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<h1><b>Full Text of Human Rights Record of the United States in 2009
</b></h1><font size=3 color="#666666">
<a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english2010/">English.news.cn</a></font>
<font size=3> 2010-03-12 16:25:30 <br>
<a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-03/12/c_13208219.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-03/12/c_13208219.htm</a>
<br><br>
BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhua) -- China's Information Office of the State
Council published a report titled "The Human Rights Record of the
United States in 2009" here Friday. Following is the full
text:<br><br>
The State Department of the United States released its Country Reports on
Human Rights Practices for 2009 on March 11, 2010, posing as "the
world judge of human rights" again. As in previous years, the
reports are full of accusations of the human rights situation in more
than 190 countries and regions including China, but turn a blind eye to,
or dodge and even cover up rampant human rights abuses on its own
territory. The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2009 is
prepared to help people around the world understand the real situation of
human rights in the United States.<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#000080"><b>I. On Life, Property and Personal
Security<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>Widespread violent crimes in the United States
posed threats to the lives, properties and personal security of its
people.<br><br>
In 2008, U.S. residents experienced 4.9 million violent crimes, 16.3
million property crimes and 137,000 personal thefts, and the violent
crime rate was 19.3 victimizations per 1,000 persons aged 12 or over,
according to a report published by the U.S. Department of Justice in
September 2009 (Criminal Victimization 2008, U.S. Department of Justice,
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov). In 2008, over 14 million arrests occurred for
all offenses (except traffic violations) in the country, and the arrest
rate for violent crime was 198.2 per 100,000 inhabitants (Crime in the
United States, 2008, http://www.fbi.gov). In 2009, a total of 35 domestic
homicides occurred in Philadelphia, a 67 percent increase from 2008 (The
New York Times, December 30, 2009). In New York City, 461 murders were
reported in 2009, and the crime rate was 1,151 cases per 100,000 people.
San Antonio in Texas was deemed as the most dangerous among 25 U.S. large
cities with 2,538 crimes recorded per 100,000 people (The China Press,
December 30, 2009). The murder rate rose 5.5 percent in towns with a
population of 10,000 or fewer in 2008
(<a href="http://www.usatoday.com, june 1, 2009/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.usatoday.com, June 1, 2009</a>). Most of the United States'
15,000 annual murders occur in cities where they are concentrated in
poorer neighborhoods
(<a href="http://www.reuters.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.reuters.com</a>, October 7, 2009).<br><br>
The United States ranks first in the world in terms of the number of
privately-owned guns. According to the data from the FBI and the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), American gun owners,
out of 309 million in total population, have more than 250 million guns,
while a substantial proportion of U.S. gun owners had more than one
weapon. Americans usually buy 7 billion rounds of ammunition a year, but
in 2008 the figure jumped to about 9 billion (The China Press, September
25, 2009). In the United States, airline passengers are allowed to take
unloaded weapons after declaration.<br><br>
In the United States, about 30,000 people die from gun-related incidents
each year (The China Press, April 6, 2009). According to a FBI report,
there had been 14,180 murder victims in 2008 (USA Today, September 15,
2009). Firearms were used in 66.9 percent of murders, 43.5 percent of
robberies and 21.4 percent of aggravated assaults
(<a href="http://www.thefreelibrary.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.thefreelibrary.com</a>). USA Today reported that a man named
Michael McLendon killed 10 people in two rural towns of Alabama before
turning a gun on himself on March 11, 2009. On March 29, a man named
Robert Stewart shot and killed eight people and injured three others in a
nursing home in North Carolina (USA Today, March 11, 2009). On April 3,
an immigrant called Jiverly Wong shot 13 people dead and wounded four
others in an immigration services center in downtown Binghamton, New York
(The New York Times, April 4, 2009). In the year 2009, a string of
attacks on police shocked the country. On March 21, a 26-year-old jobless
man shot and killed four police officers in Oakland, California, before
he was killed by police gunfire
(<a href="http://cbs5.com/" eudora="autourl">http://cbs5.com</a>). On
April 4, a man called Richard Poplawski shot three police officers to
death in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On November 29, an ex-convict named
Maurice Clemmons shot four police officers to death inside a coffee shop
in Parkland, Washington (The New York Times, December 1, 2 and 3,
2009).<br><br>
Campuses became an area worst hit by violent crimes as shootings spread
there and kept escalating. The U.S. Heritage Foundation reported that
11.3 percent of high school students in Washington D.C. reported being
"threatened or injured" with a weapon while on school property
during the 2007-2008 school year. In the same period, police responded to
more than 900 calls to 911 reporting violent incidents at the addresses
of Washington D.C. public schools (A Report of The Heritage Center for
Data Analysis, School Safety in Washington, D.C.: New Data for the
2007-2008 School Year, http://www.heritage.org). In New Jersey public
schools, a total of 17,666 violent incidents were reported in 2007-2008
(Annual Report on Violence, Vandalism and Substance Abuse in New Jersey
Public Schools by New Jersey Department of Education, October 2009,
http://www.state.nj.us). In the City University of New York, a total of
107 major crimes occurred in five of its campuses during 2006 and
2007(The New York Post, September 22, 2009).<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#000080"><b>II. On Civil and Political
Rights<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>In the United States, civil and political rights
of citizens are severely restricted and violated by the
government.<br><br>
The country's police frequently impose violence on the people. Chicago
Defender reported on July 8, 2009 that a total of 315 police officers in
New York were subject to internal supervision due to unrestrained use of
violence during law enforcement. The figure was only 210 in 2007. Over
the past two years, the number of New York police officers under review
for garnering too many complaints was up 50 percent
(<a href="http://www.chicagodefender.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.chicagodefender.com</a>). According to a New York Police
Department firearms discharge report released on Nov. 17, 2009, the city'
s police fired 588 bullets in 2007, killing 10 people, and 354 bullets in
2008, killing 13 people
(<a href="http://gothamist.com/" eudora="autourl">http://gothamist.com</a>
, November 17, 2009). On September 3, 2009, a student of the San Jose
State University was hit repeatedly by four San Jose police officers with
batons and a Taser gun for more than ten times
(<a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.mercurynews.com</a>, October 27, 2009). On September 22, 2009,
a Chinese student in Eugene, Oregon was beaten by a local police officer
for no reason (The Oregonian, October 23, 2009,
