A Cruel and Unusual Record http://t.co/RcF3pqoTAS – President Carter: US no champion of human rights – #americansabroad are well aware!
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) July 5, 2013
While the country has made mistakes in the past, the widespread abuse of human rights over the last decade has been a dramatic change from the past. With leadership from the United States, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948 as “the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” This was a bold and clear commitment that power would no longer serve as a cover to oppress or injure people, and it established equal rights of all people to life, liberty, security of person, equal protection of the law and freedom from torture, arbitrary detention or forced exile.
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At a time when popular revolutions are sweeping the globe, the United States should be strengthening, not weakening, basic rules of law and principles of justice enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But instead of making the world safer, America’s violation of international human rights abets our enemies and alienates our friends.
As concerned citizens, we must persuade Washington to reverse course and regain moral leadership according to international human rights norms that we had officially adopted as our own and cherished throughout the years.
Speaking of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
2008 was the 60th anniversary of the Declaration. The United States of America celebrated by enacting the Exit Tax.
