2021年美国侵犯人权报告（双语全文）
我愿称之为最强搅屎棍。
来源：2021年美国侵犯人权报告（双语全文）- Chinadaily.com.cn
国务院新闻办公室28日发表《2021年美国侵犯人权报告》，全文如下：
China on Monday issued "The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021."
Following is the full text of the report:
2021年美国侵犯人权报告
中华人民共和国
国务院新闻办公室
2022年2月
The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021
The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China
February 2022
目录
序言
一、操弄疫情防控付出惨痛代价
二、固守暴力思维威胁生命安全
三、玩弄虚假民主践踏政治权利
四、放纵种族歧视加剧社会不公
五、背离人道主义制造移民危机
六、滥用武力制裁侵犯他国人权
Contents
FOREWORD
I. A HEAVY PRICE FOR U.S. EPIDEMIC PREVENTION AND CONTROL
II. ENTRENCHED VIOLENT THINKING THREATENS LIVES
III. PLAYING WITH FAKE DEMOCRACY TRAMPLES ON POLITICAL RIGHTS
IV. INDULGING IN RACIAL DISCRIMINATION EXACERBATES SOCIAL INJUSTICE
V. CREATING A MIGRANT CRISIS AGAINST HUMANITY
VI. ABUSE OF FORCE AND SANCTIONS VIOLATES HUMAN RIGHTS IN OTHER COUNTRIES
序言
2021年，劣迹斑斑的美国人权状况进一步恶化。政治操弄导致新冠肺炎死亡病例激增，枪击事件致死人数再创新高，虚假民主践踏民众政治权利，暴力执法让移民难民的处境更加艰难，针对少数族裔特别是亚裔的歧视攻击愈演愈烈。与此同时，美国单边主义行径在全球制造了新的人道灾难。
——美国新冠肺炎确诊病例达3451万例，死亡病例达48万例，远超2020年，两项数据均居世界各国之首。人均预期寿命减少1.13岁，是自二战以来的最大降幅。
——美国社会治安形势恶化，暴力犯罪居高不下。全年共发生693起大规模枪击事件，比2020年增长10.1%。枪击事件导致超过4.4万人丧生。
——美国有49个州提出超过420项限制选民投票的法案，只有7%的美国年轻人认为美国民主制度尚属“健康”，民众对政府的信任度接近1958年以来的历史低点。
——81%的亚裔成年人认为针对亚裔群体的暴力行为正在增多。纽约市针对亚裔的仇恨犯罪比2020年猛增361%。59%的美国人认为少数族裔难以拥有平等的就业机会。
——2021财年，美国在南部边境拘留了170多万移民，其中包括4.5万名儿童。暴力执法夺走557人生命，比上一财年增长一倍多，为1998年以来最高值。
——美军撤离阿富汗时发动的空袭，造成一户阿富汗家庭10人被炸死，其中包括7名儿童，最小的年仅两岁。美国在关塔那摩监狱仍关押着39人。
联合国人权理事会特别报告员费尔南·德瓦雷纳强调，美国人权保障法律体系既不全面，也早已过时，并导致日益严重的不平等。针对美国借人权之名在他国制造人权灾难的恶劣做法，哈佛大学国际关系学教授斯蒂芬·沃尔特尖锐指出，美国“必须首先解决国内出现的问题，并重新思考如何与世界其他国家打交道”。①2021年，美国“人权卫士”人设彻底崩塌，打着“维护人权”幌子的“领导人民主峰会”沦为闹剧。众多国家在联合国人权理事会第四十八届会议上谴责美国是“世界人权事业最大的破坏者”，并敦促美国解决自身严重人权问题。
FOREWORD
The human rights situation in the United States, which has notorious records, worsened in 2021. Political manipulation led to a sharp surge in COVID-19 deaths; Shooting deaths hit a new record; Fake democracy trampled on people’s political rights; Violent law enforcement made life harder for migrants and refugees; Discrimination against ethnic minority groups, especially Asians, intensified. In the meantime, unilateral U.S. actions created new humanitarian crises across the globe.
– The United States has the world’s highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, with 34.51 million confirmed cases and 480,000 fatalities, which far surpassed the numbers in 2020. Average life expectancy fell by 1.13 years, the biggest drop since the Second World War.
– Public security situation in the United States deteriorated and violent crimes remained prevalent. There were 693 mass shootings in 2021, up 10.1 percent from 2020. More than 44,000 people were killed in gun violence.
– More than 420 bills with provisions that restrict voting access have been introduced in 49 U.S. states. Only 7 percent of young Americans view the country as a “healthy democracy,” while public trust in the government has fallen to almost historical low since 1958.
– Around 81 percent of Asian American adults said violence against Asian communities is rising. Hate crimes against Asians in the New York City jumped 361 percent from 2020. Fifty-nine percent of Americans said ethnic minority groups do not have equal job opportunities.
– In fiscal year 2021, the United States detained more than 1.7 million migrants at its southern border, including 45,000 children. Violent law enforcement claimed 557 lives, the highest number since 1998, which more than doubled that of the previous fiscal year.
– A U.S. drone strike during its withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan killed 10 members of an Afghan family, including seven children, among which the youngest was only two years old. The United States still held 39 detainees at the Guantanamo prison.
Fernand de Varennes, a special rapporteur on minority issues of the United Nations, said the U.S. legal system of human rights protection is incomplete and outdated, which has led to growing inequality.
As for the U.S. malpractice in creating human rights crises in other countries in the name of human rights, Stephen Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard University, said “Americans must first fix what has gone wrong at home and rethink how they deal with the rest of the world.”
In 2021, the U.S. public persona of “human rights defender” was totally debunked as the so-called “Summit for Democracy” under the guise of safeguarding human rights became a farce. At the 48th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, many countries blasted the United States for being the “biggest destroyer” of human rights in the world and urged the country to address its own severe human rights violations.
