« Must Read: NYT article on the Corporate Corruption of Congress | Main | Senate Passed Bankruptcy Restriction Bill »

March 10, 2005

A Trifecta Re Shrub's Snub of International Human Rights

The NYT, WaPo, and the LAT have articles regarding Shrub's decision to withdraw from the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. WaPo, as usual, summarizes the history of the law best.

Here's the thing: WE WROTE IT. That's right, folks. The USG proposed the Optional Protocol in 1963 and it was ratified in 1969. It gets better - we were the first to use it, in relation to the U.S. hostages in Iran in 1979.

The protocol provides protection of foreign nationals from unjust detention and allows said nationals to appeal to a court outside of the detaining state for help. The protocol is the teeth of the convention, something the USG clearly understood when it wrote and proposed the damn thing. But now that its being used to question death sentences in Texas, California, and elsewhere, it must go.

"U.S. Quits Pact Used in Capital Cases: Foes of Death Penalty Cite Access to Envoys," by Charles Lane in WaPo

"U.S. Says It Has Withdrawn From World Judicial Body," by Adam Liptak in the NYT

Bush Orders Hearings for Mexicans on Death Row: The action, triggered by a World Court ruling, may pit the president against state officials." by David Savage in the LAT

Posted by cj at March 10, 2005 2:21 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.chickenfootstew.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/77

Comments

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)


Remember me?