US Human Rights Record for 2006

Continued from Page 20

One hundred and forty five countries provide paid sick leave for their workers but the United States has no federal law on this, leaving it to be decided by employers.

The United States has no law on maximum work week length or a limit on mandatory overtime per week, but 134 countries have laws in this regard.

There is no guarantee in the United States to protect working women's right to breast-feeding but at least 107 countries ensure their working women have breast-feeding breaks. The United States guarantees fathers neither paid paternity nor paid parental leave, but 65 countries grant fathers either paid paternity or paid parental leave.

Quite a few Americans are not covered by basic health insurance. A report released by the US Census Bureau on August 29, 2006 said the number of people without health insurance coverage rose to 46.6 million in 2005, accounting for 15.9 percent of the total population, up 1.3 million over 2004.

Minnesota had the lowest percentage of uninsured of 8.7 percent and Texas had the highest percentage of uninsured of 25 percent.

From 2003 to 2006, the basic Medicare premium increased more than 50 percent to 88.50 US dollars a month from $58.7 in 2003 and it was predicted that it would rise to $98.20 in 2007.

The administration said the cost of the drug benefit would grow an average of 11.5 percent a year in the next decade, more than twice as fast as the economy. (The New York Times, May 2, 2006)

Statistics showed, in the past six years, average annual Medicare costs for a US family reached $11,500 or nearly $3,000 for each American every year. More and more Americans are unable to afford the high Medicare expenses and are looking overseas for medical treatment. In 2005, some 500,000 uninsured Americans trekked overseas for medical treatment, according to the National Coalition on Health Care. (Eagle-Tribune, Nov. 27, 2006)

V. On Racial Discrimination

Racial segregation and discrimination are still deep-seated in the United States. African-Americans and other colored people are still living in "another United States".

The ethnic minorities are at the bottom of American society.

Statistics released by the US Census Bureau in November 2006 indicated that according to the 2005 data, the average yearly household income was $50,622 for whites, compared with $36,278 for Hispanics and $30,940 for blacks.

White people's income was 64 percent more than that of the blacks and 40 percent more than that of the Hispanics.

Three-fourths of white households owned their homes in 2005, compared with 46 percent of black households and 48 percent of Hispanic households. (The Washington Post, November 14, 2006)

The poverty rate for whites was 8.3 percent in 2005, while the rates were 24.9 percent for blacks and 21.8 percent for Hispanics. (US Census Bureau, August 29, 2006)

Nearly one in five Hispanics lacked sufficient access to nutritious food and one in 20 regularly went hungry. Blacks accounted for 42 percent of all the homeless people in the United States. (USA Today, December 22, 2006)

The percentage of colored people uncovered by government health insurance was much higher than that of whites.

In 2005, the uninsured rate was 32.7 percent for Hispanics and 19.6 for blacks, compared with 11.3 percent for whites. And in the hurricane-hit southern area, the poor and blacks lived a much worse life.

During its 87th session the UN Human Rights Committee noted in its consideration of a report submitted by the United States on its implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, that the committee "remains concerned about information that poor people and in particular African-Americans were disadvantaged by the rescue and evacuation plans implemented when Hurricane Katrina hit the United States, and continue to be disadvantaged under the reconstruction plans". (Human Rights Committee, Eighty-seventh session, 10-28 July 2006)

African-Americans and other ethnic minorities have been subject to discrimination in employment and the workplace.

The unemployment rate of blacks was more than twice that of the whites. According to statistics released by the US Department of Labor on December 8, 2006, the unemployment rate in November 2006 was 8.6 percent for the blacks and 3.9 percent for the whites.

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission receives more than 500 complaints against racial discrimination every week and more than 26,000 every year; in fiscal year 2005, it received 26,740 charges of race discrimination.

A report released by an economic and policy research center in the United States on December 15, 2006 said that biased government policies and negative coverage of the media have limited the development of the youngsters of ethnic minorities in the US. Whites are more easily to be promoted to management than blacks and Hispanics.

