ABUSES IN AMERICA
PUT UNDER SCRUTINY
By Terry Atlas
Washington Bureau
October 5, 1998
WASHINGTON -- The world's leading
human-rights group, Amnesty International,
is launching its first worldwide campaign
aimed at the United States, claiming abuses
such as "widespread and persistent" police
brutality, "endemic" physical and sexual
violence against prisoners, "racist"
application of the death penalty, and the use
of "high-tech repression tools" such as
electroshock devices and incapacitating
chemical sprays.
The London-based group initiates a
yearlong USA Campaign with the release
Tuesday of a 150-page report highlighting
what the organization alleges is an American
"double standard" of criticizing human-rights
abuses abroad while not doing enough to
remedy those at home.
With Americans accounting for a third of its
million members worldwide, Amnesty might
be taking a risk in deciding to focus on
alleged abuses in this country.
The campaign's theme, "Human rights aren't
just a foreign affair," is intended to highlight
what Amnesty says is the need for the
United States to "peek into its own closet"
and recognize that it can't criticize abuses by
other nations unless it is willing to take a
hard look at its practices.
Curt Goering, deputy executive director of
Amnesty USA, said he anticipates
"overwhelming support" from American
members to this effort. "Our interest is not
to embarrass, it is to highlight these issues
and make recommendations."
This is the first time in its 37-year history
that Amnesty has undertaken a major
human-rights campaign focused on any
Western country. The watchdog group won
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 for its
crusading efforts on behalf of people around
the world mistreated by their governments.
Amnesty contends that the U.S. is "failing to
meet" its human-rights obligations and that
the movement for greater protection of
human rights worldwide is endangered by
U.S. violations.
Critics may challenge Amnesty's decision to
use its financial resources and moral
authority on its USA Campaign when
repressive regimes--Iraq, Afghanistan and
North Korea, to name a few--openly
brutalize their citizens with little regard to
due process of law, international public
opinion or criticism by Amnesty
International.
Many countries, however, particularly those
criticized by the State Department's annual
report, may be pleased to be able to point
to Amnesty's criticism of the U.S.
State Department spokesman James Foley,
avoiding a clash with Amnesty, said, "We
welcome their scrutiny. . . . In keeping with
our recognition of the universality of human
rights and our openness as a democratic
society, we are proud of our political and
judicial systems, which we believe are the
envy of the world."
The head of Amnesty International,
Secretary General Pierre Sane, plans to
make the case for the report and remedial
measures Amnesty proposes in Washington
on Tuesday followed by visits to Los
Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and New York.
In Chicago next week, Sane is scheduled to
speak to the Chicago Council on Foreign
Relations and the American Civil Liberties
Union, as well as to meet with community
leaders, police officials and supporters of
Operation PUSH.
"The report is played out against a national
background of economic and racial
injustice, a rising tide of anti-immigrant
sentiment and front-page stories of violent
crimes committed by children," says the
report's executive summary. "Human-rights
violations in the U.S. occur in rural
communities and urban centers from coast
to coast. They are committed by sheriffs
and judges, by Immigration and
Naturalization Service officials, and by
police and corrections officers in jails and
prisons across the country."
Amnesty calls the U.S. the "world leader in
high-tech repression" for police and prison
use of painful and sometimes fatal
electroshock devices such as stun guns and
a stun belt, which received attention in June
when it was used by a California judge to
subdue a defendant who repeatedly
interrupted her in court proceedings. The
remote-control stun belt can knock a
prisoner over and may cause him to lose
control of bowel functions. It is used by the
U.S. Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Marshal's
Service, more than 100 counties and at
least 16 states, Amnesty reports.
Amnesty also said that more than 60 people
have died in police custody since 1990 after
being exposed to pepper spray, which is
authorized for use by some 3,000 U.S.
police departments.
Amnesty cites a high level of physical and
sexual violence against prisoners, "with
guards at times inciting attacks or not acting
to prevent them," and it notes that
minorities, particularly black males,
comprise a disproportionate share of the
prison population. "A particularly disturbing
development is the growth of high-tech
security units, where inmates are placed in
long-term or even permanent isolation," the
executive summary says.
"Despite being outlawed under international
standards, shackling of prisoners--including
their transportation in leg irons--is
widespread in the U.S. prison system."
Amnesty also challenges what it says is the
U.S. practice of imprisoning foreign citizens
who arrive seeking political asylum,
sometimes putting them into jail for months
with convicted criminals.
Foley said that detention is required by law
until a person's asylum claim can be
evaluated. He also said authorities "make
every effort to balance legitimate
law-enforcement responsibility with equally
important humanitarian concern."
Having long crusaded against the death
penalty, Amnesty criticizes the U.S. for
having "the largest known Death Row
population on Earth"--more than 3,300
inmates are sentenced to be executed.
Amnesty notes that 24 states permit the
execution of those who were under 18 at
the time of the crime. Since 1990, Amnesty
says, the U.S. has been one of only six
countries known to have executed juveniles.
The others are Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It also alleges the
execution of 30 mentally impaired people in
the U.S. in the last decade, including Texas
murderer Mario Marquez, who had a
mental age of 7.
The report says many local authorities
ignore their international obligation to inform
arrested foreigners promptly of their right to
consular assistance under Article 36 of the
Vienna Convention, which the U.S. ratified
in 1969. More than 60 foreign nationals are
under death sentences, and most were not
informed of their Vienna Convention rights,
the report alleges.
Amnesty's USA Campaign makes a series
of recommendations, including establishing
independent bodies to investigate alleged
police brutality and prisoner abuse, banning
electroshock devices, curtailing detention of
asylum-seekers and ratifying several
international human-rights accords.
Amnesty asked that the U.S. ban the death
penalty for juvenile offenders as a first step
toward abolition of the death penalty. Such
a measure is unlikely, although the Clinton
administration is pressing the Senate to
ratify an international convention to eliminate
all forms of discrimination against women.
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