Last month, Gov. Jan Brewer objected to the Obama administration’s inclusion of SB1070 in a report to the U.N. that reviewed U.S. compliance with international human rights treaties to which the United States is a party. The Obama administration is not the first to submit such a report — three such reports were submitted while George W. Bush was president. The mention of the Arizona law was matter-of-fact, but that did not stop Gov. Brewer from engaging in her by now familiar political grandstanding over any mention of the law in the context of civil or human rights.
However, in an opinion piece published at CNN, two ACLU staffers — an attorney with the ACLU’s Human Rights Program and the executive director of the Arizona chapter — argue that Gov. Brewer doesn’t know what she’s talking about (admittedly, not a difficult case to make):
The U.S. government’s reference to SB 1070 in the periodic review report, which made no comment on the merits of the law, was brief; it merely laid out some simple facts: The law generated significant attention around the world (true); the law is being addressed in a court action (true); parts of the law are currently enjoined (true). Still, Brewer sent a letter to the State Department expressing “concern and indignation” that the report included a reference to SB 1070 at all.
Brewer’s bizarre statement that this country’s participation in a human rights reporting process is “internationalism run amok” and “unconstitutional” ignores the fact that human rights reporting requires countries to report on issues at the federal, state and local levels.
When the Bush administration reported on U.S. compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, a treaty that the United States has signed and ratified, the report included mentions of issues in states and in cities, in addition to national issues.
In fact, human rights activists argued (correctly) that the Bush administration’s report insufficiently included information from states and cities. In response, the State Department under the leadership of both the Bush and Obama administrations has (appropriately) committed that the United States will improve its reporting on both state and local issues.
Most international human rights treaties require regular reporting to encourage compliance by nations who are parties to these conventions. The “Supremacy Clause” of the U.S. Constitution describes ratified treaties as “the supreme law of the land,” so there is nothing unconstitutional about the U.S. government complying with ratified treaties or reporting on compliance of ratified treaties; in fact, one could very easily argue that reporting on treaty compliance is entirely consistent with the “intent of the framers” of the Constitution.
Further, Brewer’s suggestion that the human rights record of the United States (and Arizona by inclusion) be weighed against those of other nations participating in the periodic review process (such as Libya) is absurd, and her claim that the United States would “win in any such comparison” rings hollow.
The periodic review was established by the United Nations General Assembly as a process through which the human rights records of all the United Nations’ 192 member states would be reviewed and assessed, so to single out Libya, or any other country, and compare it to the United States is meaningless at worst and harmful at best.
The United States is the most powerful country in the world and it seeks to portray itself as a human rights leader. As a leader, it is incumbent upon the United States to evaluate its own laws and make sure they meet the human rights standards set for the rest of the world.
As such, it makes sense for the United States to participate in the periodic review process, and to include SB 1070 in its review, because not participating in the process and not mentioning an extremely controversial issue in the review would make the United States appear to the rest of the world as though it had something to hide.
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