Following is the full text of the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2003, released
by the Information Office of China's State Council March 1, 2004.
On February 25, 2004, the US State Department released its "Country Reports
on Human Rights Practices for 2003 (called the "reports" thereafter). "As in
previous years, the United States once again acted as "the world human rights
police" by distorting and censuring in the "reports" the human rights situations
in more than 190 countries and regions across the world, including China. And
just as usual, the United States once again "omitted" its own long-standing
malpractices and problems of human rights in the "reports." Therefore, we have
to, as before, help the United States keep its human rights record.
I. On life, freedom and personal safety
The United States has long been a violent, crime-ridden society with a severe
infringement of the people's rights by law enforcement departments and with a
lack of guarantee for the life of people, their freedom and personal safety.
The United States is a country plagued most seriously by violence and crimes.
According to the statistical figures released in June 2003 by the US Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a total of 11.9 million criminal cases were
reported in 2002 in the United States, including homicides, rapes, robbery and
theft. Of these cases, 19,940 cases were reported in Detroit, where 2,073 people
committed crimes in every 100,000 people. In Baltimore, 2,055 people committed
crimes in every 100,000 people. With regard to personal offences, cases of
murders and rapes rose by 0.8 per cent, and 4.0 per cent, respectively, over
2002 (See The Sun, USA on June 18, 2003).
On September 15, 2003, US Surgeon General Richard Carmona admitted at a
workshop that the United States has always ranked first in the world in terms of
homicide incidence. In August 2003, the US Department of Justice acknowledged in
a report that a total of 15,586 homicide cases occurred around the country in
2000, as against 15,980 in 2001, and 16,110 in 2002, indicating a rising trend
year by year (See the edition of USA Today on August 25, 2003).
In a report released by the FBI in December 2003, the FBI said the overall
incidence of offences in the US somewhat dropped, whereas the number of people
murdered across the country grew by 1.1 per cent during the first half of 2003
(See the edition of USA Today published on December 16, 2003).
From January to August of 2003, 166 homicides were reported in Washington D
C, up 5.1 per cent year on year. In Chicago, which is known as America's
"homicide capital," there were 648 homicides in 2002, compared with 599 in 2003,
or an average of 22.2 people victimized in every 100,000 residents (AP dispatch
from Chicago on January 1, 2004). In New York, the number of people murdered in
2003 amounted to 596 (AP dispatch from Chicago on January 2, 2004). In
California, the number of murder cases for 2002 went up 11 per cent. The US
Justice Policy Institute held that the existing legal system could not ensure
the safety and health of community residents.
The United States ranked first in private ownership of guns, resulting in
drastic rise in gun-related crimes. According to a survey of crime victims,
350,000 criminal cases involving the use of guns were reported in the United
States in 2002, and guns were used in 63 per cent of the 15,980 killings in
2001. On August 27, 2003, a jobless man carrying a gun broke into a car part
supply company, killing seven of his former colleagues. Statistical figures from
US National Centre for Health Statistics showed that 56.5 per cent of Americans
who committed suicides in 2000 with the use of guns, involving 16,586 people
(See Gun Violence, Related Facts. www.jointogether.org).
Improper management of firearms led to the frequent occurrence of juvenile
offences involving the use of guns. At least 18 people in American public
schools were reportedly killed in violence with 50 others wounded in mid-August
of 2003. According to data from US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention,
more than 50 per cent of the murderers in campus shootings in the US used guns
owned by their families or friends, while over 80 per cent of the guns used by
students for suicides came from their families or friends (Most Guns Used in
School Shootings from Family, Friends, www.jointogether.org). Unrestrained evil
social forces and widespread drug abuse endangered the people's life and safety.
According to a report released by US National Youth Gang Centre, there were
altogether 21,500 sinister gangs in the United States in 2002 with a combined
membership of 731,000. In April 2003, an innocent woman was killed in a gang
shootout in New York. Police had to impose a state of citywide emergency in the
summer of 2003 due to frequent gang-related violence (See the edition of USA
Today on December 16, 2003).
Drug-related crimes have been on the rise, with new characteristics involving
a growing number of gangs, intensified violence and trans-national smuggling and
collaboration with terrorist groups. The rate of crimes induced by drug abuse
has risen year by year. Relevant data released by the US Department of Justice
showed that over half of the inmates in federal jails have something to do with
drug-related crimes (See Washington Post on July 28, 2003).