一、操弄疫情防控付出惨痛代价
美国拥有全世界最先进的医疗设备和技术，却成为全球新冠肺炎感染和死亡人数最多的国家。美国政府不思治理之策，不谋抗疫之举，反而鼓噪“病毒溯源”，热衷“甩锅”推责，大搞政治操弄。
漠视民众生命权和健康权。自新冠肺炎疫情在美国暴发以来，疫情防控始终被高度政治化，成为共和党和民主党相互攻讦、否决、对抗的工具和筹码，政客只关注政治私利，却无视民众生命健康。联邦和地方政府各行其是、相互掣肘，不仅使得医疗资源整合和协调管理十分困难，也导致民众对于疫情防控政策无所适从，各种违背科学和常识的反智言行大行其道。部分美国民众受政治操弄误导，不仅拒绝佩戴口罩，甚至掀起“反疫苗”运动，加剧了疫情蔓延。据美国疾病控制和预防中心网站发布的数据，截至2021年底，还有近30%的美国人尚未接种新冠疫苗。美联社2021年12月19日报道称，由于未接种疫苗的人相互感染，导致新冠肺炎感染病例和住院人数持续攀升，医院不堪重负。沃克斯新闻网2021年1月2日指出，美国已经陷入了州、地方政府和公众不得不自求多福的境地。根据美国约翰斯·霍普金斯大学统计的数据，截至2022年2月底，美国新冠肺炎确诊病例数累计超过7800万例、死亡病例数累计超过94万例，其中2021年的死亡病例数远超2020年。南加州大学和普林斯顿大学的研究显示，新冠肺炎使美国人的平均预期寿命减少了1.13岁，这是自第二次世界大战以来的最大降幅。其中，非洲裔和拉美裔的平均预期寿命下降了2.1岁和3.05岁，相对而言，白人的平均预期寿命下降了0.68岁。美政府不科学、不平等、不担当的疫情防控，严重损害了美国人民的生命权和健康权。《纽约时报》2021年11月18日评论说，美国近两年面对新冠肺炎疫情的重重考验表现并不及格，“美国民众对政府的信任已然破产”。
疫情失控导致民众心理健康恶化。《柳叶刀－区域健康》（美洲）2021年10月在线发表的研究报告显示，新冠肺炎疫情暴发前，美国成年人出现抑郁症状的比例为8.5%，2020年疫情暴发初期上升至27.8%，2021年10月进一步上升至32.8%。美联社2021年12月6日报道，一项民意调查显示，13岁至56岁的美国人中，超过三分之一的受访者将新冠肺炎疫情视作压力的主要来源。疫情失控带来的社会创伤给未成年人留下巨大心理阴影。《洛杉矶时报》网站2021年12月9日报道，美国公共卫生局局长维韦克·穆尔蒂称，与两年前同期相比，2021年美国女孩企图自杀的人数增加了51%。
无家可归者数量触目惊心。《华盛顿邮报》网站2021年12月7日报道，无家可归是美国面临的最大挑战之一，疫情期间这个问题已经席卷了大小城市。美联社2021年9月9日报道，自2021年1月份以来，罗得岛州没有住房的人数增加了85%以上。根据儿童促进会2021年11月8日发布的报告，2020－2021学年纽约市无家可归的学童曾一度超过10万名，占该市公立学校学生总数的近十分之一。有的学生住在无家可归者收容所，有的学生甚至不得不住在汽车、公园或废弃的建筑物中。《纽约时报》网站2021年12月19日报道，旧金山每100名居民中就有一人无家可归。
老年人生命权利遭到公然侵害。美国政客奉行优胜劣汰的自然法则，宣称“年长者可为国牺牲”“国家经济比老年人生命更重要”。美国疾病控制和预防中心数据显示，因新冠肺炎疫情死亡的大多数患者年龄在65岁以上。美国“即时医学新闻”网站2021年8月30日报道，截至2021年8月，美国死于新冠肺炎疫情的老年人已超过50万，占死亡总人数的五分之四。联合国老年人权利问题独立专家克劳迪娅·马勒2020年7月21日发布的报告显示，医疗保健服务方面的歧视、应对疫情时没有将疗养院放在足够的优先位置以及隔离政策，使得老年人更容易受到忽视或虐待，美国新冠肺炎疫情期间疗养院死亡人数有严重遗漏。
严重损害国际抗疫合作。华盛顿极力奉行“美国优先”，不仅截留他国抗疫物资，而且禁止本国医疗物资出口，买断可能用于治疗新冠肺炎的药物产能。美国多次胁迫世卫组织，干扰拖累全球抗疫合作。美国大搞“疫苗民族主义”，将一些不发达国家和地区推入“无苗可种”的绝望境地。美国全国广播公司2021年9月1日报道，美国自2021年3月以来在半年内至少废弃了1500万剂新冠疫苗，浪费的疫苗剂量远远超出许多贫穷国家为其整个国家人口准备的疫苗。英国华威大学全球卫生法副教授谢里法·塞卡拉评论称，在以美国为首的发达国家囤积浪费疫苗的同时，“许多非洲国家甚至只有不到5%的人口接种了疫苗，这是一个极大的不公平，是一个悲剧。”南非总统拉马福萨尖锐指出，“富裕国家订购了超过他们本国人口需求的疫苗，而当我们想要疫苗的时候，他们却只给我们一些“残羹剩饭”，这样的表现的确让人非常非常失望。”美国《外交政策》杂志网站刊文说：“拜登政府仍在以有损世界其他国家利益的方式追求美国利益。”
I. A HEAVY PRICE FOR U.S. EPIDEMIC PREVENTION AND CONTROL
Despite having world’s most advanced medical equipment and technology, the United States has the biggest number of COVID-19 infections and deaths globally. The U.S. government never rethinks its response measures and still lacks effective anti-epidemic plans. Instead, it stoked the origins-tracing of COVID-19, and has been keen on passing the buck, shifting the blame and political manipulation.
Disregard for people’s rights to life and health. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States, the epidemic prevention and control has been highly politicized, which has become a tool and a bargaining chip for Republicans and Democrats to attack, reject and confront each other. U.S. politicians focused only on their political gains in disregard of people’s lives and health. The federal and local governments went their own way and constrained each other, which has not only made it very difficult to integrate and coordinate the management of medical resources, but also made people disoriented about epidemic prevention and control policies. And thus various anti-intellectual words and deeds that reject science and common sense have become prevalent. Misled by political manipulation, some Americans refused to wear masks, and even launched an anti-vaccine movement, which accelerated the spread of COVID-19. By the end of 2021, nearly 30 percent of Americans still had not been vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Associated Press (AP) reported on Dec. 19, 2021 that U.S. hospitals were overwhelmed as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations caused by infections among the unvaccinated continued to surge. States, local governments and the public “have now been left out on their own,” American news website Vox said on Jan. 2, 2021. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, by late February 2022, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States had exceeded 78 million and the death toll surpassed 940,000. Its number of COVID-19 deaths recorded in 2021 has far surpassed the total for 2020. According to the analysis by researchers at the University of Southern California and Princeton University, the deaths caused by COVID-19 have reduced overall life expectancy by 1.13 years, the biggest drop since the Second World War. Life expectancy was estimated to fall by 2.10 years among African Americans and 3.05 years among Latinos, while the decline was 0.68 years among whites. The U.S. government’s unscientific, unequal and irresponsible epidemic prevention and control conducts have seriously undermined its people’s rights to life and health. The New York Times reported on Nov. 18, 2021 that the pandemic has proved to be a nearly two-year stress test that the United States “flunked,” and that the American people’s trust in their government has been “bankrupt.”
People’s mental health deteriorated due to the uncontrolled outbreak. A study published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas in October 2021 found 32.8 percent of U.S. adults experienced “elevated depressive symptoms” in 2021, compared to 27.8 percent in the early 2020 months of the pandemic and 8.5 percent before the pandemic. According to a public opinion poll, more than a third of Americans aged between 13 and 56 said the pandemic is a significant source of stress in their lives. The poll finds teens and young adults have faced some of the heaviest struggles as they come of age during a time of extreme turmoil, the AP reported on Dec. 6, 2021. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy was cited by The Los Angeles Time as saying on Dec. 9, 2021 that the number of suspected suicide attempts in 2021 was 51 percent higher among adolescent girls compared to the same period in 2019.
The number of the homeless is staggering. The Washington Post reported on Dec. 7, 2021 that “homelessness is one of the United States’ greatest current challenges, no matter the region.” The AP reported on Sept. 9, 2021 that the number of people without permanent shelter in Rhode Island had increased by more than 85 percent since January 2021. According to a report by the group Advocates for Children, more than 100,000 New York City schoolchildren were homeless at some point during the 2020-2021 school year. The total number of homeless students during the school year represented nearly one-tenth of the city’s public school system. Some students had to live in cars, parks or abandoned buildings. The New York Times reported on Dec. 19, 2021 that in San Francisco one of every 100 residents was homeless.
The elderly’ rights to life are flagrantly violated. U.S. politicians have followed the natural law of “selecting the superior and eliminating the inferior,” declaring that “the elderly could sacrifice for the country” and that “the national economy is more important than the lives of the elderly.” The U.S. CDC said that the vast majority of U.S. COVID-19 deaths have been among people aged 65 or older. According to Stat News, an American health-oriented news website, more than half a million elderly people in the United States have died from COVID-19, accounting for four-fifths of all fatalities. According to a report by Claudia Mahler, the United Nations independent expert on older people, on July 21, 2020, discrimination in the delivery of health care services, insufficient prioritization of nursing homes in responses to the virus, and lockdowns left older people more vulnerable to neglect or abuse. And there was “a significant undercount of nursing home deaths” in the United States during the pandemic.
Serious damage to the global anti-pandemic cooperation. Washington vigorously pursues “America First,” not only withholding anti-epidemic materials from other countries, but also prohibiting the export of domestic medical materials and buying out the production capacity of drugs that may be used to treat COVID-19 patients. The United States has repeatedly coerced the WHO, interfering and dragging down global anti-pandemic cooperation.
