The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2023

The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China on Wednesday released a report on human rights violations in the United States in 2023. 

The following is an abstract of the report. The full text is in the attached file.

The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2023

Abstract

The human rights situation in the United States continued to deteriorate in 2023. In the United States, human rights are becoming increasingly polarized. While a ruling minority holds political, economic, and social dominance, the majority of ordinary people are increasingly marginalized, with their basic rights and freedoms being disregarded.

Gun violence spills over, while the government's control policies are ineffective. There were at least 654 mass shootings in the United States in 2023. Approximately 43,000 people were killed by gun violence in 2023, averaging 117 deaths per day. Driven by partisan polarization and interest groups, a growing number of state governments have taken the initiative to push legislation to expand residents' rights to own and bear arms. In 2023, at least 27 states did not require a license to carry a handgun.

The government has abused its power to monitor citizens' privacy, suppressing freedom of speech and expression. The FBI redirected Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to conduct domestic surveillance, "persistent and widespread" monitoring of the communications of members of the Congress, congressional campaign donors, and anti-racist protesters. A growing number of states have passed legislation banning public schools from using educational materials and books that address specific topics such as race, history and gender. The number of faculty members punished or fired for speech and expression on U.S. college campuses has reached a 20-year high.

Deaths from police brutality hit a record high, rendering the police enforcement accountability system virtually non-existent. Police brutality persisted and at least 1,247 deaths were attributed to police violence, an average of roughly three people killed by officers each day. Internal-affairs departments are often more interested in exonerating colleagues than investigating misconduct, making it difficult for police to be held accountable, and more than half of police killings were incorrectly labeled as "general homicide or suicide" in CDC's official death statistics database.

The prominent issues of mass incarceration and forced labor make it a "prison nation." The United States is home to 5 percent of the world's population, but 25 percent of the world's prisoners, making it the country with the highest incarceration rate and the largest number of incarcerated individuals globally. Prisons force inmates to work for low or no pay, without benefits, while generating billions of dollars' worth of goods and services annually.

The two parties continue to manipulate the election. On the opening day of the 118th U.S. Congress in January 2023, the House of Representatives faced a "Speaker crisis," and 2023 was the lowest water mark for Congress' productivity ever since the American Civil War. The two parties continue to change their ways to manipulate the redistricting and distort public opinion for the sake of party self-interest. There are 16 states that have significant manipulation of congressional district boundaries, and 12 of them are states with serious manipulation of districts as a whole. The general public in the United States is extremely disappointed with the federal government and politics at all levels. A staggering 76 percent of Americans believe that their nation is in the wrong direction.

Ethnic minorities in the United States face systematic racial discrimination, as the chronic disease of racism persists. African American are three times more likely to be killed by police than whites, and 4.5 times more likely to be incarcerated. Nearly three quarters of Chinese Americans had experienced racial discrimination in the past year, and 55 percent feared that hate crimes or harassment would jeopardize their personal safety. Native Americans have lived in a constant state of cultural oppression, with their religious beliefs and traditional practices ruthlessly stifled. Racist ideology is spreading virulently in the United States and spilling across borders.

Growing economic and social inequality makes life extremely difficult for the poor. The United States has been refusing to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The wealth gap has hit a record high since the Great Depression of 1929 under systematic designs to exploit the poor, subsidize the rich, and segregate the classes. The "working poor" caught in structural poverty lack equal opportunities and are difficult to move upwards. The number of homeless people in the United States exceeds 650,000, the highest since reporting began in 2007. Drug and substance abuse keeps raging. Suicide rates continue to rise.

The United States has not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and remains the only UN member state which has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The U.S. Constitution does not prohibit gender-based discrimination. It is also the only country in the world that sentences children to life in prison without parole. The number of people dying from pregnancy-related causes in the United States has more than doubled in the last 20 years. More than 2.2 million U.S. women of childbearing age do not have access to obstetric care. At least 21 states in the United States ban or severely restrict abortion, where safe abortion is largely unavailable. Pregnancy discrimination is widespread, forcing nearly 54,000 women in the United States to leave their jobs every year. Millions of children have been excluded from the federal government's Medicaid health insurance program. Thousands of foster children go missing every year. Audits found state agencies failed to report an estimated 34,800 cases of missing foster kids across 46 states.

The humanitarian crisis along the border has escalated, causing heart-wrenching struggles of undocumented migrants. The U.S.-Mexico border is the world's deadliest land migration route, according to the United Nations migration agency. At least 149 migrants perished in the El Paso border patrol region in the 12 months ending on Sep. 30, 2023. In the fiscal year 2023, the number of immigrants apprehended or deported at the U.S. southern border reached more than 2.4 million, another record high. Migrants are also subjected to torture and other forms of inhuman treatment. U.S. border policies facilitate modern slavery. The U.S. government's border policies exacerbate the problem of human trafficking. Unaccompanied migrant children suffer from brutal forced labor and exploitation.

The United States has long pursued hegemonism, practiced power politics, and created humanitarian crises. In the theaters of war where the United States conducted overseas "counter-terrorism" operations following the 9/11 attacks, the total death toll ranges from at least 4.5 to 4.7 million people. The U.S. military violates the sovereignty and human rights of other nations via "proxy forces" programs and continued providing arms to conflict zones, resulting in massive civilian casualties. The notorious Guantanamo prison which severely violates human rights is still in operation. Prolonged and indiscriminate use of unilateral sanctions has caused serious humanitarian consequences. The United States has used more sanctions than any other country in the world.

In the United States, human rights is essentially a privilege enjoyed only by a few. The country's various human rights problems seriously threaten and hinder the healthy development of the world human rights cause.