The situation of protection of rights of women, children and elders in the United States was worrisome in 2016, says a report on U.S. human rights released Thursday.
The report, titled "Human Rights Record of the United States in 2016" and published by China's State Council Information Office, says women were paid much less compared to their male colleagues who do the same work, and they frequently fell victims to sexual harassment and assault.
Poverty rate among children remained high and cases of elder abuse happened from time to time, it says.
The USA Today website reported that roughly one in four women say they have been harassed on the job. It said that with many victims too frightened to speak up, attorneys and employment experts said the actual number of such instances was likely far higher, according to the document.
It quotes another report and says that after a 16-year-old girl told her high school she was sexually assaulted, her school failed to respond properly and she was further traumatized during the investigation.
An estimated 6.8 million people aged 10 to 17 in the United States are food insecure. When faced with acute food insecurity, some youths engaged in criminal behavior such as selling drugs and stealing items to resell for cash, the report says.
According to estimates of the U.S. National Center on Elder Abuse, of the 5 million older adults abused each year, 90 percent are abused by family members, and half are the person's children. Abuse can be verbal, financial, physical, or sexual, the report notes.