An African-American employee of Merrill Lynch & Co. accused the largest US retail brokerage of racial discrimination in 2005.

And in 2006, 16 current and former black employees of the company joined the lawsuit, accusing Merrill of systematic and pervasive discrimination against African-American brokers and trainees nationwide in hiring, promotion and compensation.

Tyson Foods Inc., the largest meat company in the US was also accused by thirteen current and former African-American employees of racial discrimination in 2006. (Reuters, Nov. 7, 2006)

Racial disparities in education are also growing. According to US Census Bureau's 2005 data, in the United States more than half ethnic minority males dropped out of high school before graduation, 67.5 percent of Hispanics and 53 percent of blacks got no further education after graduating from high school.

White Americans were more likely to hold a graduate or professional degree. At least 30 percent white adults held a bachelor's degree, compared with 17 percent black adults and 12 percent Hispanic adults.

Racial segregation in education is in fact quite serious. According to a symposium held at the University of California at Los Angeles in October 2006, in the Los Angeles school district, 67 percent of Hispanic students studied in 90 percent to 100 percent non-white schools.

The racial divide in Los Angeles high schools was more serious. In Beverly High School, 73 percent students were whites, 8 percent were Asians, and 6 percent were Hispanics.

As a contrast, among the 4,940 students in Rosevelt High School, 98.9 percent were Hispanics and 1 percent were blacks. There were big disparities in school facilities due to the racial divide.

Racial discrimination is deep-rooted in America's law enforcement and judicial systems. Discrimination against Muslims in law enforcement has persisted in the United States since the September 11 attacks.

According to Associated Press reports, in November 2006, six Muslims, who were returning from a religious conference, were taken off an airliner from Minneapolis to Phoenix, handcuffed and questioned, only because a passenger had passed a note about them to a flight attendant.

In the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks, four airlines accused of breaking federal anti-discrimination laws settled with the government.

Transportation Department investigations found the airlines had unlawfully removed passengers because of perceived ethnic or religious backgrounds. (The Associated Press, Nov. 28, 2006)

And Latino and African-American motorists in most areas of Los Angeles were significantly more likely than whites to be asked during police stops to leave their vehicles and submit to searches, according to a study ordered by the city in 2006 (Los Angeles Times, July 13, 2006).

In judicial practice, blacks are usually more severely punished than whites. According to statistics of the National Urban League, of the sentences issued in 12 crime categories in the State Courts, sentences for black males were longer than for white males in all of them. (The State of Black America 2006, issued by National Urban League, March 27, 2006)

Black people account for only 12.1 percent of the US population, however, according to statistics of the US Department of Justice, at the end of 2005, about 40 percent of all male inmates sentenced to more than one year were black, and 20 percent were Latino Americans.

According to a report released by the Human Rights Watch on December 1, 2006, the number of black inmates was 6.6 times that of whites and the number of Latino inmates was 2.5 times that of white inmates.

Statistics showed that about one out of 12 black men were in jail or prison, compared with one in 100 white men. Researchers pointed to poverty, a lack of opportunities, racism in the criminal justice system for the black-white prison gap. (Answer to AIDS Mystery Found Behind Bars, Washington Post, March 9, 2006)

Racial segregation and discrimination results in an increase of hate crimes. The number of extreme racist and neo-Nazi organizations has increased by 33 percent in recent five years, rising from 672 in 2004 to 803 in 2005. ([Argentina] Clarin, May 25, 2006)

Meanwhile, the number of hate crimes kept increasing. An analysis of the 7,160 single-bias incidents by bias motivation revealed that 54.7 percent were motivated by a racial bias. (FBI press release, Oct. 16, 2006) New York City reported 230 hate crimes in 2006, about 8 percent more than in 2005, with the number of those targeted at Asian Americans more than double.

