To Jamie Fellner, her answer to the question is a resounding YES. Jamie is Senior Advisor to the U.S. Program at Human Rights Watch. Jamie’s position is well articulated in her piece entitled - The Human Rights Paradigm: The Foundation for Criminal Justice System We Can Be Proud Of.
To drive home her point, she delved into the manifold issues of race discrimination, excessive sentences, the wretched prison conditions and disenfranchisement. She opines that human rights have not been fully integrated in the American criminal justice system. ‘Strangely’ though, she asserts international human rights treaties do not create judicially enforceable rights in America. This, for me, is an oxymoron and a telling indictment on America. Read her full article herehttp://www.hrw.org/news/2012/03/21/human-rights-paradigm-foundation-criminal-justice-system-we-can-be-proud
If another country has a human rights element in its criminal justice system that is better than ours, why can we not at least evaluate the pros/cons of using that element in our criminal justice system ?
Jim, the UK does. In 1998, the UK parliament passed the ECHR into UK domestic legislation. It came into force on the 2nd of October, 2000. There are challenges though, but it’s a great start.