UN Report Card Gives US ‘Failing Grade’ on Human Rights

Citing torture, detentions without trial, and police violence, the UN Human Rights Committee’s catalogs dismal performance by world power

"These low grades suggest the U.S. has a long way to go before it is in compliance with international law," said Faiza Patel of the Brennan Center for Justice. (Photo: amboo who?/flickr/cc)

“These low grades suggest the U.S. has a long way to go before it is in compliance with international law,” said Faiza Patel of the Brennan Center for Justice. (Photo: amboo who?/flickr/cc)

By: Sarah Lazare

A United Nations committee of independent monitors this week released a damning assessment of human rights in the United States, showing an overall dismal performance on issues from Guantanamo Bay detentions to mass surveillance to accountability for past atrocities—earning what the U.S. Human Rights Network called a “failing grade.”

The United Nations Human Rights Committee’s investigation was one of a handful of periodic reviews aimed at evaluating countries that have ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights established in 1976. In particular, the assessment measured U.S. implementation of the committee’s recommendations for improving the country’s human rights record.

The experts determined that the U.S. performance in 2014 was “relatively poor,” Vincent Ploton, head of external relations for the Geneva-based Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), told Common Dreams.

The agency delivers grades that range from “A” the “E.” The U.S. score for 2014 was summarized in the following graphic, compiled by CCPR. Ploton explained: “There is only one B1 grade, which means substantial action was taken. C1 means that there was no implementation, and C2 is worse, as it means the information provided by the U.S. was not relevant to the recommendations. D1 means there was no response.”

Click to enlarge:

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The U.S. had no A grades, and “the fact that the CIA report was only partially published was likely the reason for the B1 grade,” noted Ploton, referring to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of post-9/11 CIA torture.

“These low grades suggest the U.S. has a long way to go before it is in compliance with international law,” said Faiza Patel, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, in a statement. The Brennan Center and Amnesty International previously raised concerns to the Committee about mass surveillance in the United States. “The Administration and Congress must take immediate steps to address the lack of intelligence oversight and restore the right to privacy in the digital age.”

The findings prompted immediate condemnation from human rights and social justice organizations based in the U.S., including the Dream Defenders, who joined a civil society delegation to Geneva last year to urge the repeal of “Stand Your Ground” laws.

“It is shocking that after being given an entire year to address Stand Your Ground’s ‘incompatibility with the right to life,’ the United States has failed to act with a sense of urgency,” said Ciara Taylor, director of political consciousness for the Dream Defenders. “We see utter disregard for the lives of people of color in policies like Stand Your Ground, and in the daily actions of local law enforcement officials, who are positioned within the system to uphold these policies and the State’s many systems of oppression.”

“The Committee is right: the US is pressing forward with military commissions which violate international human rights standards,” declared James G. Connell III, an attorney for Guantanamo detainee Ammar al Baluchi. “Torture corrupts everything it touches, and these military commissions are no exception.”

And as journalist Kevin Gosztola wrote in his assessment of the UN report on Wednesday, “Detainees in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay remain in prison cells without charge or trial. There is no plan to abandon the dysfunctional and second-class legal system known as military commissions. Not only do those detainees lack rights to a fair trial, but they continue to endure torture and abuse as the political class in America ignores the fact that most never committed any crimes against the United States.”

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In: commondreams.org

See: http://indicators.ohchr.org/

U.N. Gives U.S. Flunking Grades on Privacy and Surveillance Rights

http://www.ccprcentre.org/country/united-states/

Wall Street ya se olvidó de China: el Dow Jones subió 2,42%

Después de varias semanas de incertidumbre provenientes del gigante asiático, los inversores se mostraron optimistas en la rueda de hoy y todos los indicadores subieron más del 2%.

Wall Street ya se olvidó de China: el Dow Jones subió 2,42%

Wall Street ya se olvidó de China: el Dow Jones subió 2,42%

Luego de varias semanas de incertidumbre por las bruscas devaluaciones en China, los inversores de Wall Street recuperaron hoy el optimismo, y todos los indicadores de la plaza norteamericana terminaron con subas superiores al 2%.

El Dow Jones, el principal indicador, ganó un 2,42 % o 390,30 puntos, hasta las 16.492,68 unidades, todavía lejos del récord de 18.312,39 puntos del pasado 19 de mayo.

