Human rights are one area in politics that nearly every country in the world claims to stand behind 100 percent. It also happens to be an area where nearly every country is guilty of abuses. Naturally, none of the world’s leaders like to be called out on what they've done wrong. In the U.S., recent years have shown us our own shortcomings, from police forces battering protesting U.S. citizens, to foreigners being harmed because they don’t have the proper immigration status, to the blatant disregard of the human rights abuses of our allies when it is convenient to us. But really, that’s about par for politics in the world. Now, the U.S. is making another public show of its devotion to human rights by pointing our finger at Russia.
A total of 18 Russian officials have been named on a list put together by the U.S. government. Most of these are there due to their involvement in the Sergei Magnitsky affair, a political incident whereby a Russian lawyer tried to expose a group of corrupt officials that were stealing hundreds-of-millions of dollars. In return for his honesty, he was thrown in jail, beaten and left without medical attention until he died. These 18 are just the tip of the iceberg, according to some U.S. officials. Though if this report from the Voice of Russia is to be believed, Russia is actively stepping up to work with the world and further human rights protections. Once again, it’s a game of take what you can and then cover your ass.
So how is everyone taking the recent human rights barrage? Russia is, of course, pissed off and reactionary. In response, they've passed a law preventing U.S. citizens from adopting Russian children (Really? How does this make sense?) and have said that they plan on putting together their own list of U.S. human rights abusers.
People in the U.S. are also pissed, saying that the list of names doesn’t go far enough and that the most prominent of the abusers have been conveniently left off in order to keep from upsetting Russia too much. A number of those names are very high in the current Russian government and would likely cause an even stronger reaction from the country.
And finally, others are saying that the report is damaging our relationship with Russia and that pointing out the abuses of human rights isn’t as important as keeping strong ties. So basically, no one is completely happy and if they tried to accommodate any one of the factions any more, the rest would go ballistic. Again, sounds like par for the political course.
Human rights always seem to suffer when it comes to political relations. Ultimately, the death of a few or even a few hundred faceless people isn't that important in the grand scheme of things. People will continue to be left by the wayside and the subject of human rights only addressed when enough people yell about it, or when it becomes a viable political tool. Hopefully, the future will change that and we, as a people, will finally be able to think of all lives as worth protecting.
Sergei Magnitsky grave photo courtesy of Dmitry Rozhkov via Wikicommons
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