http://blog.oregonlive.com). According to the Amnesty International, in
the first ten months of 2009, police officers in the U.S. killed 45
people due to unrestrained use of Taser guns. The youngest of the victims
was only 15. From 2001 to October, 2009, 389 people died of Taser guns
used by police officers
(<a href="http://theduckshoot.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://theduckshoot.com</a>).<br><br>
Abuse of power is common among U.S. law enforcers. In July 2009, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation put four police officers in the
Washington area under investigation for taking money to protect a
gambling ring frequented by some of the region's most powerful drug
dealers over the past two years (The Washington Post, July, 19, 2009). In
September 2009, an off-duty police officer in Chicago attacked a bus
driver for "cutting him off in traffic" as he rode a bicycle
(Chicago Tribune, September 2009, http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com). In
the same month, four former police officers in Chicago were charged with
extorting close to 500,000 U.S. dollars from a Hispanic driving an
expensive car with out-of-state plates and suspected drug dealers in the
name of law enforcement, and offering bribes to their superiors (Chicago
Tribune, September 19, 2009). In November 2009, a former police chief of
the Prince George's County's town of Morningside was charged with selling
a stolen gun to a civilian (The Washington Post, November 18, 2009). In
major U.S. cities, police stop, question and frisk more than a million
people each year - a sharply higher number than just a few years ago
(<a href="http://huffingtonpost.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://huffingtonpost.com</a>, October 8, 2009).<br><br>
Prisons in the United State are packed with inmates. According to a
report released by the U.S. Justice Department on Dec. 8, 2009, more than
7.3 million people were under the authority of the U.S. corrections
system at the end of 2008. The correctional system population increased
by 0.5 percent in 2008 compared with the previous year
(<a href="http://www.wsws.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.wsws.org</a>
). About 2.3 million were held in custody of prisons and jails, the
equivalent of about one in every 198 persons in the country. From 2000 to
2008, the U.S. prison population increased an average of 1.8 percent
annually
(<a href="http://mensnewsdaily.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://mensnewsdaily.com</a>, January 18, 2010). The California
government even suggested sending tens of thousands of illegal immigrants
held in the state to Mexico, in order to ease its overcrowded prison
system
(<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://news.yahoo.com</a>, January 26, 2010).<br><br>
The basic rights of prisoners in the United States are not
well-protected. Raping cases of inmates by prison staff members are
widely reported. According to the U.S. Justice Department, reports of
sexual misconduct by prison staff members with inmates in the country's
93 federal prison sites doubled over the past eight years. Of the 90
staff members prosecuted for sexual abuse of inmates, nearly 40 percent
were also convicted of other crimes (The Washington Post, September11,
2009). The New York Times reported on June 24, 2009 that according to a
federal survey of more than 63,000 federal and state inmates, 4.5 percent
reported being sexually abused at least once during the previous 12
months. It was estimated that there were at least 60,000 rapes of
prisoners across the United States during the same period (The New York
Times, June 24, 2009).<br><br>
Chaotic management of prisons in the United State also led to wide spread
of diseases among the inmates. According to a report from the U.S.
Justice Department, a total of 20,231 male inmates and 1,913 female
inmates had been confirmed as HIV carriers in the U.S. federal and state
prisons at yearend 2008. The percentage of male and female inmates with
HIV/AIDS amounted to 1.5 and 1.9 percent respectively
(<a href="http://www.news-medical.net/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.news-medical.net</a>, December 2, 2009). From 2007 to 2008,
the number of HIV/AIDS cases in prisons in California, Missouri and
Florida increased by 246, 169, and 166 respectively. More than 130
federal and state inmates in the U.S. died of AIDS-related causes in 2007
(<a href="http://thecrimereport.org/" eudora="autourl">
http://thecrimereport.org</a>, December 2, 2009). A report by the Human
Rights Watch released in March 2009 said although the New York State
prison registered the highest number of prisoners living with HIV in the
country, it did not provide the inmates with adequate access to
treatment, and even locked the inmates up separately, refusing to provide
them with treatment of any kind.
(<a href="http://www.hrw.org/" eudora="autourl">www.hrw.org</a>, March
24, 2009).<br><br>
While advocating "freedom of speech," "freedom of the
press" and "Internet freedom," the U.S. government
unscrupulously monitors and restricts the citizens' rights to freedom
when it comes to its own interests and needs.<br><br>
The U.S. citizens' freedom to access and distribute information is under
strict supervision. According to media reports, the U.S. National
Security Agency (NSA) started installing specialized eavesdropping
equipment around the country to wiretap calls, faxes, and emails and
collect domestic communications as early as 2001. The wiretapping
programs was originally targeted at Arab-Americans, but soon grew to
include other Americans. The NSA installed over 25 eavesdropping
facilities in San Jose, San Diego, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Chicago
among other cities. The NSA also announced recently it was building a
huge one million square feet data warehouse at a cost of 1.5 billion U.S.
dollars at Camp Williams in Utah, as well as another massive data
warehouse in San Antonio, as part of the NSA's new Cyber Command
responsibilities. The report said a man named Nacchio was convicted on 19
counts of insider trading and sentenced to six years in prison after he
refused to participate in NSA's surveillance program
(<a href="http://www.onelinejournal.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.onelinejournal.com</a>, November 23, 2009).<br><br>
After the September 11 attack, the U.S. government, in the name of
anti-terrorism, authorized its intelligence authorities to hack into its
citizens' mail communications, and to monitor and erase any information
that might threaten the U.S. national interests on the Internet through
technical means. The country's Patriot Act allowed law enforcement
agencies to search telephone, email communications, medical, financial
and other records, and broadened the discretion of law enforcement and
immigration authorities in detaining and deporting foreign persons
suspected of terrorism-related acts. The Act expanded the definition of
terrorism, thus enlarging the number of activities to which law
enforcement powers could be applied. On July 9, 2008, the U.S. Senate
passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act of 2008,
granting legal immunity to telecommunication companies that take part in
wiretapping programs and authorizing the government to wiretap
international communications between the United States and people
overseas for anti-terrorism purposes without court approval (The New York
Times, July 10, 2008). Statistic showed that from 2002 to 2006, the FBI
collected thousands of phones records of U.S. citizens through mails,
notes and phone calls. In September 2009, the country set up an Internet
security supervision body, further worrying U.S. citizens that the U.S.
