The place where the reports of groups like AI are read, and used to be acted upon, is the UN. AI, like the UN itself, is becoming increasingly frustrated that the unearned guilt they heap upon free nations like the US in order to manipulate the distribution of wealth no longer has the power it had over the last five decades.

In the "Secretary General's (of AI) message" linked prominently from the page of the 'full report' linked by Alex, which begins with the genocide in Darfur and morphs within 6 paragraphs to a denunciation of the "US administration" (abu Ghraib, et. al.), the author laments "the failure to move from rhetoric to reality on economic and social rights." You see, according to AI, and apparently other like-minded institutions, "every person shall have the right to an adequate standard of living and access to food, water, shelter, education, work and health care." Not the right to EARN those things mind you, the right to have them GIVEN, if necessary. Given by whom? Who do you think?

Yet Khan goes still further than espousing Marxism:

"At the national level, the ability of the state to protect human rights is in crisis. In some places, armed groups – warlords, criminal gangs or clan chiefs – hold sway over people’s lives. In many countries, governance has been undermined by corruption, mismanagement, abuse of power and political violence. In a globalized economy, it is increasingly international trade agreements, international financial institutions and big business which are setting the terms. And yet there are few mechanisms for addressing their impact on human rights, and even fewer appropriate systems for accountability."

There is crime in the world, she says. Corruption, mismanagement, tyranny and political violence. Yet who does she hold responsible for such abuses? "Big business" and the free trade mechanisms and institutions that go along with it.

The UN, AI, and the like would find far more power in free societies and the solidarity of the free world if they were not so utterly hostile to the power of an individual's inner freedom. Freedom to earn, to keep, and to defend himself and his loved ones from harm. When the UN starts championing these values, THEN we will see REAL human rights in the world. A good start would be to endorse the March of Freedom that has been sparked by the "US administration."