También subieron el selectivo S&P 500 y el índice compuesto del mercado Nasdaq, un 2,51 y un 2,73 %, respectivamente, con un avance que siguió la tendencia de los mercados bursátiles de Europa y de Asia, a excepción del japonés, que retrocedió.

La de hoy fue la primera sesión de la semana en Wall Street, después del largo fin de semana por el Día del Trabajo, pero los operadores llegaron al parqué con ganas de comprar, generando uno de los mayores impulsos de las últimas semanas.

Los analistas calificaron la sesión de hoy como un rebote respecto a los resultados de la semana pasada, cuando Wall Street tuvo la segunda peor semana del año, impactada por las repercusiones de los malos datos económicos de China.

Pero la atención de hoy estaba centrada en la reunión que sostendrá el 16 y 17 de septiembre el Comité de Mercado Abierto de la Reserva Federal (Fed), donde revisará el nivel de las tasas de interés, cercanas al 0 %.

Al respecto, el multimillonario Warren Buffett, el inversor más importante de Wall Street y que dice que en los próximos meses colocará unos 32.000 millones de dólares en el mercado, sostuvo que la Fed no debería ser “terriblemente agresiva”.

De hecho, minimizó la influencia de las medidas de la Fed para sus negocios y dijo que nunca ha adoptado una decisión en cuanto a sus inversiones de acuerdo con lo que dijera la Reserva Federal a corto o largo plazo, sino considerando el desempeño de las empresas cuyos títulos compra o vende.

En ese mismo sentido, la última hora de la sesión de hoy en Wall Street se vio afectada por declaraciones del economista jefe del Banco Mundial, Kaushik Basu, en las que recomendó a la Fed no revisar al alza las tasas de interés.

Según dijo Basu en una entrevista al Financial Times, un alza en las tasas de interés “no va a crear en sí una gran crisis, pero causará inmediatas turbulencias”, sobre todo teniendo en cuenta el impacto de la devaluación china del mes pasado.

FUENTE: Agencias

En: cronista.com

El lado oscuro de la recuperación económica de EE.UU.

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Imagen: economiahoy.mx

Que la recuperación económica llegó antes a EEUU que a Europa y con mucha más fuerza parece algo evidente. Sin embargo, más allá de los datos oficiales de paro y crecimiento, existen otros indicadores que muestran que a la mayor potencia del mundo aún le queda trabajo por hacer y que hay ciertos aspectos que incuso han empeorado. Y es que en la actualidad el paro de larga duración sigue estando muy por encima de los niveles precrisis, al igual que el trabajo a tiempo parcial involuntario.

El Center for Economic and Policy Reserarch (CEPR) señala que varios indicadores (oficiales) de la economía de EEUU presentan algunos datos que a pesar de ser ciertos no muestran toda la realidad: “Muchos medios de comunicación están mostrando la tasa de desempleo U-3 (la más usada) según la cual el paro se ha reducido hasta el 5,1%. Sin embargo, hay buenas razones para pensar que la tasa de desempleo oficial exagera el grado de recuperación del mercado laboral”.

El primer datos pertenece a la ‘jobless rate’ o tasa de desempleo hecha por este centro de estudios que muestra el porcentaje de ciudadanos que no tienen trabajo y desearían trabajar. La tasa U-3 calcula el porcentaje de estadounidenses que buscan empleo de forma activa en las cuatro semanas previas a la realización de la encuesta, de modo que no tiene en cuenta a los ‘desanimados’, personas que están paradas y desean trabajar pero han dejado de buscar empleo de forma activa porque el mercado laboral no cumple con sus expectativas. Sin embargo, este indicador empleado por el CEPR si suma los ‘desanimados’.

Desempleo y trabajo a tiempo parcial

Según este indicador, la tasa de desempleo en diciembre de 2007 era del 7,8% (la oficial del 5%), a día de hoy la tasa de desempleo es del 8,6% mientras que la oficial es del 5,1%. Obviamente este dato se corresponde con un aumento de la población activa ‘desanimada’, que quiere trabajar pero no busca empleo de forma activa porque cree que no lo va a encontrar o porque el mercado laboral actual no cumple con sus expectativas.

