Commentary: Facts reveal hypocrisy behind US claims on human rights
By Chang Jian
The
US, in the 2018 country reports on human rights practices released by its State Department on March 13,
once again acted as a self-styled “human rights defender”.
It continued pointing fingers at over 190
countries and slandering their human rights situations groundlessly, as if the
US had done a perfect job in this regard. However, facts and data are clear
enough to reveal its own serious human rights problems.
The
US claims that it values the right to life of every person, but statistics
indicates that the safety of American citizens has been seriously threatened.
The
US reported 57,103 incidents of gun violence in 2018, resulting in 14,717
deaths, 28,172 injuries, including casualties of 3,502 juveniles.
Chicago
was named as one of the most dangerous metropolis in the US, as hundreds of
people were murdered annually in recent years. On August 4 and 5 last year, 74
people in the city were shot, and 12 of them killed.
The
Huffington Post reported on December 6 that gun violence has
shortened the life expectancy of Americans by nearly 2.5 years, with shooting
driving down the average lifespan of African-Americans by 4.14 years, based on
official data on gun deaths between 2000 and 2016.
A
2018 report issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said
drug overdose deaths among US residents exceeded 70,000 in 2017, or 200 per
day. The rate had increased on average by 16 percent per year since 2014.
According
to an article published on USA Today
on December 18, 2018, the suicide rate of the US had climbed 33 percent since
1999. In 2017, more than 47,000 Americans committed suicide.
The
US boasts its freedom of speech, but it is unprecedentedly controlling public
opinions and pressuring news media.
A
total of 89.7 percent of American colleges maintained policies that restricted
student and faculty expression, said a report issued by Foundation for
Individual Rights in Education(FIRE), a non-profit, non-partisan group founded
in 1999 that focuses on civil liberties in academia in the United States, after
analyzing written policies at 466 of America's top institutions of higher
education for their protection of free speech. In 11 states, at least half of
colleges received the worst rating for “clearly and substantially” restricting
free speech rights.
The
Columbia Journalism Review reported that the US arrested
journalists 34 times in 2017, 29 of whom were arrested for protest, and nine
were accused of felony. Forty-four journalists suffered from personal attacks.
A
Pew Research Center survey on American democracy and the political system
showed 53 percent said the US did not respect “the rights and freedoms of all
people.”
The
US labels itself as a role model regarding democratic politics, but what
has been presented by statistics and facts is money politics.
The
2018 midterm elections were proved to be by far the most expensive midterm
elections on record. The final cost of 2018 elections stood at $5.2 billion, a
35 percent increase over 2014 in nominal dollars, the Center for Responsive
Politics said on November 8, 2018.
Records
were also set by the more than $1.3 billion spent by outside groups – those
other than the candidates’ campaign committees – and the $98 million in
so-called dark money, said a USA Today report.
The
Guardian
reported on August 7, 2018 that US elections were widely seen to be corrupt by
the public. Members of Congress were viewed to be captured by corporations,
wealthy donors and special interests groups. The average cost of winning a Senate
seat was $19.4 million while winning a House of Representatives seat would cost
at least $1.5 million on average.
According
to a report released by Philip G. Alston, special rapporteur on extreme poverty
and human rights for the UN, the combined wealth of the US cabinet reached
about $4.3 billion, turning the US government into the spokesperson of the rich
people.
The
US took a vow of equal protection of everyone’s dignity, but the dignity of
American women and children have long been trampled on.
An
online survey done by non-profit organization Stop Street Harassment found that
81 percent of women interviewed had experienced some form of sexual harassment
during their lifetime. Another industry-wide survey by USA Today suggested that 94 percent of the surveyed women would
have experienced some form of harassment or abuse during their career.
As
reported by Gallup on November 12, the percentage of the US women who say they
worry about being a victim of sexual assault has edged up to 36 percent, the highest
figure bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbsince 2011.
More
than 300 Catholic priests in Pennsylvania committed sexual abuse against a
large number of children over the past 70 decades, with more than 1,000
victims, while senior church officials took steps to cover it up, said a CBS
report.
According
to a report by Star-Telegram on
December 9, 2018, 168 clergies from fundamental Baptist churches spanning 40 US
states were accused of committing sexual crimes against children, with as many
as 45 of them continuing in ministry.
Nearly
40 percent of American middle-schoolers said they’d been bullied while 27
percent of high-schoolers said the same, said a report issued by nonprofit
group YouthTruth.
The
US poses as a country attaching high importance to racial equality, but recent
data indicated increasingly serious racial discrimination and ethnic violence
have been prevalent in every field of the social life.
A
report released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said hate crimes
rose by about 17 percent to 7,175 cases in the US in 2017. Offenses motivated
by racial prejudice made up about 60 percent of hate crimes, with
African-Americans being targeted in nearly half of them.
According
to the analysis of homicide arrest data on Washington
Post, in the past decade, 63 percent of suspects who killed white victims
were arrested, while the percentage of suspects who killed black victims was
only 47. A 2017 survey by Pew Research Center indicated that 81 percent of
African-Americans believe racial discrimination to be a serious issue in
today’s world, up from 44 percent 8 years earlier.
The
US promises to guarantee human rights protection for countries around the globe,
but is indeed following unilateralism under the banner of “America first”.
It
broke its faith by flagrantly withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council, the
UNESCO, the Paris Climate Agreement, and Iran nuclear deal. In addition, it
rejected to ratify core UN human rights treaties such as the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities.
Facts
and statistics evidenced the hypocrisy and dual-standards of the US government
on human right issues. The US takes human rights as a tool to slander and
attack other countries, and protect the capital interests of the privileged
class, which fully exposed the duplicity of its clarification on human rights
practices.
(Chang Jian, director of
the Center for Human Rights Studies, Nankai University)
(Source:
People’s Daily)
Commentary: Facts reveal hypocrisy behind US claims on human rights
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