UN human rights council urges US to end death penalty

American delegate says capital punishment is subject of vigorous debate and applied for in only the most serious crimes

The US today faced an international clamour to abolish the death penalty during a debate at the UN human rights council in Geneva.

The council is gradually reviewing the performance of all 192 UN member states. The US took its moment in the spotlight seriously, sending a high-level delegation of around 30 officials led by Esther Brimmer, the assistant secretary of state for international organisation affairs.

The delegation was given a mostly warm welcome by delegates of the 47-member council, but was forced to listen to repeated calls for the US to put an end to the death penalty.

More than 1,200 men and women have been put to death in the US since executions resumed in 1977 after a decade without them, according to Amnesty International.

Three jurisdictions – Texas, Virginia, and Oklahoma – account for more than half the country's executions. Missouri has approximately 40 people on death row, but has not executed anyone since 2005.

At the end of 2009, 139 countries had abolished the death penalty. The US finds itself grouped with authoritarian countries such as China and Iran in still executing people.

Harold Hongju Koh, the state department's legal adviser, said capital punishment was a subject of vigorous debate and litigation in the US and was applied for in only the most serious crimes.

He pointed out that there were strict procedural safeguards, adding that, in recent years, the supreme court had narrowed the list of offences for which the death penalty could be applied.

But he insisted that capital punishment did not violate international law, telling the council: "International human rights law does not bar it per se."

Koh also strongly defended the use of unmanned drone aircraft to kill "high value tagets" on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and in Yemen.

"Our targeting practice complies with all human rights law," he said. "Operations are conducted in conformity with rule of law principles. It has been long legitimate to target enemy leaders and force is directed only at lawful targets."

Since the beginning of September, Barack Obama has authorised at least 25 targeted killings.

While the attacks have killed senior al-Qaida and Taliban figures, they have also killed civilians, including a large number of women and children, sparking anger against the US.

The fiercest criticism at the UN council came from countries at odds with the US.

The Cuban ambassador, Rodolfo Reyes Rodriguez, who spoke first, called on the Americans to end their embargo against his country.

Venezuela's envoy, Germán Mundarain Hernández, said the US should "close Guantánamo and secret detention centres around the world, punish those people who torture, disappear and execute detainees arbitrarily and provide compensation to victims".

Iran's delegation urged the US to "halt serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law including covert external operations by the CIA carried out on pretext of combating terrorism".

Koh said the Obama administration had begun by "turning the page" on Bush-era practices and fully ensured the humane treatment of detainees.

"Let there be no doubt, the United States does not torture and it will not torture," he declared.

A state department submission in August, written after extensive public consultation, said the US was "currently at war with al-Qaida and its associated forces" but that it would comply with all applicable domestic and international law in armed conflicts and had ordered foreign detainees be treated humanely.

The report said the US was a democracy guided by "simple but powerful principles", but admits to discrimination against black people and Hispanics and a "broken" immigration system.

Source: The Guardian, November 5, 2010

US: Status Quo Stance at First UN Rights Review

Other Countries Point to Death Penalty, Migrant Policy as Sources of Concern

(New York) - The United States should take concrete steps to address serious failings in its human rights record, Human Rights Watch said today. Many of the issues were raised by UN member countries on November 5, 2010, during the United States' first review of its human rights conditions and policies before the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

"The US wasn't defensive in its responses, but it also refused to budge from the status quo," said Antonio Ginatta, US advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "US officials were often reduced to restating current practices that grossly violate human rights, like the death penalty, poor prison conditions, and sentencing youth offenders to life without parole."

During what is called the Universal Periodic Review, a vast majority of countries expressed their concern about the death penalty and called for a nationwide moratorium. Similarly, countries pointed out problems with mistreatment of migrants and racial disparities in education, access to health care, and the criminal justice system. Many called on the United States to follow through on its promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Almost all participating countries also called on the United States to ratify core human rights treaties, such as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

One senior US official said at the proceedings that the only way to promote American values was to "live them at home." But that doesn't apply to everyone in the United States, Human Rights Watch said. One in ten African American men is incarcerated; about 2,500 youth offenders are serving sentences of life without parole; 40 people have been executed so far this year; 400,000 immigrants are in prison-like detention centers; and 48 people remain imprisoned at Guantanamo facing unfair military commission trials.

Inmates wait in holding pens at
the California Institution for Men in Chino.

The Universal Periodic Review system was established in 2006. The review provides a chance to draw attention to, and make recommendations about, human rights violations in all UN member states. States under review submit written reports concerning the human rights situation in their country and respond to the questions and recommendations put forward by other UN member states. All 192 UN member countries undergo such reviews every four years.

At today's session, more than 55 countries spoke for two minutes each, offering recommendations and asking questions of the delegation. The US took one hour to discuss its record and respond generally to some of the statements. Following its review, the US held a town hall meeting for civil society organizations gathered in both Geneva and Washington, participating through the web. It was a major opportunity for civil society groups to ask questions and further engage with the US government about its rights record. The US is the first country to hold such a session.

The report of the proceedings will be released early next week, and the United States will have until March 2011 to submit its final responses to the recommendations.

"Thankfully the US seems to acknowledge that today's meeting was not the final chapter in the UPR process," Ginatta said. "While today's meeting leaves little room for hope that the government will announce reforms in its final response to the UPR in March, Human Rights Watch and other civil society groups will continue to press the US to fulfill its human rights obligations."

Source: Human Rights Watch, November 5, 2010