23/06/2008

I enjoy supporting international organizations that promote equality and human rights.

And to that end, I support a slew of them beginning with the Women's Initiative for Gender Justice, which promotes women in assuming greater leadership roles in international organizations such as the International Criminal Court or ICC, to the most important of human rights organizations, Amnesty International.

It is not easy belonging to these global organizations because one is constantly bombarded with information that simultaneously turns the stomach and tugs at the heart. Environmental issues and global poverty aside, human right abuses are rampant and rapidly increasing.

In the current state-dominated system where security, national interest and power acquisition prevail, human rights are very low on the totem pole. Indeed, the last six years have convinced me that the system is not capable of dealing with global human rights issues, particularly when the hegemony pays no more than lip service to human concerns.

Hegemonies are best equipped to enforce a moral standard on the international system and the absence of an effective hegemony to do that is one of the primary reasons for military, economic, political and social imbalances in the system. Morality is the intangible component of power, and the most successful hegemonies are ones which use the power to persuade, not the power to defeat, as a first option.

Morality can be viewed as the rudder of the system. In its absence, the likelihood of war increases because countries will do what is in their interest without regard to the global one. Witness the twentieth century interwar period and the emergence of nasty, immoral regimes that plunged the world into a horrendous war.

The world is witnessing a repeat of the interwar amoral environment. It doesn't take much to see a huge difference between Bush I and Bush II. Bush I was successful in his invasion of Iraq because he came to the rescue of the international system. Saddam Hussein broke the cardinal rule of the global order by trespassing on the sovereignty of another nation, and thus it wasn't difficult for Bush I to find global support for the war. Bush II found no such support because he did what Saddam had done, and the result was not only lack of support for the United States but also the opening of doors for human rights abuses across the globe.

The administration cannot claim the high ground when talking to dictators when its policies put it in the mud.
Chad, Darfur, Myanmar and Somalia are only a few examples of areas with egregious human rights abuses. Worse yet are the cases that are not in the news and need organizations such as Amnesty International to expose. Dictators take their cues from the hegemonies — bad hegemonies — to silence prisoners of conscience.

A case in point is our old friend, Col. Qaddafi of Libya. His kangaroo courts have just sentenced 12 young men to stiff prison sentences for what Amnesty International says is “solely for the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.”

Anyone critical of the dictatorship is accused of “spreading false rumors about the Libyan regime” and “communicating with enemy powers.” Organizing a demonstration earns the organizer the charge of “attempting to overthrow the political system.” The same model is employed in Egypt, Zimbabwe and all the other dictatorships in civilian garb.

The question is, how can an American government that instituted the detainment center in Guantanamo Bay and devised the Abu Ghraib Prison scold dictators for torture or human rights abuses? And the truth is that the administration didn't. Media reports, including articles printed in the Washington Post, indicate the U.S government used such regimes to torture its own detainees.

I feel sorry for the next president of the United States, because to be taken seriously he will need to roll back time and work hard to convince the world that the Bush administration is the exception, not the rule.
And he can only do that by taking a tough stance against human rights abuses. Establishing a new global rudder needs to be the next president's primary task.

melkikhia@satx.rr.com

Published  19/06/2008 (San Antonio Express-News)

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/columnists/melkikhia/stories/MYSA.062008.OPED_2B_Mansour0620.2ec0f56.html

التعليقــــــــــــــــــــات

Libyan brother in exile: Well said Mr El-Kikhia ...and I add to your article,"Don't preach what you can't practice". This is meant for countries such as the United states who say one thing and do the opposite. I think it is not only the US that practice such hypocracy these days. Look at the new harsh laws recently issued by more than one European country under the pretence of fighting terrorism. Todays world is a business world where there is no place for such old high moral values. Instead it is who pays more is more important, and sadly this phenomenon includes all; from individuals, society and governments. They only respect and serve the well to do people; as for the unlucky ones, they either die or struggle until death, WHO CARES!!? I add my prayers to the other commentator May God end our nightmare soon, ameen.

little_rocok/ Jadu/Libya: Mr. El _Kikhia: First I am a Libyan citizen, and really I feel very sorry a bout the situation in Libya and also how Libyan people struggling against this alien dictator, you mentioned about the human rights organizations all around the World ,and these organizations could have taken some action against the dictator but, never did . before or after sadaam kicked over. so we Libyan people look at these groups as phantom.

MB: I would like to thank Dr Elkikhia for the article. It will be very difficult task ahead the next president of USA to retain the credibility of the office in the eyes of the world. The presidency of the current president is an exceptional in American history. Many Americans feel ashamed and embarrassed the way their administration conducted American foreign policy and causing anarchy in countries such as Iraq. As a citizen of the world I have the confidence that the new president of United States will correct the path of the American foreign policy, but that will take time of the world to get America back again.

ابرار: احب ان ارد على مقال السيد الكريم منصور الكيخيا ولكن للاسف ليس بللغة الانجليزيه لااننا من الجيل الدى حرمه القدافى من اللغة والغاها كل ما اريد قوله هو اننى ادعو الله للسيد الكيخيا وكل المنفيين عن ليبيا سنيننا الله يفرج عليكم ويرزكم العودة الى بلادكم ويفرج الله يا ليبيا.