The United States has engaged in “vaccine nationalism,” pushing some underdeveloped countries and regions into a desperate situation of having no vaccines to administer.
Since March 2021, the United States has thrown away at least 15 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, significantly more than many poor countries have prepared for their whole populations, according to NBC News on Sept. 1, 2021.
“It’s really tragic that we have a situation where vaccines are being wasted while lots of African countries have not had even 5 percent of their populations vaccinated,” said Sharifah Sekalala, an associate professor of global health law at England’s University of Warwick.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa also slammed rich countries over their hoarding of vaccines, adding that “they are just giving us the crumbs from their table. The greed they demonstrated was disappointing.”
The Biden administration is still pursuing U.S. interests in ways that are detrimental to the interests of the rest of the world, commented an article on the website of the U.S. Foreign Policy magazine.
二、固守暴力思维威胁生命安全
美国一直是世界上暴力犯罪率高企的国家之一。控枪措施停滞不前，枪支暴力问题丛生；警察歧视性执法，滥杀无辜激发民愤；执法人员有罪不罚，司法不公饱受诟病；错案冤案无法得到有效纠正赔偿，监狱囚犯遭受虐待；家庭暴力、青少年暴力明显增加，民众生活在缺乏安全的恐惧之中。
社会治安恶化加速枪支泛滥。美国是全世界私人拥有枪支最多的国家，民众对政府的社会治安治理丧失信心，极度缺乏安全感，大量购入枪支以自保。“小型武器调查”组织发布的统计数据显示，在全球现有的8.57亿支民用枪支中，美国人拥有3.93亿支，约占46%。每100个美国人就有120支枪，人均超过1支。民用枪支数量比人口多，这种情况在全世界绝无仅有。②城镇研究与政策组织2021年12月21日报道，截至2021年10月，美国当年已售出了超过1500万支枪。私人在网上购买部件组装的“幽灵枪”更是泛滥成灾。《纽约时报》网站2021年11月20日报道，在过去的18个月，洛杉矶、奥克兰、圣迭戈和旧金山的执法人员在犯罪现场查获的枪支中有25%至50%是这种无法追踪的“幽灵枪”。截至2021年10月，仅圣迭戈警察局就收缴了近400支“幽灵枪”，约是2020年全年总数的2倍。自2016年1月以来，美国各地的执法机构已经没收了约2.5万支私人制造的枪械。
枪支暴力严重危害民众生命安全。美国是世界上枪支暴力最严重的国家。根据枪支暴力档案网站2022年1月5日发布的统计数据，美国枪击事件导致的死亡人数从2019年的39558人上升到2020年的43643人，2021年进一步上升到44816人。2021年共发生693起大规模枪击事件，比2020年增长10.1%。《密尔沃基哨兵报》2021年10月5日报道，根据儿童保护基金会的数据，美国的儿童和青少年死于枪击的可能性比其他31个高收入国家的总和还要高15倍。2021年8月1日至9月15日的开学季，美国校园至少发生了30起枪击事件，导致至少5人死亡、23人受伤，是有记录以来的最高值。2021年美国枪击事件共导致1229名12岁至17岁青少年死亡、3373人受伤。2021年11月30日，密歇根州一所高中发生大规模枪击事件，4名学生遇害。15岁的犯罪嫌疑人所使用的作案工具正是其父亲在“黑色星期五”购买的枪支。美国有线电视新闻网2021年11月26日报道，威廉·帕特森大学社会学和刑事司法助理教授杰森·R·席尔瓦评论称，美国是唯一在过去20年里每年都发生大规模枪击事件的发达国家。枪击事件造成大量人员伤亡，对公众安全构成重大威胁。根据皮尤研究中心2021年4月的调查，48%的美国人认为枪支暴力是美国需要解决的重大问题。
警察暴力执法草菅人命。据“警察暴力地图”网站数据统计，2021年美国至少有1124人死于警察暴力，大部分人都是在非暴力犯罪或没有犯罪行为的情形下被警察杀害。《今日美国报》网站2021年6月21日报道，美国警察每年射杀约1000人。自2015年以来，警方已经射杀了6300多人，但只有91名警察因此被捕，仅占涉案人数的1%。《今日美国报》网站2021年7月8日报道，调查显示，只有22%的美国人认为警察公正执法。有色人种频繁遭受不公正执法。《今日美国报》网站2021年7月15日报道，明尼苏达州20岁的非洲裔男子当特·赖特因车牌过期在明尼阿波利斯郊外被拦下后遭警察开枪射杀。赖特之死是一系列非洲裔因交通违规被拦下并被无辜杀害的事件之一。一项对北卡罗莱纳州10多年来2000万次交通拦截的研究显示，非洲裔司机被警察拦下和搜查的可能性是白人的2倍。《今日美国报》网站2021年5月24日报道，在乔治·弗洛伊德被警察暴力杀害后的一年里，执法人员在美国又杀害了数百名少数族裔。自2000年以来，明尼苏达州已经有超过470起谋杀案是由执法人员犯下的，但只有一个人被定罪，那就是一个杀害了一名白人女性的少数族裔男性执法人员。《基督教科学箴言报》网站2021年11月23日报道，城市研究所的研究显示，与黑人杀白人的案件相比，白人杀黑人的案件被裁定为“正当”的可能性要高出10倍。
监狱工作人员侵犯人权屡见不鲜。美国是全世界监禁率最高和被监禁人数最多的国家。③美联社一项调查发现，美国联邦监狱管理局是贪污、腐败和虐待的温床。加拿大电视台新闻网2021年11月14日报道，美国联邦监狱工作人员犯罪屡见不鲜。自2019年以来，已有100多名美国联邦监狱工作人员因涉嫌性虐待、谋杀等违法行为被逮捕、定罪。关押在私营监狱的囚犯面临被侵害风险。联合国新闻网2021年2月4日报道，根据美国司法统计局的数据，2019年美国约有11.6万名囚犯被关押在私营设施中，约占所有州囚犯的7%和联邦囚犯的16%。2021年4月20日，联合国人权理事会非洲人后裔问题工作组、残疾人权利问题特别报告员、老年人权利问题独立专家、健康权问题特别报告员等9名特别机制专家发表联合声明，谴责美国侵犯非洲裔犯人穆米亚·贾玛尔的人权。声明表示，已在监狱中被关押了40年的贾玛尔曾是一名社会活动人士和记者，67岁的他患有慢性心脏病、肝硬化、高血压等多项疾病，2021年2月被确诊感染新冠肺炎；2月下旬因心脏衰竭在医院接受治疗期间，被铐在病床上长达4天；4月上旬再次住院接受手术时，其家人、律师等的探视要求被拒绝。声明呼吁美国政府履行国际人权义务，采取紧急措施保护贾玛尔的生命安全和尊严，立即停止隐瞒信息的做法，允许外界探视监督其人权状况，并采取一切必要措施保护所有被羁押者，特别是受到新冠肺炎疫情影响更大的老年人和残疾人囚犯的生命安全。
司法系统公信力损毁殆尽。根据美国除罪释放登记机构2022年1月11日发布的统计数据，1989年以来美国已有2933人被错误定罪，合计错判的监禁刑期高达2.56万年。而美国有14个州缺乏对错案冤案进行赔偿的相关法律规定。④英国广播公司2021年11月23日报道，现年62岁的凯文·斯特里克兰自18岁被捕以来一直坚持自己是无辜的。他于1979年6月被错误地判定犯有三级谋杀罪，2021年才被裁定无罪，被监禁了超过42年，是密苏里州历史上最长的错误监禁案例。但根据该州法律规定，他不可能得到任何经济赔偿。《今日美国报》网站2021年7月8日报道，调查显示，只有17%的美国人认为刑事司法系统能够公正对待所有人。
II. ENTRENCHED VIOLENT THINKING THREATENS LIVES
The United States has consistently had one of the highest rates of violent crimes in the world. Gun control measures have been stagnant and gun violence has been rife. The police are discriminatory in law enforcement, killing innocent people and causing public anger. Law enforcement officers commit crimes with impunity, and judicial injustice has been widely criticized. Wrongful and unjust cases continue to exist without being corrected and compensated effectively. Prison inmates are abused, and domestic violence as well as youth violence has increased significantly. The American people live in fear of lack of security.
