Leaders confronted with questions or facts they don’t like often follow a familiar playbook: They attack, they obfuscate, and they point fingers at their accusers for being even worse.
In a press conference during Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to Portugal on October 8, a journalist asked Rubio about a statement from Amnesty International’s Portuguese office calling on their government to prevent the U.S. government from using Lajes Air Base if doing so would aid and abet in international law breaches like the air strike against the elementary school in Minab, Iran.
Secretary Rubio did not answer the question. Instead, he called Amnesty International a fraud.
Then, he went on an angry rant about how he thinks Amnesty should be investigating the Iranian authorities for their human rights abuses instead of scrutinizing the U.S. government’s actions.
Secretary Rubio’s record on human rights
Secretary Rubio’s sudden and apparent passion for the work of a human rights organization is of course at odds with his more recent record. As Secretary of State, he has launched a wholesale attack on the concept of human rights. He has:
- Eviscerated the U.S. government’s human rights infrastructure
- Vowed to wreck international human rights institutions
- Championed the U.S. administration’s extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific
- Continues to arm Israel as it commits genocide in Gaza
As the head of the National Security Council, he has not ensured the release of investigations into mass killings of civilians in U.S. airstrikes in Yemen and Iran.
Amnesty’s research counters Rubio’s claim
Contrary to his claims that Amnesty International is ignoring human rights abuses in Iran, we have released extensive research on the Iranian authorities’ bloody crackdown on protesters, runaway execution spree and potential war crimes committed this year. Just last month, we published a 1,161 page report painstakingly detailing the state machinery that orchestrated crimes against humanity during Iran’s 2022 Woman Life Freedom uprising.
Amnesty researchers spent years working to map the chains of command behind these crimes and identified 87 commanders and officials who warrant criminal investigations. Amnesty wants to see these individuals held responsible for their roles in unlawfully killing hundreds of protesters and bystanders—including children—and persecuting their families, as well as for arbitrarily detaining, forcibly disappearing, or torturing thousands. Since Iranian officials are protected from accountability in their country, we called on the UN General Assembly to establish an international criminal justice mechanism on Iran.
Rubio’s attacks on the international justice system
The great irony of Secretary Rubio’s attack on Amnesty is that he’s leading U.S. attempts to destroy the international justice system. That includes a campaign to, in his words, “dismantle” the International Criminal Court—one of the only institutions, which could provide accountability and justice for the Iranian authorities’ crimes. Rubio and the Trump administration’s attacks on the ICC—including sanctions on officials, punitive measures against countries engaging with the Court, and sanctions announced October 9 against the entire court—are meant to obstruct investigations into U.S. and Israeli officials. However, by seeking to shield the U.S. government and its allies from accountability, he shields U.S. government adversaries like the Iranian authorities too, normalizing global impunity for mass atrocities.
We can guess what’s really going on. Secretary Rubio, following a playbook we have seen for many years by governments around the world that violate human rights, was probably less concerned about accountability for Iranian authorities than wanting to deflect a journalist’s question about U.S. violations of international law and Portugal’s alleged complicity.
The vehemence of Rubio’s response suggests he’s sensitive to Amnesty’s finding that the U.S. strike on the elementary school in Minab should be investigated as a serious breach of international law and a potential war crime. A serious allegation, for sure, but one that Amnesty, independent media outlets, other organizations, and UN mechanisms, have grounded in careful investigation and analysis. If the Secretary believes the allegations are fraudulent, he has an easy solution.
The Department of Defense has mounted an investigation into the strike, but nearly eight months later, it has not released it.
The U.S. public and the victims’ families have a right to know what happened, who was responsible, and what steps have been taken towards accountability.
All actors must be held accountable for human rights violations
While Rubio seeks to redefine rights as less than universal, Amnesty International and the broader human rights community recognize that all people are endowed with human rights and will hold all actors to account for violations. The human rights movement doesn’t pick and choose who has rights, and it won’t refrain from calling for justice, whether the suspected perpetrator sits in Tehran, Washington D.C., or anywhere else. Secretary Rubio knows that. So when he calls a human rights organization a fraud for doing its job, that’s not confusion. That’s just his playbook for avoiding accountability.
Watch the full video of Secretary Rubio’s joint press availability with Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel.
We urge the U.S. government to protect the people of Iran and across the Middle East. Join us and take action.