United States' Human Rights Record Dismal, says global rights groups

The Asia Tribune reports "the United States government has been widely condemned for violating basic human rights in the fight against terrorism. Since 2001, the Bush administration has authorized interrogation techniques widely considered torture. It has held an unknown number of detainees as 'ghosts' beyond the reach of all monitors, including the ICRC. And it has become the only government in the world to seek legislative sanction to treat detainees inhumanly."

This is how the US-based well respected rights group Human Rights Watch scrutinized the U.S. human rights practices in its annual report released here this week.

In response to the U.S. Department of State’s release early this week of its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, the London-based Amnesty International said that while the report provides a comprehensive review of the global situation, a major chapter is missing – a section focusing on the United States’ own human rights record.

The Bush administration’s practice of transferring detainees in the "war on terror" to countries cited by the State Department for their appalling human rights records actually turns the report into a manual for the outsourcing of torture, Amnesty International further states."

The US should get its own house in order if it is to be taken seriously as a watchdog of human rights violations and that applies to Australia as well.