Kenneth Roth
Kenneth Roth
Kenneth Rothis an American attorney who has been the executive director of Human Rights Watch since 1993...
ability defense inhumane largest played promote role torture treatment
The U.S. government's use and defense of torture and inhumane treatment played the largest role in undermining Washington's ability to promote human rights.
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It's childish for the U.S. government not to cooperate with the new Human Rights Council when it cooperated for decades with the vastly inferior old Commission on Human Rights.
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It obviously doesn't do everything we hoped for. But it is clearly better than the Human Rights Commission.
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It's an open question whether Bolton's throwing all the cards up in the air is meant to improve the council or to prove that the UN can't reform itself and therefore should be abandoned.
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We spoke openly with the Libyan government about our concerns. We disagree on many substantive issues, but they are willing to listen and discuss.
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The proposed new council is a major improvement over the old Commission on Human Rights. It would be reckless for the United States to force a vote because that will invite amendments from spoiler states to weaken the council. The time has come to accept the overwhelming consensus behind the council and to work to make it function effectively.
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As western governments improve relations with Libya, they should press the government to improve its respect for human rights. Libya's cooperation in fighting terrorism should not mean carte blanche to commit abuse.
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You plunge yourself further and further into debt, rental prices drop, you can't make your mortgage payments and you're forced to sell for less than you owe.
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Despite the fact that rape victims have a formal right to legal abortion, that right was blocked by a maze of administrative hurdles and negligence and obstruction by public officials.
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The Bush administration must appoint a special prosecutor to examine these abuses, and Congress should set up an independent, bipartisan panel to investigate.
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This is an important symbolic visit. The real test is to see if the government is ready to implement the recommendations and show it's serious about eradicating torture.
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The moral authority of the United States depends on its working effectively with other countries to advance human rights protection ? not blocking a consensus proposal that makes so much progress for human rights. The current resolution can be made to work if the United States joins with other democracies to establish the new council and make it function effectively.
against apart attacks carry category clearly committed crimes fall help nature people plan scale sets suicide systematic war
The people who carry out suicide bombings are not martyrs, they're war criminals, and so are the people who help plan such attacks. The scale and systematic nature of these attacks sets them apart from other abuses committed in times of conflict. They clearly fall under the category of crimes against humanity.
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I think the effect of this will be to revive concern about the government's mistreatment of detainees and to get people to take another look at the legal basis. There are lots of lingering questions about how do you justify holding these people.