Richard Harrington
Summer 2012

GOVERNMENT CRIME

Human rights are rights unequivocally inherent to all human beings, whatever our basic nationality, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, or any other status. We are all entitled to our human rights without discrimination. Government exposure of political crimes and human rights violations have been in the forefront of the media in the last half-century, and the United States has always assisted itself in its own interests.

For the past decade the United States has been a global power and presence and most other countries are not. We are often called upon to engage in conflict situations like preventing violations of Human Rights and Genocide. It seems the United States only intervenes when our nations interests is concerned, and only brings negative reactions which severely undermines our effectiveness and especially our international credibility.“ American leadership must be commensurate with U.S. interests and the nature of the challenges facing the county. The United States should not take the lead on every issue or assume that every problem in the world demands a U.S. response. In the majority of cases, the United States should “lead from behind” or from the side, or sitting in front but rarely by itself”. (Foreign Affairs, Zenko & Cohen, Vol. 91 No. 2.)

Universal human rights are often expressed and guaranteed by law, in the legal forms of treaties, customary international law, general principles and other sources of international law. International human rights law shows the obligations of governments to act in a certain way, or to refrain from specific acts, in order to show and protect human rights and basic fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups. Human rights are the cornerstone of international human rights laws. This principle, as first emphasized in the Universal