Due to the actions of the current administration, I am writing this letter to express my feelings on what has occurred. It is in line with my rights as a United States Citizen and currently breaks no laws. However, that could all change tomorrow, if the current administration decides that free speech is no longer legal in this country.
This is the official declaration of Human Rights, according to the Human Rights Council. It is simplified to be easily understood. There are 30 basic human rights that have been agreed to by 47 countries, now 46 since the United States has withdrawn from it.
Some of those basic human rights are:
1. We Are All Born Free &Equal. We are all born free. We all have our own thoughts and ideas. We should all be treated in the same way.
2. Don’t Discriminate. These rights belong to everybody, whatever our differences.
3. The Right to Life. We all have the right to life, and to live in freedom and safety.
4. No Slavery. Nobody has any right to make us a slave. We cannot make anyone our slave.
5. No Torture. Nobody has any right to hurt us or to torture us.
6. You Have Rights No Matter Where You Go. I am a person just like you!
7. We’re All Equal Before the Law. The law is the same for everyone. It must treat us all fairly.
8. Your Human Rights Are Protected by Law. We can all ask for the law to help us when we are not treated fairly.
9. No Unfair Detainment. Nobody has the right to put us in prison without good reason and keep us there, or to send us away from our country.
10. The Right to Trial. If we are put on trial this should be in public. The people who try us should not let anyone tell them what to do.
On June 19, 2018 Nicki Haley our UN Ambassador announced the United States will be withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council. This comes one day after the council decried the United States actions at the Southern Border, and the forced removal and splitting up of families and children, and nursing babies from their mother’s arms for daring to seek asylum in the United States because of Human Rights Violations in their own countries.
It is not illegal to seek asylum in the United States at this time. Zero-tolerance policies have been changed, to say that fleeing from gang violence or domestic violence in your country of origin is no longer accepted as a reason for seeking asylum. These are some of the main reasons central Americans are seeking asylum in the US.
Children who have not committed any crimes are being held inside detention centers for up to 22 hours a day, or put in tent cities which they claim are air conditioned in 120 degree heat in the desert in the middle of the summer.
The list of human rights violations by the United States is endless. Native Americans, Annexation of Hawaii, Japanese internment, Jim Crow laws.
The list goes on and on. Child workers in the industrial age. Chain gangs in the 1930-1950s. Mass incarceration and neglect of the mentally ill, into the 1970s. Denying women the right to vote. To this day, refusing to allow adoptees, the only class of American citizens not to have the right to their original birth certificates. The incarceration of 25 percent of the African American male population under 30 in the nation.
Ms. Haley claimed that the US was leaving, because the Human Rights Council was being too tough on Israel, who recently killed Palestinian protesters at the border, many who were unarmed.
By leaving the UN Human rights council, Israel now as lost its largest defender on the council.
Ms. Haley claimed that the Human Rights council was hypocritical and of duplicity, and that other countries were being let in that violated human rights.
Mr. Trump recently met and praised the leader of North Korea. North Korea is on the list of countries banned and determined by the United Nations to be guilty of human rights violations. Mr. Trump will visit Russia soon. They are also on the banned list for human rights violations. After the UN criticized the actions at the southern border, on June 15, 2018 The US announced its immediate withdrawal from the council for daring to accuse the US of human rights violations.
The rights listed above have to be violated for a country to be condemned by the United Nations.
Read them carefully, and ask yourself this question:
Are we, the United States duplicitous and hypocritical ourselves? Are we aligning ourselves with human rights violators, and calling human rights protectors violators of human rights now?
Are we feeling gas lighted yet? Are we feeling isolated yet?
Once we leave the United Nations altogether, which is more than likely the next move of this administration since we have now officially left most of the important councils, such as climate change and human rights, what then?
So, let’s recap. We do not support the United Nations. We do not support the Human Rights council. We do not support Climate Change Council. The facts are, the United States created the United Nations. The United Nations mission is to support human rights, protect the planet, and keep the peace. It is a cooperative effort of countries that agree to abide by this premise.
Extreme Right political radicalism claims that it is a conspiracy to dominate the planet and take over humanity in a global grab for power. So, essentially, good is bad, and bad is good. Consider this.
We have called our strongest allies names, and imposed tariffs on them. We have praised dictatorships, and accused others of human rights violations while we are committing acts of human rights violations at our southern border.
Will the US continue to be a free nation, which adheres to the above human rights listed above, or will the current administration come out with an announcement that this administration will decide what our human rights will be from now on?
My sincere hope, is that each of the items listed above will continue to be endorsed and enforced by all levels of government, agencies, and elect officials at all levels, and that no human rights violations will occur in the country that I live in.
I hope and pray for mercy for our people.
•••
Anne Punohu is resident of Lihue.
