Waiting for me in my inbox on Monday morning were two press releases. One from the US State Department. The other from two prominent dissident groups in Burma: the 88 Generation Students and the All Burma Federation of Student Unions. The juxtaposition of these two emails side-by-side struck me.
will not look the other way in the face of serious human rights abuses. The truth must be told, the facts brought to light and the consequences faced. While we will aim for common ground, we will call things as we see them and we will stand our ground when the truth is at stake.
the worst brutality committed by the Burmese military regime.
Over the past two years nothing has improved in Burma. Rape as a weapon of war, slavery, forced labor, summary executions, looting and pillaging all continue unabated.
Perhaps the Obama Administration will indeed embark on a new quest for truth and accountability. It would do well to start with Burma.
It’s a script for a great horror story — or nightmare. Being:
mentally ill,
indigent,
jailed, perhaps indefinitely, and
without a lawyer or guardian or anyone to speak for you?
And it’s happening right now in America.
Indigent mentally ill persons are placed in immigration detention and ordered deported from the United States every day. They have no right to a free lawyer nor to a court-appointed representative to speak on their behalf. Many have stories like Xiu Ping Jaing: an immigrant who fled human rights abuse in her home country only to be caught in a system dubbed by one expert the “American gulag.”
For many human rights problems, the solutions are complex. This isn’t one of them. In July, PHR joined human rights groups across the United States in asking Attorney General Eric Holder to take common-sense steps:
appoint lawyers for mentally ill detainees who can’t afford them,
set up a fair process to determine individuals’ competency to face deportation hearings, and
appoint guardians ad litem for individuals found incompetent.
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In ratifying the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the US agreed that
all persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person (Art. 10(1)).
The Obama Administration can, and must, act now to ensure that the mentally ill in our immigration jails are treated with the dignity they deserve.
Remember the calamitous end to Sri Lanka’s 26-year-long civil war back in May? Some 16,700 non-combatants were wounded and several thousand more were killed during the final onslaught. Fighting between the 150,000-strong Sri Lankan Army (SLA) and the 7,000-strong Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) armed forces resulted in 300,000 displaced minority Tamils.
Although both sides committed mass atrocities, recent video footage of apparent executions (warning: this video contains graphic images) of 9 Tamil POWs supports widespread allegations of war crimes by the SLA.
But the international community, most notably the UN Security Council, remains idle while it should be launching a commission of inquiry.
Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi applaud during President Barack Obama's address to a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber of the Capitol in Washington on February 24, 2009. (PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AFP/Getty Images)
Medical care is a human right, and the US health care system falls far short. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations with strong US engagement, specifically lists adequate medical care as a human right (Article 25).
Tomorrow, President Obama will address a joint session of Congress to press our Senators and Representatives to advance meaningful health care reform. Therefore, it is essential that we remind our legislators now that crucial human rights are at stake.