Por otro lado aparece el ratio conocido como ‘Prime-Age EPOP’ que mide el porcentaje de la población entre 25 y 54 años que están empleados. En marzo de 2007 este porcentaje era del 79,7% mientras que hoy es del 77,2%, una diferencia de más de dos puntos porcentuales con una tasa de paro U-3 casi igual.

Un tema que en Europa y España está suscitando especial atención es del trabajo a tiempo parcial. En España, el crecimiento del trabajo a tiempo parcial está siendo uno de los principales motores de la creación de empleo, algo que es un problema cuando estos trabajadores temporales desearían tener un trabajo a tiempo completo. En EEUU está ocurriendo algo similar, en diciembre de 2007 el 3,2% de los ocupados a tiempo parcial lo estaban de forma involuntaria, sin embargo a día de hoy este porcentaje alcanza el 4,4%. El empleo a tiempo parcial involuntario gana peso en la primera potencia del mundo.

Desempleo a tiempo parcial involuntario

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Por último, otro indicador también muy conocido en España es el del paro de larga duración. En EEUU se considera a un parado como de larga duración cuando cuando lleva 27 o más semanas sin trabajar. En diciembre de 2007 (recordemos con la tasa de paro U-3 al 5%) sólo el 17,4% de esos desempleados eran de larga duración, sin embargo a día de hoy el 27,7% de los parados son de larga duración.

Este tipo de desempleo es de los más dañinos para una economía, puesto que pone en evidencia la dificultad para encontrar empleo de un sector de la población que no halla en el mercado laboral empresas que demanden sus habilidades o formación. Además, este tipo de parados suelen sufrir un proceso de ‘perdida de valor’ a medida que transcurre el tiempo, puesto que su falta de contacto con el mercado laboral puede desembocar deterioro de sus habilidades.

Desempleo de larga duración en EEUU

desempleo-larga-duracion

Aunque los indicadores difundidos por los medios muestran que EEUU crece con fuerza y la tasa de paro está alcanzando niveles de 2007, otros datos dejan entrever que la crisis ha dejado varios puntos negros en sectores concretos del mercado laboral.

En: economiahoy

Syria: Russian soldiers fighting alongside pro-Assad troops

By Maria Khan

Russian troops are believed to be fighting alongside pro-Assad army against Syrian rebels. (Twitter)

Russian troops are believed to be fighting alongside pro-Assad army against Syrian rebels.(Twitter)

Russian troops are believed to be fighting against Syrian rebels, according to Syrian state TV reports. The troops are believed to be supporting President Bashar al-Assad’s army in Latakia. In addition to the troops, a Russian armoured jeep was seen in Latakia.

Several social media users also shared pictures of what are believed to be Russian planes and drones over Idlib.

“The Russians have been there a long time,” said an unidentified activist with the Syrian rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, reported The Times. “There are more Russian officials who came to Slunfeh in recent weeks. We don’t know how many but I can assure you there has been Russian reinforcement.”

According to reports, Russian language can be heard being spoken by the troops in the footage. “You can hear Russian, that is correct,” said Igor Sutyagin, a Russian military specialist at the Royal United Services Institute in the UK, reported Express. Sutyagin said, however, that it still remains unclear if the Russians were serving soldiers or contractors.

Meanwhile, Russia has been delaying the final Security Council approval to launch an investigation into the use of chemical weapons attacks in Syria. “We are still working on it. It’s a fairly technical subject and we want to be absolutely sure,” said Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, reported AFP News.

In: ibtimes.co.uk

Russian Troops Are in Syria, and We Have the Selfies to Prove It

Image: foreignpolicy

Image: foreignpolicy

Standing against the backdrop of Istanbul’s iconic Bosphorus bridge, a young man in combat fatigues poses for a photo holding up a colorful sign that says “I love you” in Russian. He’s not a tourist, though. The man’s name is Maxim Mazhnikov; he’s a member of Russia’s 810th marine brigade; and he posted the photo to social media to document his journey to war-torn Syria.

What Mazhnikov will do when gets there remains a bit of a mystery, but he is one of many Russian troops from the same unit that have been tracked via social media as they make their way towards Syria. According to a report by Russian investigative journalist Ruslan Leviev, growing numbers of Russian troops over the last two months have been sent to a Russian naval maintenance facility in Tartus, in western Syria. The apparent Russian military build-up there is sending alarm bells ringing in Washington, where the Obama administration worries that Moscow may be stepping up its efforts to help Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad hold on to power.