government might use Internet security as an excuse to monitor and
interfere with personal systems. A U.S. government official told the New
York Times in an interview in April 2009 that NSA had intercepted private
email messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale
that went beyond the broad legal limits established by U.S. Congress the
year before. In addition, the NSA was also eavesdropping on phones of
foreign political figures, officials of international organizations and
renowned journalists (The New York Times, April, 15, 2009). The U.S.
military also participated in the eavesdropping programs. According to
CNN reports, a Virginia-based U.S. military Internet risk evaluation
organization was in charge of monitoring official and unofficial private
blogs, official documents, personal contact information, photos of
weapons, entrances of military camps, as well as other websites that
"might threaten its national security."<br><br>
The so-called "freedom of the press" of the United States was
in fact completely subordinate to its national interests, and was
manipulated by the U.S. government. According to media reports, the U.S.
government and the Pentagon had recruited a number of former military
officers to become TV and radio news commentators to give "positive
comments" and analysis as "military experts" for the U.S.
war in Iraq and Afghanistan, in order to guide public opinions, glorify
the wars, and gain public support of its anti-terrorism ideology (The New
York Times, April 20, 2009). At yearend 2009, the U.S. Congress passed a
bill which imposed sanctions on several Arab satellite channels for
broadcasting contents hostile to the U.S. and instigating violence
(<a href="http://blogs.rnw.nl/" eudora="autourl">http://blogs.rnw.nl</a>
). In September 2009, protesters using the social-networking site Twitter
and text messages to coordinate demonstrations clashed with the police
several times in Pittsburgh, where the Group of 20 summit was held.
Elliot Madison, 41, was later charged with hindering apprehension of the
protesters through the Internet. The police also searched his home
(<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.nytimes.com</a>, October 5, 2009). Vic Walczak, legal director
of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said the same
conduct in other countries would be called human rights violations
whereas in the United States it was called necessary crime
control.<br><br>
<br>
</font><font size=3 color="#000080"><b>III. On Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>Poverty, unemployment and the homeless are
serious problems in the United States, where workers' economic, social
and cultural rights cannot be guaranteed.<br><br>
Unemployment rate in the U.S. in 2009 was the highest in 26 years. The
number of bankrupt businesses and individuals kept rising due to the
financial crisis. The Associated Press reported in April 2009 that nearly
1.2 million businesses and individuals filed for bankruptcy in the
previous 12 months - about four in every 1,000 people, a rate twice as
high as that in 2006
(<a href="http://www.floridabankruptcyblog.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.floridabankruptcyblog.com</a>). By December 4, 2009, a total
of 130 U.S. banks had been forced to close in the year due to the
financial crisis (Chicago Tribune, December 4, 2009). Statistics released
by the U.S. Labor Department on Nov. 6, 2009 showed unemployment rate in
October 2009 reached 10.2 percent, the highest since 1983 (The New York
Times, November 7, 2009). Nearly 16 million people were jobless, with 5.6
million, or 35.6 percent of the unemployed, being out of work for more
than half a year (The New York Times, November 13, 2009). In September,
about 1.6 million young workers, or 25 percent of the total, were
jobless, the highest since 1948 when records were kept (The Washington
Post, September 7, 2009). In the week ending on March 7, 2009, the
continuing jobless claims in the U.S. were 5.47 million, higher than the
previous week's 5.29 million
(<a href="http://247wallst.com/" eudora="autourl">http://247wallst.com</a>
, March 19, 2009).<br><br>
The population in poverty was the largest in 11 years. The Washington
Post reported on September 10, 2009, that altogether 39.8 million
Americans were living in poverty by the end of 2008, an increase of 2.6
million from that in 2007. The poverty rate in 2008 was 13.2 percent, the
highest since 1998. The number of people aged between 18 to 64 living in
poverty in 2008 had risen to 22.1 million, 170,000 more than in 2007. Up
to 8.1 million families were under poverty, accounting for 10.3 percent
of the total families (The Washington Post, September 11, 2009).
According to a report of the New York Times on Sept. 29, 2009, the
poverty rate in New York City in 2008 was 18.2 percent and nearly 28
percent of the Bronx borough's residents were living in poverty (The New
York Times, September 29, 2009). From August 2008 to August 2009, more
than 90,000 poor households in California suffered power and gas cuts. A
93-year-old man was frozen to death at his home
(<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.msnbc.msn.com</a>). Poverty led to a sharp rise in the number
of suicides in the United States. It is reported that there are roughly
32,000 suicides in the U.S. every year, nearly double the cases of
murder, which numbered 18,000
(<a href="http://www.time.com/" eudora="autourl">http://www.time.com</a>
). The Los Angeles County coroner's office said the poor economy was
taking a toll even on the dead as more bodies in the county went
unclaimed by families who could not afford funeral expenses. A total of
712 bodies in Los Angles County were cremated with taxpayers' money in
2008, an increase of 36 percent over the previous year (The Los Angeles
Times, July 21, 2009).<br><br>
The population in hunger was the highest in 14 years. The U.S. Department
of Agriculture reported on Nov. 16, 2009, that 49.1 million Americans
living in 17 million households, or 14.6 percent of all American
families, lacked consistent access to adequate food in 2008, up 31
percent from the 13 million households, or 11.1 percent of all American
families, that lacked stable and adequate supply of food in 2007, which
was the highest since the government began tracking "food
insecurity" in 1995 (The New York Times, November 17, 2009; 14.6% of
Americans Could Not Afford Enough Food in 2008,
http://business.theatlantic.com). The number of people who lacked
"food security," rose from 4.7 million in 2007 to 6.7 million
in 2008
(<a href="http://www.livescience.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.livescience.com</a>, November 26, 2009). About 15 percent of
families were still working for adequate food and clothing (The
Associated Press, November 27, 2009). Statistics showed 36.5 million
Americans, or about one eighth of the U.S. total population, took part in
the food stamp program in August 2009, up 7.1 million from that of 2008.
