Cross-posted from My Left Nutmeg
A fellow DFA member brought this curious tidbit – which recently appeared in a local weekly – to my attention:
Washington, DC—Congressman Christopher Shays (CT-4) has been recognized by Amnesty International USA for his dedicated work in Congress promoting the issues of human rights. Shays has been a strong advocate for the causes of respect for human dignity, religious liberty, and the protection of all people based on race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.
Amnesty International USA recognized Shays with the Human Rights Advocacy Honor for his valuable contribution to restoring human rights to the forefront of United States counterterrorism policy, and protecting the rights of lesbian and gay people worldwide.
Is this for real? Amnesty International awarding a pro-torture, anti-habeus Congressman for his commitment to human rights in the "war on terror"?
“I am grateful for this recognition, but I am most grateful for the tireless work of Amnesty International to bring peace and justice to those suffering around the world, said Shays.
Amnesty International's mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination--in the context of their work to promote all human rights, as articulated in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights which recognizes the inherent dignity and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.
I checked into this, and it is legit: after meeting last month with a number of politicians, Amnesty's board gave this award to a select subset of them (I'm still trying to find out the exact number.) They decided to offer the award to Shays largely for his work on GLBT rights, and while I'm happy to acknowledge that he's probably ahead of 99% of Republicans and 50% of Democrats on GLBT issues, I'm profoundly disappointed that Amnesty International has lent their moral authority to Shays' exceedingly flexible approach to human rights.
Of course, any time Shays is asked about the excesses carried out in the name of "the war on terror," he'll trot out Amnesty's award to illustrate that he is actually a human rights leader. Whatever, that will be a long-term annoyance that everyone will have to deal with.
But what's even more depressing, to my view, is the fact that Amnesty International, one of the exceedingly few organizations operating in America to promote universal human rights and the restoration of a functioning system of international justice, appears to have really, really lowered their standards. Do they really see:
- "Now I've seen what happened in Abu Ghraib, and Abu Ghraib was not torture."
- Supporting the death penalty for over 20 years
- Supporting the Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act, both of which eliminate core due process protections in U.S. law
- Supporting extraordinary rendition of suspects to countries known to torture
- Opposing the restoration of habeus rights to prisoners at America's Guantanamo Bay facilities
as "valuable contribution[s] to restoring human rights to the forefront of United States counterterrorism policy"? Seriously, run through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Of the first dozen, Shays' policy preferences only leaves #4 standing.
I was reluctant to criticize Amnesty for this, because I enthusiastically support what they do – and since there's practically nobody else doing it, their work is absolutely necessary. Their primary goal is also mine: to end torture, execution, and extra-legal treatment of suspected criminals and political prisoners. This move is not just a shocking black eye to their credibility, but also directly undermines the hope of progress on the human rights front in America.
The current administration claims not to torture, and they claim that habeus corpus is still the law of the land – but the disclaimers and exceptions now attached to these rights make a mockery of our proud tradition of respecting human dignity. That Amnesty International chose to follow Bush and Shays' lead by lowering the bar for acceptable human rights practices is one of the most depressing things I've heard in this exceedingly depressing decade.