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The Government’s Duty to Report Violations: By ANN FAGAN GINGER

CHALLENGING RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Friday October 22, 2004

28. Federal Judicial Branch 

After 9/11, the actions of the Bush Administration did not indicate that there are three equally important branches of the federal government: legislative, judicial, and executive. The money being spent by the DOD on Afghanistan and Iraq cut an enormous hole in the federal budget, as Bush loudly opposed any increase in corporate or high-income taxes.  

One problem with the budget for the judiciary is that judges are not in charge of how many cases are filed in the federal courts. That depends on how many are arrested for committing federal crimes, how many ask for jury trials, and how many civil lawsuits corporations and human beings decide to file. So the Bush cuts in all branches actually cut the judiciary very seriously. 

The judiciary’s portion of the federal budget is just .2 percent (2/10 of 1 percent). The cuts do not take into account increases in “fixed” costs, or increasing need for public defenders and legal service lawyers for litigants without money for lawyers in suits against gouging landlords and unscrupulous employers. 

Report 28.1 

Federal Budget Creates Crisis in the Judiciary (Nina Totenberg, “Morning Edition: Federal Courts Face Budgetary Crisis,” National Public Radio, Aug. 12, 2004.) 

 

F. The Government’s Duty to Report Violations to Congress and the U.N. 

The duty of Government to file reports did not begin with 9/11. It certainly did not end with 9/11, as new and old issues required actions by the federal Government and by state and local governments. 

 

29. To Report Through the Office of Inspector General 

In 1978, Congress passed the Office of Inspector General Act, establishing an OIG office in virtually every agency of the U.S. Government. Each OIG must investigate all complaints received and submit a report describing each complaint and the results of their investigation to the chairs and vice chairs of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees every six months.  

The OIG procedure was little known to the U.S. public, or the media, until two reports by OIGs hit page ones after 9/11. One OIG responded to complaints by inspecting jails in New York and New Jersey housing 9/11 detainees. 

Then the EPA OIG issued a report on the Government’s suppression of an EPA report on the dangers of working at Ground Zero.  

These reports led many people to start using the procedure of filing complaints with the OIG in working in their communities on their major complaints against Government action or inaction.  

This certainly opened up a new path that concerned residents can follow whenever they can find a link to a federal agency or to federal funding of a city or county government action. And it will work sometimes. 

Report 29.1 

Inspector General Finds Detained Aliens Physically Assaulted (Glenn A. Fine, “The September 11 Detainees: A Review of the Treatment of Aliens Held on Immigration Charges in Connection with the Investigation of the September 11 Attacks,” Office of the Inspector General, DOJ, April 2003.) 

Report 29.2 

Administration Suppresses EPA Reports on Ground Zero Damage (”EPA Covered up Deadly Ground Zero Air Problems,” Albion Monitor, Sept. 11, 2003.) 

 

30. To Make Periodic Reports Under U.N. Treaties 

The U.S. Government continued a policy after 9/11 of not filing reports required under treaties ratified by the U.S. at the same time the Government was demanding that other governments file the required reports under the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Agreement and pushed hard for adoption of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). 

The reports are required by the three human rights treaties ratified by the U.S.: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture, and the Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination.  

Public dialogue on country reports is the method of enforcement of UN human rights treaties. It is called the Mobilization of Shame.  

The Second Reports under each treaty require city, county and state reports, which give community activists another path to insist on their local officials and police not violating human rights guarantees in the law. 

One city, Berkeley, Ca., did make reports under the first U.N. ratified treaty, with affirmative results. 

Report 30.1  

U.S. Delinquent in Filing Three Required Reports to the UN Cecil Williams, “U.S. Walks Out on Antiracist Conference: World’s People Demand Reparations for Slavery and Colonialism, Support Palestine,” International Action Center, Sept. 5, 2001.) 

Report 30.2 

U.S. Failing To Collect And Report at State and Local Levels (Associated Press, “Police Accused of Abusing Demonstrators,” Florida Alliance for Retired Americans, Nov. 26, 2003.) 

Report 30.3 

One City’s Commissions Made Required Reports to Department of State (Ellie Bluestein, “It’s Happening At Last,” Community Alliance, Dec. 2003.)  

 

This concludes the excerpts from 184 Reports on violations of human rights since 9/11 by U.S. Government officials, and the struggle to stop the violations by people across the U.S. 

Please use this information to convince your neighbors to think, and vote, on Nov. 2. 

And, whoever is elected, please use the facts and laws in this series to lobby your elected officials to stop the violations of human rights, to oppose new bad laws, to repeal the PATRIOT Act and other bad laws, and to start building a 21st Century climate of peace and human rights for all. 

And, in March 2005, look for the fat paperback, “Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11,” filled with complete descriptions of all of the reports merely listed in these columns, and with history, forms, briefs, new ordinances, and texts of the laws discussed. 

 

Berkeley resident Ann Fagan Ginger is a lawyer, teacher, activist and the author of 24 books. She won a civil liberties case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1959. She is the founder and executive director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, a Berkeley-based center for human rights and peace law. 

Reports excerpted from Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11, edited by Ann Fagan Ginger (© 2004 Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute; Prometheus Books 2005). Readers can go to www.mcli.org for a complete listing of reports and sources, with web links. 

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