Deterioration of social order has accelerated the proliferation of guns. The United States is the country with the largest number of privately owned guns in the world. The U.S. public have lost confidence in the government’s social security governance and felt extremely insecure, which drives many to purchase guns to protect themselves.
The Small Arms Survey (SAS) researchers estimate that Americans own 393 million of the 857 million civilian guns available, which is around 46 percent of the world’s civilian gun cache.
There are 120 guns for every 100 Americans, according to the SAS. No other nation has more civilian guns than people.
Everytown for Gun Safety also reported on Dec. 21, 2021 that over 15 million guns were sold through October.
“Ghost guns,” which are assembled from parts purchased by individuals online, are even more proliferating.
According to a report by The New York Times website on Nov. 20, 2021, over the past 18 months, ghost guns had accounted for 25 to 50 percent of firearms recovered at crime scenes.
By the beginning of October last year, the San Diego Police Department had recovered almost 400 ghost guns, about doubling the total for all of 2020 with nearly three months to go in the year.
It also reported that since January 2016, about 25,000 privately made firearms had been confiscated by local and federal law enforcement agencies nationwide.
Gun violence seriously endangers people’s lives. The United States has the worst gun violence in the world. According to statistics released on Jan. 5, 2022 by the Gun Violence Archive website, the number of fatalities from shootings in the United States rose from 39,558 in 2019 to 43,643 in 2020, and further to 44,816 in 2021. In 2021, there were 693 mass shootings in the United States, up 10.1 percent from 2020.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on Oct. 5, 2021 that children and teens in the United States are 15 times more likely to die from gunfire than their peers in 31 other high-income countries combined, quoting data from the Children’s Defense Fund.
At least 30 shootings occurred on U.S. campuses during the school season from Aug. 1 to Sept. 15, 2021, killing at least five people and injuring 23, the highest number on record.
A total of 1,229 teens aged 12 to 17 were killed and 3,373 injured in shootings in the United States in 2021. On Nov. 30, 2021, four students were killed in a mass shooting at a Michigan high school by a 15-year-old suspect who used the same gun that his father bought on Black Friday.
CNN reported on Nov. 26, 2021 that Jason R. Silva, an assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at William Paterson University, said that the United States is the only developed country where mass shootings have happened every single year for the past 20 years.
Shooting incidents have caused a large number of casualties and posed a major threat to public safety. According to an April 2021 Pew Research Center survey, 48 percent of Americans see gun violence as a very big problem in the country today.
Police brutality tramples human life. According to data compiled by Mapping Police Violence, at least 1,124 people died in 2021 due to U.S. police violence. The majority of killings occurred during non-violent offenses or when there was no crime at all.
The USA TODAY website reported on June 21, 2021 that police in the United States fatally shoot about 1,000 people a year. Police have fatally shot more than 6,300 people since 2015, but only 91 officers have been arrested, or just 1 percent of those involved.
The USA TODAY website reported on July 8, 2021 that a poll showed that just 22 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. police treat all Americans equally.
Racial and ethnic groups are often subjected to unfair justice. The USA TODAY website reported on July 15, 2021 that a 20-year-old African-American man in Minnesota, Daunte Wright, was shot and killed by police after being pulled over outside Minneapolis for an expired license plate. Wright’s death was one of a string of incidents in which African-Americans were pulled over for traffic violations and killed innocently.
A study of 20 million traffic stops in North Carolina over more than a decade shows that African American drivers are twice as likely as white drivers to be pulled over by police.
The USA TODAY website reported on May 24, 2021 that within a year of the death of George Floyd, who died after an officer knelt on his neck for nine minutes, enforcement killed hundreds of people of ethnic minorities in the United States.
According to the report, since the year 2000, there have been over 470 murders at the hands of law enforcement in Minnesota. Only one police officer was convicted in the history of Minnesota and that was a minority man that killed a white woman.
The Christian Science Monitor website reported on Nov. 23, 2021 that the Urban Institute found that homicides with a white perpetrator and a black victim are ten times more likely to be ruled justified than cases with a black perpetrator and a white victim.
Human rights violations by prison staff are commonplace. The United States has the highest incarceration rate and the highest number of incarcerated people in the world. An Associated Press investigation has found that the U.S. federal Bureau of Prisons is a hotbed of graft, corruption and abuse.
CTV News reported on Nov. 14, 2021 that crimes committed by federal prison staff in the United States are not uncommon. Since 2019, more than 100 U.S. federal prison staff members have been arrested and convicted of sexual abuse, murder and other offenses.
Prisoners held in U.S. private prisons are at risk of being abused. The UN News reported on Feb. 4, 2021 that in 2019, there were about 116,000 U.S. prisoners held in privately operated facilities, representing about 7 percent of all state prisoners and 16 percent of federal prisoners, quoting data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
On April 20, 2021, nine UN experts, including the UN Human Rights Council Working Group of Experts of People of African Descent, the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Independent Expert on the Enjoyment of all Human Rights by Older Persons, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Physical and Mental Health, issued a joint statement condemning U.S. human rights violations against Mumia Abu-Jamal, a prisoner of African descent.
The statement said Abu-Jamal, who has been in prison for 40 years, was a social activist and journalist. The 67-year-old suffers from a number of diseases including chronic heart disease, liver cirrhosis and high blood pressure. In February 2021, he was diagnosed with COVID-19. While receiving treatment for heart failure in late February, he was handcuffed to his hospital bed for four days; and when he was hospitalized again in early April for surgery, his family, lawyers and others were denied access to him.
The statement calls on the U.S. government to comply with its international human rights obligations, take urgent measures to protect Abu-Jamal’s life and dignity, immediately stop the practice of withholding information, and allow outside visits to monitor his human rights situation.
It also calls on the U.S. government to take all necessary measures to protect the lives of all detainees, especially the elderly and disabled prisoners who are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
The credibility of the U.S. judicial system is in tatters. According to statistics released by the U.S. National Registry of Exoneration on Jan. 11, 2022, 2,933 people have been wrongly convicted in the United States since 1989, with a combined 25,600 years of wrongly imposed prison sentences. However, 14 U.S. states lack legal provisions related to compensation for wrongful convictions.
The BBC reported on Nov. 23, 2021, that Kevin Strickland, 62, had maintained his innocence since his arrest at the age of 18. He was wrongly convicted of third-degree murder in June 1979, only to be found not guilty in 2021 before being imprisoned for more than 42 years, the longest wrongful imprisonment in Missouri history. But under the state’s law, he is unlikely to receive any financial compensation.
The USA Today website reported on July 8, 2021, that a survey showed that only 17 percent of Americans believe the U.S. criminal justice system treats everyone fairly.
