US Human Rights Record

Responding to the US record of human rights violations at home and abroad, the US envoy to the UN Human Rights Council noted that the President of the United States is a black man, as though that somehow excuses everything. But being a black man did not excuse US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas when he voted to overturn a federal election in order to appoint as President of the United States the son of the man who appointed him. Nor did being a black man excuse US Secretary of State Colin Powell when he knowingly committed fraud on behalf of that president by lying to the UN General Assembly about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in order to facilitate the invasion of Iraq.

Much has been made about the departure by the Obama Administration from the lame public relations and misconduct of his predecessor, but that claim now rings hollow. Not only does his administration continue every single violation of international human rights law that was violated by President Bush, but it continues to neglect the legal instruments that might be observed in changing that atrocious record.

If this is the best we can hope for, then the United States of America is truly doomed.