However, only two thirds of those eligible for food stamps actually
received them
(<a href="http://www.associatedcontent.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.associatedcontent.com</a>).<br><br>
<br>
Workers' rights were seriously violated. The New York Times reported on
Sept. 2, 2009 that 68 percent of the 4,387 low-wage workers in a survey
said they had experienced reduction of wages. And 76 percent of those who
had worked overtime were not paid accordingly, and 57 percent of those
interviewed had not received pay documents to make sure pay was legal and
accurate. Only eight percent of those who suffered serious injuries on
the job filed for compensation. Up to 26 percent of those surveyed were
paid less than the national minimum wage. Among those who complained
about wages or treatment, 43 percent had experienced retaliation or
dismissal (The New York Times, September 2, 2009). According to a report
by the USA Today on July 20, 2009, a total of 5,657 people died at
workplaces across the U.S. in 2007, about 17 deaths each day. About
200,000 workers in New York State were injured or sickened at workplaces
each year (USA Today, July 20, 2009).<br><br>
The number of people without medical insurance has kept rising for eight
consecutive years. Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Sept. 10,
2009, showed 46.3 million people were without medical insurance in 2008,
accounting for 15.4 percent of the total population, comparing 45.7
million people who were without medical insurance in 2007, which was a
rise for the eighth year in a row. About 20.3 percent of Americans
between 18 to 64 years old were not covered by medical insurance in 2008,
higher than the 19.6 percent in 2007
(<a href="http://www.census.gov/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.census.gov</a>). A study released by the Commonwealth Fund
showed health insurance coverage of adults aged 18 to 64 declined in 31
U.S. states from 2007 to 2009 (Reuters, October 8, 2009). The number of
states with extremely high number of adults who were not covered by
medical insurance increased from two in 1999 to nine in 2009. More than
one in every four people in Texas were uninsured, the highest percentage
among all states
(<a href="http://www.ncpa.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.ncpa.org</a>
). Houston had 40.1 percent of its residents uninsured
(<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.msnbc.msn.com</a>). In 2008, altogether 2,266 U.S. veterans
under the age of 65 died for lack of health insurance coverage or medical
care, 14 times higher than the U.S. military death toll in Afghanistan
that year (AFP, November 11, 2009). A report by the Consumer
International showed 34 percent of U.S. families with annual income below
50,000 U.S. dollars and 21 percent of homes with annual income exceeding
100,000 U.S. dollars lost medical insurance or suffered reduction in
medical insurance in 2009. In addition, two thirds of households with
annual income below 50,000 U.S. dollars and one third of homes earning
more than 100,000 U.S. dollars a year cut their medical expenses last
year. About 28 percent Americans chose not to see a doctor when they fell
ill; a quarter of them could not afford medical bills; 22 percent
postponed medical treatment; a fifth of them did not buy medicine
prescribed by doctors or undergo medical checkups; 15 percent took
expired drugs or did not follow medical instructions to take medicine on
time in order to save money
(<a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.oregonlive.com</a>). According to a report of the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on December 8, 2009,
average life expectancy of Americans was 78.1 years in 2007, ranking the
fourth from bottom among all member states of OECD. The average life
expectancy of OECD member states was 79.1 that year
(<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.msnbc.msn.com</a>).<br><br>
The number of homeless has been on the rise. Statistics show that by
September 2008, an upward of 1.6 million homeless people in the U.S. had
been receiving shelter, and the number of those in families rose from
473,000 in 2007 to 517,000 in 2008 (USA Today, July 9, 2009). Since 2009,
homeless enrollments in the six counties of Chicago area had climbed,
with McHenry County seeing the biggest hike - an increase of 125 percent
over the previous year (Chicago Tribune, November 28, 2009). These
families could only live in shabby places such as wagons. In March 2009,
a sprawling tent city was seen in Sacramento of California where hundreds
of homeless gathered. Police in Santa Monica of southern California even
regularly used force to drive the homeless out of the city
(<a href="http://www.truthalyzer.com/" eudora="autourl">
www.truthalyzer.com</a>). In October, several thousand homeless in
Detroit got into a fight, worrying they might not receive the
government's housing subsidies (USA Today, October 8, 2009). In December,
there were 6,975 homeless single adults in shelters in New York City, not
including military veterans, chronically homeless people, and the 30,698
people living in short-term housing for homeless families (The New York
Times, December 10, 2009). The Houston Chronicle reported on March 16,
2009 that large numbers of houses in Galveston were destroyed by
Hurricane Ike in September 2008, leaving thousands homeless. About 1,700
households did not receive any aid and most of them do not have fixed
residences (Houston Chronicle, March 16, 2009).<br><br>
<br>
</font><font size=3 color="#000080"><b>IV. On Racial
Discrimination<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>Racial discrimination is still a chronic problem
of the United States.<br><br>
Black people and other minorities are the most impoverished groups in the
United States. According to a report issued by the U.S. Bureau of Census,
the real median income for American households in 2008 was 50,303 U.S.
dollars. That of the non-Hispanic white households was 55,530 U.S.
dollars, Hispanic households 37,913 U.S. dollars, black households only
34,218 U.S. dollars. The median incomes of Hispanic and black households
were roughly 68 percent and 61.6 percent of that of the non-Hispanic
white households. Median income of minority groups was about 60 to 80
percent of that of majority groups under the same conditions of education
and skill background (The Wall Street Journal, September 11, 2009; USA
Today, September 11, 2009). According to the U.S. Bureau of Census, the
poverty proportion of the non-Hispanic white was 8.6 percent in 2008,
those of African-Americans and Hispanic were 24.7 percent and 23.2
percent respectively, almost three times of that of the white (The New
York Times, September 29, 2009). About one quarter of American Indians
lived below the poverty line. In 2008, 30.7 percent of Hispanic, 19.1
percent of African-Americans and 14.5 percent of non-Hispanic white lived
without health insurance (Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage
in the United States: 2008, www.census.gov). According to a report issued
by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a record 10,552
fair housing discrimination complaints were filed in fiscal 2008, 35
percent of which were alleged race discrimination (The Washington Post,
June 10, 2009). The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
reported that while African-Americans make up 12 percent of the US
population, they represent nearly half of new HIV infections and AIDS
deaths every year (The Wall Street Journal, April 8, 2009; revised
statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention).<br><br>
Employment and occupational discrimination against minority groups is
very serious. Minority groups bear the brunt of the U.S. unemployment.
