Human Rights Record of the United States

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See also Human rights in the United States.

The Human Rights Record of the United States (informally referred to as the "China Human Rights Report") is a publication on the annual human rights record in the United States of America, published by the Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. The report was first issued in 1998 as a response to the United States' practice of criticizing China in its own annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which each of the Chinese reports cites in the first paragraph. It has since been published annually since 2003.

The Report is typically critical of various alleged shortcomings in U.S. domestic human rights, including difficulties with poverty, race relations, and high rates of both violent crime and incarceration. More recently, the report has condemned U.S. military actions abroad, particularly highlighting the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.

1 2003 Report
2 2004 Report
3 Criticisms and Supports of the Report
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] 2003 Report

The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2003, published on March 1, 2004, again criticises the human rights record of the United States from six aspects: personal freedom and safety, political rights, labour conditions, racial discrimination, conditions of women, children and the elderly and U.S.' infringement upon human rights in other countries. The report claims that the USA PATRIOT Act has "encroached upon rights and freedom of citizens, especially the people of ethnic minorities". It also argues that the freedom of press has been neglected, citing examples like the firing of Peter Arnett and limited access to al Jazeera television broadcasts. The report put an emphasis on the U.S. military actions abroad, including the War on Iraq in March 2003, conducted without the approval of the United Nations. The detention without trial of over 3,000 Taliban and Al-Qaeda suspects is cited as another example of the United States' infringement upon human rights of non-U.S. citizens. The report concludes, as usual, that the United States should "reflect on its erroneous position and behavior on human rights, and stop its unpopular interference with other countries' internal affairs under the pretext of promoting human rights".

[edit] 2004 Report

The 2004 report focused on facts arising in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, stating:

In 2004 the atrocity of U.S. troops abusing Iraqi POWs exposed the dark side of human rights performance of the United States. The scandal shocked the public and was condemned by the international community. It is quite ironic that on Feb. 28 of this year, the State Department of the United States once again posed as the 'the world human rights police' and released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004. As in previous years, the reports pointed fingers at human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions (including China) but kept silent on the U.S. misdeeds in this field. Therefore, the world people have to probe the human rights record behind the Statue of Liberty in the United States.

[edit] Criticisms and Supports of the Report

Critics of the People's Republic of China's report say it contains nothing of substance but disconnected allegations intended to divert attention from PRC's own troubling record. The target audience is mainly Chinese people and the United States' report is almost unavailable in mainland China.

Supporters say that just as the USA is free to criticise the PRC, the PRC should also be free to criticise the USA, since even the most developed nations occasionally fall short of their human rights ideals. Moreover, since United States' Country Reports on Human Rights Practices didn't evaluate its own human rights conditions, the Human Rights Record of the United States may be used as a complement.