US accused of trampling on human rights
The United States has been trampling on human rights since September 11, 2001 as it tries to prevent further attacks on its soil, a German rights watchdog said on Tuesday.
A series of measures taken to combat September 11-type attacks are infringing on fundamental human rights, particularly civil and political rights, said the German Institute for Human Rights, a body set up by parliament, in a study.
The authors warned that the harsh steps taken by the police and the military could be counter-productive and actually boost support for such attacks.
Reasons
Despite the impact of the September 11 attacks, they said, no comprehensive effort had been made at either an international, European or German level to examine the structural reasons for the emergence and support for such attacks.
The institute also criticised what it called “parallel worlds without rights” like the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where hundreds of suspected members of al-Qaeda and Afghanistan’s former Taliban government are being held.
| Guantanamo Bay “parallel world without rights” – German human rights body |
It said the prisoners held in such places had neither “access to fair legal proceedings” nor “limits on the time they could be held without judicial review.”
The institute was founded in March 2001 on a recommendation of the Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, to research the human rights situation in Germany and abroad and contribute to the fight against abuses.