A CNN/Opinion Research poll published in December 2006 found that 84 percent of blacks and 66 percent of whites believe racism is a serious problem, and there are many different kinds of racism aimed at many different groups in US society. (CNN, Dec. 15, 2006)

VI. On the Rights of Women, Children, the Elderly and the Disabled

The human rights situation of women, children, the elderly and the disabled in the United States is worrisome. Women in the United States do not share equal rights with men in politics. Despite the fact that women outnumber men in the US population, they hold only 82 seats in the 109th US Congress, including 14 seats or 14 percent of the Senate and 68 or 15.6 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives.

Among the 243 mayors of the cities with a population of over 100,000 in the United States, only 35 were women by January 2006. By December 2006, there were only 78 women serving in statewide executive office, 24.8 percent of the total 315 working posts, and 22.8 percent of the state legislators in the United States were women. (Women in Elective Office 2006, issued by Center for American Women and Politics, Dec. 2, 2006)

American women and men are not paid equally for the same work, and the income of women has always been lower than that of men. Statistics released by the US Census Bureau in 2006 said the median earnings of women and men were about 32,000 and 42,000 US dollars, respectively. The female-to-male earnings ratio was 76 percent. (US Census Bureau, www.census.gov)

On November 29, 2006, two female brokers of the Citigroup joined three others in filing an amended complaint with a local court in California, charging that the bank's policies were designed to deprive female brokers of opportunities offered to male brokers, and Citigroup kept male brokers at the top of the compensation scale and female brokers at the bottom. (Reuters, New York, Nov. 29, 2006)

Low-income American women lack proper labor protection and social security and live a hard life.

A survey by the Community Service Society showed that among low-income working mothers living on less than 32,000 US dollars for a family of three, more than half were not entitled to even a single day of paid sick leave; 61 percent did not have paid vacation; and 80 percent did not receive any employee health benefits for themselves or their children.

In 2005, 37 percent of the low-wage mothers had to give up necessary medical care, and a third had their electricity or phone turned off because they could not pay the bills. Forty-three percent had to rely on food pantries, and 42 percent fell behind in their rent. (The Other Mothers, The New York Times, May 14, 2006)

The poverty rate of single mothers is the highest in the population of the United States. A report released by the US Census Bureau on August 29, 2006 showed that 28.9 percent of the mothers in the United States were single in 2005, and about 4 million were living below the poverty line.

The rate of female prisoners keeps increasing. Since 1995, the annual rate of growth in female prisoners averaged 4.6 percent. Females account for 7 percent of all prisoners in the United States. (Prisoners in 2005, US Department of Justice, Nov. 30, 2006)

The United Nation's Committee Against Torture reported on May 19, 2006 that treatment of female detainees in US prisons needed to be improved urgently.

The recommendations were made on the fact that female detainees were humiliated in prisons in the United States, where pregnant women had been kept in chains and leg restraints into the third trimester of their pregnancies; some had been shackled even while in labor.

In March 2006, Chen Xucai, a woman from China's Fujian Province, was arrested in New York for selling fake brand name handbags. She was later found pregnant in jail. The jailers not only mistreated her rudely but also stopped her medication, resulting in her having to abort the pregnancy in prison. (The China Press, New York, March 19, 2006)

American women face high risks of sexual offense. The FBI reported in September 2006 that during 2005, there were an estimated 93,934 female victims of forcible rape, or 62.5 out of every 100,000 women suffered from forcible rape.

Women are often sexually harassed while at work. Statistics released by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2006 showed that the commission received 12,679 charges of sexual harassment in 2005, with 85.7 percent of them filed by women.

American children are among the groups with high poverty rate.

According to figures released by the US Census Bureau in August 2006, 12.9 million children under 18 lived below the poverty line by the end of 2005, accounting for 17.6 percent of the population of this age group and 35.2 percent of the 37 million people in poverty in the United States.

Twenty percent of children under six lived in poverty, and 42.8 percent of children under 18 living in female headed families, with no husband present, were poor.

