Thread: U.N. rights chief: Migrant family separations "unconscionable"

GENEVA -- The U.N. human rights chief is blasting the Trump administration over its new policies separating migrant children from their parents after entering the United States from Mexico, saying they've affected nearly 2,000 kids in the last six weeks and put them at risk of "serious health consequences." The High Commissioner for Human Rights is calling for an immediate end to the practice.

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the high commissioner, says it's "unconscionable" that any country would seek to deter parents from migrating "by inflicting such abuse on children."

He spoke at Monday's opening of a regular Human Rights Council session, his last before his term ends in August.

Al-Hussein quoted the American Academy of Pediatrics, which he said had called the practice of forcing parents to part with their children "government-sanctioned child abuse" which may cause "irreparable harm," with "'lifelong consequences."

"The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable. I call on the United States to immediately end the practice of forcible separation of these children," al-Hussein said.

"People do not lose their human rights by virtue of crossing a border without a visa," he said, adding, "I deplore the adoption by many countries of policies intended to make themselves as inhospitable as possible by increasing the suffering of many already vulnerable people."

The American Academy of Pediatrics, cited by al-Hussein, has been one of the most vocal groups to criticize the U.S. government policy of separating parents from their children.

In an op-ed published over the weekend in the Los Angeles Times, the group's President, Dr. Colleen A. Kraft, spoke of touring a facility where children are being held, where she saw a little girl, "her face splotched red from crying, her fists balled up in frustration, pounding on a play mat in the shelter. No parent was there to scoop her up, no known and trusted adult to rub her back and soothe her sobbing."

Speaking Monday morning to "CBS This Morning," Dr. Kraft did say that separating children from their parents by forces was a "form of child abuse," and called for an end to the policy.

The AAP said in an article published last week that its, "opposition to family separation stems from the serious health consequences this practice has on children. Its 2017 policy statement Detention of Immigrant Children urges that separation of a parent or primary caregiver from his or her children should never occur, unless there are concerns for the child's safety at the hand of the parent. Highly stressful experiences, including family separation, can cause irreparable harm to lifelong development by disrupting a child's brain architecture. Toxic stress, which is caused by prolonged exposure to heightened stress, has detrimental short- and long-term health effects."

Zeid, a Jordanian prince, also raised concerns about countries including Syria, Myanmar, Hungary, Nicaragua, Israel, North Korea, and India- and Pakistan-controlled parts of Kashmir.

He denounced the lack of access provided by U.N. member states to rights investigators, noting China has accumulated 15 pending requests in the last five years.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-p...nable-un-says/

UN folks sure do talk a lot for an organization that's been irrelevant for half a century.

^ Focusing on the wrong point. There is a real tragedy unfolding on the US boarder and it will have lasting consequences. What happened to ''Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses"?

^white huddled masses from non shithole countries in europe....Irish need not apply

GOP's starting to make some noise, turtlehead and ryan are still in hiding though. Probably heavily invested in the pvt prisons being used

Originally Posted by bsnub

^ Focusing on the wrong point. There is a real tragedy unfolding on the US boarder and it will have lasting consequences. What happened to ''Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses"?

Thanks for pointing out that my focus wasn't on what you wanted it to be on. As far as your question in quotes, they came. Loads of 'em. Filled up now.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

Filled up now.

Seems lots of open spaces where I am at.

^That's because nobody can afford housing in your rapidly failing city...it will soon be at the same homeless, needle park level as San Francisco, which should be praying for the big one to hit and put them out of their misery. While we're on the subject, the UN has only been irrelevant for decades - what of your quoted sonnet from 1883? Keenly reflects today's needs and values, in your opinion?

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

That's because nobody can afford housing in your rapidly failing city.

This is true and I wish you were right about it failing but the fact is that it has held the record for construction cranes in the US for the last three years. So it is far from failing.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

what of your quoted sonnet from 1883? Keenly reflects today's needs and values, in your opinion?

It goes back to the very foundation of the nation. This is an immigrant nation and always will be to try to yank out the rug because the people migrating are not the right color is not only disgusting but massively hypocritical and lets be honest that is all this is about.

The truth is that immigration on the southern boarder has been in steady decline since 2008. This whole build a wall nonsense is a manufactured crisis built on racism and nothing more. Now the administration is building tent cities to house these children. I never thought I would see the return of internment/concentration camps in my own county but that is exactly what is happening.

Originally Posted by bsnub

^ Focusing on the wrong point. There is a real tragedy unfolding on the US boarder and it will have lasting consequences. What happened to ''Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses"?