According to the outcome of a survey released by Washington DC Mayor Anthony
A. Williams, 60,000 people out of the 600,000 population in Washington used
drugs and indulged in excessive drinking, causing an annual economic loss of
US$1.2 billion. Half of those people arrested on charge of violence in
Washington DC took drugs (See Washington Post on December 2, 2003).
In recent years, the number of AIDS patients has also increased partly due to
the widespread drug abuse. Statistical figures released by the US Centre for
Disease Control and Prevention indicated that the number of people diagnosed as
AIDS carriers across the United States in 2002 rose by 2.2 per cent over the
previous year to reach 42,136 (See Washington Post on July 28, 2003).
The infringement of lawful rights constitutes a malignant obstinate disease
of American society. Random assaults committed by the police resulted in the
frequent occurrence of tragedies with heavy casualties. The New York City Police
was reported for several willful shooting cases when chasing suspects in January
2003. Four people were killed by the police in the city from January 1 to 5 last
year. In December 2003, a black man named Nathaniel Jones was beaten to death by
six policemen in Cincinnati, causing a great uproar against police brutality
across the country.
According to an AP report, a woman in the city of Detroit had one of her
fingers cut off and another finger injured by the police simply for a dispute
with them in a parking lot. The report said the police also boxed her ears and
tore her hair.
The United States issued the Patriot Act in the name of land security and
anti-terrorism after the September 11 terrorist attack, and many substantial
contents of this act encroached upon rights and freedom of citizens, especially
people of ethnic minorities. Under the authority of the Patriot Act, government
departments are empowered to wiretap phone calls of citizens, trace their online
records, read their private mails and e-mails. The FBI is even allowed to keep a
watch on people's reading habits. They check the booklists of what people borrow
from libraries, so as to judge whether they have been influenced by terrorism. A
resolution passed by Cambridge, Massachusetts, explicitly noted that the civil
rights of the American people are being jeopardized by the Patriot Act and,
therefore, the Sun in August 2003 set forth an appeal for "freedom to read" (See
the Sun on August 18, 2003).
The United States claims itself as a paradise for free people but the ratio
of inmates in the United States has remained the highest in the world. The
number of inmates in the country exceeded 2.1 million in 2002, a year-on-year
rise of 2.6 per cent, according to the statistical figures released by the
Department of Justice in July 2003. The jails nationwide receive 700 new inmates
every week in the US where 701 out of every 100,000 people are in prison (See
Washington Post on July 28, 2003).
Inmates have received inhumane treatment in the overloaded jails. An
International Herald Tribune story said the states of Virginia, North Carolina,
Minnesota, Iowa, Texas and Arizona had lowered the food supply standards of
inmates so as to curb the huge government budget deficit. They reduced the
calorie of each meal in jail and cut three meals a day to two on weekends and
holidays. According to a report by Amnesty International, more than 700,000
inmates were held in high security prisons and there they are compelled to stay
in wards for 23 hours a day and even longer, subjected to ruthless and inhuman
treatment and humiliation. Last year, at least three inmates were hit to death
by prison guards with guns of high voltage electric prods (2003 Report: United
States of America, Amnesty International, www.amnestyusa.org).
Sexual harassment and encroachment are common in jails in the United States.
A report issued by Human Rights Watch in September 2003 said that one in five
male inmates in the country had faced forced sexual contact in custody and one
in 10 has been raped. For women inmates, they are objects of sexual assault of
jail guards, and one fourth of the women inmates are sexually assaulted in a few
jails (See Editorial, Doing Something about Prison Rape, http:// www.hrw.org,
26/09/2003).
Nine girls in a juvenile delinquent centre of the state of Alabama accused
the guards of assaulting and raping them and compelling them to have forced
abortion. They also said male guards watched girls take baths and unclothe
themselves for so-called frisks. They had to have sex with male guards in the
hope of better treatment, for instance, to get a can of coke or food.
According to another Human Rights Watch report, one in
six US inmates suffer various kinds of mental illnesses. Many of them suffer
from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and serious depression. The proportion of
inmates with mental illness in the prison population is over three times higher
than in the general population (See United States: Mentally Ill Mistreated in
Prison, www.hrw.org/2003/10/US102203.htm). The total population of these
patients has reached as high as 200,000 to 300,000. "Prisons have become the
nation's primary mental health facilities," said Human Rights Watch. The
prisoners with mental illness are likely to be picked on, physically or sexually
abused and manipulated by other inmates. For example, a female inmate named
Georgia, who is both mentally ill and retarded, has been raped repeatedly in an
exchange for small items such as cigarettes and coffee.
