The year 2022 saw a historic loss for American human rights. The American administration is unapologetic and of doubtful character -- a society that calls itself a "human rights defender," is rife with chronic diseases including money politics, racial discrimination, gun and police brutality, and wealth polarization. Extreme regressive changes have been made in human rights legislation and justice, significantly eroding the fundamental liberties and rights of the American people.
Stoking proxy wars in the background, US special operations personnel are permitted to train proxies to carry out American missions abroad under the 127e program. Foreign militants are sent on US-led missions against alleged US opponents and, under the direction of the US, aim and have access to US weapons, training, and intelligence support.
Under the codename 127e, the Pentagon started 23 proxy wars throughout the Middle East and Asia-Pacific from 2017 to 2020. The operations against Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Tunisia, Cameroon, Libya, and other nations involved at least a dozen nations.
With more than 80,000 people killed or injured by gun violence in 2022 -- the third consecutive year on record that more than 600 mass shootings occur in the US -- the country leads the globe in terms of gun ownership, gun homicide, and mass shootings.
Political division and socio-economic fragmentation make it harder for the nation to create a democratic consensus, and "dark money" donations covertly influence US elections. There is a general popular dissatisfaction with American-style democracy, with 69% of Americans believing their democracy is at "risk of collapse" and 86% of American voters saying it faces "very serious threats."
Racial prejudice is on the rise, and ethnic minorities frequently face it. Between 2020 and 2022, there was a sharp rise in hate crimes in the US which were motivated by racial prejudice -- the world was shocked by the massacre at a Buffalo supermarket that left 10 African-Americans dead.
The living conditions of children are equally concerning, while women no longer have constitutional safeguards for abortion. More than 5,800 children under the age of 18 were shot in the US last year, while there were 302 school shootings -- a record-high since 1970.
Humanitarian catastrophes have been caused by the US's use of excessive force and unilateral sanctions. Since the start of the 21st century, the US has conducted military actions in 85 nations under the pretext of "counter-terrorism," which have directly resulted in at least 929,000 civilian fatalities and 38 million displaced individuals.
More than 20 countries continue to be subject to sanctions, making it impossible for them to provide their citizens with basic necessities like food and medication. Due to the widespread staging of immigration farces and the use of immigration itself as a political instrument, immigrants are now subject to severe bigotry and inhumane treatment. Nearly 2.4 million migrants were detained at the country's border in 2022, which was a record high, and 856 immigrants died there, the most ever in a single year.
Serving the interests of oligarchs, American politicians have steadily lost the ability to respond to the fundamental needs of the general populace, defend their fundamental rights, and address their own systemic human rights issues. Instead, they indiscriminately exploit human rights as a weapon to attack other nations, provoking conflict, dissension, and confusion in the international community. As a result, they have ruined and obstructed the advancement of human rights around the world.
America's self-declared civil rights and freedoms have devolved into meaningless platitudes.Major crimes like homicide and robbery are on the rise. On September 11, 2022, The USA Today reported that, compared to the same period in 2019, homicides in Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) member cities climbed by 50% and aggravated assaults by around 36% in the first half of 2022.
The homicide rate in New Orleans was up 141% as of September 2022, shootings were up 100%, carjackings were up 210%, and armed robberies were up 25% compared to the same period in 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported on September 6, 2022.
In major US cities, robberies increased by 19% and larcenies by 20% in the first half of 2022, according to a report published by the Council on Criminal Justice on July 28, 2022. On July 7, 2022, Fox News reported that since June 2021, felony assault victims grew by about 1,000 every quarter, grand larceny increased by 41%, robberies increased by 36%, burglaries increased by almost 34%, and overall crime increased by 31% in New York City.
According to a CNN article from June 8, 2022, 72% of Americans are unhappy with the nation's methods for decreasing or controlling crime, and more people indicated they were extremely or somewhat concerned about crime and violence (80%) than at any other time in the past several decades.
Police brutality deteriorates. According to the website Mapping Police Violence, a record 1,239 persons died in the US as a result of police violence in 2022. 98.1% of the policemen engaged in police killings between 2013 and 2022 were not prosecuted for any crimes.
The world's greatest incidence of incarceration occurs in the US, and prison conditions are appalling. Nearly 500 persons per 100,000 people were incarcerated in the US on October 1, 2022, which is a rate that is five times higher than that of Britain, six times higher than that of Canada, and nine times higher than that of Germany, according to a story in the Guardian.
Inmates in Mississippi jails were reportedly confined in dark cells without lights or clean water, and the room temperature was frequently very high, according to a piece written by The Fair Justice Initiative on April 25, 2022.
On February 19, 2022, the Chicago Sun-Times revealed that the Illinois jail at Joliet had rat infestations in the cells and rotten food and raw sewage spilling into communal areas. The lives of prisoners are not assured. Inmates in Alabama's prison system experienced high rates of violence and fatalities as a result of a lack of guards and poor facilities, according to research that was published in October 2022 in Prison Legal News, a journal on inmates' rights. In the first eight months of 2022, there were 39 fatalities, 30 of which were not natural.
Election outcomes are secretly influenced by dark money donations. Elections in the US have been subtly influenced by dark money. On November 16, 2022, the Brennan Centre for Justice revealed that four party-aligned dark money organizations contributed about $300 million to this election cycle by making contributions to sibling super PACs or purchasing ad campaigns with deft wording. Numerous additional political organizations are funding the elections with hidden funds.
Numerous strategies, including election outcome manipulation. According to JR Pole in his book "The Pursuit of Equality in American History," many Americans have utterly rejected the idea of equality, and frequently, those who do so set the standards that others must abide by.
After Arizona passed a rule governing the presentation of documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration, as many as 200,000 voters may have their registrations cancelled. In a report titled "Americans' Fears Suppressing Participation in Democracy" published on August 4, 2022, the Global Organization Against Hate and Extremism claimed that 40% of Black people and 37% of Hispanic people were extremely concerned about being denied the right to vote.
In a report released on August 4, 2022, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism stated that there is a rising sense of anxiety among Americans, with voters in general and minorities in particular anxious about safety at polling places -- 63% of those polled overall expressed being "very worried" about incidents of violence, harassment, and intimidation occurring at their polling station. Voters now face significant challenges in exercising their right to vote because of the psychological impact of lynchings and the climate of dread.
And yet, the US’s head remains firmly buried in the sand. Instead, their leaders and the government are making a racket about purported human rights violations against the political party currently in power in a country such as Bangladesh by choosing to hear out anti-liberation forces.
As much as we can disapprove of such behaviour from the supposed champion of human rights, it is ultimately the US itself which must realize their mistakes.
Farhad Chowdhury is a security and strategic affairs researcher and columnist specializing in South Asian Affairs.
