Human Rights In Crisis: The Decline Of American Ideals In 2023

FOREWORD

The human rights situation in the United States worsened in 2023. Human rights are going towards increasingly greater polarization. Compared with the minority who occupy a dominant position politically, economically and socially, an overwhelming majority of ordinary people have been increasingly marginalized, whose basic rights and freedom are left in limbo. Seventy-six percent of Americans believe that their country is moving in a wrong direction.

Due to political battles, dysfunctional government, and ineffectiveness in governance, civil rights and political rights in the U.S. can’t be secured. A bipartisan consensus on gun control was struggling to build, leading to a continued high occurrence of mass shooting incidents. Approximately 43,000 people died from gun violence, with an average of 117 deaths every day. Police enforcement abused violence, with at least 1,247 people killed due to police violence in 2023, a new record since 2013. However, the law enforcement accountability system was virtually non-existent. With only 5 percent of the world’s population, the U.S. accounts for 25 percent of the global prison population, earning it the title of “carceral state.” Government credibility continued to fall, with only 16 percent of its population trusted the U.S. federal government.

Racism runs deep in the U.S., with severe instances in racial discrimination. UN experts pointed out that systemic racism against African Americans already infiltrated the U.S. police force and criminal justice system. Due to significant racial discrimination in the healthcare sector, the maternal mortality rate for African American women was nearly three times that of white women. Approximated 60 percent Asian Americans expressed that they were exposed to racial discrimination, while the “China Initiative” targeting Chinese scientists had far-reaching negative consequences. Racism spread via U.S. social media, music, and video-games, and spilled over beyond the U.S. borders, making the U.S. a major exporter of extreme racism.

Income inequality in the U.S. is worsening, with the plight of the “working poor” becoming prominent, highlighting a system where economic and social rights protections were failing. There were 11.50 million low-income working families in the U.S., and the purchasing power of one dollar in 2023 decreased to 70 percent of 2009, since when the standard for the minimum federal hourly salary had never been revised up. The number of the homeless surpassed 650,000, reaching a new high in 16 years. The plight of the “working poor” shatters the American Dream for hardworking laborers, leading to the outbreak of the largest-ever strikes in 2023 since the turn of the 21st century.

Women’s and children’s rights in the U.S. have long suffered from systemic violations. To date, the U.S. has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and it is the only UN member state that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In April 2023, U.S. Senate rejected a constitutional amendment proposal to guarantee gender equality. Around 54,000 women lost their jobs annually due to pregnancy discrimination. Over 2.2 million women of childbearing age lack access to maternity care. Currently, 21 states in the U.S. either ban or severely restrict abortion. The number of maternal deaths has more than doubled in the past two decades. The survival and development rights of children are worrisome, with a large number of children being excluded from healthcare assistance programs. Forty-six states have been found to underreport approximately 34,800 cases of missing foster children.

The U.S. has historically and presently benefited from immigration, yet it grapples with serious issues of exclusion and discrimination against immigrants. From the notorious Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to the internationally condemned “Muslim Ban” of 2017, practices of exclusion and discrimination against immigrants have become deeply entrenched in the U.S. institutional structure. Today, the issue of immigration has become a tool for partisan bickering and political scapegoating, with immigration policies reduced to a political arena for irreconcilable partisan battle — “if you’re for it, I’m against it”. Ultimately, it devolves into a political theater, using voters for political gain.

CONTINUE

BY; Lee jones jr

Leejones77@ gmail.com

PART 2