UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS VALUES By Manuel E. Yepe http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/ The way liberal government US spokespersons proclaim how important respect for "universal human rights values” is in the US, and how they ignore other values that humanity has also considered indispensable for global coexistence is truly outrageous. Evidence of this is in the record of human rights violations as abhorrent as the launching of atom bombs on two densely populated Japanese cities only to show that they were in possession of a weapon of enormous power capable of ensuring world domination. They murdered more than half a million innocent civilians despite of the fact that Japan had already communicated its willingness to surrender. There are also systematic problems in US society such as the flaws of their electoral system, racial discrimination, xenophobia, overpopulated prisons, the application of the death penalty to even innocent people, mentally ill and adolescents. Despite this background, since the end of the Cold War, the world's only superpower has been interfering in the internal affairs of other sovereign nations under the banner of “main defender and arbiter of human rights”. With imperialist formulas and almost always making allies –or rather accomplices—of multinationals, NGOs or third countries under its control or strongly influenced, it overthrows legitimate governments, unleashes civil war, carries out extrajudicial executions and killings by means of unmanned drones. They do all this as well as other actions that disrespect the rights of others and then download the responsibility on third parties. The United States pretends that human rights, as a concept, be reduced to some civil rights that in fact are finance capital self-assigned rights. Such is the case of the right of peoples to freedom of expression, which they reduce to the defense of the freedom of the owners of the largest corporate media to manipulate public information at their convenience and will. The US power elite simply do not agree with the view that in the pluralistic world in which we live plurality must be respected. Plurality must be respected because it is a fundamental human right of people to choose for their nations the democratic model and the political system they consider most appropriate. And they should be able to do it considering the conditions, specificities and historical, social and economic aspects of each country; without being compelled to set a single referent -- as Washington does in the spaces it dominates. Humanity can no longer settle for societies in which everything is resolved in the market; where everything is sold and purchased. As much importance as freedom of the press and thinking deserve, these rights cannot be subordinated to money and the market; they should not be for sale or for buying. What selfishness has meant as the driving force of capitalism must give way to the solidarity which must characterize the human relationships of the future. The United States does not conform to international mechanisms for collective complaints on government violations of human rights because it considers that its judicial system is sufficient and can deal with the problem without foreign assistance. Washington only participates in three of the nine agreements on human rights. It has not signed the declaration on the liquidation of all forms of discrimination against women, or the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The indefinite detentions without trial of persons for alleged links with terrorism in the illegal naval base that the US maintains in the Cuban territory of Guantanamo; the arbitrary arrests and abductions in third countries; the disrespect for the rules of international law in conflict zones and during counterterrorism operations; the excessive use of force and the abusive treatment by police of persons, as well as indictments based on dubious evidence; the concealment of punishable activities by the CIA and officials responsible for carrying out torture and mass violations of human rights; and the abusive surveillance methods on their own society together with the interference in the private lives of its citizens under the pretext of war against terrorism, totally disqualify the US as arbiter in this matter. The promotion and protection of human rights should not be limited only to the space in which each people exercise their sovereignty, but also to the solidarity with the peoples of other nations of the world --in those fields in which they have material and human conditions to do so. This should always be done with full respect for the sovereign authority of the host government and without trying to get additional benefits for that help. May 27, 2015. |
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VALORES UNIVERSALES DE DERECHOS
HUMANOS Por Manuel E. Yepe http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/ Resulta indignante la
liberalidad con que voceros del gobierno estadounidense defienden el
respeto de los “valores universales de los derechos humanos que son tan
importantes en Estados Unidos” y cómo ignoran otros valores que la
humanidad ha considerado también indispensables para la convivencia
global.
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