Systemic prisoner abuse

Reports have been coming in of human rights abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan. The International Committee of the Red Cross released a report on US abuse of prisoners in Iraq. Amnesty published a report on British atrocities in general in Iraq. Human Rights Watch released a report on US abuses in Afghanistan. And the journalist Seymour Hersh has publish a devastating expose on how the US system of prisoner abuse in Iraq goes up all the was to Rumsfeld. Happy reading, not.

So yes, Bush and Rumsfeld must go, but more than that, we need an effective system of criminal justice, in which nobody is above the law, including the US. Right now, the US gets to play world police (which is turning out to be a pretty frightening reality), and the UN and the international community can't do anything. We need all countries who haven't yet signed, including the US, to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, so that we can have a fair system of international justice where any victim can have their day in court, and to which any perpetrator will be answerable. For more info on the Rome Statute, find out about Amnesty's International Justice campaign.