三、玩弄虚假民主践踏政治权利
政治献金导致选后利益输送，政治极化使得社会对立和分裂进一步加剧，限制投票资格的立法和选区划分成为政党压制民意的工具，政治运行日益脱离公众意愿和社会需要，多数民众参与政治的权利实质上被剥夺，国际社会对美国民主制度的信心持续下降。
美式民主沦为利益输送游戏。美国金钱政治愈演愈烈，政客日益罔顾民众利益诉求。麻省理工学院政治评论家与社会活动家诺姆·乔姆斯基表示，美国人对政策制定的影响力与他们的财富水平之间呈正相关性，约70%的美国人对政策制定没有任何影响，他们在收入水平、财富等方面处于劣势，相当于被剥夺了参政权利。马萨诸塞州大学教授贾拉拉贾在《大西洋》月刊发表文章称，美国目前的民主只是形式上的民主，而不是实质民主。总统选举的全国范围初选完全受富人、名人、媒体和利益集团的操纵，民众投票支持的总统参选人往往不真正代表民意。英国《卫报》网站2021年1月7日报道，美国两党候选人在2020年选举周期内仅广告花费即高达140亿美元。美国消费者新闻与商业频道网站2021年4月15日报道，华尔街在2020年美国选举期间资助竞选和政治游说的花费高达29亿美元。《政客》网站2021年11月17日刊文称，一个秘密资金集团在2020年向民主党提供了4.1亿美元资金，帮助民主党夺回参议院控制权。在2020年总统选举中，美国制药企业针对两党进行了大量政治捐款，民主党政府上台后“投桃报李”投入巨额资金回馈相关企业，仅莫德纳公司就获益近10亿美元。随后联邦政府通过大量采购新冠疫苗，直接向制药企业输送利益，造成美国疫苗大量囤积浪费。美国政府在新冠疫苗定价上放任制药企业，导致疫苗价格持续上涨。英国《金融时报》报道称，辉瑞公司供应欧盟的新冠疫苗单价从15.5欧元涨至19.5欧元，莫德纳公司的新冠疫苗价格则从每剂19欧元涨至25.5欧元，而据估计每剂莫德纳疫苗的生产成本还不到3美元。
政治极化导致社会愈益撕裂。美国的选举乱象使政治极化进一步加剧，社会持续撕裂动荡。2021年1月6日下午，在极端政客的煽动操弄下，成千上万拒不接受2020年总统选举结果的美国民众涌入华盛顿，大批示威者强行闯入国会大厦，与警卫发生激烈冲突，造成5人死亡、140多人受伤，总统选举结果法定认证程序被迫中断。布鲁金斯学会网站2021年5月报道，在2020年美国总统选举结束后，尽管50个州全都认证了选举的结果，但仍有77%的共和党选民以选举舞弊为由质疑当选总统的合法性，这是近百年来的第一次。政府更替并没有改变美国政治极化现象。美国社会在疫情防控、种族关系、堕胎权利、枪支管控等问题上日趋对立，民主、共和两党在基础设施建设、社会福利法案、政府债务上限等涉及经济民生立法方面的政治斗争更加激烈，国会几近失能。共和党领袖甚至不惜在国会发表长达8.5小时的创纪录演讲，以阻止和拖延民主党所提法案的表决。皮尤研究中心网站2021年10月13日报道，对17个发达经济体进行的调查结果显示，美国被视为政治极化最严重的国家，90%的美国受访者认为不同党派的支持者之间存在严重分歧，近六成美国受访者认为民众不仅在政策领域意见相左，在基本事实方面也难以达成共识。
政党对立压制损害选民投票权利。共和党和民主党为了胜选，利用立法和选区划分等手段疯狂压制不利于自己的选民投票。2021年美国有49个州提出了超过420项限制选民投票的提案。这些提案有的压缩选民申请或邮寄选票的时间，有的限制提供投递地点，有的对邮寄投票提出更严格的签名要求，有的对选民身份制定新的、更严格的要求，使邮寄投票和提前投票变得更加困难，为老年人、残疾人、少数族裔等群体行使投票权设置重重障碍。美国全国广播公司网站2021年3月8日报道，佐治亚州正在推动数十项将目标指向非洲裔选民的限制投票法案。民权人士认为，“这场运动构成了一场全国性的攻击，将把有色人种赶出选民范围”。
选区划分成为压制少数族裔选民政治影响力的工具。美国两党利用自己在各州的政治操控，通过重划国会选区来增加胜选机会，这样做的结果往往以牺牲少数族裔权利为代价。美国消费者新闻与商业频道网站2021年8月13日报道，重新划定国会选区的做法往往针对有色人种的选民，仅密歇根州、俄亥俄州和宾夕法尼亚州的选区划分，就能够使共和党人多得到16至17个国会席位。《芝加哥论坛报》2021年9月3日报道，伊利诺伊州对选区的重新划分，旨在让民主党至少十年内继续控制该州立法机构。公民自由联盟网站2021年11月30日报道，俄亥俄州重新划分的选区严重偏向共和党，尽管共和党仅获得该州55%的选民支持，却能得到67%至80%的议会席位。《洛杉矶时报》网站2021年12月8日报道，虽然有色人种数量在得克萨斯州大幅增加，但得克萨斯州的选区划分故意削弱拉美裔和非洲裔选民的权力。拉美裔占得克萨斯州总人口的近40%，但38个国会选区中只有7个是以拉美裔为主的。得克萨斯州是美国非洲裔人口最多的州，但该州的38个国会选区中没有一个是以非洲裔为主的。在针对美国民众关于国会选区划分公正性的调查中，仅有16%的受访者认为自己所在的州能够公平地划分选区。⑤
国际社会对美国民主信心持续下降。哈佛大学肯尼迪政府学院政治学研究所网站2021年12月1日报道，一项针对美国18岁至29岁年轻人的全国性民意调查显示，只有7%的受访者认为美国民主制度尚属“健康”，有52%的受访者认为美国的民主已经“陷入困境”或“失败”。皮尤研究中心2021年5月发布的调查数据显示，美国公众对政府的信任度接近1958年以来的历史低点，只有2%的美国人表示可以相信美国政府“几乎总是”做正确的事情，只有22%的美国人表示可以相信美国政府“大部分时间”做正确的事情。
《华盛顿邮报》网站2021年6月12日发表评论文章称，美国民主过去几年的混乱错乱和功能失调令世界震惊，成为盟友眼中一件破碎的废品。英国首相约翰逊称发生在美国国会山的乱象是“可耻”的。德国总统施泰因迈尔认为，美国国会大厦暴力事件乱象是政治高层散布重重谎言、蔑视民主、煽动仇恨和分裂导致的恶果。调查显示，只有14%的德国人、不到10%的新西兰人认为美国民主是其他国家的理想模式。尽管自身民主实践和国际形象一败涂地，美国政府却高调举办所谓的“领导人民主峰会”，将民主政治化、工具化，大搞选边站队，拉帮结派，分裂世界。所谓的“领导人民主峰会”，实质上是“破坏全球民主”的峰会，受到国际社会广泛批评和谴责。法国政治学者多米尼克·莫伊西认为，美国四处鼓吹民主，自己却做得很差。《今日美国报》《纽约时报》等美国媒体也纷纷评论称，“美国的民主正在分崩离析，必须先解决自己民主上的失败”“在美国国内面临诸多问题的时候，人们质疑美国能否充当一个合格的民主代言人”。
III. PLAYING WITH FAKE DEMOCRACY TRAMPLES ON POLITICAL RIGHTS
Political donations bring about transfers of interests after elections, political polarization further intensifies antagonism and division in the U.S. society, and legislation and gerrymander restricting voting eligibility have become tools for parties to suppress the public opinion. The operation of the U.S. political system is moving away from the public will and social demands, the right of the majority of the public to participate in politics is essentially deprived of, and international confidence in the U.S. democratic system continues to decline.
The American-style democracy has descended to a game of transferring interests. Money politics become increasingly rampant in the United States, which makes politicians more neglectful of people’s interests and demands.
Noam Chomsky, a political commentator and social activist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has pointed out that there is a positive correlation between Americans’ wealth and their influence on policy-making, and for about 70 percent on the income-wealth scale, they have no influence on policy whatsoever and are effectively disenfranchised. Ray La Raja, professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, noted in an article for The Atlantic that America’s current system is democratic only in form, not in substance, as the nominating process is vulnerable to manipulation by plutocrats, celebrities, media figures and activists, while many presidential-primary voters mistakenly back candidates who do not reflect their views.
