Human Rights Watch gives the world it's report card.

And the United States fails. As do the Sudan, Cambodia, Angola, the Congo, Syria, Iran - the list is very long.

The U.S.A. and Sudan are on the top of the list. There is a call for prosecutions concerning the torture in Abu Ghraib and it's considered that the peace efforts in the Sudan will bring no one to justice.

While the two threats are not equivalent, the vitality of global human rights depends on a firm response to each—on stopping the Sudanese government’s slaughter in Darfur and on fully investigating and prosecuting all those responsible for torture and mistreatment in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo.

"“The U.S. government is less and less able to push for justice abroad, because it’s unwilling to see justice done at home,"” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

And the Sudan needs more extreme action.

Roth also urges the United Nations Commission of Inquiry report to the U.N. Security Council the crimes committed in Darfur. And that the Security Council should refer the Darfur case to the new International Criminal Court.

“"The crimes committed in Darfur must not go unpunished,”" said Roth. “The International Criminal Court would be the most efficient and effective institution to prosecute these crimes. The permanent members of the Security Council should not stand in the way of bringing the mass murderers in Darfur to justice.”

Human Rights Watch said that the crisis in Darfur cries out for involvement by the major military powers, but they have chosen to be unavailable. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia are bogged down in Iraq, with the United States going so far as to say that “no new action is dictated” by its determination that the killing in Darfur amounts to genocide. France is committed elsewhere in Africa, and Canada is cutting back its peacekeeping commitments, despite promoting the “responsibility to protect.” NATO is preoccupied in Afghanistan; the European Union is deploying forces in Bosnia.

"“Everyone has something more important to do than to save the people of Darfur",” said Roth.

What stands out from the report is the effect that the actions of the United States are having on the rest of the world.

By ignoring human rights standards in its reaction to September 11, the Bush administration has made it easier for governments around the world to cite the U.S. example as an excuse to ignore human rights. Egypt has defended a decision to renew its problematic “emergency law” by referring to U.S. anti-terror legislation. The Malaysian government justifies detention without trial by invoking Guantánamo. Russia cites Abu Ghraib to blame abuses in Chechnya solely on low-level soldiers. Cuba now claims the Bush administration had “no moral authority to accuse” it of human rights violations.

“"Governments facing human rights pressure from the United States now find it easy to turn the tables,”" said Roth. “Washington can'’t very well uphold principles that it violates itself.”