China reports US human rights violations of Native Americans, migrants and Occupy Movement
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/06/china-reports-us-human-rights.html
In its report on human rights in the United States, China says the US is overly critical of human rights violations in nearly 200 countries of the world, while turning a “blind eye” and keeping silent about its own human rights violations.
The human rights crisis in the US includes the violation of Native American rights, brutalizing of the Occupy Movement and racial discrimination toward migrants. The US violations include discrimination toward women and ethnic Americans, and the high number of civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“In the United States, the violation of citizens' civil and political rights is severe. It is lying to itself when the United States calls itself the land of the free,” China said describing the Occupy Movement.
The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China released the report on May 25, "The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2011."
China describes the high unemployment, lack of health care, child poverty, homelessness, Internet spying on citizens, and failure to protect freedom of the press in the US. The high rates of violence, hate crimes, solitary confinement in prisons, and the imprisonment of civil rights activists are documented.
US denies Native Americans rights
“Native Americans are denied their due rights,” China said, pointing out that American Indians were forced to speak English in schools during forced assimilation, and today Native languages are at risk of disappearing.
Human rights violations of Native Americans include religious freedom, unjust incarcerations and racial discrimination in employment.
China describes how UN Special Rapporteur James Anaya lodged two accusations against the United States, including the use of recycled wastewater for commercial ski operations on the San Francisco Peaks, pointing out that it is “a site considered sacred by several Native American tribes.”
The second was the case of Leonard Peltier. “Peltier was sentenced to life in prison in 1977 for alleged murder of two FBI agents. However Peltier has been claiming he is innocent and persecuted by the U.S. government for participating in the American Indian Movement.”
China points out that two UN Rapporteurs lodged complaints against the U.S, stating that the city of Vallejo, California, is planning to level and pave over the Sogorea Te, held sacred to indigenous people in northern California, in order to construct a parking lot and public restrooms.
Describing the racial discrimination and unemployment in the US, China pointed to South Dakota.
“In Ziebach County of South Dakota, a community mainly composed of native-Americans, more than 60 percent of the residents live at or below the poverty line, and unemployment rate hits 90 percent in the winter (The Daily Mail, February 15, 2011.)”
Occupy Movement: Bruised and Bloodied
China said the Occupy movement tested the political, economic and social systems in the US, and the occupiers were treated in a rude and violent way, with extensive arrests. China points out that 700 protesters were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge alone. Citing arrests in other cities, and how occupiers were bloodied and brutalized by police, China included the shooting of Marine Scott Olsen at Occupy Oakland.
“At least 85 people were arrested when police used teargas and baton rounds to break up an Occupy Wall Street camp in Oakland, California on October 25. An Iraq war veteran had a fractured skull and brain swelling after being allegedly hit in the head by a police projectile.”
China said the reasons for the Occupy Movement included the unequal distribution of wealth and high unemployment in the US.
Further, China says the US has failed to protect press freedom. During the forcible evacuation of Zuccotti Park, pepper spray was used on reporters. About 200 journalists were arrested.
China also points out bias in the US media.
“On October 15, 2011, when the Occupy Wall Street movement evolved to be a global action, CNN and Fox News gave no live reports on it, in a sharp contrast to the square protest in Cairo, for which both CNN and Fox News broadcast live 24 hours.”
Racism toward migrants in the US
China also describes the racial discrimination in the US, inequality in hiring, bullying in schools, and the abuse of migrants.
Illegal immigrants suffer ferocious maltreatments. Internal reports from the Office of Detention Oversight of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revealed grave problems in many U.S. detention facilities for immigrants, including lack of medical care, the use of excessive force and "abusive treatment" of detainees (The Houston Chronicle, October 10, 2011). A report released on September 21, 2011, by an Arizona-based non-profit organization revealed that thousands of illegal immigrants detained across the border between Mexico and Arizona are generally maltreated by U.S. border police, being denied enough food, water, medical care and sleep, even beaten up and confined in extreme coldness or heat, suffering both psychological abuse and threats of death (The World Journal, September 24, 2011).
US spying, poverty, imprisonment and wars
In its description of spying on Internet users, China points out the US develops false identities to control conversations on social networks and tracks people using key words on Twitter.
China describes the wealth of US Congressmen and the failure of Congress. The abuse of power by law enforcement in the US, the shooting of people with toy guns and lengthy wrongful imprisonments are also listed.
“Abuse of power, brutal enforcement of law and overuse of force by U.S. police has resulted in harassment and hurt to a large number of innocent citizens and have caused loss of freedom of some people or even deaths.”
China also points out the high rate of imprisonment and prison isolation in the US. The UN Rapporteur on Torture was twice denied visits in 2011 with people in isolation. There are 20,000 to 25,000 people in prison isolation in the US.
“The U.S. remains the country with the largest ‘prison population’ and the highest per capita level of imprisonment in the world, and the detention centers' conditions are terrible.”
As for unemployment in the US, China points out that unemployment in the US in 2011 was the highest in 60 years. In the past three years, the rate of people who did not have enough money to buy food jumped from nine to 19 percent. There are 2.3 to 3.5 million homeless in America.
However, the wealthiest 400 Americans have 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars worth of assets.
Ethnic Americans are badly discriminated against when it comes to employment. It was reported that the unemployment rate of Hispanics rose to 11 percent in 2010 from 5.7 percent in 2007 (The New York Times, September 28, 2011). The unemployment rate of African Americans was 16.2 percent. For black males, it is at 17.5 percent; and for black youth, it is nearly 41 percent, 4.5 times the national average unemployment rate (CBS News, June 19, 2011). Nationally, black joblessness stands at 21 percent, rising to as high as 40 percent in major urban centers like Detroit (The Wall Street Journal, August 31, 2011).
China begins its report by saying that the US could protect its citizens from soaring rates of violent crimes, but doesn’t. The US is the leader in the developed world for gun violence and gun deaths, with high rates of personal gun ownership.
China says the trampling of human rights globally is shown in the high numbers of civilian deaths and the body counts of its wars:
The U.S.-led wars, albeit alleged to be "humanitarian intervention" efforts and for "the rise of a new democratic nation," created humanitarian disasters instead. For Iraqis, the death toll in the U.S.-initiated Iraq war stands at 655,000 (Tribune Business News, December 15, 2011). According to figures released by the Iraq Body Count, at least 103,536 civilians were killed in the Iraq war (Reuters, December 18, 2011). In 2011, there were an average of 6.5 deaths per day from suicide attacks and vehicle bombs (www.iraqbodycount.org). It is estimated that civilian casualties in the military campaign in Afghanistan could exceed 31,000 (Tribune Business News, October 17, 2011).
China concludes its report with these words:
The above-mentioned facts are but a small yet illustrative enough fraction of the United States' dismal record on its human rights situation. The United States' own tarnished human rights record has made it in no condition, on moral, political or legal basis, to act as the world's "human rights justice," to place itself above other countries and release the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices year after year to accuse and blame other countries. We hereby advise the U.S. government once again to look squarely at its own grave human rights problems, to stop the unpopular practices of taking human rights as a political instrument for interference in other countries' internal affairs, smearing other nations' images and seeking its own strategic interests, and to cease using double standards on human rights and pursuing hegemony under the pretext of human rights.
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Special thanks to AIM West for providing Censored News with a copy of China's human rights report
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