Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Are We Great Yet?
The U.S. "zero-tolerance" policy of separating families at the border received widespread condemnation at home and abroad. The Lawfare blog provided a grim overview of global responses here.
The aftermath, however, is even more chilling, as the government tries -- and in many instances, fails -- to reunite the separated families in order to meet a court-imposed deadline.
Children are experiencing emotional trauma and irreparable developmental damage. It increasingly appears that some may be permanently orphaned by the government.
History will not be kind, and neither will the international community. Eleven UN Rapporteurs have expressed concern about continued failures to reunify families. Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Ecuador, and Guatemala have initiated a complaint against the U.S. before the Organization of American States; in the meantime, an OAS resolution condemned the family separation policy. A complaint is also pending before the UN Human Rights Council. This recent post at the Oxford Human Rights Hub sums up the legal and ethical issues that are now part of the U.S.'s international profile.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/human_rights/2018/07/are-we-great-yet.html