Erstellt am: 10. 12. 2014 - 12:30 Uhr
"The West has lost its credibility on human rights"
The release of a US Senate report into the CIA's detention and interrogation programme during the Bush administration has shed a disturbing light on human rights abuses carried out in the USA in the name of the so-called "War on Terror". The Senate itself called the interrogation techniques "brutal". They included waterboarding and "rectal hydration". The UN has spoken of "clear policy orchestrated at a high level".
APA-FOTO: GEORG HOCHMUTH
It's the UN International Human Rights Day today and on FM4 Reality Check I spoke to Manfred Nowak, the former UN special rapporteur on torture. He is now the head of the newly opened Research Centre for Human Rights and he told me, the world was in the midst of a "human rights crisis" with the situation getting worse, not better.
Chris Cummins: What impact have the latest revelations of US abuse had on the global struggle to improve human rights?
Manfred Nowak: Unfortunately the United States in the past few years, particularly during the Bush administration, has lost all its credibility because of gross violations of human rights during their fight against terrorism. They simply neglected international legal standards. But the whole human rights situation there is deteriorating. If you look at the criminal justice system it has simply broken down. The US is the country with by far the highest number of people behind bars.
And that has impacted their chances of putting pressure on other countries to improve their practices?
Yes, it unquestionably has. I know this from my experiences as the UN special rapporteur on torture. When I went to Jordan, for example, to investigate the situation there, they said: Why are you investigating us? Even the USA is officially torturing people. Why shouldn’t we do the same? We are also fighting terrorism. So the West has lost a lot of its legitimacy to tell others what to do.
And it is not just the USA. Europe cooperated very closely with the CIA and the US government on many human rights abuses. Just look at "Fortress Europe" - look at the European migration policy. Thousands of people are dying in the Mediterranean because we are denying them access to asylum procedure. They can’t apply for asylum from outside Europe’s borders. We are responsible for the fact that in their desperation they turn to criminal smuggling gangs, who exploit them again. It’s our fault we should have a more humane asylum policy within the European Union.
APA/EPA/ITALIAN NAVY PRESS OFFICE / HANDOUT
Can we just blame national governments? We hear about human rights abuses in Qatar and Equatorial Guinea. But these countries have been awarded major prestigious football competitions, the World Cup and the African Cup of Nations. Surely if international organisations, like FIFA and CAF with their powerful sponsors, would take a moral stance on human rights that would make a massive difference?
Yes, but now the world is ruled by global financial and economic interests. So if a decision is in the economic interests of international corporations then human rights play a negligible role. There might be some window-dressing about a statement of corporate responsibility, but when it comes to really taking decisions, it is economic profit that counts.