The Rule of Law and Human Rights
- By Konstantin Dolgov
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E-mail China.org.cn, September 13, 2013
American officials frequently criticize these or those court decisions taken in other countries for an alleged violation of freedom of speech, assembly and other civil rights. However, when the U.S. interests are affected, the American judicial system, as in the case of Bradley Manning's 35-year sentence, takes unjustifiably harsh decisions according to the so-that-it-doesn't-become-a-habit principle without any consideration of human rights aspects. In this regard, it should be noted that according to many human rights organizations, including American ones, information disclosed by Bradley Manning has revealed numerous abuses on the part of the U.S. Army during military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including casualties among civilians, torturing of detainees, as well as other gross violations of international law related to human rights. In short, it concerns everything the American authorities care so much about and seek to promote all around the world with such an enthusiasm. As we know, despite vigorous requirements of the international control instruments in human rights, special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council, in particular, as well as human rights community, nobody has been punished for these violations in the U.S. so far.
The issue of closing the U.S. Guantanamo special prison is still on the agenda. It has not been done yet, despite the insistent demands of human rights institutions and international community as a whole, as well as promises given by the U.S. President, Barack Obama, in 2009 to close this prison within a year and transfer the remaining detainees to the territory of the United States, where they would be fully covered by American laws.
The extraterritorial application of the U.S. laws is another pressing issue that is directly related to human rights and the rule of law. We know about this problem firsthand. Recently, there have been more cases of detention of Russian citizens in different countries of the world at the request of the U.S. law enforcement authorities for the purpose of their extradition and legal prosecution in the United States. We consider such practice unacceptable. It contradicts the norms of the international law. Moreover, as experience shows, the trials of those who were in fact kidnapped and moved out to the United States are biased and as a rule finish with ujust sentences involving long-term imprisonment.
Such manifestations of double standards in respect of the rule of law and human rights show once again that claims by the United States for a "leadership" in these important areas are groundless.
We face politicized approaches and double standards in assessing the human rights situation in different countries of the world including Russia applied by our European partners as well. We often hear them giving us mentoring moral lectures that reproduce the flawed stereotypes of the "cold war" era. At the same time, when it comes to human rights violations in the EU member states themselves, as in the case of abuses of the Russian-speaking populations' rights in Latvia and Estonia or in the case of rise of extremist and neo-Nazi sentiments in Europe, the EU specialized structures find themselves completely incapable complaining that they are not empowered to monitor the human rights situation within the European Union.
We cannot but be concerned about the aspiration of the Western countries to impose their neo-liberal values as a universal basis for life-sustaining activity on other members of the international community. This is particularly evident in the case of their aggressive promotion of the sexual minorities' rights. Attempts have being made to enforce on other countries an alien view of homosexuality and same-sex marriages as a norm of life and some kind of a natural social phenomenon that deserves support at the state level. Such an approach encounters resistance not only in the countries upholding traditional values, but also in those countries which have always taken a liberal attitude towards queers. Suffice it to recall the protest reaction of a major part of the French society to the decision on legalization of same-sex marriages in the country.
It is illustrative that Western governments aggressively promote neoliberal values at a time when they more often infringe social and economic rights and freedoms of their citizens.
Russia consistently opposes politicization and "double standards" in the field of human rights. We call on our partners to build an equitable and constructive dialogue and cooperation based on mutual respect in humanitarian and human rights sphere, with a view to solving existing problems to the maximum effect, with observance of fundamental principle of state sovereignty, and cultural and historical specifics of states. Current problems in this sphere are often of a transboundary nature and require collective solutions. These problems are well-known – increase in nationalism, xenophobia, dissemination of radical ideas, movements and organizations. This is the only way to create an environment necessary for sustainable development of human rights, one of the main elements of which must be the rule of law.
Democratic development is a living matter with no predetermined standards. There are basic principles and criteria based on fundamental rules of international law. At the same time, no two identical democracies exist.
We do not evade an honest and professional discussion of the problems in Russia. They exist, as in any country, even the most democratically developed one. However, one cannot deliberately ignore those significant and effective efforts undertaken by Russian leaders to solve these problems, in strict accordance with the Russian Constitution and international obligations of our country. Modern Russia has been pursuing the path of democratic development only since the beginning of 1990s. It is incomparable with centuries of democracy in the United States or Western Europe. But within this historically short period, with all difficulties, the most impressive distance has been covered. And, as the ancients said, one has to be blind not to see that.
I would like to wish fruitful work to participants of the Forum.
Konstantin Dolgov is Russian Foreign Ministry's Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law
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