Treatment of US Suspects At Home Mirrors That of Terror Suspects in Military Custody

Included in the shadow report are several examples of police brutality and prisoner abuse and torture that violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and many others.

By Citizen Correspondent Larisa Alexandrovna , U.S.

Date Posted: 07/14/06

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For the first time in our history, US attorneys are taking the USG to the international community and presenting a 456 report of domestic violations of human rights... 142 groups will be presenting their case on topics ranging from torture to the treatment of Katrina victims.

The hearings start next week, July 17 in Geneva where the NGO coalition will present its report against the USG and counter the USG's flagrantly false testimony.

In other words, the largest US coalition ever to appear at Geneva will be charging (not formally as there is no actual way to do this without state sponsorship) the USG with serious crimes against their own citizens and on US soil.

Yet crickets is all there is regarding this story. Are we really so jaded that we can no longer care about something as serious as our own citizens being tortured and falsely imprisoned?

It is imperative that the international community knows that we do not support human rights abuses at home or abroad. I feel like I am watching China's report being challenged by the "shadow report" of their own citizens.

But I have never thought I would see such charges against my own country. What we are witnessing is historic.

I am making a personal request that we make noise enough to push this to the MSM so that the world knows we do not condone torture, human trafficking, child abuse and the plethora of issues covered in the 456 shadow report. So please read the two following articles and if possible, take a look at both the government report and the NGO shadow report and do your best to get this out.

Human Rights advocates see discrepancies between the official US Government account and a non-government organization (NGO) "shadow report," and cite disturbing examples of human rights abuses that have gone unchecked within the US and unreported by the official government report to the UN Human Rights Committee.

Included in the "shadow report" are several examples of police brutality and prisoner abuse and torture that not only violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Conventions against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment (CAT), but also the United States Constitution.

The USG official report and the "shadow report" submitted to the UN Human Rights Committee will be discussed at hearings scheduled to begin on July 17, in Geneva, Switzerland.

The committee holds hearings every four years to review the compliance status of member nations who are signatories to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) -one of the two treatises that together make up what is commonly referred to as the International Bill of Rights. The US signed and ratified the treaty in 1992.

Following up on a RAW STORY article describing a 456-page "shadow report" by a coalition of 142 US nonprofits, some coalition member groups have now provided a list of discrepancies between the official State Department report and the extensive shadow report presented to the Human Rights Committee.

A shadow report is an NGO rebuttal to the official State presentation.

One of the key sections of this report deals specifically with prisoner abuse and torture within the United States and of United States citizens by authority figures.