Civil Liberties               The National Newsletter of the ACLU
#380, Spring 1994             (c) 1994 American Civil Liberties Union

ACLU And HRW Report On U.S. Human Rights Record

By Paul Hoffman

     The ACLU and Human Rights Watch issued a joint 178-page
report in December 1993 evaluating United States compliance with
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),
which our government ratified in 1992.  The report focuses on
nine areas: race and sex discrimination, language rights,
immigrants' rights, prison conditions, police abuse, death
sentencing, freedom of expression and religious liberty.  Here
are some of its findings:

Prisoners

     The U.S. routinely violates Article 10 of the ICCPR, which
requires that all prisoners and detainees "be treated with
humanity and with respect to the inherent dignity of the human
person," by maintaining prison conditions that are extremely
overcrowded, lacking in privacy, unhealthy and unsafe; also, by
handling prisoners inhumanely in "supermaximum security"
facilities, where, for example, inmates may spend years indoors
or may be forced to eat like animals, with their hands tied
behind their backs.  Article 26, which bans discrimination, is
violated by the unequal treatment of women prisoners, who receive
less recreational, vocational and educational opportunities than
male inmates.

Immigrants and Refugees

     The interdiction and summary repatriation of Haitian boat
people is a flagrant violation of Article 12, which provides that
"[e]veryone shall be free to leave any country, including his
own"; it also violates Article 24, which forbids discrimination
based on national origin (intercepted Cubans are not summarily
repatriated).  Human rights abuses by Immigration and
Naturalization Service border patrol agents violate Article 7
(the right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment) and Article 9[1] (the right to liberty and security of
the person).

Race Discrimination

     Generally, U.S. laws' protections against race
discrimination comply with ICCPR standards -- but not in
practice.  Segregation, discrimination and inequalities persist
in schooling and housing, and in employment blacks are three
times less likely to be hired than similarly qualified whites.
These conditions violate Article 2, which requires an effective
remedy for violation of Covenant rights, and Article 26, which
requires "equal and effective protection [i.e., enforcement of
the remedy] against discrimination on any ground."

Language Rights

     Language minorities face discrimination in health and social
services, employment and education, as well as such hostilities
as the "English Only" movement.  Article 26 forbids
discrimination based on language, while U.S. law does not
explicitly protect against such discrimination.  Moreover, the
relatively weak judicial scrutiny that has greeted constitutional
claims in this area is protected by the U.S. understanding to
Article 26, which purports to allow language discrimination when
it is "rationally related to a legitimate governmental
objective."  Erasure of this understanding and implementation of
the ICCPR would provide much-needed protection for language
minorities.

Sex Discrimination

     In violation of Article 26, women face systemic, entrenched
employment discrimination in terms of occupational access,
conditions of employment and compensation; exclusion from
government-funded medical research, and unequal treatment in both
secondary and higher education in terms of attention and
resources.  The U.S. is in non-compliance, even taking into
account its limiting understanding of Article 26.  

Religious Liberty

     The 1990 Supreme Court decision in Employment Division v.
Smith represented a serious legal incursion into First Amendment
protection for the free exercise of religion.  The trend was
halted by passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in
1993, but that three-year hiatus in protection underscores the
potential importance of the ICCPR as an additional line of
defense against encroachments upon fundamental rights.

Freedom of Expression

     Although the U.S. is a leader in this area, it falls short
of complying with Article 19, which guarantees a right "to seek,
receive and impart information ... regardless of frontiers."  The
U.S. curtails the information flow both into and out of the
country by denying visas to some controversial speakers; by
blocking entry of materials from certain countries through
economic embargoes; by restricting travel abroad, and by
constraining individuals' ability to seek and impart information
independently.  The severe and unjustified restrictions imposed
on the media during the Persian Gulf War also violated Article
19. 

The Death Penalty

     Article 6 does not require abolition of the death penalty,
but it favors abolition and limits the penalty's use.  It forbids
arbitrary death sentencing and the execution of juveniles, and it
stipulates that a death sentence may be imposed "only for the
most serious crimes." The U.S. entered a reservation to the ICCPR
that allows death sentencing to the extent permitted under the
U.S. Constititution.  But for this reservation, the U.S. would be
in violation of all the Article 6 conditions cited above.

Police Brutality

     The 1991 beating of Rodney King made clear that police abuse
is one of the most pressing human rights issues facing the U.S. 
The persistent use of excessive force, often exacerbated by
racism, violates Article 7's prohibition on "cruel, inhuman and
degrading treatment or punishment" and the prohibition against
discrimination in Articles 2 and 26.  The U.S. further violates
Article 2 by failing to take "the necessary steps" to ensure
respect for these basic rights.  

     The U.S. government was due to release its own compliance
report, for the first time under a major international human
rights treaty, around the time the ACLU/HRW report was published. 
That report has yet to appear. 

--------------------
Paul Hoffman, an author of the ACLU/HRW report, is chair of the
ACLU's International Human Rights Task Force.

How to Order the Joint Report on Human Rights Violations 
in the United States

The ACLU and Human Rights Watch collaborated on this landmark
report, which, for the first time, evaluates U.S. compliance with
the human rights standards set forth in the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICPSR).  Citing major
shortcomings in that compliance, the report calls on the Clinton
Administration to take steps toward correcting a wide range of
abuses and to make it possible to invoke ICPSR protections in
U.S. court cases. 

Human Rights Violations In The United States.  Human Rights
Watch/American Civil Liberties Union.  178 pages.  $15.00 plus
$3.00 shipping & handling.  TO ORDER: Send name/address and
check/money order, payable to Human Rights Watch, to:
Publications, Human Rights Watch, 485 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
10017-6104

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