Dear LNC members,
I am writing to bring to your attention an event I just learned is happening tomorrow (Friday, Nov. 5, 2010) which I think presents an important opportunity for our party. As the self-proclaimed largest alternative party in the United States, and therefore arguably the country's leading organization of political dissidents, the Libertarian Party is uniquely positioned to issue a statement to the upcoming hearing of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on the subject of human rights in the United States.
The upcoming first-ever participation of the United States in the UNHRC's Universal Periodic Review, and the controversy this is generating (see news article attached below), means this event will likely be a hot topic in the media. An official statement from the Libertarian Party, or even a timely press release, could attract significant attention.
Unfortunately our current platform is sadly deficient in talking about human rights. Prior to 2006 we could have proudly pointed to this language:
Human Rights
The Issue: We condemn the violations of human rights in all nations around the world. We particularly abhor the widespread and increasing use of torture for interrogation and punishment. The violation of rights and liberty by other governments can never justify foreign intervention by the United States government. Today, no government is innocent of violating human rights and liberty, and none can approach the issue with clean hands.
The Principle: We recognize the right of all people to resist tyranny and defend themselves and their rights. We condemn the use of force, and especially the use of terrorism, against the innocent, regardless of whether such acts are committed by governments or by political or revolutionary groups. Only private individuals and organizations have any place speaking out on this issue.
Solutions: We call upon all the world's governments to fully implement the principles and prescriptions contained in this platform and thereby usher in a new age of international harmony based upon the universal reign of liberty.
Transition: Until a global triumph for liberty has been achieved, we support both political and revolutionary actions by individuals and groups against governments that violate rights. In keeping with our goal of peaceful international relations, we call upon the United States government to cease its hypocrisy and its sullying of the good name of human rights.
But the only explicit mention of human rights in the LP's 2010 platform occurs in the plank "Property and Contract", which opens with the sentence, "Property rights are entitled to the same protection as all other human rights."
Of course it scarcely needs stating that many libertarian issues are human rights issues -- abuses in the "War on Drugs" such as SWAT raids, conditions in American prisons, torture, denial of habeas corpus and other abuses in the "War on Terror", human rights violations committed by U.S. military personnel fighting in other countries, excessive use of force by local police departments and other government agencies, the militarization of local police forces and the border with Mexico, the recent FBI raids on peaceful activists opposed to the U.S. government's military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc.
Speaking out in a high-profile manner on the issue of human rights in the United States would help correct any mistaken impressions our current platform may be causing that human rights are not an important issue to Libertarians, and I believe would be strongly beneficial to the LP not only in terms of advancing our mission to seek "nothing more nor less than a world set free in our lifetime", but politically as well.
Every election cycle, discriminatory ballot access rules cost our party large amounts of money, not to mention time and energy. Being unfairly excluded from debates cost our candidates large numbers of votes. Other regulations like BCRA present an undue burden on alternative political parties including our own. Clearly the current pace of reform on these issues -- or lack thereof -- is unacceptable, but we lack the political clout to make rapid change happen on our own. International organizations concerned about rights and democracy could be powerful allies in bringing pressure to bear on these matters. These groups, including but not limited to the United Nations and its agencies, have the potential to internationally embarrass the U.S. federal and state governments over their anti-democratic practices and spur corrective reforms.
This event in which a UN body will be focused on human rights in the United States presents an excellent opportunity to start making those contacts and beginning that conversation. After we have taken the lead, perhaps we can enlist the cooperation of other alternative parties like the Greens and the Constitution Party.
Libertarians have long been critical of the United Nations and many of its actions, and rightly so -- by no means should this change! However just as we would not hesitate to appeal local or state level abuses to federal court if necessary, or to alert federal officials to local or state abuses of power, we should not let our feelings about the UN prevent us from using them to advance our cause where we can, playing one arm of the State against another. We need to put the U.S. government on notice that it cannot act with impunity within "its" territory when such actions violate fundamental human rights, and that we intend to help be the eyes and ears of the world with regard to what goes on inside the United States.
As a member of the Libertarian Party of California, I request that my regional representatives (Doug Craig, Stewart Flood, Daniel Wiener, and Scott Lieberman) respond to this message with your thoughts on the issue, and keep me appraised of any LNC action or discussion related to this issue. Comments and feedback from other members of the Libertarian National Committee are certainly also welcome.
I hope that the LNC will move to take immediate action by email ballot, or authorize LP staff to do so, as the UN Human Rights Council will be meeting Friday to discuss the human rights record of the United States!
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
Outreach Director, Libertarian Party of San Francisco