Leviev’s research, which relies on posts by troops on Russia’s two biggest social networking sites, notes a shift in the types of troops being sent to Syria, from draftees to experienced career soldiers. Many of the posts have already been taken down, but Leviev managed to track down several troops from Russia’s 810th marine brigade and monitor their movement to Syria through the photos and status updates they posted online.

This photo, taken from VKontakte, Russia’s version of Facebook, shows Mazhnikov, a career soldier, crossing the Bosporus bridge in Istanbul en route to Tartus and was posted on March 29, 2015. (Click to enlarge.)

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Photos taken from Mazhnikov’s profile on Odnoklassniki, another popular Russian networking site, show him in Syria at the Russian naval facility. The following photos were posted on Aug. 22, 2015.

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Leviev also found Anatoly Golota, another member of the 810th brigade on VKontakte, whose status says “Off to Syria”.

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Videos uploaded to the Internet in recent weeks have also sparked concerns that Russian forces are engaged in actual combat inside Syria. On Aug. 24, the Oryx blog, which monitors military developments in the Middle East and North Africa, pointed to combat footage filmed and posted by the media wing of Syria’s National Defence Force that showed a Russian-made BTR-82A armored vehicle near Latakia, in western Syria, with a color scheme used by Russian military units and not previously exported to Syria. As the armored vehicle is shooting in the video, orders can be heard in what appears to be Russian, raising speculation that troops sent by Moscow are taking part in fighting on the ground. Beyond the footage, however, there is little proof that Russian forces are engaged in Syria beyond their maintenance and advisory roles.

“The participation of [the] Russian fleet, special operation forces or aviation [forces] are all possible, but in very limited scale,” Nikolay Kozhanov, a fellow at the London-based Chatham House and a non-resident scholar at Carnegie Moscow Center, told Foreign Policy. “Putin will not send the army.”

Still, the influx of Russian troops, even if confined to Tartus, is indicative of the changing battlefield dynamics in Syria.

Since the war in Syria began, the Kremlin has been a key backer of the Assad regime, supporting Damascus economically, diplomatically, and militarily. Moscow was instrumental in helping to negotiate the deal in 2013 under which Assad gave up its chemical weapons in exchange for the U.S. rescinding plans to bomb his regime in response to his gassing of his own people. The Kremlin has been supplying weapons to the Syrian government throughout the ongoing war, and Russia has also played a role in training the Syrian military, with Russia’s former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov admitting in 2012 that Russia had “military and technical advisers” in Syria. Moreover, in October 2014, Syrian opposition fighters overran a joint Syrian-Russian listening center that was believed to be used for espionage operations.

According to Anna Borschevskaya, a fellow at the Washington Institute and an expert on Russian foreign policy in the Middle East, Moscow is using the fight against the Islamic State to try to persuade the West to allow Assad to remain in power, something that Washington and its Gulf allies have said is a precondition for any successful peace talks. Should Assad abruptly fall, the Islamic State would likely benefit the most and could control even more territory in Syria.

“This is central to Putin’s proposal on how to fight ISIS,” Borschevskaya told FP.

Moscow put forward a peace plan for Syria that envisions enlisting Assad regime and Iran in the anti-Islamic State coalition, but rounds of negotiations with Washington and Riyadh have brought no visible results.

Amid the uncertainty of the Syrian government’s longevity in the country, signs are pointing towards an even greater Russian presence in Syria — and the influx of more experienced troops, like those from the 810th brigade, to Tartus could be part of that shift.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed concern in a phone call to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov over the weekend, saying that if the reports of a Russian military buildup were true, it could dramatically escalate the conflict. Kerry’s phone call came on the heels of a Sept. 4 New York Times report that Russia had sent a military advance team to Syria, as well prefabricated housing units to an airfield near Latakia where Russian humanitarian aid and military hardware have been unloaded.

Lavrov told Kerry it was premature to talk about Russia’s participation in military operations in Syria, a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman told RIA Novosti on Monday. Still, Lavrov confirmed Moscow’s military commitment to the Assad regime, saying Russia “has never concealed that it delivers military equipment to official Syrian authorities with the aim of combating terrorism”.

Photo taken from Maxim Mazhnikov’s Odnoklassniki profile.

In: foreignpolicy