In Los Angeles County, an estimated three-quarters of the county's more than 1.2 million households with children struggled economically. Other statistics showed that the number of uninsured children under 18 increased from 7.9 million in 2004 to 8.3 million in 2005, and the proportion rose to 11.2 percent. (www.census.gov)

There are a large number of homeless children in the United States. According to a report of the Mexican newspaper El Universal on April 10, 2006, nearly 1.3 million American children who were homeless or fled home wandered in streets.

Among the children aged 10 to 18, one out of seven fled home. About 5,000 waifs were killed every year in fights, diseases and suicide. Children in homeless families represent about 55 percent of the roughly 2,000 homeless people in Fairfax County, which has about 1 million residents. (USA Today, Dec. 22, 2006)

In California, there were 95,000 homeless children in the 2005-06 school year, and two-thirds of them were primary school students.

The number of missing children is alarming. Reports said the US Department of Justice received nearly 800,000 cases of missing children and kidnapping every year.

The Department said among the nearly 100 dangerous missing cases each year, about 40 percent of the missing children were killed eventually. ( [Mexico] El Universal, April 10, 2006)

The United States is one of the few countries that sentence child offenders to death. Statistics showed that among the 2,985 inmates sentenced to death for whom the date of arrest was available, 342 inmates, or 11 percent, were 19 or younger at the time of their arrest. (US Department of Justice, Dec. 10, 2006, www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs)

American juveniles often fall victim to on-campus violence crimes. Statistics showed that from July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2005, there were 21 homicides at American schools. Twenty-eight percent of students 12 to 18 years old reported being bullied at school, and 24 percent of students reported that there were gangs at their schools during the first six months of 2005.

The Los Angeles Times reported on November 14, 2006 that about 7,400 students were arrested for on-campus crimes in Chicago schools during the 2005-06 school year.

The situation of the elderly people in the United States is worrisome.

Statistics released by the US Census Bureau in 2006 showed that the number for seniors aged above 65 in poverty increased from 3.5 million in 2004 to 3.6 million in 2005, with the poverty rate reaching 10.1 percent.

A total of 1.5 million older Americans live in nursing homes, 90 percent of which have inadequate staffing. (The New York Times, November 14, 2006)

In California, 100,000 elder abuse cases were filed in 2003, accounting for 20 percent of the 500,000 similar reports nationwide. Some 6,000 cases of elder abuse were reported annually in Orange County in California. (The New York Times, September 27, 2006)

The rights and interests of the disabled people in the United States are not properly protected. The Associated Press reported on April 10, 2006 that only 34 percent of working-age people with disabilities had full-time or part-time jobs over the past two decades, while people without disabilities had an employment rate of 78 percent.

People with disabilities are nearly three times more likely to live in poverty than people without disabilities; 26 percent of people with disabilities had annual household income below US$15,000, versus 9 percent for those without disabilities.

A survey conducted in Los Angeles County showed that 49 percent of the 88,345 homeless people in the county had a physical or mental disability. (The New York Times, Jan. 15, 2006)

VII. On the United States' Violation of Human Rights in Other Countries

Relying on its strong military power, the United States has trespassed on the sovereignty of other countries and violated human rights in other countries.

A large number of innocent Iraqi civilians have died in the war launched by the United States in 2003. On October 11, 2006, the Washington Post reported that a survey by the Bloomberg School of Public Health under Johns Hopkins University estimated that more than 655,000 Iraqis have died in Iraq since war started in March 2003, meaning about 500 unexpected violent deaths per day throughout the country.

The estimate was produced by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households in 47 neighborhood clusters throughout Iraq.

On November 19, 2005, a US marine unit searched an Iraqi community door-to-door and slaughtered 24 Iraqi civilians after a marine was killed by a roadside bomb in Haditha.

Those who died included a 76-year-old disabled man, a three-year-old child, and seven women. (Haditha 'Massacre' - One Year on, BBC News, November 19, 2006)

According to another report by British newspaper the Sunday Times (March 26, 2006), a family of eleven were shot dead by US troops on March 15, 2006; among the dead were five children aged from six months to five years, and four women.