According to news reports, the U.S. unemployment rate in October 2009 was
10.2 percent. The jobless rate of the U.S. African-Americans jumped to
15.7 percent, that of the Hispanic rose to 13.1 percent and that of the
white was 9.5 percent (USA Today, November 6, 2009). Unemployment rate of
the black aged between 16 and 24 saw a record high of 34.5 percent, more
than three times the average rate. Unemployment rates for the black in
cities such as Detroit and Milwaukee had reached 20 percent (The
Washington Post, December 10, 2009). In some American Indians
communities, unemployment rate was as high as 80 percent (The China
Press, November 6, 2009). According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics, the unemployment rate for black male college graduates aged
25 and older in 2009 has been twice that of white male college graduates,
8.4 percent compared with 4.4 percent (The New York Times, December 1,
2009). In 2008, a record number of workers filed federal job
discrimination complaints, with allegations of race discrimination making
up the greatest portion at more than one-third of the 95,000 total claims
(AP, April 27, 2009). According to an investigation by the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission, a Houston-based oil and gas drilling
company faced five complaints of racial harassment and discrimination
(AP, November 18, 2009). According to a news report, by the end of May
2009, the black and Hispanic groups each accounted for roughly 27 percent
of New York City's population, but only 3 percent of the 11,529
firefighters were black, and about 6 percent were Hispanic since the
city's fire department unfairly excluded hundreds of qualified people of
color from the opportunity to serve (The New York Times, July 23,
2009).<br><br>
The U.S. minority groups face discriminations in education. According to
a report issued by the U.S. Bureau of Census, 33 percent of the
non-Hispanic white has college degrees, proportion of the black was only
20 percent and Hispanic was 13 percent (US Bureau of Census, April 27,
2009, www.census.gov). According to a report, from 2003 to 2008, 61
percent of black applicants and 46 percent of Mexican-American applicants
were denied acceptance at all of the law schools to which they applied,
compared with 34 percent of white applicants (The New York Times, January
7, 2010). African-American children accounted for only 17 percent of the
U.S. public school students, but accounted for 32 percent of the total
number which were expelled from the schools. According to a research by
the University of North Carolina and Michigan State University, most of
the black juvenile believed that they were victims of racial
discrimination (Science Daily, April 29, 2009). According to another
study conducted among 5,000 children in Birmingham, Ala., Houston and Los
Angeles, prejudice was reported by 20 percent of blacks and 15 percent of
Hispanics. The study showed that racial discrimination was an important
cause to mental health problems for children of varied races. Hispanic
children who reported racism were more than three times as likely as
other children to have symptoms of depression, blacks were more than
twice as likely (USA Today, May 5, 2009).<br><br>
<br>
Racial discrimination in law enforcement and judicial system is very
distinct. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, by the end of
2008, 3,161 men and 149 women per 100,000 persons in the U.S. black
population were under imprisonment
(<a href="http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/" eudora="autourl">
www.ojp.usdoj.gov</a>). The number of life imprisonment without parole
given to African-American young people was ten times of that given to
white young people in 25 states. The figure in California was 18 times.
In major U.S. cities, there are more than one million people who were
stopped and questioned by police in streets, nearly 90 percent of them
were minority males. Among those questioned, 50 percent were
African-Americans and 30 percent were Hispanics. Only 10 percent were
white people (The China Press, October 9, 2009). A report released by New
York City Police Department, of the people involved in police shootings
whose ethnicity could be determined in 2008, 75 percent were black, 22
percent were Hispanic; and 3 percent were white (The New York Times,
November 17, 2009). According to a report by Human Rights Watch, from
1980 to 2007, the ratio of the African-Americans being arrested for
dealing drugs across the U.S. was 2.8 to 5.5 times of that of the white
(<a href="http://www.hrw.org/" eudora="autourl">www.hrw.org</a>, March 2,
2009).<br><br>
Since the Sept. 11 event, discrimination against Muslims is increasing.
Nearly 58 percent of Americans think Muslims are subject to "a
lot" of discrimination, according to two combined surveys released
by the Pew Research Center. About 73 percent of young people aged 18 to
29 are more likely to say Muslims are the most discriminated against
(<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.washingtontimes.com</a>, September 10, 2009).<br><br>
Immigrants live in misery. According to a report by the U.S. branch of
Amnesty International, more than 300,000 illegal immigrants were detained
by U.S. immigration authorities each year, and the illegal immigrants
under custody exceeded 30,000 for each single day (World Journal, March
26, 2009). At the same time, hundreds of legal immigrants were put under
arrest, denied entry or even sent back under escort every year (Sing Tao
Daily, April 13, 2009). A report released by the Constitution Project and
Human Rights Watch revealed that from 1999 to 2008, about 1.4 million
detained immigrants were transferred. Tens of thousands of longtime
residents of cities like Los Angeles and Philadelphia were sent, by
force, to remote immigrant jails in Texas or Louisiana (The New York
Times, November 2, 2009). The New York City Bar Association received a
startling petition in October 2008 which was signed by 100 men, all
locked up without criminal charges in the Varick Street Detention
Facility in the middle of Manhattan. The letter described their cramped,
filthy quarters where dire medical needs were ignored and hungry
prisoners were put to work for 1 dollar a day (The New York Times,
November 2, 2009). Some detained women who were still in lactation period
were denied breast pumps in the facilities, resulting in fever, pain,
mastitis, and the inability to continue breastfeeding upon release
(<a href="http://www.hrw.org/" eudora="autourl">www.hrw.org</a>, March
16, 2009). A total of 104 people have died while in custody of the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency since October, 2003 (The Wall
Street Journal, August 18, 2009).<br><br>
Ethnic hatred crimes are frequent. According to statistics released by
the U.S. Federal Investigation Bureau on November 23, 2009, a total of
7,783 hate crimes occurred in 2008 in the United States, 51.3 percent of
which were originated by racial discrimination and 19.5 percent were for
religious bias and 11.5 percent were for national origins
(<a href="http://www.fbi.gov/" eudora="autourl">www.fbi.gov</a>). Among
those hate crimes, more than 70 percent were against black people. In
2008, anti-black offenses accounted for 26 persons per 1,000 people, and
anti-white crimes accounted for 18 persons per 1,000 people (victim
characteristics, October 21, 2009, www.fbi.gov). On June 10, 2009, a
white supremacist gunned down a black guard of the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum with another two wounded (The Washington Post, June 11,
2009, The Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2009). According to a report
issued by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an environment of racial
intolerance and ethnic hatred, fostered by anti-immigrant groups and some
public officials, has helped fuel dozens of attacks on Latinos in Suffolk
County of New York State during the past decade (The New York Times,
September 3, 2009).<br><br>
<br>
</font><font size=3 color="#000080"><b>V. On the Rights of Women and
Children<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>The living conditions of women and children in
the United States are deteriorating and their rights are not properly
guaranteed.<br><br>
Women do not enjoy equal social and political status as men. Women
account for 51 percent of the U.S. population, but only 92 women, or 17
percent of the seats, serve in the current 111th U.S. Congress. Seventeen
women serve in the Senate and 75 women serve in the House (Members of the
111th United States Congress, http://en.wikipedia.org). A study shows
minorities and women are unlikely to hold top positions at big U.S.
