Rob York

Opinion | If the US wants to be a human rights beacon, it has to hold itself to a higher standard

Criticism of the US human rights record has grown and, while it is nowhere as dismal as in countries like China or North Korea, if America is to represent a higher standard, it should behave as though it does and reform where it does not

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A protester holds up an American flag with the words “I Can't Breathe” as he walks in Manhattan after a George Floyd demonstration in Brooklyn, New York, on June 4. Photo: EPA-EFE

Rob York

Published: 1:05am, 16 Jul 2020Updated: 11:32am, 16 Jul 2020

I recently had the privilege of speaking at a webinar on disinformation during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially as carried out by authoritarian governments. A favourite tactic of theirs, I noted, is to deflect criticism from American sources using “whataboutism”. Experience shows that this tactic can be used to counter almost anything – from arbitrary arrests and torture, to mass incarceration of an ethnic minority – by arguing that the United States is not exactly blameless in any of these respects.

My point was that this is at best a distraction and at worst, utter hypocrisy. For one, US-based commentators tend to direct criticism at targets criticised widely elsewhere as well. And when North Korean or Chinese state media criticise US police tactics, for instance, they are setting a standard for US police that those countries could never meet, at least not without putting their power at risk.

Still, during the question and answer session, someone asked: “Do the critics of the US human rights record have a point?”

Not only have US problems with police and race relations boiled over this summer, the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war and the 2008 economic crisis also show that US media are far from blameless in spreading “disinformation”, often with the help of government and elite business interests.

For many of us who walk a foreign-policy-centric beat, it is easy to become fixated on other countries’ misdeeds at the expense of our own. We make our living reading reports from Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on the shortcomings of North Korea, Iran, Myanmar, etc. That Human Rights Watch has much to say about the US treatment of migrants and prisoners, and that our RSF rankings have slid substantially after 2013 may escape our notice.

Even those aware may have little quality analysis to share of those trends – we simply do not have the professional incentives to comment.

04:34

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