’s counterterrorism policies are now clearly violating at least 10 of the declaration’s 30 articles, including the prohibition against “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Recent legislation has made legal the president’s right to detain a person indefinitely on suspicion of affiliation with terrorist organizations or “associated forces,” a broad, vague power that can be abused without meaningful oversight from the courts or Congress (the law is currently being blocked by a federal judge). This law violates the right to freedom of expression and to be presumed innocent until proved guilty, two other rights enshrined in the declaration.

In addition to American citizens’ being targeted for assassination or indefinite detention, recent laws have canceled the restraints in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to allow unprecedented violations of our rights to privacy through warrantless wiretapping and government mining of our electronic communications. Popular state laws permit detaining individuals because of their appearance, where they worship or with whom they associate.

Despite an arbitrary rule that any man killed by drones is declared an enemy terrorist, the death of nearby innocent women and children is accepted as inevitable. After more than 30 airstrikes on civilian homes this year in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai has demanded that such attacks end, but the practice continues in areas of Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen that are not in any war zone. We don’t know how many hundreds of innocent civilians have been killed in these attacks, each one approved by the highest authorities in Washington. This would have been unthinkable in previous times.

These policies clearly affect American foreign policy. Top intelligence and military officials, as well as rights defenders in targeted areas, affirm that the great escalation in drone attacks has turned aggrieved families toward terrorist organizations, aroused civilian populations against us and permitted repressive governments to cite such actions to justify their own despotic behavior.

Meanwhile, the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, now houses 169 prisoners. About half have been cleared for release, yet have little prospect of ever obtaining their freedom. American authorities have revealed that, in order to obtain confessions, some of the few being tried (only in military courts) have been tortured by waterboarding more than 100 times or intimidated with semiautomatic weapons, power drills or threats to sexually assault their mothers. Astoundingly, these facts cannot be used as a defense by the accused, because the government claims they occurred under the cover of “national security.” Most of the other prisoners have no prospect of ever being charged or tried either.

At a time when popular revolutions are sweeping the globe, the United States should be strengthening, not weakening, basic rules of law and principles of justice enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But instead of making the world safer, America’s violation of international human rights abets our enemies and alienates our friends.

As concerned citizens, we must persuade Washington to reverse course and regain moral leadership according to international human rights norms that we had officially adopted as our own and cherished throughout the years.

Jimmy Carter, the 39th president, is the founder of the Carter Center and the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/opinion/americas-shameful-human-rights-record.html?_r=0

 

[Manvantaratruti]

US is a nation where 1% owns 40 % of the total wealth.

20% of Americans owned 93% of the country's wealth and the bottom 80% of the population owned 7%.

The 20% is going to do everything in its power to keep that status quo, so I do not expect anything to change.

 

[SwAggeR]

Even GOI is in final stages of implementing NETRA .

I am for security first, privacy is secondry concern for me. What can they intercept in my private exchanges with my GF which is new for the world ??

 

[dontsuspendme]

Even GOI is in final stages of implementing NETRA .

I am for security first, privacy is secondry concern for me. What can they intercept in my private exchanges with my GF which is new for the world ??

Agree that security is first, but there should be restrictions on how these kind of NETRAS will work and should be guided by constitution...

 

[p(-)0ENiX]

First off, every nation spies on both friends & foes, & there can't be true transparency on spying activity. Security always comes before privacy anyway, & the regular law abiding civilian need not worry too much about it. Internet security for instance aims to improve privacy but concomitantly tries to ensure that your content is monitored by reliable sources alone. All in all, humans do have the right to their privacy in general terms, but not at the expense of national security, the endangering of other people's lives, etc.

@dontsuspendme

Don't mention me in pretty much every article or thread you post. Some topics are interesting, while others aren't, but most of us don't have the time to respond to every single thread. For instance, I don't care if it has been 3 years since a case of polio was reported in India. Members can respond to your threads if they feel like it or have the time to, but constant notifications (mentions inviting us to read different threads) from people we haven't interacted with on the forum are annoying.

 

[PARIKRAMA]

Every nation categorizes its own citizens as well as person of Interests (international) in different categories or silos.. The categories broadly moves from lowest of the threat index to the highest with different measures and approaches.. The highest threat counter measures includes elimination in cases within the country, outside in foreign location, neutral places or even at hostile territories (read israel operations). Thus the human rights angle for such threat index is never considered at all in the past or in present or in future...