charities and nonprofits. The study reveals that women make up 18.8
percent of nonprofit CEOs compared to just 3 percent at Fortune 500
companies. Among the 400 biggest charities in the U.S., no cultural
organization, hospital, public affairs group, Jewish federation or other
religious organization is headed by a woman (The Washington Times,
September 20, 2009).<br><br>
Women have difficulties in finding a job and suffer from low income and
poor financial situations. According to statistics from the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), workplace discrimination charge
filings with the federal agency nationwide rose to 95,402 during Fiscal
Year 2008, a 15 percent increase from the previous fiscal year. Charge of
workplace discrimination because of a job applicant's sex maintained a
high proportion
(<a href="http://www.eeoc.gov/" eudora="autourl">www.eeoc.gov</a>,
November 3, 2009). According to statistics released by the U.S. Census
Bureau in September 2009, the median incomes of full-time female workers
in 2008 were 35,745 U.S. dollars, 77 percent of those of corresponding
men whose median earnings were 46,367 U.S. dollars, which is lower than
the 78 percent in 2007 (The Wall Street Journal, September 11, 2009;
www.census.gov, September 10, 2009). According to the Associated Press, a
female pharmacist who had been working for Walmart for ten years was
fired in 2004 for demanding the same income as her male counterparts (The
Associated Press, October 5, 2009). By the end of 2008, 4.2 million, or
28.7 percent of families with a female householder where no husband is
present were poor
(<a href="http://www.census.gov/" eudora="autourl">www.census.gov</a>,
September 10, 2009). About 64 million, or 70 percent of working-age
American women have no health insurance coverage, or have inadequate
coverage, high medical bills or debt problems, or problems in accessing
care because of cost (The China Press, May 12, 2009).<br><br>
Women are frequent victims of violence and sexual assault. It is reported
that the United States has the highest rape rate among countries which
report such statistics. It is 13 times higher than that of England and 20
times higher than that of Japan (Occurrence of rape,
http://www.sa.rochester.edu). In San Diego, a string of similar attacks
happened to five women who have been sexually assaulted by a home invader
in March 2009 (Sing Tao Daily, March 14, 2009). According to a report
released by the Pentagon, more than 2,900 sexual assaults in the military
were reported in 2008, up nearly 9 percent from the year before. And of
those, only 292 cases resulted in a military trial. The report said the
actual numbers of such cases could be five to ten times of the reported
figure (The evening news of the Columbia Broadcasting System, March 17,
2009). Reuters reported that based on in-depth interviews on 40
servicewomen, 10 said they had been raped, five said they were sexually
assaulted including attempted rape, and 13 reported sexual harassment
(Reuters, April 16, 2009).<br><br>
<br>
American children suffer from hunger and cold. A report from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture showed that 16.7 million children, or one
fourth of the U.S. total, had not enough food in 2008 (The Washington
Post, USA Today, November 17, 2009). The food relief institution Feeding
America said in a report that more than 3.5 million children under the
age of five face hunger or malnutrition. This figure accounts for 17
percent of American children aged five and under. In 11 states, more than
20 percent of young children were at risk for hunger. Louisiana, with
24.2 percent, had the highest rate of child food insecurity
(<a href="http://www.feedingamerica.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.feedingamerica.org</a>, May 7, 2009). Children at or below 18 account
for more than one third of the U.S. people in poverty. Figures from the
U.S. Census Bureau showed that the number of children younger than 18 who
live in poverty increased from 13.3 million in 2007 to 14.1 million in
2008
(<a href="http://www.census.gov/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.census.gov</a>, The Washington Post, September 11, 2009).
According to statistics from the U.S-based National Center on Family
Homelessness, from 2005 to 2006, more than 1.5 million children, or one
in every 50 children, were homeless in the U.S. every year. Among the
homeless children, 42 percent were younger than 6 and the majority were
African-Americans and Indians (CNN.com, MSNBUC.com, March 10, 2009). In
2008, nearly one tenth of the children in the United States were not
covered by health insurance. It was reported that about 7.3 million
children, or 9.9 percent of the American total, were without health
insurance in 2008. In Nevada, 20.2 percent of the children were uncovered
by insurance
(<a href="http://www.census.gov/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.census.gov</a>, the Washington Post, September 21). On August
13, 2009, a state board voted that California will begin terminating
health insurance for more than 60,000 children on October 1. The program
could ultimately drop nearly 670,000 children by the end of June 2010
(The Los Angeles Times, The China Press, August 14, 2009). A research led
by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center showed that lack of health
insurance might have led or contributed to nearly 17,000 deaths among
hospitalized children in the U.S. in the span of less than two decades
(Journal of Public Health, October 30, 2009). The A/H1N1 flu has infected
about 8 million children under 18 from April to October 2009, killing 540
of them, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of
the United States (USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, November 13,
2009).<br><br>
Children are exposed to violence and living in fear. It is reported that
1,494 children younger than 18 nationwide were murdered in 2008 (USA
Today, October 8, 2009). A report released by the Health Department of
the New York City on June 16, 2009 showed that between 2001 and 2007, the
national average rate of child deaths was 20 per 100,000 children aged 1
to 12 years. Homicide rates were 1.3 deaths per 100,000 among the group
(<a href="http://www.nyc.gov/" eudora="autourl">http://www.nyc.gov</a>).
