The United State on Thursday released its annual human rights report in which it made arbitrary attacks and irresponsible remarks on the human rights situation in almost 200 countries.
However, as a poor human rights performer, Uncle Sam should clean out its own yard first.
Just one day before the release of the report, a 41-year-old unarmed black man died after being shot by three police officers at his home. A total of 19 bullet casings were found at the scene.
This is not an isolated case. Since 2014, the United States has witnessed a series of incidents in which white U.S. police officers killed unarmed black men.
All of these can remind the United States that there are a lot of human rights violations on its own soil.
As a matter of fact, U.S. human rights violations go far beyond violence against ethnic minorities, immigrant issues and torture allegations. They have also long existed in the monitoring of emails and mobile phones of ordinary Americans as well as leaders of other countries, including traditional U.S. allies like Germany and France.
The United States has also committed numerous human rights violations abroad, for example, in its use of stomach-turning torture methods and in its indiscriminate drone strike killings.
Moreover, the United States is one of the only two countries in the world that have not ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a human rights treaty that protects children. It also does not seem keen on promoting the ratification of such international fundamental laws as the Forced Labor Convention.
Wu Hailong, China's ambassador to the UN Office in Geneva, said that the United States is ridden with systematic and massive human rights violations, which are hard to get rid of.
Though loving to portray itself as a vehement human rights watchdog on the world stage, the United States has not done much to address its own human rights problems, but prefers to point fingers at other countries.
Indeed, pursuing human rights is a process and no country can have an absolute perfect record. Regrettably, the U.S. report, which has been issued since 1977, deliberately ignored the achievements other countries made in improving their human rights.
Thus, it is advisable for Washington to refrain from making wrongful accusations against other countries over human rights issues and work hard to put its own yard in order so as to live up to its self-styled title as a "human rights defender."