According to The Guardian on Jan. 7, 2021, candidates spent 14 billion U.S. dollars alone on advertising for the 2020 U.S. president election cycle. The U.S. Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC) reported on April 15, 2021 that Wall Street executives, their employees and trade associations invested at least 2.9 billion U.S. dollars into political initiatives during the 2020 election cycle. The U.S. media outlet Politico said on Nov. 17, 2021 that a secret-money group “doled out” 410 million U.S. dollars in 2020 to the Democratic Party, aiding the latter’s efforts to win back control of the Senate.
In the 2020 presidential election, U.S. pharmaceutical companies made huge political donations to both parties, and the Democratic administration, after taking office, invested an enormous sum of money back to the companies involved, with Moderna alone earning profit of nearly 1 billion U.S. dollars. The federal government then funneled interests directly to pharmaceutical companies by purchasing large quantities of COVID-19 vaccines, resulting in massive hoarding and waste of vaccines in the United States. The U.S. government gave pharmaceutical companies a free hand in pricing COVID-19 vaccines, leading to continuous increases in vaccine prices. The Financial Times reported that Pfizer raised the price of its COVID-19 vaccine for the European Union from 15.5 euros to 19.5 euros, and the price of a Moderna jab increased to 25.5 euros from 19 euros. However, the production cost of a Moderna dose is estimated to be less than 3 U.S. dollars.
Political polarization leads to an increasingly divided U.S. society. The election chaos in the United States has further intensified political polarization and continues to tear the society apart. On the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, prompted by the incitement and manipulation of extreme politicians, tens of thousands of Americans who rejected the 2020 presidential election result flooded to Washington, D.C., and a large number of demonstrators forced their way into the Capitol building and clashed with police, leaving five dead and more than 140 injured. The constitutional process to affirm the presidential election result was interrupted. A Brookings online article in May 2021 indicated that though all 50 states certified the 2020 election results, 77 percent of Republican voters still questioned the legitimacy of the elected president due to allegations of electoral fraud, a phenomenon that happened for the first time in nearly 100 years.
Changes of government did not reduce or remove the political polarization in the United States. The American people are becoming more incompatible with each other over such issues as pandemic prevention and control, race relations, abortion rights and gun control, while the political struggle between Democrats and Republicans over infrastructure construction, social welfare bills, government debt ceiling and other legislation related to the economy and people’s livelihood have become more intense, and the Congress has been nearly dysfunctional. A Republican leader even went so far as to deliver a record 8.5-hour speech in the Congress to block and delay a vote on a Democratic-proposed bill.
The Pew Research Center reported on Oct. 13, 2021 that the United States was regarded as the most politically polarized country in a survey involving 17 advanced economies, as 90 percent of the American respondents said there are at least strong conflicts between those who support different parties, and about six-in-ten thought their fellow citizens disagree not only over policies, but also over basic facts.
Confrontations between political parties restrain and harm electors’ right to vote. In order to win elections, Republicans and Democrats used legislation and gerrymander as well as other tactics to aggressively prevent voters who do not favor them from casting a ballot. In 2021, 49 states in the United States introduced more than 420 bills that would restrict voting. These bills either reduced the amount of time voters have to request or mail in a ballot, restricted the availability of drop-off locations, imposed stricter signature requirements for mail-in voting, or enacted new and stricter voter-ID requirements, which made mail-in voting and early voting harder and built barriers for the elderly, disabled, minorities and other groups to exercise their voting rights. NBC News reported on March 8, 2021 that the state of Georgia was pushing dozens of restrictive voting bills targeting African American voters. Voting rights experts and civil rights groups have argued that “the movement adds up to a national assault that would push voters of color out of the electorate.”
Gerrymander has become a tool to suppress the political influence of minority voters. The Democratic and Republican parties exploit their political clout in each state to increase the chances of winning by redrawing congressional districts, often at the expense of the rights of minorities.
CNBC reported on Aug. 13, 2021 that the practice of redrawing congressional districts often targets voters of color and the gerrymandering in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania alone gave Republicans 16 to 17 more congressional seats. Daily newspaper the Chicago Tribune reported on Sept. 3, 2021 that Illinois’ redistricting aimed to keep Democrats in control of the state legislature for at least a decade. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reported on Nov. 30, 2021 that the redrawn congressional districts for Ohio give Republicans an unconstitutional partisan advantage, with which the Republicans can anticipate winning 67 percent to 80 percent of the congressional seats – even though they are only likely to obtain about 55 percent of the vote.
The Los Angeles Times reported on Dec. 8, 2021 that although Texas has seen a significant increase of the number of people of color, its new redistricting plan intentionally diminished the power of Latino and African American voters. Latino Texans make up nearly 40 percent of the population, but just seven of the 38 congressional districts are predominantly Latino. Texas is home to the largest African American population in the country, but not one of the 38 congressional districts in the state is predominantly black. In a survey of the American public on the fairness of congressional districting, only 16 percent of the surveyed thought that congressional districts would be re-drawn fairly in their states.
The international community’s confidence in U.S. democracy continues to decline. A national poll of America’s 18- to 29-year-olds released on Dec. 1, 2021 by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School showed that only 7 percent of the surveyed viewed the United States as a “healthy democracy,” and 52 percent believed that the American democracy is either “in trouble” or “failing.” Data released by the Pew Research Center in May 2021 indicated that the American public trust in the government neared a historic low since 1958, as only 2 percent of Americans said they can trust the U.S. government to do what is right “just about always,” and only 22 percent said they can trust the government to do what is right “most of the time.”
In an opinion published on June 12, 2021, The Washington Post said that in the past few years the world has been horrified by the chaos, dysfunction and insanity of American democracy, which was seen by U.S. allies as a shattered and washed-up has-been. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said what happened on the Capital Hill was “disgraceful.” German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the Capitol riot was “the result of lies and more lies, of divisiveness and contempt for democracy, of hatred and incitement – even from the very highest level.” A research has showed that just 14 percent of Germans and fewer than 10 percent citizens in New Zealand saw American democracy as a desirable model for other countries.
Despite the fact that the U.S. democracy is proved to be a complete failure and its global image is badly damaged, the U.S. government held the so-called “Leaders’ Summit for Democracy” in a high profile, politicizing democracy and using it as a tool to form cliques and force other countries to take sides, in an attempt to split the world. The so-called “Leaders’ Summit for Democracy” is in essence a summit that undermines global democracy, and has been widely criticized and condemned by the international community.
French political scientist Dominique Moisi said that it is always difficult to preach what one does so badly itself. USA Today, The New York Times, and other American media have also commented that American democracy is “falling apart” and the United States must first address its own failings, and that critics questioned “whether the United States could be an effective advocate for democracy amid problems at home.”
