> A miembros estimados de LASnet:
>
> (Please excuse that this message is only in English)
>
> I am trying to learn which of any international treaties, conventions, or
> declarations had the United States government signed.
It has signed most human rights conventions, ratified very few of them,
implemented even fewer (the only one I can think of from the top of my
head is the Genocide Convention). If you go and look at the Un. of
Minessota page in http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/ainstls1.htm you
can look under ratification information for each treaty.
>
> In particular I am trying to evaluate if someone outside the US could bring
> a legal cause of action (in some international tribunal, e.g. in the Hague)
> against the American government for injuries caused in the name of the War
> on Drugs.
>
> I am thinking about some hypothetical coca farmer in Colombia or real
> victims who lost loved ones at the hands of the US Marines who invaded
> Panama (under the auspicies of arresting a "drug kingpin").
>
> I wonder what international agreements speak to the wrongfulness of an
> invading military attacking civilians for an internal police matter, and
> what if any remedies are available.
The treaties in question would be the Geneva Conventions.
Unfortunately, there isn't any international body (yet) where the US can
be held accountable for its actions. Only states can bring cases before
the ICJ, and then under very specific situations which would not apply
on this case. The war tribunals were set up to deal with specific
situations (the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda) and don't have
jurisdiction beyond that.
The US is party to two conventions that set up human rights bodies that
can accept complaints fron individuals. One is the OAS Charter, through
which the US has accepted jurisdiction from the Inter-American Committee
on Human Rights. It's possible that the Committee would be able to
issue a report condemning the US for such actions - hwoever, the US has
historicaly not given a damn as to what the Committee has had to say.
The other treaty is the Int'l Convention on Civil and Political Rights,
the US, to my knowledge, has not ratified the Optional Protocol which
allows the Human Rights committee to accept complaints from individuals.
Take care,
marga
Margarita Lacabe - Derechos - marga@derechos.org - http://www.derechos.org
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"He who saves a life, saves the world entire" - Talmud