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Democracy charade undermines
rights
ArabAmericanNews
Saturday, 02.09.2008
Washington - The established democracies are accepting flawed and
unfair elections for political expediency, Human Rights Watch said
this week in releasing its World Report 2008. By allowing
autocrats to pose as democrats, without demanding they uphold the
civil and political rights that make democracy meaningful, the
United States, the European Union and other influential
democracies risk undermining human rights worldwide.
States claiming the mantle of democracy, including Kenya and
Pakistan, should guarantee the human rights that are central to it,
including the rights to free expression, assembly and association,
as well as free and fair elections. But in 2007 too many
governments, including Bahrain, Jordan, Nigeria, Russia and
Thailand, acted as if simply holding a vote is enough to prove a
nation "democratic," and Washington, Brussels and European
capitals played along, Human Rights Watch said. The Bush
administration has spoken of its commitment to democracy abroad
but often kept silent about the need for all governments to
respect human rights.
"It's now too easy for autocrats to get away with mounting a sham
democracy," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights
Watch. "That's because too many Western governments insist on
elections and leave it at that. They don't press governments on
the key human rights issues that make democracy function - a free
press, peaceful assembly, and a functioning civil society that can
really challenge power."
In its World Report 2008, Human Rights Watch surveys the human
rights situation in more than 75 countries. Human Rights Watch
identified many human rights challenges in need of attention,
including atrocities in Chad, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Ethiopia's Ogaden region, Iraq, Somalia, Sri Lanka, and
Sudan's Darfur region, as well as closed societies or severe
repression in Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Libya, Iran, North
Korea, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam. Abuses in the "war on terror"
featured in France, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United
States, among others.
Grave human rights abuses are fueling the worsening humanitarian
crises in Somalia and the Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia. "The
situation in Somalia and Ethiopia's Ogaden region, where millions
are suffering, is a forgotten tragedy," said Roth.
Sudan's government bears principal responsibility for five years
of the Darfur crisis, Human Rights Watch said. Some 2.4 million
people are displaced, and 4 million people survive on humanitarian
aid. In the last weeks, villages in West Darfur have been attacked,
and civilians are at great risk as all sides ignore international
humanitarian law. Burma's military government, notorious for
decades of abuse, used deadly force in August and September in
response to peaceful protests by monks, pro-democracy activists,
and ordinary civilians. Hundreds of people remain arbitrarily
detained. In Sri Lanka, heavy fighting between the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam and government forces led to deliberate and
indiscriminate attacks on civilians. Hundreds of people have "disappeared,"
and more than 20,000 have been displaced.
Israel's blockade of Gaza denies 1.4 million residents the food,
fuel and medicine they need to survive, a collective punishment
that violates international law. Palestinian armed groups continue
to launch
indiscriminate rocket attacks on populated areas of Israel in
violation of international law.
Human Rights Watch said sustained international pressure around
the 2008 Olympic Games could push Chinese leaders to better
respect human rights in China. But Human Rights Watch warned that
the staging of the Olympics is exacerbating problems of forced
evictions, migrant labor rights abuses, and the use of house
arrests to silence dissidents. The Chinese government is cracking
down on lawyers and human rights activists.
"The 2008 Olympics are an historic opportunity for the Chinese
government to show the world that it can make human rights a
reality for its 1.3 billion citizens," said Roth.
U.S. abuses against so-called "war on terror" detainees are a
major concern; 275 detainees are still held at Guantanamo Bay
without charge. Some of those remain after being cleared by the
United States for release, because they cannot be sent home and no
country will resettle them.
The United States continues to have the highest incarceration rate
in the world, with black men incarcerated at more than six times
the rate of white men.
Human Rights Watch has documented a number of elections
manipulated through: outright fraud (Chad, Jordan, Kazakhstan,
Nigeria, Uzbekistan); control of electoral machinery (Azerbaijan,
Bahrain, Malaysia, Thailand, Zimbabwe); blocking or discouraging
opposition candidates (Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Israel in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories, Libya, Turkmenistan, Uganda);
political violence (Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Ethiopia, Lebanon); stifling the media and civil
society (Russia, Tunisia); and undermining the rule of law (China,
Pakistan).
Many of these tactics are illegal under domestic and international
law, but rarely do outside powers call governments to account for
it. Human Rights Watch said established democracies are often
unwilling to do so for fear of losing access to resources or
commercial opportunities, or because of the perceived requirements
of fighting terrorism.
Human Rights Watch said the United
States and the European Union should insist governments do more
than hold a vote, and demand they uphold rights guaranteed by
international law, including a free media, freedom of assembly,
and a secret ballot.
"It seems Washington and European governments will accept even the
most dubious election so long as the 'victor' is a strategic or
commercial ally," Roth said.
The United States and some allies have made it harder to demand
other governments uphold human rights when they are committing
abuses in the fight against terrorism. And when autocratic
governments deflect criticism for violating human rights by
pretending to be democrats, the global defense of rights is
jeopardized, Human Rights Watch said.
In Pakistan, where President Pervez Musharraf has tilted the
electoral playing field by rewriting the constitution and firing
the independent judiciary, parliamentary elections are due in
February. But the United States and Britain, Islamabad's largest
aid donors, have refused to condition assistance to the government
on improving pre-electoral conditions.
In Kenya, the United States has at least expressed concern about
the apparent rigging of December's presidential poll and the
violence that to date has claimed more than 700 lives. But having
accepted the results of oil-rich Nigeria's February 2007 vote,
despite widespread and credible accusations of poll-rigging and
electoral violence, Washington left the impression in Nairobi that
fraud would be tolerated. It has not even threatened to withhold
aid to push the government to negotiate with the opposition.
"Nigeria's leader came to power in a violent and fraudulent vote,
yet he's been accepted on the international stage," said Roth. "It's
no wonder Kenya's president felt able to rig his re-election."
Bizarrely, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE), which is supposed to promote democracy, human rights, and
security, agreed to give its chair in 2010 to Kazakhstan, which
has vast oil and gas reserves coveted by both the EU and Russia.
The OSCE decision came after the Kazakh ruling party "won" every
seat in August parliamentary elections, in which, according to the
OSCE's own monitors, the media was censored, the opposition
suppressed, and the counting flawed.
Human Rights Watch noted positive developments in holding abusive
leaders to account. Alberto Fujimori and Charles Taylor, the
former presidents of Peru and Liberia, are on trial for human
rights abuses. The International Criminal Court holds its first
trial in May.
The World Report 2008 includes essays on China's foreign policy;
how activists helped create the Yogyakarta Principles for gay
rights; the scourge of violence against children at school, in the
home, on the streets and in institutions; and the British
government's erosion of the torture ban through "diplomatic
assurances" against ill-treatment.
Source: World Report 2008
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