Bogert: America Must Lead for the Rest of the World to Follow

In a recent talk, Carroll Bogert, the deputy director of Humans Rights Watch came to Muhlenberg College and discussed the United States role in civil rights in the 21^st century. While initially Bogert discussed how Human Rights Watch functions through investigation and exposure of a story of human rights violations and finally how change can ultimately be used to better the situation. Though, the main point that she made in her talk was that in order for the United States to lead the world on insuring human rights internationally, they need to be able to insure that the human rights violations, the United States itself commits are solved. In her view, the United States have no right to tell another nation how they should treat their citizens, if some people in this nation’s custody are not give their internationally guaranteed basic human rights. Through the use of several examples occurring in America as we speak, Bogert explains America’s human rights failures, most notably, the treatment of terrorists at Guantanamo Bay and illegal immigrants.  In my opinion Carroll Bogert’s argument concerning the United States’ human rights issues had one major implication and that was to draw attention to the problems involving human welfare that do exist in America, and these violations need to be dealt with before America can itself be labeled the world’s foremost human rights leader.

               The United States has long been seen as the world’s policeman, as the Earth’s foremost power, America acted as a mediator and a punisher when governments do not treat their people in a humane manner, but as groups like Human Rights Watch –and Carroll Bogert through this talk—demonstrate that America is just as guilty of these violations as other nations. The importance of discussing these violations as Bogert discussed is because it begs the question: how can America be the leader of human rights internationally, when there are blatant violations of human rights treaties happening right here in the United States? Bogert answered this question simply: it cannot. The importance of this question is because it draws people to the problems that exist in America, in which Bogert covered two major injustices in our immigration system and the use of torture on suspected terrorist prisoners. The mainstream media has done dozens of stories over the past year on the mistreatment of undocumented immigrants, but they usually fail to go deeper than the fact that they are here and they are a problem. Carroll Bogert discussed how Human Rights Watch went more in depth to discover that undocumented people had a much higher risk of having crimes committed against them (such as robbery or rape), because they are scared to report it to authorities for fear of deportation. This is a violation of a human’s right to equality, because why should you and I be able to freely report a robbery or a rape to the police without fear of repercussions, and an undocumented immigrant not be able to do so on the basis of fear. Bogert mentioned that law changes in the United States could take place in order to insure that any person no matter their status as an American citizen can report a crime without having to worry about possible negative effects. Another such instance of human rights violations are the torture and justice methods used on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. First as Bogert mentioned, criminals at Gitmo who have been deemed to be terroristic threats are not given regular trials by jury, but instead a military tribunal, which is conducted by a military official and not an actual judge. However, the main reason for military tribunals is so evidence that was gained through torture can be admitted in court. America is one of the only developed nations in the world to employ torture as a way of getting information and simple policy changes to prevent this from occurring could be put into place, but yet that fails to occur. In both these instances the United States again violated human rights legislation because a human right is equality before the law, which in this case is clearly violated.

               Bogert through analyzing these instances of human rights violations proved that America is in need of drastic changes in order to insure the safety of human rights for the people in this country. A common misnomer that is stated when it comes to these issues are that the people affected by these human rights violations are illegal aliens and suspected terrorists, people who did things to break the law, but that does not mean as Bogert states towards the end of her talk, that human rights do not differ country to country, and person to person, they are international and should be treated equally no matter where they be found. Bogert left her audience with one question: what is the United States afraid of (when it comes to insuring equal human rights)? In my opinion, before America can take charge in providing international aid to human rights violations taking place at every corner of the Earth, it must first be able to lead itself in insuring that the way America conducts its business with the people in its territory is a model system of human rights for the rest of the world to follow.