As far as spying and privacy conflict is concerned, spying is as old as the civilization in this planet.. Right from peeking into neighbours window to see what one is cooking for dinner to even taking in the aroma of food emanating from cooking while walking pass the house !!!

Now the issue is if such spying is done silently with strict adherence of non leakages and maintenance of secrecy, everything is fine.,. for example before Edward Snowden or even Julian Assange declared via Wikileaks, everybody knew about spying by every nation but all kept quiet.. suddenly when things came out in public, folks began to take position which seems to benefit their own careers in politics or any other benefits.. Did all this leakages, human right letters, etc stopped different agencies from working for different nations.. NO.. thats not gonna happen...

We today live in a world of deep distrust and drop our hats on slightest provocation of animosity... Thus, Spying programs will continue in "national interests". The only thing is have a better water tight system that such leakages Like Mr Snowden's dont come out in public which other parties/countries uses as punching bags to gain brownie points..

Btw i dont mind my emails being checked.. in my office the system is in place that automatically every mail received or sent, a copy of the same comes to admin for every staff of my organisation.. Do i feel my privacy infringed.. The answer is no.. I have nothing to hide to begin with.. and whats so private for me to talk, i wud rather talk to the person face to face verbally then so called cellphone, sms, emails etc.. That does nt mean such conversations wont be picked up by intelligence agencies.. if they spend so much to know what i am talking then i must be a "person of interest"for them// LOL.. Thus, i am cool with all these things..

The amnesty is waking up now from slumber.. must be trying hard to make ppl believe they still work ...

 

[mohsen]

there is no hope for any changes in U.S. and amnesty report wont change any of their policies; just the same way these reports couldn't do anything about violation of human rights in Israel. for Americans human rights is just a tool, and they use this tool only when it's beneficial for them.
even if today U.S promises to stop their spying program, their promise doesn't worth anything, in the background they will continue their job. the only solution is to decrease the dependency on American Cyber products and services.

 

[Falcon29]

security first .. yes breach of privacy is a bad thing but unearthing so many terrorist attacks on home soil along with arresting so many they are doing a better job

The reason why there aren't terror attacks is because no one is looking to attack America, lol. You make it as if America is a victimized nation with tons of enemies.

Only thing people are looking for is freedom from American tyranny in their countries, and they get killed on their soil for this.

 

[pak-marine]

The reason why there aren't terror attacks is because no one is looking to attack America, lol. You make it as if America is a victimized nation with tons of enemies.

Only thing people are looking for is freedom from American tyranny in their countries, and they get killed on their soil for this.

lecturing the whole world of american tyranny whilst enjoying the freedoms in same country is in my opinion is rather Hippocratic .. people in third world or deprived countries are fighting for the freedom from dictators , clergies or ruling class mullah regimes

 

[Falcon29]

lecturing the whole world of american tyranny whilst enjoying the freedoms in same country is in my opinion is rather Hippocratic .. people in third world or deprived countries are fighting for the freedom from dictators , clergies or ruling class mullah regimes

LOL! Typical response, because I'm an American I can't be critical or US foreign policy.

Same freedoms I have here I have in my hometown in the Gaza Strip. We aren't rule by dictators there. Problem there is quality of life due to siege.

Once that improves I'm going to move there.

 

[Kurama]

Even GOI is in final stages of implementing NETRA .

I am for security first, privacy is secondry concern for me. What can they intercept in my private exchanges with my GF which is new for the world ??

I agree with you buddy security is the prime requirement..but let me tell you this way..
you have got a girl or some thing which is valuable to you. Now there is a person in the center who is in charge of this vigilance.
Now he likes your valuable possession, what he will do ? to target you he will get all your documents out, get into your private conversations, get your routine things and then start blackmailing you or will charge you with a crime which you may have committed unknowingly. or will dug up your past to ruin your present or future..
So, it is important to have these programs but there should be a personal privacy clause also..

 

[pak-marine]

LOL! Typical response, because I'm an American I can't be critical or US foreign policy.
Same freedoms I have here I have in my hometown in the Gaza Strip. We aren't rule by dictators there. Problem there is quality of life due to siege.
Once that improves I'm going to move there.

yeah right no dictators in gaza only iranian / hezbola proxiy govt .. lol !

and stop fooling yourself if ever you will be back in US max 6 months .. also do you disagree people are fighting the dictators or mullah clergies and similar regimes in the third world countries ?