The United States of America is no longer the ‘land of the free’. Many of the universal basic human rights are either being curtailed by legislation or have been outlawed entirely.
Freedom of Assembly:
Sixteen states introduced 23 bills restricting the right to protest, with five bills enacted in four states. Many of the bills would criminalize specific forms of protest, such as protests near fossil fuel pipelines, or increase penalties for existing crimes, such as “riot” or blocking roadways. In Mississippi, organizers were required to obtain written permission from state law enforcement before holding a protest near the Mississippi statehouse or other government buildings, enabling state officials to approve or disallow protests, including those against the actions of state officials. North Carolina heightened penalties for existing “riot” offenses and for protests near pipelines.
Sexual Violence against Ethnic Native Women:
American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) women face highly disproportionate rates of sexual violence. According to the most recent government data approximately 56% of AI/AN women had experienced sexual violence – more than twice the national average – and 84% had experienced some type of violence. A 2018 survey found that Alaska Native women were 2.8 times more likely to experience sexual violence than non-Indigenous women. Among the AI/AN women who had experienced sexual violence, the data shows that 96% had experienced sexual violence by at least one non-Indigenous perpetrator. US law continued to restrict the prosecutorial jurisdiction of Tribes, which prevented their ability to prosecute non-Indigenous perpetrators of violence against Indigenous women. AI/AN survivors also continued to face barriers in accessing post-rape care, including access to a forensic examination, which is necessary if a criminal case is to be brought against the perpetrator.
Restriction of the Right to Abortion:
Following the 2022 US Supreme Court decision that ended federal protections around the right to abortion, 15 states implemented total bans on abortion or bans with extremely limited exceptions, impacting millions of people of reproductive age. Many other states implemented six-week, 12-week, or 15-20-week bans. Laws changed quickly and faced complicated challenges, creating a culture of uncertainty for many seeking abortion care. Multiple states sought to criminalize, or have criminalized, medication abortion, traveling out of state to receive abortion care, or assisting someone in a state with an abortion ban for traveling to receive abortion care.
In November, voters in Ohio passed a state constitutional amendment to protect access to abortion. The USA continues to impose multiple restrictions on funding for abortion, even in states where abortion was legal, which disproportionately impacts Black and women of other no9n-white races. The federal Hyde Amendment continues to block Medicaid funding (a government-funded program that provides health coverage for limited categories of people on low incomes) for abortion services, placing an unnecessary financial burden on pregnant people seeking abortion, particularly women of non-white racial groups and low-income people.
Hate Crime and Discrimination:
Discrimination and violence against LGBTI people and people of African ethnicity are widespread. LGBTI people are nine times more likely than non-LGBTI people to be victims of violent hate crimes. The descendants of enslaved Africans, African Americans and Indigenous Peoples continued to live with inter-generational trauma, as well as the detrimental economic and material impacts of the legacy of slavery and colonialism. Following the Hamas attacks in Israel on 7 October, and the subsequent Israeli bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents against people who were perceived to be Jewish, Muslim, Israeli or Arab has increased exponentially.
Excessive Use of Force Policy by the Police:
According to media sources, police shot and killed 1,153 people in 2023. Black (skin) people were disproportionately impacted by the use of lethal force, comprising nearly 18.5% of deaths from police use of firearms, despite representing approximately 13% of the population. Black people were subject to overall police use of force at a rate 3.2 times greater than white people in 2022, according to the report. That disparity is more severe than lethal force trends; Black people were killed by police at 2.6 times the rate of white people in 2022.
Police in the US use force on at least 300,000 people each year, injuring an estimated 100,000 of them. Non-fatal incidents of police use of force, including stun guns, chemical sprays, K9 dog attacks, neck restraints, beanbags and baton strikes. Thirty-one agencies disclosed that, on average, 83% of people subjected to force across those jurisdictions were unarmed, the agencies reported.
Fewer than 40% of use-of-force incidents originated with reports of violence or involved a violent crime charge. This mirrors patterns for lethal force, with data suggesting the majority of people killed by police are not accused of violent or serious crimes.
Arbitrary detention without access to a Court Trial:
Thirty Muslim men remained arbitrarily and indefinitely detained in the US detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, in violation of international law. Four individuals were transferred to third countries in 2023. Sixteen of the remaining detainees have been cleared for transfer, some for over a decade, without progress. Congress continued to block the transfer of any Guantánamo detainee to the USA. There continued to be no accountability, redress or adequate medical treatment for the many detainees who have been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment and/or enforced disappearance.
Despite the US Supreme Court ruling in 2008 that Guantánamo detainees have a right to habeas corpus, detainees continued to be denied hearings. The US government’s “global war on terror” framework, which continued to defy international law, hampered the ability of federal courts to order the release of detainees.
Unlawful Killings by the US Government:
The USA continued to use lethal force in countries around the world and withheld information regarding the legal and policy standards and criteria applied by US forces to the use of lethal force. Every administration persisted in its denial of well-documented cases of civilian deaths and harm, and failed to provide truth, justice and reparation for civilian killings in the past. Over the past decade, NGOs, UN experts and the media have documented potentially unlawful US drone strikes that have caused significant civilian harm, in some cases violating the right to life and amounting to extrajudicial executions, especially in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen; and parts of Africa.
The continued supply of munitions to conflict zones violates US laws and policies regarding the transfer and sale of arms, including its Conventional Arms Transfer Policy and Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance, which together are meant to prevent arms transfers that risk facilitating or otherwise contributing to civilian harm and to violations of human rights or international humanitarian law; policies that are willfully and blatantly ignored by the U.S. Government.
The UN reports on Human Rights Violations by the USA:
Earlier this month, the United Nations Human Rights Committee delivered a searing report highlighting the U.S. government’s failure to meet its human rights obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This international treaty, ratified by the U.S. in 1992, is one of only three key human rights treaties that the U.S. has ratified. The U.N. committee’s concluding observations echo many of the concerns and recommendations raised by civil society groups last month during the U.S. review, where they sounded the alarm on violations of various human rights issues including Indigenous rights, voting rights, freedom of expression and assembly, gender equality and reproductive rights, criminal legal reform, immigrants’ rights, and more.
Essentially; in the United States of America it’s human rights situation in continues to deteriorate and human rights have been increasingly polarized. While a ruling elite holds political, economic, and social dominance, the majority of ordinary people are increasingly marginalized, with their basic rights and freedoms being continuously disregarded.
This is the reality of human rights in America today.
