Human Rights and Human Insecurity: The Contributions of US Counterterrorism

Abstract

Counterterrorism campaigns that fail to recognize the critical connection between rights denial and terrorism are shortsighted. To fight terrorism without regard to human rights furthers terrorist goals by endorsing the same faulty thinking of the terrorists: the ends justify the means. Since declaring the “global war on terror” in 2001, not only has the Bush administration failed to place human rights promotion at the center of its counterterrorism campaign but it has repeatedly insisted on a “flexible,” self-serving interpretation of human rights. By promoting a culture of human rights violations, the Bush administration has guaranteed the failure of counterterrorism strategies. This article examines four illustrations of misguided US conduct in its aggressive counterterrorism strategy: (1) abuse of prisoner rights in detention; (2) erosion of civil liberties; (3) curtailing rights of ethnic minorities; and (4) manipulation of international law to serve narrowly defined national interests. The impact of US behavior has been dramatic, the essay contends, because many other countries have patterned their behavior on these issues following on the US example in undermining rights.