AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 1995 (Amnesty International:...

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 1995 (Amnesty International: $20; 353 pp., illustrated, paperback original). Despite the increasing number of politicians paying lip service to human rights, this annual report proves that humanity remains inhumane. Violations are by no means restricted to Rwanda, Iraq, China and the former Yugoslavia: Amnesty workers have documented torture, the abuse of prisoners, extralegal executions and “disappearances” throughout world. The U.S. is criticized primarily for executing 31 prisoners and for the detention of Cuban and Haitian asylum-seekers at the Guantanamo Bay naval base. The authors boldly declare, “All human rights . . . apply to all people in all circumstances. No government has the right to hide human rights crimes behind a smoke-screen of ‘tradition,’ ‘culture’ or economic imperatives.”