- 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 re-elected 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). ___
-
- Copyright, Richard Du Boff Reprinted for fair use only.
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/DUB112B.html
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