Facts about US - Rogue Nation
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2001-12/21duboff.cfm
1. In December 2001, the United States officially
withdrew from the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, gutting the landmark
agreement-the first time in the nuclear era that the US renounced a major arms
control accord.
2. 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention
ratified by 144 nations including the United States. In July 2001 the US walked
out of a London conference to discuss a 1994 protocol designed to strengthen the
Convention by providing for on-site inspections. At Geneva in November 2001, US
Undersecretary of State John Bolton stated that "the protocol is
dead," at the same time accusing Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Sudan, and
Syria of violating the Convention but offering no specific allegations or
supporting evidence.
3. UN Agreement to Curb the International Flow of
Illicit Small Arms, July 2001: the US was the only nation to oppose it.
4. April 2001, the US was not reelected to the UN
Human Rights Commission, after years of withholding dues to the UN (including
current dues of $244 million)-and after having forced the UN to lower its share
of the UN budget from 25 to 22 percent. (In the Human Rights Commission, the US
stood virtually alone in opposing resolutions supporting lower-cost access to
HIV/AIDS drugs, acknowledging a basic human right to adequate food, and calling
for a moratorium on the death penalty.)
5. International Criminal Court (ICC) Treaty, to
be set up in The Hague to try political leaders and military personnel charged
with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Signed in Rome in July 1998, the
Treaty was approved by 120 countries, with 7 opposed (including the US).
In October 2001 Great Britain became the 42nd
nation to sign. In December 2001 the US Senate again added an amendment to a
military appropriations bill that would keep US military personnel from obeying
the jurisdiction of the proposed ICC.
6. Land Mine Treaty, banning land mines; signed
in Ottawa in December 1997 by 122 nations. The United States refused to sign,
along with Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Vietnam, Egypt, and
Turkey. President Clinton rejected the Treaty, claiming that mines were needed
to protect South Korea against North Korea's "overwhelming military
advantage." He stated that the US would "eventually" comply, in
2006; this was disavowed by President Bush in August 2001.
7. Kyoto Protocol of 1997, for controlling global
warming: declared "dead" by President Bush in March 2001. In November
2001, the Bush administration shunned negotiations in Marrakech (Morocco) to
revise the accord, mainly by watering it down in a vain attempt to gain US
approval.
8. In May 2001, refused to meet with European
Union nations to discuss, even at lower levels of government, economic espionage
and electronic surveillance of phone calls, e-mail, and faxes (the US
"Echelon" program),
9. Refused to participate in Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)-sponsored talks in Paris, May 2001,
on ways to crack down on off-shore and other tax and money-laundering havens.
10. Refused to join 123 nations pledged to ban
the use and production of anti-personnel bombs and mines, February 2001
11. September 2001: withdrew from International
Conference on Racism, bringing together 163 countries in Durban, South Africa
12. International Plan for Cleaner Energy: G-8
group of industrial nations (US, Canada, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Italy,
UK), July 2001: the US was the only one to oppose it.
13. Enforcing an illegal boycott of Cuba, now
being made tighter. In the UN in October 2001, the General Assembly passed a
resolution, for the tenth consecutive year, calling for an end to the US
embargo, by a vote of 167 to 3 (the US, Israel, and the Marshall Islands in
opposition).
14. Comprehensive [Nuclear] Test Ban Treaty.
Signed by 164 nations and ratified by 89 including France, Great Britain, and
Russia; signed by President Clinton in 1996 but rejected by the Senate in 1999.
The US is one of 13 nonratifiers among countries that have nuclear weapons or
nuclear power programs. In November 2001, the US forced a vote in the UN
Committee on Disarmament and Security to demonstrate its opposition to the Test
Ban Treaty.
15. In 1986 the International Court of Justice
(The Hague) ruled that the US was in violation of international law for
"unlawful use of force" in Nicaragua, through its actions and those of
its Contra proxy army. The US refused to recognize the Court's jurisdiction. A
UN resolution calling for compliance with the Court's decision was approved 94-2
(US and Israel voting no).
16. In 1984 the US quit UNESCO (UN Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization) and ceased its payments for UNESCO's
budget, over the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) project
designed to lessen world media dependence on the "big four" wire
agencies (AP, UPI, Agence France-Presse, Reuters).
The US charged UNESCO with "curtailment of
press freedom," as well as mismanagement and other faults, despite a 148-1
in vote in favor of NWICO in the UN. UNESCO terminated NWICO in 1989; the US
nonetheless refused to rejoin. In 1995 the Clinton administration proposed
rejoining; the move was blocked in Congress and Clinton did not press the issue.
In February 2000 the US finally paid some of its arrears to the UN but excluded
UNESCO, which the US has not rejoined.
17. Optional Protocol, 1989, to the UN's
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aimed at abolition of the
death penalty and containing a provision banning the execution of those under
18. The US has neither signed nor ratified and specifically exempts itself from
the latter provision, making it one of five countries that still execute
juveniles (with Saudi Arabia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria).
China abolished the practice in 1997, Pakistan in 2000.
18. 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women. The only countries that have signed but
not ratified are the US, Afghanistan, Sao Tome and Principe.
19. The US has signed but not ratified the 1989
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which protects the economic and social
rights of children. The only other country not to ratify is Somalia, which has
no functioning government.
20. UN International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights, 1966, covering a wide range of rights and monitored by the
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The US signed in 1977 but has
not ratified.
21. UN Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948. The US finally ratified in 1988,
adding several "reservations" to the effect that the US Constitution
and the "advice and consent" of the Senate are required to judge
whether any "acts in the course of armed conflict" constitute
genocide. The reservations are rejected by Britain, Italy, Denmark, the
Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Mexico, Estonia, and others.
22. Is the status of "we're number
one!" Rogue overcome by generous foreign aid to given less fortunate
countries? The three best aid providers, measured by the foreign aid percentage
of their gross domestic products, are Denmark (1.01%), Norway (0.91%), and the
Netherlands (0.79), The three worst: USA (0.10%), UK (0.23%), Australia,
Portugal, and Austria (all 0.26).
