Given the mess that the Bush administration has created, President-Elect Obama will start his new job in January with a very full plate: The economic crisis, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, health care, our wounded Constitution, and so much more.
Accordingly, everyone has their own "to do" lists for President Obama.
And so Amnesty International has released its own human-rights-related checklist for Obama.
In the first 100 days of the presidency, Amnesty International is specifically calling on the new administration to:
• announce a plan and date for the closure of the detention center at Guantanamo;
• issue an executive order to ban torture and other ill-treatment, as defined under international law and applicable to all US agents; and
• set up an independent commission to investigate abuses committed by the USA in its war on terror, such as rendition and torture.
Amnesty also urges President-elect Obama to provide principled leadership in stopping mass atrocities against civilians in places such as Darfur, and in supporting human rights defenders and the international system of justice with the International Criminal Court at its heart.
>> Download the full checklist.
These are all important action items for our new president.
But, personally, I would add the redeployment of our troops out of Iraq because, as long as we stay there, we will continue to violate the human rights of the civilians, and the citizens in general, of that sovereign nation. And I have similar -- but different -- concerns regarding Afghanistan.
I feel more confident about the future of all of these issues now that we have a president-elect who has both a brain and a heart.
And I plan to hold him accountable each and every day.
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