The Daily Background

For a Human Rights class I’m taking, we’re supposed to formulate a question(s) related to human rights each week for class. The following is mine for week two.

So… has President Bush actually read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

Totally serious question. This past Tuesday, the President made a speech at the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York. In it, he said “The words of the Universal Declaration are as true today as they were when they were written.”

But has the President actually read the UDHR? Does he actually know what words it does and does not contain? Because judging from his policy decisions in recent years, you sure wouldn’t think so.

During his “war on terror,” the President has argued– against HR statutes such as the UDHR– that all human beings should not be seen as equal before the law (Article 7, baby). For instance, holding detainees without the right to see lawyers, the right to see evidence against them, or even holding them without making any charges against them (all three of these are also unconstitutional, by the way).

Jose Padilla, an American citizen, was held for three years in a military prison without his lawyer or family knowing where he was, no communication with the outside world, never charged with a crime during this time, and not allowed to see any evidence against him, despite making all sorts of claims about how Padilla was an immediate threat to the United States of America.

In late 2005, he was finally indicted on charges unrelated to what he was originally arrested for, and is still being held by the government without the opportunity of bail.

In the period while he was held, it was argued by the White House that Padilla should not be treated as a human being under the UDHR, as an enemy under the Geneva Convention, or an American citizen under the American Constitution because they claimed he was a terrorist (despite the fact that they had no evidence which they were willing to show anyone to prove this claim).

Filed under: Human Rights, Z-TDB Blog