Human rights play an important role in safeguarding the ways you might be acting in society. In November 2023, ICCPR highlighted in its report the failure of the US government to comply with human rights obligations.
The international treaties that were ratified by the US government ratified before are not being followed properly now.
The UN Committee presents a very concluding observational echo in many concerns and recommendations. These were generally raised by the civil societies whose rights are getting hampered.
In this article, we will talk about the various human rights violations taking place in the US and how they can help us improve our conditions slowly.
Understanding the Human Rights
Generally, in the United States, human rights primarily comprise a series of rights that are protected on a legal basis by the Constitution of the United States. They have something called the Bill of Rights, treaties, customary international law, and state constitutions that talk about state referendums and citizen initiatives.
The United States has been highly ranked on human rights by various organizations. They list down a series of rights that talk about how to safeguard human beings at large and protect them from any wrongs.
Human rights, over time in the US, have evolved beyond several constitutional amendments, judicial precedents, and legislature. Along with these rights, some portions of the US population were granted these rights to expand and help people over time.
History of the Human Rights
Human rights date back in the USA even before the American independence. The first human rights organization in British America was established by Anthony Benezet in 1775. Benezet shared a vision of abolishing slavery through this and helping to work well with the privileged class.
After a year, a declaration of independence was also announced when these Thirteen colonies highly regarded themselves as independent states. Now, finally, they’re no longer part of the British empire.
This declaration primarily stated that all men are created in an equal manner, and they’re deeply endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. Right among these rose the human rights which was an embodiment of liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness.
Gradually as the new constitution was put into practice, there were various specific concerns about individual liberties and power concentration that rose into question. This is when the Bill of Rights came into being with its first 10 amendments to the Constitution. Unfortunately, it only had very little impact on the court judgments in the first 130 years after its ratification.
Lack of Progress to Establish National Human Rights Institutions
Despite US’s pledge to “protect, respect and fulfill”, human rights help the people to strengthen their efforts and focus on delivering an inclusive yet fair and relevant way to uphold human rights.
Since the First Summit in 2021 governed by the Biden administration, the US and other countries also made various impressive commitments to protecting and promoting human rights as well as democracy side by side.
However, the US Government also has a glaring omission of their refusal to create a National Human Rights Institution or NHRI. This would work as a great instrument to safeguard human rights and democracy side by side.
You might be wondering why it’s so important to create an NHRI. A properly functioning NHRI helps create feasible partnerships with the country’s states and helps build allies. Having great allies together like Canada, Ukraine, Germany, and Great Britain would be a great way to retain foreign relations.
Furthermore, the UN member nations have kept on and constantly urged the US to follow this suit regarding the same. Even though the Biden administration took a great part in this endeavor, it always faced tons of problems regarding this at large.
Family Separation and Child Welfare Systems Under the Human Rights
According to Human Rights Watch, it sincerely proclaims that it is the basic human right for children to live with their families or in a family-like setting. Removing a child from their natural habitat is absolutely a crime and a serious violation of human rights.
Moreover, removing a child from their parents can also equally result in traumatizing consequences with long-term effects. Even though the US government aims (or shall we say, intends) to protect children, sometimes, they just end up separating them from their families.
Recent data has recognized that nearly 30% of the children in the US are now going to be part of a child welfare investigation when they turn 18. These investigations are broad in nature and by being separated from their families, children are now facing considerable harm and suspected abuse. This has become very difficult for the children to deal with and can have adverse effects on the well-being of the children.
The UN’s Committee on the Rights of the Child majorly functions to safeguard the rights of children. They even aim to become the global standard setter based on children’s rights. They have repetitively emphasized how the US lacks an understanding of how family separation plays an important role in the proper upbringing of a child.
According to the Committee, Article 19 even talks about how poverty shouldn’t be justifiable enough for the mistreatment of the child in an environment.
The Reforms in Human Rights Based Upon the Criminal Legal System
The criminal justice system is unique and different from any other justice system in the world, in the USA. However, it is also the section that raises the most concern about serious human rights and constitutional violations.
The human rights violations in this aspect play an important role in the ways of criminal justice. Be it racial disparities based on arrests and convictions and draconian sentences, there are various different violations that are put into question in this regard. It has also been highlighted that more than half of the non-violent offenders are still facing jail time and are compelled to spend the rest of their lives behind prison walls.
Thus, the heightened impact of incarceration has severely affected the underprivileged population of the country. It has severely impacted making children terminally and mentally ill and more.
Only 5% of the world’s population is in prison and the United States has 25% of the overall prison population the most.
The US criminal justice now deprives most of the liberty to their fellow Americans than people belonging to other nationalities. This has been pointed out several times about how this is a stark violation of international human rights law. Hence. The criminal justice system should take the following steps and adhere to it. They are:
- Eliminating any form of incarceration and introducing penalties for certain classes of low-level and non-violent offenses.
- Strengthening proper cost-effective alternatives of incarceration and drug treatment programs.
- Distinguishing themselves from the people currently in prison gives them a second chance to re-enter in society.
- Performing regular systematic evaluations of the overall criminal justice system of the US.
Recommendations for the US Government to Improve the Conditions
The UN’s goal is to emsure that each and every human being are entitled to their human rights and doesn’t suffer any sort of violation. It plays a key part when it comes to safeguarding humans overall.
The Vienna Declaration talks in detail about the ways the international community should come up and devise ways to remove any sort of obstacles that can hamper human rights. This would help them to meet all the challenges to understand human rights and prevent any sort of continuation of violations.
In a nutshell, the main objective is to set up the OHCHR’s mandate in the General Assembly’s resolution according to Sections 48/141.
In order to make other further improvements, it’s imperative that there should be a proper establishment of a human rights council as well. In this human rights council, they can easily contribute with adequate dialogue and cooperation and prevent any type of further human rights violations in the future. It’s also imperative that one always promptly responds to any sort of emergency adhering to human rights.
Contributions of the Human Rights Council
The Human Rights Council is not just a mere standing body to look after human rights violations and just go on to make some laws. They sometimes even make crucial decisions based on these violations to prevent any such shortcomings as well in the near future.
The Council is now looking for proper ways to strengthen its overall contribution that would help in preventing any sort of violations of human rights. In 2018, they even adopted a resolution where they had to adopt Resolution 38/18 which mandated the presentation of proposals in a very quaint manner to prevent any sort of further violations.
Final Thoughts…
And that’s a wrap! That’s all you had to know about the violations of human rights that are currently taking place in the US. Is there anything we missed out on? Let us know.
We hope you found this blog informative and helpful.
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