Posted on 02/16/2009 3:18:52 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
Washington's "war on terror" after the September 11 attacks has eroded human rights worldwide, creating lingering cynicism that the United Nations must now combat, international law experts said on Monday.
Mary Robinson, who was the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights when al Qaeda militants flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Centre and Pentagon in 2001, said the United States caused harm with some of the ways it responded.
"Seven years after 9/11 it is time to take stock and repeal abusive laws and policies," the former Irish president said, warning that harsh U.S. detentions and interrogations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba gave a dangerous signal to other countries that could easily follow suit.
While new U.S. President Barack Obama has announced he will close Guantanamo to break from the practices of his predecessor George W. Bush, Robinson said sweeping changes needed to take place to ensure Washington abandons its "war paradigm."
"There has been severe damage and it needs to be addressed," she told a news conference....
"We are not more secure. We are more divided, and people are more cynical about the operation of laws."
Arthur Chaskalson, former chief justice of South Africa, said that the United States should launch an inquiry into its counter-terrorism practices, including acts of torture by individual security and intelligence agents.
Although counter-terrorism issues have faded from the front pages since the change of government in Washington, Chaskalson said such practices have shifted around the world and could keep restricting liberties if they are not confronted head-on.
"We all have less rights today than we had five or 10 years ago, and if nothing happens, we will have even less," he told a Geneva briefing to launch an International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) report on counter-terrorism and human rights.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.reuters.com ...
whatever. Liberalism will be the death of our society.
Paddy to Paddy, Bite Me sweetie.
It ‘eroded’ terrorists more...
Eh? It’s Reuters, so what do we expect?
Reuters. Read the Anti-American screed no further.
What did they say about hijacking airliners and flying them into buildings? About financing and giving haven to known terrorists? What did they say about countries who violated UN sanctions by selling arms and other sanctioned items to Iraq for oil?
Or if she wasn't "dating them" she was exchanging bodily fluids witht hem. Something like that.
Now she wants their funny little friends turned loose.
Is this woman accessible?
Fewer rights? Afghan women have fewer rights? Iraqis have fewer rights?
Who exactly have fewer rights?
wiki says:
“For many years Robinson also worked as legal advisor for the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform with future Trinity College senator David Norris. Coincidentally, just as Mary McAleese replaced Mary Robinson as Reid Professor of Law in Trinity, and would succeed her to the Irish presidency, so Robinson replaced McAleese in the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform.”
Ever notice how EVERYONE is an “expert” these days?
SCREW ‘EM!!!!!!!!!
Didn’t you mean furry little friends?
Translation to English: "Experts say Islamist "war on terror" eroded heads from bodies and a vast number of other basic human rights worldwide"
And who can forget Reuters endless faux-tography:
. . . and who ensures that Al Queda and the Taliban abandon their "war paradigm"?
US withdrawal from the UN is looking better and better all the time.
I do believe this woman needs counseling.
Yeah, maybe she could tell us a specific right that has been lost. Somehow these lefties never get around to that.
“the United States caused harm with some of the ways it responded”
Not enough IMHO.
Experts in what....Moronic Liberalism?
There are days when I think my head is going to explode...today is one of those days.
IMHO, Democracy in this country is dead.
If that's not a human rights issue, what is?
Well, woo, woo, woo, Mrs. Robinson!
Will never happen while 0 is in office. In fact, we may become totally subservient to the UN while the dims are in the majority.
This woman IS being counseled by the present administration, I fear.
I have to agree on this. many Terrorists had their rights eroded...
...like the Right to Breath, and the Right to stay above room temperature.
It’s more accurate to say that Islam has eroded “rights” around the world. And they continue to do so, stating their intentions to do that very thing.
I think it was Elbridge Gerry at the Constitutional Convention who wanted to limit the size of the US Army to 2000 or 3000 men. If that was adopted it might satisfy the Europeans.
HAHAHAHA! Now THAT'S rich! If anyone is looking for an organization that begs cynicism, look no farther than the United Nations, whose abysmal record of peacekeeping is matched only by its repeated failures to protect human rights.
While the United States may err, occasionally IT does something RIGHT.
“Experts say” in a Reuters article ...
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