United States Hypocrisy Evident in its Violations of International Law

By David Starr

The U.S. South in particular has a problem regarding human rights. Historically, this problem has existed for about two centuries, when looking at overt racism (or slavery) and systemic racism (still evident today despite social reforms). The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has not only documented these rights violations, it has provided documents to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

The CERD’s report, according to the SPLC, is a “serious rebuke and a wakeup call for the Biden administration.” The SPLC also stated that the report reveals the U.S. has a “longstanding failure of taking compliance with the treaty on racial discrimination seriously.”

In a press release, the SPLC focused on the criminal legal system in the U.S. South, the information of which was submitted by the SPLC to the CERD, which stated that “the widespread, disparate harms [results] from the arrests, harsh prison sentences, and incarceration on Black communities.” Additionally, there are “the devastating impacts of solitary confinement, prison labor, the school to prison pipeline, and incarceration of parents on Black families.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called a report put out by the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2015 “a scathing” condemnation with 348 recommendations to stop human rights violations in the U.S. But the latter has not taken its rights problem very seriously, instead, putting off compliance of international treaties. It’s like kicking the can down the road.

What U.S. leaders have done is preach to the rest of the world that their country is exceptional, that it is always the good guy supporting freedom and democracy. In reality, more often than not, the U.S. has been blatantly hypocritical in dealing with other countries, arrogantly lecturing them about what is right and what is wrong. Meanwhile, the U.S., as an empire has done a lot of wrong.

Xinhuanet has published a list of rights violations committed by the U.S. Xinhuanet is a Chinese source and one may think that it only puts out propaganda and in the process discredits itself. Or that the information it publicizes comes from an evil source. But Xinhuanet is still a source and it cannot be lying about everything. There are inconvenient truths that are out there about the U.S., and foreign sources have the right to reveal these truths. Thus, a source like Xinhuanet has put out truths about U.S. foreign policy actions and the hypocrisy that accompanies those actions.

The list starts off with U.S. interference in other countries’ affairs and violating the sovereignty of other countries: “The principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs is an important principle of the UN Charter and the basic norm governing international relations.” But the U.S. has repeatedly violated the Charter for decades to save “freedom” and “democracy.” Usually, that is not the case since it does this “under the guise of so-called democracy and human rights” while trying to turn other countries into market satellites. And China was an example of this.

Before 1949, China was known as the “Sick Man of Asia,” being carved up by western powers and going through a brutal invasion by the imperial Japanese military during World War II. It was a typical “Third World” country that was exploited for its wealth, labor and resources; just like many “Third World” countries today.

The list states that “The United States has long disregarded the fundamental principle of international law that prohibits the unlawful use of force or threat to use force, and has brazenly launched wars against other sovereign states.” One example that immediately comes to mind is the 2003 Iraq War. Under the façade of protecting democracy and to implement regime change to take down Saddam Hussein (who was a loathsome character), U.S. officials from the Bush Jr. regime fervently lied about Iraq’s nuclear capabilities. There was a rush to war, committing “shock and awe.” U.S. officials also lied about Hussein having an alliance with Osama bin Laden, but this wasn’t true since both didn’t see eye-to-eye.

The result of the Iraq War caused the deaths of about 1 million Iraqis while displacing millions. “Shock and awe” could very well be called a terrorist action.

The list states that “The United States has been upgrading its nuclear arsenal, lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, using the so-called ‘trilateral negotiations’ as a pretext to evade its special responsibility for nuclear disarmament, and even entertain the thought of resuming nuclear tests.” There has been preaching from U.S. officials, warning “rogue” countries not to develop a nuclear arsenal, even though the U.S. arsenal is the biggest threat in the world. U.S. military spending dwarfs the military spending of the next 10 nations combined.

Regarding biological weapons, “The United States has stood alone in opposing negotiations on a verification protocol of the Biological Weapons Convention and impeded international efforts to verify the biological activities in member countries and has thus become a ‘stumbling block’ to the process of biological arms control.” Additionally, “The United States has secretly set up biological laboratories around the world and engaged in biological militarization.” Again, it gets back to the U.S. pointing the accusing finger at other nations it sees as “enemies” for supposedly endangering the world with biological weapons, yet has blocked a way to check on the presence of biological weapons in the U.S. itself. It makes it look like the U.S. is hiding something, like a stockpile of its own biological weapons.

And the U.S. is obsessed with imposing sanctions on other countries: “According to data published by U.S. legal firm Gibson Dunn, under former President Donald Trump’s administration, the United States took more than 3,900 distinct sanctions actions, a record frequency of 3 a day.” We are supposed to believe that the imposed sanctions are against “rogue” nations and “evil” leaders. This is, for example, indicated in U.S. media propaganda. While there may be a particular nation storing biological weapons, U.S. finger-pointing brings out U.S. hypocrisy.

The U.S. has threatened to withdraw or actually withdrew from international treaties and organizations:

“In June 2018, the United States announced its withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council, citing the council’s ‘bias’ against Israel and its inability to effectively protect human rights.” The U.S. continues to side with a nation violating basic rights and that is Israel with its apartheid system imposed on Palestinians.

“In April 2017, the Trump administration announced a unilateral ‘cut-off’ of funding to the UN Population Fund on the grounds that that the organization supports or participates in coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.” But the Biden administration did restore funding to the organization. As for Trump and his ilk, accusations of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization are lies and used to attempt to discredit the left.

“In 2020, despite objections from its allies, the United States announced that it initiated the procedure of exiting from the Skies Treaty from May 22.” Whatever the Skies Treaty is specifically, it sounds like the U.S. is shirking its responsibilities.

“In 2019, the United States announced its withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty for the sake of developing advanced weapons without constraints.” The U.S., as an empire, is unfortunately gearing up for more war. That’s the biggest threat to peace.

The blatant irresponsibility shown by U.S. leaders and officials is inexcusable in light of the danger and chaos in the world. Rather than exhibiting wisdom and empathy, the world’s lone superpower is displaying a superiority complex. Just the fact that the U.S. is prioritizing implements of war shows that it priorities are ass-backwards.

There is no longer the Cold War existing in the world. The only “danger” to the U.S. is the world becoming more multi-polar, and this threatens its hegemony. It thus provokes other countries like Russia and China into a new Cold War.

Where is the exportation of freedom and democracy? These things hardly exist within the U.S.’s imperial foreign policy.

Sometimes freedom and democracy look as though it doesn’t exist within the U.S. (Despite its degree of democracy). The SPLC took a major step in showing documents to the CERD about racist violence in the United States. While this is very important, documentation is also crucial to show the racist violence and racist-sponsored violence by the U.S., as an empire, internationally. That and the U.S.’s hypocrisy in dealing with international law.