Trump Administration Ignoring Human Rights Monitors, ACLU Tells UN

The Trump administration is coming under fire for its refusal to engage with international human rights monitors over potential violations inside the US, from police brutality and executions to the abuse of migrant children at the border.

Ariana News Agency – 

Protests have poured in from organisations objecting to the government’s virtual boycott of established systems designed to protect human rights, after the US withdrew from the United Nations human rights council last year. Washington is accused of rebuffing official complaints from monitors, undermining human rights bodies and threatening officials with prosecution should they step foot on US soil.

The latest condemnation has come from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has delivered a scathing appraisal to the Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva. The ACLU charged that over the past year “the Trump administration has escalated its hostility towards human rights bodies including the apparent severing of relationships with independent experts appointed to monitor and report on human rights violations”.

The ACLU statement, submitted by director of human rights Jamil Dakwar, noted that under Trump the US has not extended a single invitation to UN experts to visit the country as part of routine oversight. It notes that the UN expert on the human rights of migrants has asked repeatedly to be allowed to visit the US-Mexican border, given the serious deterioration of treatment of undocumented migrants, to no avail.

In January, the Guardian revealed that the US government had ceased to cooperate with tried and tested international procedures, in a move which threatened the nation’s standing as a beacon of good practice on the world stage. At that point, the state department had failed to respond to 13 complaints by UN monitors raising fundamental questions about America’s commitment to international law.

The number of unanswered requests from the UN’s so-called “special rapporteurs” has risen to 22. The last such demand that received a reply from any Trump official was in May last year.

The chill in US relations with the human rights community has been widely condemned as a betrayal of American values. It is also seen as potentially providing encouragement to regimes such as Saudi Arabia and North Korea to flout international norms.

The state department has claimed to the Guardian that the US remains “deeply committed to the promotion and defense of human rights around the globe”, but it has pointedly declined to comment on the accusation that it is hostile to any attempt to hold the US itself accountable. In a statement issued to the Guardian, a press spokesman only referred to the standards of other countries.

“The United States remains engaged in the work of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,” the statement said, “and strongly supports those special procedures and mandates that have proven effective in illuminating the most grave human rights environments, including in Iran and DPRK [North Korea].”

The cold shoulder given to some of the world’s most respected human rights experts marks an extraordinary about-turn for the US, which under previous presidents has prided itself for upholding standards. The US was central to the creation in 1945 of the UN, which is headquartered in New York.

One of the most recent unanswered complaints to the state department was made on 7 March by Felipe González Morales, the UN monitor on the human rights of migrants. In an official letter he objected in strong language to the Trump administration’s policy since January of sending migrants back to Mexico to wait for asylum applications to be processed.

González warned that the approach amounts to “collective expulsion”. It may be in breach of both US and international law, in leading to the return of vulnerable people to their countries of origin to face danger.

“Passing the responsibility for the protection of these migrants to the Mexican authorities without proper guarantees as to their protection from return defies both the spirit and letter of international obligations,” he wrote.

In its appraisal, the ACLU notes a number of other troubling ways in which the Trump administration is no longer co-operating with key international bodies:

It has failed to submit routine reports to two major treaty bodies, the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination (report due November 2017) and the UN committee against torture (report due November 2018).

The US is considering curtailing funding for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a leading light across the Americas of which the US is a member.

John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, has threatened officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC) with prosecution if they pursue cases against US citizens arising out of Afghanistan and other conflicts. On Friday, the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, followed up Bolton’s threat, announcing that ICC personnel involved in investigating US forces would have their visas revoked or denied.

“These issues raise serious concerns regarding the US commitment to human rights and the international rule of law,” the ACLU concludes.

The ACLU’s plea for US re-engagement adds to a chorus of calls from leading human rights bodies. In January an alliance of NGOs, including Amnesty International USA and Human Rights First, wrote to Pompeo over the lack of response to formal questions from UN experts.

“This policy will significantly limit the US’ influence abroad, provide repressive regimes with a convenient excuse to reject international human rights investigations, and ultimately help make the world a more lawless and dangerous place,” they wrote.

The New York Bar Association, an independent body of more than 24,000 lawyers, has also written to Pompeo expressing concern about the radio silence.

“Repressive regimes, which require the strongest international scrutiny, may point to the United States’ practice as an excuse to keep out international observers,” it warned.