”Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11”

F. The Government'S Duty To Report Violations To Congress And The UN

• 29. To Report Through The Office Of Inspector General
• 30. To Make Periodic Reports Under UN Treaties

29. To Report Through The Office Of Inspector General

In 1978, Congress passed the Office of Inspector General Act, establishing an OIG office in virtually every agency of the U.S. Government. Each OIG must investigate all complaints received and submit a report describing each complaint and the results of their investigation to the chairs and vice chairs of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees every six months.

The OIG procedure was little known to the U.S. public, or the media, until two reports by OIGs hit page ones after 9/11. One OIG responded to complaints by inspecting jails in New York and New Jersey housing 9/11 detainees.

Then the EPA OIG issued a report on the Government’s suppression of an EPA report on the dangers of working at Ground Zero.

These reports led many people to start using the procedure of filing complaints with the OIG in working in their communities on their major complaints against Government action or inaction.

This certainly opened up a new path that concerned residents can follow whenever they can find a link to a federal agency or to federal funding of a city or county government action. And it will work sometimes.

Inspector General Finds Detained Aliens Physically Assaulted

(Glenn A. Fine, "The September 11 Detainees: A Review of the Treatment of Aliens Held on Immigration Charges in Connection with the Investigation of the September 11 Attacks," Office of the Inspector General, DOJ, April 2003, accessed July 29, 2004.)

Administration Suppresses EPA Reports on Ground Zero Damage

("NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health Archive," New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, September 24, 2003, accessed July 29, 2004; MSNBC News Service, "Study Sees Trade Center Health Issues," MSNBC News, September 10, 2003, accessed July 29, 2004; "EPA Covered up Deadly Ground Zero Air Problems," Albion Monitor, September 11, 2003, accessed July 29, 2004.)

30. To Make Periodic Reports Under UN Treaties

The U.S. Government continued a policy after 9/11 of not filing reports required under treaties ratified by the U.S. at the same time the Government was demanding that other governments file the required reports under the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Agreement and pushed hard for adoption of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

The reports are required by the three human rights treaties ratified by the U.S.: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture, and the Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Public dialogue on country reports is the method of enforcement of UN human rights treaties. It is called the Mobilization of Shame.

The Second Reports under each treaty require city, county and state reports, which give community activists another path to insist on their local officials and police not violating human rights guarantees in the law.

One city, Berkeley in California, did make reports under the first U.N. ratified treaty, with affirmative results.

U.S. Delinquent in Filing Three Required Reports to the UN

(Dorothy Smith Patterson, "Reparations: An African American Movement," Human Rights Now!, Summer 2003, accessed August 4, 2004; Cecil Williams, "U.S. Walks Out on Antiracist Conference: World's People Demand Reparations for Slavery and Colonialism, Support Palestine," International Action Center, September 5, 2001, accessed August 11, 2004.)

U.S. Failing To Collect And Report at State and Local Levels

(Associated Press, "Police Accused of Abusing Demonstrators," Florida Alliance for Retired Americans, November 26, 2003, accessed June 21, 2004.)

One City's Commissions Made Required Reports to Department of State

(Mike Rhodes, "Stop Police Violence," Community Alliance, December 2003, accessed August 6, 2004; Ellie Bluestein, "It's Happening At Last," Community Alliance, December 2003, accessed August 6, 2004; Email to MCLI from Howard Watkins, August 5, 2004.)

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