U.S. State Department releases its annual report on human rights

On Friday, April 8, the U.S. State Department released its annual report on human rights. The report included sharp criticism of the human rights records of China, North Korea, Cuba, Burma and Belarus, among others.

The US is arguably a/the leader of the free world, and it is correct to point out serious human rights issues and violations in other countries. But the report would be more meaningful if our own national human rights record was seriously improved, and if the US itself was a model of human rights and ethical consistency at home and abroad.

The USA (other than Somalia) is the only country in the world which has not ratified the Convention of the Rights of the Child; we have not signed the Landmine Treaty, the Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and a host of other major human rights instruments.

Most blatantly, the USA remains a major human rights violator with its ongoing and despicable usage of the death penalty. This nation consistenly ranks in the top 5 executing jurisdictions in the world behind China and Iran; we have and use more methods of execution than any country in the world, and, as has long been documented, the system of capital punishment in the US is plagued with issues of racism, prejudice, mistakes, arbitrariness, and numerous examples of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct.

It is not a cliche...human rights begin at home. The USA needs to commit itself to (seriously) improving its own human rights record before it tries to claim any moral high ground while criticizing the human rights record of others.

Source: Rick Halperin, Amnesty International, Letter to the Editor, Dallas Morning News, April 9, 2011

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Kansas House Introduces Bill to Abolish the Death Penalty

The bill's being sponsored by the House's Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee.

The Kansas House of Representatives introduced HB 2323, a bill to abolish the state’s death penalty. The House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee sponsored the bill.

HB 2323 will replace the Kansas death penalty with life in prison without parole as the sentence for the crime of aggravated murder.

“This legislation will enable Kansas law enforcement officials to use the existing sentence of life without parole to hold offenders accountable for their crimes and protect the public safety without the unacceptable risk of executing an innocent person,” said Donna Schneweis, the Board Chair of the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

In Kansas capital cases to date, there have been well documented errors, including judicial error, jury misconduct, prosecutorial misconduct, withheld evidence, jury instruction issues and ineffective assistance of counsel. The Kansas Supreme Court has vacated three death sentences due to such errors.

“The death penalty is rife with problems beyond those in the court room,” said Carolyn Zimmerman, of Topeka, whose father was murdered in January 1969.

“The death penalty continues to impact the victims’ families long after a crime has occurred. A capital trial only prolongs a family’s pain and trauma, and rarely brings the closure families long for,” said Zimmerman.

Last year, the Kansas Senate nearly voted to abolish the death penalty. The legislation failed on a 20-20 vote.

"States across the country are recognizing the flaws of the death penalty. This legislation is the next step to ending this broken, inconsistent policy in Kansas,” said Schneweis.

Source: WIBW News, February 13, 2011

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