An Indecent Administration Rolls On
There's a lot of huffing and puffing about "indecency" these days in Congress. Our representatives appear determined to protect us from the filth spewed from radio and television programs today, but theirs is a narrow view of what constitutes decency. Words and images easily shut off at the press of a button are less likely to do injury than some recent indecencies that appear to have escaped the attention of our national hall monitors.
Torture is certainly more indecent than four-letter words, as is appointing a man renowned for perfidy to oversee the nation's intelligence agencies or putting an imperialist zealot in the United Nations.
The latest example of governmental indecency was the casual renunciation earlier this month of part of a decades-old international treaty intended to protect Americans when they are traveling abroad. That may not sound as bad as torture, but the motive behind the withdrawal was contemptible.
The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations is a reciprocal agreement ratified by the U.S. in the 1960s that guarantees our citizens the right to seek help from a U.S. consulate if they somehow run afoul of the law when traveling abroad. An "Optional Protocol" in the accord gives the International Court of Justice in The Hague jurisdiction over disputes in such matters.
Protecting our citizens when they are outside the United States is the right thing to do, certainly. Some might even say it's the decent thing to do. And affording the same protections to foreigners who come to the United States is only fair.
But there's the rub. Despite enjoying this protection for Americans these 40 years, we've consistently overlooked the meaning of "reciprocal." The other guys are supposed to get the same courtesy when they're here. Those who run afoul of our laws are supposed to be allowed to contact the consul of their country for help. But it doesn't happen.
Instead of abiding by the law and notifying detained noncitizens of their right to contact their consul, we try them and lock them up. And sometimes we kill them.
Does that sound decent?
It didn't to Mexico, which has banned capital punishment. Finding a number of its citizens on death row in the United States -- and finding itself ignored in its request that we honor our agreement -- Mexico sued the U.S. in the International Court of Justice, saying that we had no right to put their citizens to death while denying them their protection under the protocol.
