Human rights in the USA.

• Position: United Nations review of U.S. human rights

In late March, the United Nations conducted its first-ever review of the human-rights situation in the United States.

"The United States is very fond of lecturing the rest of the world on the importance of rising up to international human-rights standards," says Peter Weiss, a vice president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. "But we refuse to ratify standards that are stricter than our own laws."

The United States refuses to abide by terms of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights including a ban on the execution of juveniles. At the hearing in New York City, human-rights experts from around the world quizzed the U.S. delegation on a number of issues. The U.S. delegates agreed to file a report by 1998.

"We in the...