Human Rights and the Hypocrisy of the United States: Carroll Bogert

Carroll Bogert, Deputy Executive Director of External Relations at the Human Rights Watch, discussed her organizations operations and investigations across the world in places like the Central African Republic, Bahrain and Guantanamo Bay. The Human Rights Watch is an international organization with no association with any governments, and is privately financed group, with an annual budget of around $80 million. The Human Rights Watch follows a three step plan in their operations: investigate violations of human rights, expose these violations to the public using many different mediums, and finally using public advocacy to try instituting change. 

Bogert spent most of the presentation, talking about three specific violations of Human Rights. She began by detailing the war between Muslims and Christians extremists in the Central African Republic, where villages are being slaughtered over religious tensions. Eventually, because of the work of the Human Rights Watch, the UN eventually sent peacekeepers in order to stop the religious genocides there. 

Bogert then spoke about the ongoing situation in Bahrain, a nation that still implements a monarchy. The Bahrain government arrests and executes people for “treason”, which can simply consist of speaking out against the monarchy or the king. Human Rights activists have been trying to put press attention on Bahrain for years, but have not gained much success. In fact Bahrain has, of recent years, prevented Human Rights activists from entering the country, as a means to keep their activities quiet in first-world countries. The United States has yet to make any sort of statement or movement against Bahrain for a glaringly obvious reason, the United States has a strategic military base in Bahrain.

This isn’t the only case where the United States hasn’t made the responsible decision in regards to Human Rights. The U.S. government has yet to close the famous terrorist prison in Guantanamo Bay, where practices of torture are still rampant. Bogert visited Guantanamo by permission of the government, through a very controlled process. While there, Bogert watched the ongoing trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the masterminds behind the September 11th attacks. Guantanamo’s prisoners are not tried by the American justice system, rather they are tried by a military commission. When Khalid finally was given the chance to speak he merely  shouted that he was tortured, and the trial was put on hold for the day. 

The United States is a major superpower that other nations are supposed to look up to in regards to democracy and upholding human rights. But, the actions of the United States make it rather difficult for significant change in nations across the world to make changes in their governments. If the United States is allowed to clearly violate the Geneva Conventions, then why does any other nation have to uphold the ideals of human rights. The first step for the world in making any significant change in regards to the basic rights that all humans deserve, the United States needs to make significant effort to reform.