UN Human Rights Committee

From Firedoglake blog, Mar 27, 2014:

The United Nations Human Rights Committee has released it's latest assessment of the human rights record of nations.    We don't come out looking so well;   in fact, the blogger I'm relying on calls it a "withering" report that is "downright embarrassing" for us.

Our listed failings include:   the lack of holding any high officials accountable for the myriad offenses leading up to our invasion of Iraq;  lack of prosecutions for torture and targeted killings, the continued detentions at Quantanamo, a domestic justice system that disproportionately targets minorities, snd the continued use of the death penalty.

Conservatives and official government policy generally consider this group to be anti-U.S. and anti-Israel.  I'm not sure whether we even send delegates;  I know one year we did not.

This is also a group without enforcement power.  Nevertheless, it gives pause to those of us who want a higher moral compass to govern our policies and our stance in the world.

It's not enough for us to declare that our motives are good.   We have to be judged also by our actions.   Judged by this UN Committee, we rank down there with Iran and China when it comes to human rights.

Ralph