Arizona vs. United States & United Nations?

Marion Smith / August 31, 2010

Last week, we noted that the U.S. State Department had submitted its “Report of the United States of America” to the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights. This report was compiled as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) organized by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). The U.S. report is revealing of the Obama Administration’s dissatisfaction with parts of America’s record on human rights. Steven Groves and Brett Schaefer have outlined basic flaws in the UPR process including the poor human rights records of the HRC’s members.

Arizona Governor Janice Brewer has also noticed objectionable information in the U.S. report – namely, that the U.S. State Department included Arizona’s recent immigration law (S.B. 1070) in the report as an example of a human rights “issue” that is “being addressed” by the federal government through court action.

Governor Brewer has written a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in which Brewer expresses her “concern and indignation” at the “offensive” and “hypocritical” treatment of Arizona in the U.S. UPR report: (more…)