After 9/11, No Neutral Ground with Respect to Human Rights: Executive Claims and Actions of Special Concern and International Law regarding the Disappearance of Detainees

In an address before the United Nations on September 23, 2003, President George Bush rightly recognized that "[ejvents during the past two years have set before us the clearest of divides ... [among them] between those who honor the rights of man and those who deliberately" violate them. "Between these alternatives," the President explained, "there is no neutral ground. " He added, "[w]e are dedicated.., to the advance of human rights." Yet, in the last two years we have also witnessed the degradation of human rights by those who deliberately refuse to apply human rights law and Geneva Convention guarantees to all persons detained without trial at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere by the Executive branch and by proxy interrogators abroad. Additionally, there have been serious concerns raised about deprivations of human and related civil rights with respect to the detention of aliens within the United States, use of various interrogation techniques, and secret searches of our homes, businesses and libraries. In the first part of this essay, I merely outline some of the general degradations and concerns. In the second part, more detailed attention is paid to the alarming use of secret arrests and detentions. Human rights and other international laws are violated when the Executive branch detains persons without charge and refuses to disclose their names or whereabouts. Similarly disturbing are the use of secret hearings concerning the fate of numerous "special interest" detainees allegedly held on charges of violating U.S. immigration laws. It is in the dark of secrecy that human rights are often abused and where evil lurks in the name of security.