On March 12, 2006, four US soldiers raped 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and then killed her, her parents and her five-year-old sister ( [UK] The Independent website Aug. 7, 2006).

On May 31, 2006, US forces killed two Iraqi women, one of them about to give birth, when the troops shot at a car that failed to stop at an observation post in a city north of Baghdad.

On June 5, 2006, CNN reported that a US squad took a 52-year-old disabled Iraqi to a roadside hole and shot him before planting a shovel and an AK-47 to make it appear that he was an insurgent planting a bomb.

On December 8, 2006, US-led forces killed 20 suspected insurgents during a raid targeting fighters from the group al-Qaeda in Iraq northwest of Baghdad. Amir Alwan, mayor of Ishaqi, said 10 men, four women and 10 children in his village were killed (The Washington Post, December 9, 2006).

The Associated Press reported that on May 9, 2006 four US soldiers murdered three suspected insurgents (Iraqi civilians) during a raid called "Objective Murray" in Salah ad-Din of Iraq. Raymond L.Girouard, a soldier of the four, said they were under orders to "kill all military age males", which is also the ROE (rule of engagement) of "Objective Murray".

The United States has a flagrant record of violating the Geneva Convention in systematically abusing prisoners during the Iraqi War and the War in Afghanistan.

A report released in News Night of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), originally provided by the US-based Human Rights First, showed that since August 2002, 98 prisoners had died in American-run prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the dead, 34 died of premeditated murder, 11 deaths were suspicious, and 8 to 12 were tortured to death (AFP, Feb. 21, 2006).

A Human Rights Watch report in July 2006 said torture and other abuses against detainees in US custody in Iraq were authorized and routine. Detainees were routinely subject to severe beating, painful stress positions, severe sleep deprivation, and exposure to extreme cold and hot temperatures.

Soldiers were told that many abusive techniques were authorized by the military chain of command and Geneva Conventions did not apply to the detainees at their facility.

Detainees at Camp Nama, a US detention center at the Baghdad airport - in violation of international law - not registered with the International Committee of the Red Cross, were regularly stripped naked and subject to beatings.

Some detainees were used for target practice. In May 2006 human rights group Amnesty International condemned the detention of some 14,000 prisoners in Iraq without charge or trial.

On February 15, 2006, Australia's SBS TV aired more than 10 pictures and video clips taken at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison; the images included: a man's throat was cut off, a man's left forearm was left with burns and shrapnel wounds, a blood-stained interrogation room, and a seemingly insane man covered with his own feces.

US army's criminal investigation division gathered materials included 1, 325 photographs and 93 video clips of suspected abuse of detainees, 546 photographs of suspected dead Iraqi detainees, all recorded between Oct. 18 and Dec. 30, 2003 ( [UK] Guardian, Feb. 17, 2006).

Another report carried by the New York Times in December 2006 says a man named Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor, was detained by American soldiers and put into detention center Camp Cropper for 97 days.

The man said American guards arrived at his cell periodically, shackled his hands and feet, blindfolded him and took him to a padded room for interrogation. When he was returned to his cell, he was fatigued but unable to sleep, for the fluorescent lights were never turned off and at most hours, heavy metal or country music blared in the corridor.

He was not allowed to use a telephone and denied the right to a lawyer at detention hearings.

The New York Times reported on March 18, 2006 that an elite Special Operations forces unit Task Force 6-26 converted one of Saddam Hussein's former military bases near Baghdad into a top-secret detention center. There, American soldiers made one of the former Iraqi government's torture chambers into their own interrogation cell. They named it the Black Room. In the windowless, jet-black garage-size room, some soldiers beat prisoners with rifle butts.

According to another report by British newspaper The Independent, 460 people were confined in the Guantanamo prison camp, including dozens of adolescent prisoners, with more than 60 under 18 and the youngest only 14.