四、放纵种族歧视加剧社会不公
美国根深蒂固的种族主义“病毒”与新冠肺炎病毒一起蔓延，反亚裔仇恨犯罪频发高发，对穆斯林群体的歧视有增无减，土著居民遭受的种族迫害仍在继续，种族经济鸿沟不断扩大，种族不平等日益加剧。
亚裔面临日趋严重的歧视和暴力攻击。在美国政客的种族主义操弄下，针对亚裔的袭击事件大幅增加。“停止仇恨亚裔及太平洋岛民”组织2021年11月18日发布的报告显示，2020年3月19日至2021年9月30日，该组织共收到10370起针对亚裔的种族主义攻击事件报告，大多数事件发生在街道、工作场所等公共空间。纽约市警察局2021年12月8日发布的数据显示，该市2021年针对亚裔的仇恨犯罪比2020年猛增361%。《华盛顿邮报》网站2021年4月22日报道，皮尤研究中心的一项调查显示，81%的亚裔成年人认为针对亚裔群体的暴力行为正在增多。《纽约时报》评论称，“没有疫苗能治种族主义”，纽约的亚裔生活在恐惧之中，反亚裔暴力造成的心理影响给亚裔社区带来创伤。美国国家公共电台网站2021年10月22日报道，四分之一的亚裔美国人担心他们的家庭成员会因为种族身份而受到攻击或威胁。
2021年3月16日晚，21岁的白人男子罗伯特·亚伦·朗持枪袭击亚特兰大地区3家亚裔经营的按摩店和水疗中心，共造成8人死亡，其中6人是亚裔女性。这起血案是美国近年来针对亚裔歧视和暴力攻击现象不断升级的缩影，激起了人们前所未有的愤怒与恐惧。成千上万的亚裔及其他族裔人士持续走上街头，举行声势浩大的“停止仇视亚裔”集会游行活动。2021年1月28日，一名84岁的泰裔老人在旧金山被蓄意猛烈撞击倒地致死。2021年4月23日，61岁的华裔男子马姚潘在纽约街头遭背后袭击倒地，头部遭到反复重踹，致使面部骨折。他在医院昏迷长达8个月后最终不治身亡。2021年11月17日，费城3名华裔高中生在放学回家的地铁上遭到暴力攻击，当地警方表示“受害者之所以被选中很明显是因为他们的亚裔身份”。《纽约时报》2021年4月3日集中报道了过去一年110余起有明显证据的美国反亚裔种族仇恨事件。该报道指出：“在过去一年里，在一系列明显带有种族敌意的事件中，亚裔被推搡、被殴打、被踢踹、被唾面、被辱骂，甚至连房屋和商店也遭到破坏。”而这只不过是亚裔遭受种族主义攻击的冰山一角。
英国广播公司2021年7月22日报道，被视为“永远的外国人”是许多亚裔美国人共同的痛苦经历，而在排外主义和反共思潮的共同作用下，美国政府对华人科学家的疑虑已存在超过半个世纪。自2018年11月美国实施所谓的“中国行动计划”以来，华人科学家频繁遭受美国政府的无端骚扰、监控和打击，执法部门的各种恶劣、荒谬行径不断遭媒体曝光。《纽约时报》网站2021年11月29日报道，斯坦福大学、加州大学伯克利分校和普林斯顿大学等机构近2000名学者签署公开信，表达对该计划过度针对华人研究人员的担忧。《耶鲁每日新闻》2021年12月9日报道，耶鲁大学近100名教授联名发表公开信谴责该计划极具侵略性和歧视性，不成比例地针对华人学者，对科学探究和学术自由构成威胁，敦促美国政府终止该计划。《麻省理工技术评论》的调查显示，该计划涉及的大多数案件的指控都被驳回或基本未生效。多个美国亚裔民权机构称，该计划针对华人的调查将导致“歧视与污名化”。深受该计划迫害的华人科学家郗小星称，华人科学家当前的处境与二战时日裔美国人被送往拘留营类似，几乎如同重回麦卡锡时代。美国《外交事务》网站2021年7月28日发表题为《不要种族主义的竞争关系》的文章称，“美国外交政策制定者一贯夸大中国威胁”是导致仇视亚裔事件激增的关键因素，妖魔化中国必然会妖魔化美国所有亚洲面孔的人，“除非美国政策制定者停止将中国作为美国所有困境的出气筒，否则亚裔美国人将继续处于水深火热之中”。
对穆斯林的欺凌和仇视有增无减。彭博社2021年9月9日报道称，“9·11”事件后的20年间，美国对穆斯林的歧视呈上升趋势。美联社2021年9月9日报道，调查发现，53%的美国人对伊斯兰教持负面看法。美国－伊斯兰关系委员会2021年发布的报告称，该组织每年都会收到更多与欺凌和仇视穆斯林相关言论的投诉。该组织加利福尼亚州分支2021年10月28日发布的报告显示，加利福尼亚州超过50%的受访学生表示会因为自己的穆斯林身份受到欺凌，在学校感到不安全，这是自2013年以来的最高值。加州大学伯克利分校他者与归属感研究所2021年10月29日发布的调查数据显示，67.5%的穆斯林受访者经历过“伊斯兰恐惧症”带来的伤害，93.7%的穆斯林受访者表示他们的身心健康受到“伊斯兰恐惧症”的影响。
土著居民长期遭受惨无人道的种族迫害。美国侵犯土著居民权利的历史漫长而黑暗，包括印第安人在内的土著居民经历了血腥屠杀、野蛮驱逐和文化灭绝。美国《外交政策》网站2021年10月11日发表题为《美国必须正视自己的种族灭绝行为》的文章称，美国政府19世纪至20世纪期间出资建立的350多所土著居民寄宿学校，强制土著居民儿童脱离家庭和社区入读偏远的寄宿学校，对其实施文化同化。这一政策一直延续到20世纪70年代，数十万土著居民儿童被迫背井离乡，不少人遭受虐待命丧校园。在这些寄宿学校中，美洲印第安、阿拉斯加和夏威夷土著居民的身份、语言、信仰遭到压制。美国不仅在道义上，而且在法律上对本国人民犯下了种族灭绝罪行。
新冠肺炎疫情期间，纳瓦霍族、切罗基族、苏族等印第安人在疾病、贫困中艰难挣扎，却被系统性漠视。横跨亚利桑那州、犹他州和新墨西哥州的纳瓦霍族印第安居住区，一度是美国新冠肺炎感染率最高的地区之一。英国《卫报》2020年4月24日报道称，相较于人口占比，印第安人新冠肺炎感染率和死亡率严重不成比例，但在美国约80%的州卫生部门发布的与疫情相关的种族人口数据中，几乎一半的州没有明确将土著居民纳入分类范围，而是将他们归类为“其他”。西雅图印第安人健康委员会首席研究官阿比盖尔·埃科-霍克表示：“因为遭到种族灭绝，我们的人口很少。如果把我们排除在数据之外，我们就不存在了。”“今日俄罗斯”2022年1月8日报道，研究显示，20世纪50年代以来，美国秘密进行的1000多场核武器试验中有928场都是在印第安人肖肖尼部落的保留地上进行的。这些核试验累计产生62万吨放射性沉降物，是1945年日本广岛原子弹爆炸后所产生放射性沉降物的近48倍。肖肖尼部落的伊恩·扎巴特表示，核试验项目已造成当地上千人死亡，许多人因此罹患癌症。
种族间的经济鸿沟持续扩大。美国少数族裔与白人之间存在长期性系统性的经济不平等，表现在就业创业、工资收入、金融贷款等方方面面。⑥《今日美国报》网站2021年4月7日报道，美国劳工统计局的数据显示，截至2021年第一季度，亚裔群体约有61.5万人失业，其中48%的人已经失业6个月以上，这一数字比其他族裔长期失业的比例都要高。洛杉矶韩国城移民职工联盟执行董事亚历山得拉·苏认为，亚裔在美国受到种族歧视，被引导从事餐饮、洗衣、家政、护理等劳动报酬较低的行业，在疫情期间受到的冲击最大。《今日美国报》网站2021年7月30日报道，盖洛普的调查显示，59%的美国人认为少数族裔难以拥有平等的就业机会。《国会山报》网站2021年9月11日报道，27%的少数族裔拥有的小企业仍处于关闭状态，远高于白人拥有的小企业的关闭率，白人创业公司在成立之年获得贷款的可能性是非洲裔创业公司的7倍。疫情期间，少数族裔经营的企业没有通过工资保护计划获得公平的联邦援助，遭受了更大的经济打击。美国有线电视新闻网2021年7月15日报道，约17%的非洲裔家庭缺乏基本的金融服务，是白人家庭的近6倍。《洛杉矶时报》网站2021年12月15日报道，尽管拉美裔占美国总人口的19%，但拥有的财富仅占2%。白人家庭的净资产中位数是拉美裔家庭的5倍以上。
制度的结构性缺陷导致美国种族不平等日益加剧。2021年11月22日，联合国人权理事会少数群体问题特别报告员费尔南·德瓦雷纳在结束对美国为期14天的考察之后表示，在人权和少数族裔问题上，美国历史上对奴隶制的支持导致了世界上最残酷的内战之一，种族隔离制度一直延续到20世纪后期，土著居民几个世纪经历着暴行、掠夺甚至是种族灭绝。德瓦雷纳表示，美国法律体系在结构设计上就对富人有利、为其提供豁免，而只惩罚穷人，特别是少数族裔，使得非洲裔、拉美裔等少数族裔不可避免地陷入贫困代际循环。
IV. INDULGING IN RACIAL DISCRIMINATION EXACERBATES SOCIAL INJUSTICE
The “virus” of deeply-entrenched racism in the United States is spreading along with the novel coronavirus, with anti-Asian hate crimes happening frequently, discrimination against Muslim communities increasing steadily, and racial persecution of indigenous populations still remaining, which has led to an even widening racial economic divide and growing racial inequality.
