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	US "War on Terror" eroded Rights Worldwide by Reuters / ICJ   February 16, 2009   Washington"s "war on terror" after the Sept. 11 attacks has eroded human rights worldwide, creating lingering cynicism that the United Nations must now combat, international law experts said on Monday.   Mary Robinson, who was the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights when al Qaeda militants flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001, said the United States caused harm with some of the ways it responded.   "Seven years after 9/11 it is time to take stock and repeal abusive laws and policies," the former Irish president said, warning that harsh U.S. detentions and interrogations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba gave a dangerous signal to other countries that could easily follow suit.   While new U.S. President Barack Obama has announced he will close Guantanamo to break from the practices of his predecessor George W. Bush, Robinson said sweeping changes needed to take place to ensure Washington abandons its "war paradigm".   "There has been severe damage and it needs to be addressed," she told a news conference in Geneva. "We are not more secure. We are more divided, and people are more cynical about the operation of laws."   Arthur Chaskalson, former chief justice of South Africa, said that the United States should launch an inquiry into its counter-terrorism practices, including acts of torture by individual security and intelligence agents.   Although counter-terrorism issues have faded from the front pages since the change of government in Washington, Chaskalson said such practices have shifted around the world and could keep restricting liberties if they are not confronted head-on.   "We all have less rights today than we had five or 10 years ago, and if nothing happens, we will have even less," he told a Geneva briefing to launch an International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) report on counter-terrorism and human rights.   The report found that many undemocratic states have referred to U.S. counter-terrorism practices to justify their own abuses, a trend Robinson said was particularly alarming.   She called on the U.N. Security Council and Human Rights Council to step up their abuse monitoring and to assist poorer nations with police training to better target rights violators. Counter-terrorism policies worldwide should also be put under the microscope, according to Robinson. "It could warrant a special session of the Human Rights Council," she said.   The 47-member-state body has previously had special sessions on Israel and the Palestinians, Sudan"s Darfur region, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and high food prices, and will assess the global financial crisis on Friday.   Robinson also questioned the effectiveness of the Council"s universal periodic review, under which every U.N. member has its rights record assessed on a regular rotation.   "We have looked at some of the universal periodic reviews of countries that we know from our hearings have severely abused human rights in their counter-terrorism measures, and it is a soft review, there is no accountability," she said. "There is a necessity now for leadership at the United Nations."   * Below is a link to the ICJ report. Visit the related web page
	Carter Center conducts Human Rights Training for Congolese Police Officers by The Carter Center Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)   Feb. 2009   Until recently, police officers in Kimbasneke, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), investigated case files at a music bar or other public space because they didn"t have office space. When it rained, they carried the papers under their shirts to preserve the files.   Police officers in the DRC face these and many other challenges in their daily professional activities that affect their ability to meet minimum standards of due process and other human rights guarantees. A training program from The Carter Center aims to help officers understand that they have the right to demand minimum working conditions that protect the dignity, safety, and privacy of the accused and victim.   Many Congolese officers have never had any substantial instruction on general human rights principles and Congolese laws concerning sexual violence, rights of women, children, and detainees. The two-day officer training focuses on such topics. For example, officers are given a copy of the rights of people under arrest, which specify that they have the right to remain silent and to hire a lawyer.   "I recently caught a man in his forties at a bar fondling a minor," one police trainee said. "Before this training that scene seemed ordinary to me. But after the training I have become sensitive to child protection, and I understood [he] was committing a serious crime. I immediately arrested him, and he is in detention now as I speak."   Although the Center continues to encourage the Congolese government to ensure its officers have the necessary tools and resources to allow them to conduct their work in a professional manner that respects the rights of citizens, officers still lack office space, earn too little, and must detain people in cells that are too small and lack access to basic amenities such as a bathroom.   "We plan to expand our training to have a more systemic impact," said Karin Ryan. "For now the program is reaching individual officers, but the problems are widespread. Our future trainings will focus on developing officers specific skill sets such as how to investigate and prosecute crimes of sexual violence, how to process detainees, how to keep records, and how to improve relationships with their respective communities."   The Carter Center has worked in the DRC to help strengthen tools of democracy since observing the country"s 2006 elections, which were its first presidential and legislative multi-party elections in 46 years. Since 2007, The Carter Center has trained more than 200 Congolese police officers and judges in human rights policy and practice; established and trained a network of Congolese nongovernmental organization (NGO) partners in human rights; and trained women and men as paralegal consultants in the prevention and redress of gender-based violence.   The Center has also worked in the DRC to review and provide counsel on more than 60 current mining contracts; trained government officials and NGOs in producing reports for the United Nations on the DRC"s implementation of the Rights of the Child Protocol; and established the Human Rights House as a "safe space" for dialogue among Congolese NGOs, government officials, press, and members of the international community. Visit the related web page
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