A young man named Mohammed el-Gharani was allegedly accused of being a member of al-Qaeda and linked to the 1998 al-Qaeda London terrorist conspiracy when he was only 12. In 2001, he was arrested at the age of 14 ([UK] The Independent, Children of Guantanamo Bay, May 28, 2006).

According to a report by the Washington Post, on May 30, 2006, 75 prisoners in Guantanamo went on a hunger strike against US soldiers' maltreatment.

On June 10, 2006, three prisoners hung themselves with bed sheets and clothing (The Associated Press, June 11, 2006).

Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi Al-Utaybi's family said his organs including the brain, liver, kidney and heart were all taken away when the corpse arrived.

Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi Al-Utaybi's cousin said that might be done to conceal the truth behind his brother's death.

Another Saudi Arabian prisoner's father thought his son's death was not suicide but intentional hanging as he found bruises on his son's body.

The Amnesty International described it as another "indictment" of the worsening US human rights record. Human rights experts with the United Nations have condemned the United States for long-term arbitrary detention of suspects and abuses of detainees as serious violations of international law and relevant international conventions.

The US Military Commissions Act signed into law on October 17, 2006 allows more severe means to be used to interrogate terrorist suspects.

Martin Scheinin, UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of Human Rights and fundamental freedom, issued a statement noting that a number of provisions of the Act contradict the universal and fundamental principles of fair trial standards and due process enshrined in Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and relevant provisions of the International Convention on Civil Rights and Political Rights (UN Expert on Human Rights and Counter Terrorism Concerned That Military Commissions Act is Now Law in United States. Press Release, United Nations, October 27, 2006).

The United Nations and all peace- and justice-loving countries and peoples have unanimously condemned the US act of disregarding internationally recognized human rights principles and trespassing on other countries' sovereignty and human rights.

In July 2006, at its 87th session the UN Human Rights Committee expressed its concern over US infringements on human rights overseas. The committee also expressed concerned and raised recommendations on US security measures, detaining people secretly and in secret places for long periods, abuses of prisoners, and non-compliance with international conventions in the war on terror.

On June 14, 2006 five independent UN Special Rapporteurs on human rights issued a joint statement calling on the United States to immediately close the Guantanamo Bay detention center (UN rights experts call for immediate closure of US Guantanamo centre after suicides, UN News Center, June 14, 2006. http://www.un.org/).

America's international image has been greatly hurt by its government's violation of human rights flaunting the banner of "safeguarding human rights".

A poll by the BBC World Service released on January 23, 2007 showed that the image of the United States has deteriorated around the world in the past year.

During the poll 26,381 people were questioned in 25 countries. Some 73 percent of the total disapproved of the US government's handling of the military campaign in Iraq, with 49 percent of respondents saying Washington was playing a mainly negative role internationally.

An average of only 29 percent of some 18,000 people surveyed in 18 countries over the last three months believed that the United States is having a mainly positive influence internationally, down 7 percent from the previous poll conducted a year earlier.

Though the poll did not directly address their reasons, GlobeScan President Doug Miller told AFP by phone, the negative views appeared to be driven by US intervention in the Middle East and the "disconnection" between its declared values and actions, such as in Guantanamo Bay (AFP, London, Jan. 23, 2007).

To "name and shame" other countries in annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices is a world strategy of the US government to wage the Cold War in the second half of the last century and typical of Cold War mentality.

To interfere in other countries' internal affairs and provoke international confrontations on human rights issues not only violates universally recognized international law principles such as equality of sovereignty and non-interference in other countries' internal affairs, but also goes against the trend of our times, which promotes peace, development and cooperation, and encourages dialogue instead of confrontation in the field of human rights.

The United States has lorded it over other countries by condemning other countries' human rights practices while ignoring its own problems, which exposes its double standards and hegemonism on the human rights issue.

We urge the US government to acknowledge its own human rights problems and stop interfering in other countries' internal affairs under the pretext of human rights.

(China Daily 03/09/2007 page21)