Liberty wasn't intended for the US, they built it for Egypt who didn't want it so they looked around for somewhere else to park it.

Originally Posted by jabir

Wasn't intended for the US, they built it for Egypt who didn't want it so they looked around for somewhere else to park it.

That had nothing to do with the quote that was attached to it.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...oman/97387944/



Why is it that people want to keep mentioning trivial shit instead of the actual crisis that the OP was meant to draw attention to?

Link to my earlier post...not worth reading

Migrant kids are ‘child actors,’ Ann Coulter says on Fox News, telling Trump not to be fooled

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.81fc10a444c7

Originally Posted by bsnub

That had nothing to do with the quote that was attached to it.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...oman/97387944/



Why is it that people want to keep mentioning trivial shit instead of the actual crisis that the OP was meant to draw attention to?

Might be that people don't particularly care about the plight of criminals in violation of US law....many of them over and over again.

68 million refugees world wide and no one gives a fook cuz they don't know the proper way to enter a country of refuge.....sad days indeed

Originally Posted by uncle junior

68 million refugees world wide and no one gives a fook cuz they don't know the proper way to enter a country of refuge

In the case of the southern boarder the migrants have little choice as the cartels decide where they can and can't cross.

Originally Posted by David48atTD

They are essentially economic migrants not refugees in the classical sense of the term and are simply
seeking a better economic life in the USA.

You are 100% wrong. Economic migrants have been in decline since 2008. The crying children in that youtube video are not from Mexico they are from central america and they are asylum seekers fleeing gangs and drug cartels.

Originally Posted by David48atTD

Separating the children from their parents is now part of USA Policy and is probably meant
as a deterrent to future possible economic migrants.

Once again these are not economic migrants.

Originally Posted by David48atTD

Written over 100 years ago and potentially not relevant today except in ideology.

Bullshit. It is the foundation of our nation it is impossible to separate.

Originally Posted by David48atTD

My thoughts are that a country has a right to control it's borders as it sees fit.


They are essentially economic migrants not refugees in the classical sense of the term and are simply
seeking a better economic life in the USA.

Nothing wrong with that, but go through the proper protocols and not illegally cross the Border.


If, however they are refugees "These people are not criminals, they are mostly from central America" then they
should seek asylum at the first border crossing, which is not the USA border.

Separating the children from their parents is now part of USA Policy and is probably meant
as a deterrent to future possible economic migrants.

As for ...



Written over 100 years ago and potentially not relevant today except in ideology.

Well said. More or less what I was about to type, before you handled it. Problem with Snub, who by the way has been polite in this exchange of views, is that he's an American with little experience of the world outside his own borders. While Snub states "you don't have a clue what's going on here (USA)", I would respond that he would be well served getting a clue about the rest of the world other than the West Coast of America.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

Well said. More or less what I was about to type, before you handled it.

No he did not nail anything he is completely wrong and apparantly as ignorant as you are about what is going on.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

Problem with Snub, who by the way has been polite in this exchange of views, is that he's an American with little experience of the world outside his own borders.

Good point except that it is not true. But way to defect from the actual issue and trust me you will be hearing more about it because the shit is finally hitting the fan this time with regards to this administration.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

While Snub states "you don't have a clue what's going on here (USA)", I would respond that he would be well served getting a clue about the rest of the world other than the West Coast of America.

I have a clue trust me but that is completely irrelevant to the topic in the OP.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

<snip> Snub, who by the way has been polite in this exchange of views <snip>

Agreed ... there is good and rational in everyone.

I appreciate the exchange of differing ideas.

^Fine. Believe as you will. It's your problem, not mine. They are nothing more than economic refugees. They are not seeking political asylum, and even if they were, who cares? Much of the world lives in poverty and misery and would love to claim asylum in the US if they could get there. Are you going to accept everyone who turns up claiming to be 'oppressed'? You are claiming that any comment you don't like or agree with is 'irrelevant to the topic'. Others, myself included, obviously disagree. Anyway, nice chatting with you. I'm finished for this topic.

^ Room on that Bus for two? I'm dust.

There is no obligation under the refugee convention or any other instrument of international law that requires refugees to seek
asylum in any particular country.

There has, however, been a longstanding "first country of asylum" principle in international law by which countries are expected to take
refugees fleeing from persecution in a neighbouring state.

This principle has developed so that, in practice, an asylum seeker who had the opportunity to claim asylum in another country is liable
to be returned there in order for his or her claim to be determined.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...legal-position