Never Trust a Turncoat

Brand USA: Arrogance, Brute Force, Deliberate Ignorance, Dismissive approach to Vital International Treaties, Self-inflicted Isolation

Aside from international treaties of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the US breach or disregard of treaties extends to the eighteen and nineteenth centuries with American Indian Nations (1722-1869). Though more than three hundred treaties were reported to have been signed with Native American Tribes, many were not ratified; and even more were neither respected nor observed.  

B

RAND USA

In the area of international treaties, the US Brand has been described as capricious, unpredictable, partisan, or whimsically schizophrenic. By the summer of 2022, the United States was in the category of countries ratifying the least international treaties concerned with human rights. In an article by Annalisa Merelli at Quartz magazine online is this list of US failures.

The US Congress failed to ratify the 1919 World War I ending Treaty of Versailles; and failed to formally end the war against Germany and the former Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1921.

The US Senate blocked ratification of the 1949 International Labor Convention, “an international recognition of the freedom of association and protection of the right to organize.”

The US refused to sign the agreement (signed by Vietnam, France, China, the USSR, and the UK) resulting from the 1954 Conference of Geneva “called to put a final end to the Korean War and First Indochina War.” The US had participated in the conference.

The US has failed to ratify (though signed) the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) that builds on the 1948 Eleanor Roosevelt championed Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The US Senate has failed to ratify the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

The US has failed to ratify the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that established a set of rules and responsibilities governing the way countries and international bodies act in international waters; and details the requirements of search and rescue at sea.

The US (the only country) has failed to ratify the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) that incorporates a wide range of rights (education, health, justice) for minors.

The US has failed to ratify (thus blocking it entering into effect) the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty banning nuclear testing. Partners in this failure are China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, and Pakistan.

The US has failed to ratify the 1997 Mine-Ban Treaty (Ottawa Treaty) that aims to eliminate anti-personnel mines, prohibiting their production, stockpiling, or use. In this failure are 33 states.

The US has failed to ratify the 1998 Rome Treaty establishing an International Criminal Court (ICC) ratified by 60 nations.  

The US (one of four UN member states) has failed to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an agreement limiting carbon emissions.

The US withdrew from the 2015 Paris Climate Accord aimed at mitigating climate change by reducing emissions.

A

mong the international treaties (list not exhaustive) the US has failed to ratify or signed and later withdrew are these listed at Wikipedia. 

• 1930 Forced Labor Convention
• 1948 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention
• 1949 Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention
• 1950 Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others UN Secretary-General
• 1951 Equal Remuneration Convention
• 1958 Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention
• 1960 Convention against Discrimination in Education UNESCO
• 1969 Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity
• 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
• 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty Bilateral US–Soviet treaty (ratified 1972, withdrew 2002)
• 1977 American Convention on Human Rights Organization of American States
• 1977 Protocol I (Geneva Conventions amendment)
• 1977 Protocol II (Geneva Conventions amendment)
• 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
• 1981 Occupational Safety and Health Convention
• 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
• 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty
• 1997 Kyoto Protocol
• 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (signed 1998, withdrew 2002)
• 2002 Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) (not signed)
• 2007 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• 2011 Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
• 2013 Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)
• 2016 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) (signed 2016, withdrew 2017)
  

Sources

Quartz, Annalisa Merelli “BROKEN PROMISES: It’s not just Trump. The US has always broken its treaties, pacts and promises,” May 12, 2018, updated July 20, 2022 https://qz.com/1273510/all-the-international-agreements-the-us-has-broken-before-the-iran-deal/

 “List of treaties unsigned or unratified by the United States,” Wikipedia, latest update March 20, 2022,   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_treaties_unsigned_or_unratified_by_the_United_States 

R

elated News, Commentary, Analysis

 “CrossTalk on Taiwan: Reckless policy” August 5, 2022, Host Peter Lavelle’s CrossTalking with Andy Mok, Angelo Giuliano, and Daniel McAdams https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/560201-reckless-policy-us-china/

“For decades Washington has adhered to the ‘One China’ policy (that) included Taiwan.” However, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taipei “puts this in question…

 “Is the Biden administration needlessly and recklessly provoking China?”

August 1, 2022 edition of Host Peter Lavelle’s “CrossTalking with Glenn Diesen and Vladimir Golstein” brought this important insight:

  

“Never in the history of corporate media has coverage been so biased and one-sided.” 

WORSE than that: 

“Questioning the standard narrative is akin to treason; and subject to censorship, and cancellation.”

CrossTalk, HOME EDITION: “Phony war,” https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/559894-phony-war-media-coverage/

♦

RICOCHET

Policy of Death and Destruction: Loss of mind, brilliance, honor, loss of basic principles, loss of self-respect and respect for other countries and peoples’ sovereignty and right to self-determination, the United States of America—in the grip of senile, incestuous, deliberately deluded, self-serving powers and self-perpetuating neo-con-NGO-nonprofit profiteering industrial complexes revolving in and out of Washington—is set on a course of dangerous isolation and self-annihilation. Hell-bent on destroying self and the whole world.

First aired in early August, this edition of Host Peter Lavelle’s “CrossTalking with John Varoli, Michael Maloof and Martin Jay” is the illustration of quality, essential-listening broadcast information.

The US-led anachronistic Cold War against Russia, “… using Ukraine as proxy…;” its reckless attempt to weaken and isolate the Russian Federation has backfired, leaving “the ‘collective West’”… “weaker and isolated.”

“CrossTalk: West’s miscalculation,” August 3, 2022, https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/560097-west-miscalculation-ukraine-conflict/

 

World and National Sources
Collage composed of individual Internet images
Composition, Commentary excluding quoted material and individual images
Copyright © Carolyn LaDelle Bennett