A survey conducted by the U.S. Justice Department on 4,549 kids and
adolescents aged 17 and younger between January and May of 2008 showed,
more than 60 percent of children surveyed were exposed to violence within
the past year, either directly or indirectly. Nearly half of all children
surveyed were assaulted at least once in the past year, about 6 percent
were victimized sexually, and 13 percent reported having been physically
bullied in the past year (The Associated Press, October 7, 2009). There
have been at least 1,227 children died from abuse or neglect in Texas
since 2002 (The Houston Chronicle, October 22, 2009). According to
research of U.S.-based institution and public health media reports, in
the U.S., one third of children who run away or were expelled from home
performed sexual acts in exchange for food, drugs and a place to stay
every year. The justice system no longer considers them as young victims,
but as juvenile offenders (The China Press, October 28, 2009).<br><br>
Child farmworkers are prevalent. An organization devoted to protecting
children's rights disclosed that as many as 400,000 children are
estimated to work on U.S. farms. Davis Strauss, executive director of the
Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, noted that for decades,
children, some as young as eight years old, have labored in the fields
using sharp tools and toiling amongst dangerous pesticides. The
association's president Ernie Flores said children account for about 20
percent of all farm fatalities in the United States (Spain's Uprising
newspaper, October 14, 2009). A labor standards act permits a child
beyond 13 to work in heat for long time in a farm, but does not permit
that child to work in an air-conditioned office and even forbids them
working in a fast food restaurant.<br><br>
The U.S. is the only country in the world that does not apply parole
system to minors. Detentions of juveniles have increased 44 percent from
1985 to 2002. Many children only committed only minor crimes but could
not get assistance from lawyers. Many procurators and judges turned a
blind eye on abuse in juvenile prisons.<br><br>
<br>
</font><font size=3 color="#000080"><b>VI. On U.S. Violations of Human
Rights against Other Nations<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>The United States with its strong military power
has pursued hegemony in the world, trampling upon the sovereignty of
other countries and trespassing their human rights.<br><br>
As the world's biggest arms seller, its deals have greatly fueled
instability across the world. The United States also expanded its
military spending, already the largest in the world, by 10 percent in
2008 to 607 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 42 percent of the world
total (The AP, June 9, 2009).<br><br>
According to a report by the U.S. Congress, the U.S. foreign arms sales
in 2008 soared to 37.8 billion U.S. dollars from 25.4 billion a year
earlier, up by nearly 50 percent, accounting for 68.4 percent of the
global arms sales that were at its four-year low (Reuters, September 6,
2009). At the beginning of 2010, the U.S. government announced a
6.4-billion-U.S. dollar arms sales package to Taiwan despite strong
protest from the Chinese government and people, which seriously damaged
China's national security interests and aroused strong indignation among
the Chinese people.<br><br>
The wars of Iraq and Afghanistan have placed heavy burden on American
people and brought tremendous casualties and property losses to the
people of Iraq and Afghanistan. The war in Iraq has led to the death of
more than 1million Iraqi civilians, rendered an equal number of people
homeless and incurred huge economic losses. In Afghanistan, incidents of
the U.S. army killing innocent people still keep occurring. Five Afghan
farmers were killed in a U.S. air strike when they were loading cucumbers
into a van on August 5, 2009
(<a href="http://www.rawa.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.rawa.org</a>
). On June 8, the U.S. Department of Defense admitted that the U.S. raid
on Taliban on May 5 caused death of Afghan civilians as the military
failed to abide by due procedures. The Afghan authorities have identified
147 civilian victims, including women and children, while a U.S. officer
put the death toll under 30 (The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 9,
2009).<br><br>
Prisoner abuse is one of the biggest human rights scandals of the United
States. A report presented to the 10th meeting of Human Rights Council of
the United Nations in 2009 by its Special Rapporteur on the promotion and
protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering
terrorism showed that the United States has pursued a comprehensive set
of practices including special deportation, long-term and secret
detentions and acts violating the United Nations Convention against
Torture. The rapporteur also said, in a report submitted to the 64th
General Assembly of the United Nations, that the United States and its
private contractors tortured male Muslims detained in Iraq and other
places by stacking the naked prisoners in pyramid formation, coercing the
homosexual sexual behaviors and stripping them in stark nakedness (The
Washington Post, April 7, 2009). The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) has begun interrogation by torture since 2002. The U.S. government
lawyers disclosed that since 2001, CIA has destroyed 92 videotapes
relating to the interrogation to suspected terrorists, 12 of them
including the use of torture (The Washington Post, March 3, 2009). The
CIA interrogators used a handgun and an electric drill to frighten a
captured al-Qaeda commander into giving up information (The Washington
Post, August 22, 2009). The U.S. Justice Department memos revealed the
CIA kept prisoners shackled in a standing position for as long as 180
hours, more than a dozen of them deprived of sleep for at least 48 hours,
three for more than 96 hours, and one for the nearly eight-day maximum.
