A news item caught my attention in various national dailies on February 26 and 27, saying that the US State Department has in its annual report for 2003 accused Pakistan of gross abuse of human rights. The human rights situation in Pakistan was never commendable.
However, the point here is that the United States has no authority to point out these things when its own human rights record is the worst across the globe.
The yearly report of Amnesty International is proof that the US is the worst abuser of human rights. Despite a major international outcry and expert condemnation of US foreign policies, hundreds of people belonging to about 40 different nationalities remain illegally detained at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without access to any court, legal counsel or family visits.
Denied their rights granted under international law and held in conditions which amounts to cruel, inhuman treatment, the detainees face severe psychological distress. There have been numerous suicide attempts.
The US also tops the list of those countries which execute child offenders. According to the Amnesty International, it accounts for 54 per cent of the world’s executions of child offenders known since 1990 (19 of 35) and 65 per cent of those reported since 1998 (13 of 20).
Although sporadic executions of child offenders have occurred in a small number of other countries, the US is now the only country which openly acknowledges executing child offenders and claims for itself the right to do so.
SHOAIB AHMAD
Peshawar
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