How badly did the war on terror hurt human rights?

The September 11, 2001 attacked in the New York World Trade Center and other US’s establishments that have caused the death of more the 2900 people has shaken the stability of the United States. This has brought President Bush during his administration launched “War on Terrorism” (Cainkar, 2004). But the attacked has not only mark the launched of the war against terrorism but to greater degree, it has by forced has violated the rules of human rights. The violation would be best discussed through the human rights litigation issues and its examples.
Human rights litigation as manifested by several issues of “arbitrary detention; torture and ill treatment, extraordinary rendition, extraterritorial application of human rights norms and the creeping reach of the ‘terrorism ’ label”, became the distinguishing characteristics of how the war on terrorism has violated the human rights. Each of these issues illustrated by different cases has highlighted the severity of the impacts that the war on terrorism has brought to human rights (Duffy, 2008). This implies that human rights litigations that have put citizens and nations beyond the law have caused bad or negative impacts on human rights.
The “Guanta´namo anomaly” signifies the violation of human rights on arbitrary detention as it deprives the right for habeas corpus and the lawfulness of trial (McClintock, 2009) of the detainees. The Scandals of Baghram or Abu Ghraib has shown the violation of human rights trough torture or ill treatment. The Practice of cruelty or torture, which equates to inhumane and degrading treatment, clearly shows the severity of the violation that the War on Terror has inflicted in human rights (Smeulers and van Niekerk, 2009). The third issue: “Extraordinary rendition” has manifested a series of violations on human rights: torture, arbitrary detention and other serious violations. This implies the person’s removal of its right from the protection of law (Sciolino, 2006). The issues on the “terrorism label and its implications for alleged tourists and other associated with them” has clearly shown the branching levels of violations that it has caused in the security of regional, national and international level. These cases and issues of human rights violations due to the War of Terror initiated have shown that the intelligence or the judgment made has “involve defiance of the most sacred human rights norms, notably torture and arbitrary detention” (Duffy, 2008).
These impacts have been further supported the above arguments by Fitzpatrick as he enumerated the various impacts of the human rights were as follows: pre-emptive control and strategies for liberty and fundamental fairness has been affected; humanitarian rules became unclear; the derogation measures has been affected in terms of it’s principles of legality, non – derogability, and more; human rights protection in territorial aspects have become uncertain; refinement of concepts of non-discrimination on the basis of nationality and problems of guilt by association; and threats to the integrity of refugees (Fitzpatrick, 2003).
The “War on Terror” as initiated by the Bush Administration due to the September 11, 2001 attacked has caused negative impacts to Human rights. These negative impacts as shown through the cases in human rights litigation include arbitrary detention; torture and ill treatment, extraordinary rendition, extraterritorial application of human rights norms and the creeping reach of the ‘terrorism ’. Furthermore, the humanitarian rules became unclear, integrity of refugees has been affected and humiliated, and pre-emptive control and strategies for liberty and fundamental fairness has been affected.