Another seemed to endorse sleep deprivation for 11 days, stated on one
memo
(<a href="http://www.chron.com/" eudora="autourl">http://www.chron.com</a>
). The CIA interrogators used waterboarding 183 times against the accused
9/11 major plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and 83 times against suspected
Al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah (The New York Times, April 20, 2009). A
freed Guantanamo prisoner said he experienced the "medieval"
torture at Guantanamo Bay and in a secret CIA prison in Kabul (AFP,
London, March 7, 2009). In June 2006, three Guantanamo Bay inmates could
have been suffocated to death during interrogation on the same evening
and their deaths passed off as suicides by hanging, revealed by a
six-month joint investigation for Harpers Magazine and NBC News in 2009
(<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/" eudora="autourl">
www.guardian.co.uk</a>, January 18, 2010). A Somali named Mohamed Saleban
Bare, jailed at Guantanamo Bay for eight years, told AFP the prison was
"hell on earth" and some of his colleagues lost sight and limbs
and others ended up mentally disturbed (AFP, Hargisa, Somali, December
21, 2009). A 31-year-old Yemeni detainee at Guantanamo Bay who had been
on a long hunger strike apparently committed suicide in 2009 after four
prior suicide deaths beginning at 2002 (The New York Times, June 3,
2009). The U.S. government held more than 600 prisoners at Bagram Air
Base, Afghanistan. A United Nations report singled out the Bagram
detention facility for criticism, saying some ex-detainees allege being
subjected to severe torture, even sexual abuse, and some prisoners put
under detention for as long as five years. It also reported that some
were held in cages containing 15 to 20 men and that two detainees died in
questionable circumstances while in custody (IPS, New York, February 25,
2009). An investigation by U.S. Justice Department showed 2,000 Taliban
surrendered combatants were suffocated to death by the U.S.
army-controlled Afghan armed forces
(<a href="http://www.yourpolicicsusa.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.yourpolicicsusa.com</a>, July 16, 2009).<br><br>
<br>
The United States has been building its military bases around the world,
and cases of violation of local people's human rights are often seen. The
United States is now maintaining 900 bases worldwide, with more than
190,000 military personnel and 115,000 relevant staff stationed. These
bases are bringing serious damage and environmental contamination to the
localities. Toxic substances caused by bomb explosions are taking their
tolls on the local children. It has been reported that toward the end of
the U.S. military bases' presence in Subic and Clark, as many as 3,000
cases of raping the local women had been filed against the U.S.
servicemen, but all were dismissed
(<a href="http://www.lexisnexis.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.lexisnexis.com</a>, May 17, 2009).<br><br>
The United States has been maintaining its economic, commercial and
financial embargo against Cuba for almost 50 years. The blockade has
caused an accumulated direct economic loss of more than 93 billion U.S.
dollars to Cuba. On October 28, 2009, the 64th session of the United
Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on the "Necessity of
ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the
United States of America against Cuba," with a recorded vote of 187
in favor to three against, and two abstentions. This marked the 18th
consecutive year the assembly had overwhelmingly called on the United
States to lift the blockade without delay (Overwhelming International
Rejection of US Blockade of Cuba at UN, www.cubanews.ain.cu).<br><br>
The United States is pushing its hegemony under the pretence of
"Internet freedom." The United States monopolizes the strategic
resources of the global Internet, and has been retaining a tight grip
over the Internet ever since its first appearance. There are currently 13
root servers of Internet worldwide, and the United States is the place
where the only main root server and nine out of the rest 12 root servers
are located. All the root servers are managed by the ICANN (Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), which is, by the authority
of the U.S. government, responsible for the management of the global root
server system, the domain name system and the Internet Protocol address.
The United States has declined all the requests from other countries as
well as international organizations including the United Nations to break
the U.S. monopoly over the root servers and to decentralize its
management power over the Internet. The United States has been
intervening in other countries' domestic affairs in various ways taking
advantage of its control over Internet resources. The United States has a
special troop of hackers, which is made up of hacker proficients
recruited from all over the world. When post-election unrest broke out in
Iran in the summer of 2009, the defeated reformist camp and its
advocators used Internet tools such as Twitter to spread their messages.
The U.S. State Department asked the operator of Twitter to delay its
scheduled maintenance to assist with the opposition in creating a
favorable momentum of public opinion. In May 2009, one web company,
prompted by the U.S. authorities, blocked its Messenger instant messaging
service in five countries including Cuba.<br><br>
The United States is using a global interception system named
"ECHELON" to eavesdrop on communications worldwide. A report of
the European Parliament pointed out that the "ECHELON" system
is a network controlled by the United States for intelligence gathering
and analyzing. The system is able to intercept and monitor the content of
telephone calls, fax, e-mail and other digital information transmitted
via public telephone networks, satellites and microwave links. The
European Parliament has criticized the United States for using its
“ECHELON” system to commit crimes such as civilian's privacy infringement
or state-conducted industrial espionage, among which was the most
striking case of Saudi Arabia's 6-billion-dollar aircraft contract (see
Wikipedia). Telephone calls of British Princess Diana had been
intercepted and eavesdropped because her global campaign against
land-mines was in conflict with the U.S. policies. The Washington Post
once reported that such spying activities conducted by the U.S.
authorities were reminiscent of the Vietnam War when the United States
imposed wiretapping and surveillance upon domestic anti-war
activists.<br><br>
The United States ignores international human rights conventions, and
takes a passive attitude toward international human rights obligations.
It signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights 32 years ago and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women 29 years ago, but has ratified neither of
them yet. It has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities either. On Sept. 13, 2007, the 61st UN General Assembly
voted to adopt the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which
has been the UN's most authoritative and comprehensive document to
protect the rights of indigenous peoples. The United States also refused
to recognize the declaration.<br><br>
The above-mentioned facts show that the United States not only has a bad
domestic human rights record, but also is a major source of many human
rights disasters around the world. For a long time, it has placed itself
above other countries, considered itself "world human rights
police" and ignored its own serious human rights problems. It
releases Country Reports on Human Rights Practices year after year to
accuse other countries and takes human rights as a political instrument
to interfere in other countries' internal affairs, defame other nations'
image and seek its own strategic interests. This fully exposes its double
standards on the human rights issue, and has inevitably drawn resolute
opposition and strong denouncement from world people. At a time when the
world is suffering a serious human rights disaster caused by the U.S.
subprime crisis-induced global financial crisis, the U.S. government
still ignores its own serious human rights problems but revels in
accusing other countries. It is really a pity.<br><br>
We hereby advise the U.S. government to draw lessons from the history,
put itself in a correct position, strive to improve its own human rights
conditions and rectify its acts in the human rights field.<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
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