MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS SUMMARY
In 2006, more than 142 U.S.-based non-profits and organizations and 32 individuals formed a
coalition to develop a comprehensive “shadow report” of human rights violations in the United
States. This “shadow report” was submitted to the United Nations’ Human Rights Committee in
May 2006 for its use during its 87th Session, when the committee will review the United States’
compliance with the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, an international treaty
it ratified in 1992.
This 465-page “shadow report” covers over 100 separate human rights violations. Among the
issues covered in the report are:
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“U.S. Exceptionalism:” The United States has failed to fulfill its obligations to
implement the civil and political rights treaty. When it ratified the treaty, Congress
attached reservations, understandings and declarations that effectively rendered the treaty
unenforceable. Despite playing the role of watchdog for the implementation of human
rights around the world, the U.S. has faltered in meeting its own international human
rights obligations, including those of the Covenant. The result is that U.S. citizens and
others in the United States have no effective remedy; in other words, they have no way to
ensure that all of their human rights are protected.

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Immigration: There are many human rights violations that immigrants face in the U.S.
including:
o Immigrants are routinely denied access to counsel, both when federal agents do
not inform immigrants of their right to counsel and when immigrants are not
allowed access to counsel in the cases of expedited removal of immigrants
crossing the southern border.
o Immigrants who are permanent residents often lose their right to family integrity
when their family members are deported. These violations are increasing due to
the expansion of deportable offenses and the limitations on discretionary relief.
Mandatory removal violates legal permanent residents’ right to individualized
review. The U.S. failure to consider the interests of any minor children violates
the right of the child to special protection.
o Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., there was an
increase in the number of militia-like groups along the U.S.-Mexico border, some
of which have gained the support of white supremacists. These vigilante groups
have been hunting, detaining, beating, and sometimes killing immigrants,
violating their right to life.

•

Hurricane Katrina:
o The death toll from Hurricane Katrina was the direct result of the State Party’s
failure to provide adequate evacuation plans, evacuation assistance, and
humanitarian aid. These omissions violated both the right to life and the
principle of non-discrimination. Specifically, the State Party’s evacuation plans
were discriminatory on the basis of property ownership, which had a disparate
impact on racial minorities, especially on African Americans.

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o In the April 2006 elections in Orleans Parish, tens of thousands of voters were
denied access to voting because the U.S. Government failed to take actions to
accommodate those displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Despite precedents set by
the responses to other disasters including the September 11, 2001 attacks in New
York City, the federal government chose to provide only a fraction of the
financial assistance requested by the Louisiana State government to hold these
elections. Of particular concern, the denial of voting rights for the displaced
population was racially disparate. An independent review of the April voter
turnout shows a significant drop among African American voters and an actual
increase in the percentage of white voter turnout.
•

Violations of Privacy and the Criminalization of Dissent:
o The government monitoring phone, e-mail, and fax communications within and
outside the United States without judicial oversight are part of a larger scheme
that criminalizes dissent. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been
collecting information on the tactics, training and organizing of anti-war
demonstrators who have done nothing illegal. To this end, the government is
engaged in intelligence gathering that violates Article 17 [can I just say “right
to privacy?”].
o Peaceful political demonstrators in the United States have been profiled by
government agencies based on their political or ideological viewpoints; they are
being illegally detained, arrested and sometimes beaten based on their
participating in politically expressive activity and/or peaceable assembly; and
their organizations are being infiltrated by local and federal law enforcement.
These government acts violate the demonstators’ right to privacy and right to
assemble.

•

Death Penalty:
o Contrary to the Committee’s specific recommendations in 1995, the U.S. has
failed to take measures to restrict the death penalty to the most serious crimes. For
example, the “felony murder” rule allows for individuals to be sentenced to death,
even if they did not kill, intend to kill, or even contemplate that another human
being would die as a result of their actions. Moreover, since the U.S. last
appeared before this Committee, it has taken no steps to reduce the number of
crimes for which individuals are “death-eligible,” violating individuals’ right to
life.
o There is mounting evidence that current lethal injection protocols violate antitorture statues. Lethal injection is the most common method of execution in the
U.S. While lethal injection was once believed to cause a painless death, experts
have testified that death by lethal injection can cause excruciating agony.

•

Failure to Provide Special Protection to Children:
o The United States fails to recognize the right of children in conflict with the law
to procedures that take account of their age, which violates children’s rights to
special protection. State legislation routinely allows children, in some cases as
young as 10 years old, to be subject to adult criminal proceedings.

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o More than 9,000 children are housed in adult prisons and jails and more than
4,000 children per year enter the adult system. When the United States ratified
the ICCPR, it attached a limiting reservation stipulating that it “reserve[d] the
right, in exceptional circumstances, to treat juveniles as adults.” Clearly, however,
given the numbers involved, the circumstances in which children are treated as
adults is far from exceptional. It is a routine and everyday occurrence.
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Prison Conditions:
o California, home to approximately 10 percent of the nation’s prison population, is
an example of the gravity of human rights concerns facing imprisoned
populations. The mistreatment of inmates incarcerated in California prisons has
resulted in a spectrum of abuses that particularly impact marginalized populations
including transgender persons, women, the elderly, youth, the disabled, and the
mentally ill. Prisoners face multiple forms of discrimination and are subjected to
violence based on their gender and racial identities, economic status, age and
sexual orientation.
o In direct opposition to its obligations under the ICCPR, U.S. legislation such as
the Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”) effectively prevents many prisoners
from seeking redress in federal court. These laws prevent prisoner from having
access to courts and drastically reduce the ability of the courts to remedy human
rights violations in prisons.

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