Human rights protest in Salt Lake City

Thirty-five participants held signs written in English, Spanish and Russian protesting the continuing human rights abuses and war crimes committed by the Russian government against Chechens and the Chinese government against Tibetans and other ethnic and religious groups inside China.

Protesters also noted the failure of the Bush administration and U.N. Human Rights Commission to face up to and act on human rights violations and war crimes committed by the world's large and powerful nations, including recent unwillingness by the U.N. to condemn Russia for its unspeakable terror against Chechens under President Putin's direction over the past two and one-half years and Bush's rescission of the U.S.'s signature on, commitment to and cooperation with the International War Crimes Treaty regime.

The CWCP takes the position that both the U.N. and U.S. government have taken giant steps backward in dealing with human rights and war crimes problems. Clearly, leaders of the U.N.'s powerful permanent Security Council members are reluctant to give up their coveted roles as the U.N.'s "elite." Consequently, they refuse to apply the same standards of international law to the abuses they commit while demanding compliance by leaders of the world's smaller nation-states.

The U.S., Russia, China and other large nations currently hypocritically mock international law and other reasonable legal, ethical and moral standards of conduct in the human rights and war crimes arenas.