Amnesty International USA is calling on President Obama to focus on three human-rights issues in his final days in office.
The group wants him to follow through on his 2008 campaign promise to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, protect Central American refugees and cut off military aid and weapons sales to “human-rights abusing” governments.
“President Obama has an ever-narrowing window of opportunity to make good on some of the promises he made when he was inaugurated and elevate human rights as a priority before his departure,” stated the group’s Executive Director Margaret Huang. “Each of the actions Amnesty is asking President Obama to take are achievable and would bolster the U.S.’s global leadership on human rights in a world rife with conflicts and crises.”
Citing the violence in their home countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, Amnesty criticized the Obama Administration for denying most asylum petitions and sending seekers back to their dangerous home countries.
“President Obama has the power to protect women, men and children who have fled unimaginable violence … with a stroke of the pen, by designating all three countries for temporary protective status,” the group stated.
Finally, Amnesty International USA says Middle Eastern allies including Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia should be denied lethal aid because those governments use the arms and assistance “to commit violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.”
The group cited Saudi Arabia’s bombing in Yemen, which it says likely constitutes war crimes, as reason to cancel a more than $2 billion arms sale to Riyadh.
Washington announced over the weekend that it is reviewing such assistance in the wake of Saudi-led bombing on a Yemeni funeral hall.