Asian Americans face increasingly severe discrimination and violent attacks. As a result of U.S. politicians’ manipulation over racial issue, the number of attacks targeting Asian Americans has drastically increased. According to a report published on Nov. 18, 2021 by the national coalition Stop Asian American and Pacific Islander Hate, from March 19, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021, a total of 10,370 hate incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islander people were reported to the organization, and a majority of the incidents took place in spaces open to the public like public streets and businesses.
Statistics released by the New York Police Department on Dec. 8, 2021 showed that anti-Asian hate crimes in the city rose by 361 percent from that of 2020. According to a report of The Washington Post on April 22, 2021, a Pew Research Center survey found that 81 percent of Asian adults said violence against the group was rising. The New York Times commented that “no vaccine for racism.” It said that Asian New Yorkers live in fear of attacks, and the psychological effects of anti-Asian violence have scarred Asian communities in the United States. U.S. broadcaster NPR reported on Oct. 22, 2021 that one in four Asian Americans feared that members of their household would be attacked or threatened because of their race or ethnicity.
On March 16, 2021, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, a white male, launched gun attacks at three Asian-owned spas in Atlanta, killing eight people. Six of them are Asian women.
The deadly shooting epitomizes an escalation of discrimination and violent attacks against Asian-Americans in the country in recent years, sparking unprecedented anger and fear. Thousands of Asians and people of other ethic groups took to the streets in massive “Stop Asian Hate” rallies and marches.
On Jan. 28, 2021, an 84-year-old man from Thailand was deliberately knocked down to the ground and then died in San Francisco.
On April 23, 2021, Ma Yaopan, a 61-year-old Chinese man, was attacked from behind and fell to the ground on a street in New York. He then was repeatedly kicked in the head, which caused facial fractures. After eight months in a coma, he eventually died in hospital.
On Nov. 17, 2021, three Chinese high school students were violently assaulted on a subway train on their way home from school in Philadelphia. “It was clear that they were picked on because they were Asian,” said a local police officer.
On April 3, 2021, a report of The New York Times documented more than 110 anti-Asian incidents in the past year with clear evidence of racial hatred. “Over the last year, in an unrelenting series of episodes with clear racial animus, people of Asian descent have been pushed, beaten, kicked, spit on and called slurs. Homes and businesses have been vandalized,” said the report. That was just a tip of the iceberg of racist attacks on Asians in the United States.
BBC reported on July 22, 2021 that being regarded as a “permanent alien” is a painful experience shared by many Asian Americans, and under the combined effect of xenophobia and anti-communism, the U.S. government has been suspicious of Chinese scientists for more than half a century.
Since the implementation of the so-called “China Initiative” in November 2018, Chinese scientists have frequently been subjected to gratuitous harassment, monitoring and crackdown by the U.S. government. Vile and absurd acts of the U.S. law enforcement authorities have been constantly exposed by the media.
The New York Times on Nov. 29, 2021 reported on its website that about 2,000 academics at institutions including Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley and Princeton University have signed an open letter, expressing concerns that the initiative unduly targets researchers of Chinese descent.
The Yale Daily News reported on Dec. 9, 2021 that nearly 100 Yale professors have jointly published an open letter condemning the China Initiative, saying that it is invasive and discriminatory, disproportionately targets researchers of Chinese origin, and poses threats to scientific inquiry and academic freedom. They called for an end to the initiative.
According to an investigation by MIT Technology Review, a majority of cases under the initiative have had charges dismissed or are largely inactive.
Several Asian-American civil rights groups in the United States said that investigation against Chinese under the initiative would lead to “discrimination and stigmatization.”
Xi Xiaoxing, a Chinese scientist victimized by the initiative, said the current situation of scientists of Chinese origin is similar to that of Japanese-Americans sent to internment camps during World War II, almost like a return to the McCarthy era.
On July 28, 2021, Foreign Affairs published an article titled Rivalry Without Racism on its website, saying that “U.S. foreign-policy makers’ consistent overexaggeration of China’s threat to the United States” is a vital element of the recent surge in anti-Asian incidents. Demonizing China leads to the demonization of Asians in the country, and “until policymakers stop using China as a punching bag for all of the United States’ woes, Asian Americans will continue to be at risk,” said the article.
Discrimination and attacks against Muslims are on the rise. Bloomberg reported on Sept. 9, 2021 that over the past two decades since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, discrimination against Muslim Americans has surged.
The Associated Press reported on Sept. 9, 2021 that a poll found 53 percent of Americans have unfavorable views toward Islam.
In a 2021 report, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said it receives more complaints of bullying and Islamophobic rhetoric every year. A report published by the council’s California chapter on Oct. 28, 2021 showed that more than half of the students surveyed across California said they do not feel safe at school because they are bullied for their Muslim heritage. That’s the highest percentage the California chapter has documented since the survey started in 2013.
A survey released on Oct. 29, 2021 by the Othering and Belonging Institute in University of California, Berkeley, found that 67.5 percent of the Muslim participants had experienced Islamophobia-related harms and that 93.7 percent of the respondents said they had been impacted by Islamophobia emotionally or physically.
The aborigines have long suffered cruel racial persecution. The United States has a long and dark history of violating the rights of indigenous people, including Indians, who have experienced bloody massacres, brutal expulsions and cultural genocide.
An article titled “The United States Must Reckon With Its Own Genocides” published on the website of Foreign Policy on Oct. 11, 2021 noted that over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, more than 350 indigenous boarding schools were funded by the U.S. government, which aimed to culturally assimilate indigenous children by forcibly separating them from their families and communities to distant residential facilities.
Until the 1970s, hundreds of thousands of indigenous children had been uprooted from their homes and many had been abused to death in those boarding schools where their American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian identities, languages, and beliefs were forcibly suppressed.
The United States is not just morally, but also legally responsible for the crime of genocide against its own people, said the article.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Navajo Nation, the Cherokee Nation, the Sioux Nation and other Native Americans have struggled with disease and poverty, which, however, has all been systematically ignored. The Navajo Nation, which stretches across Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, was once among the areas with the highest rates of COVID-19 infection across the country.
The Guardian reported on April 24, 2020 that early data indicated dramatically disproportionate rates of COVID-19 infection and death of Native Americans. Among about 80 percent of U.S. state health departments that have released some racial demographic data on the impact of the coronavirus, almost half of them did not explicitly include Native Americans in their breakdowns and instead categorized them under the label “other.” “We are a small population of people because of genocide,” said Abigail Echo-Hawk, chief research officer of Seattle Indian Health Board. “If you eliminate us in the data, we don’t exist.”
Russian news network RT reported on Jan. 8, 2022 that since the 1950s, among more than 1,000 clandestine nuclear tests the U.S. government has conducted, 928 took place on lands of the Shoshone Aboriginal tribe, leaving 620,000 tons of radioactive dust. The amount of radioactive dust is nearly 48 times that of the nuclear explosion in Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. According to Ian Zabarte of the Shoshone Nation, more than 1,000 people of the Shoshone Aboriginal tribe have died directly from the nuclear explosion, and many people have consequently suffered from cancer.
The economic divide between races continues to widen. There has been a long-term and systematic economic inequality between ethnic minority groups and the white population in the United States, which is manifested in various aspects such as employment and entrepreneurship, wages, and financial loans.
USA Today reported on April 7, 2021 that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 48 percent of the Asian community’s estimated 615,000 unemployed were without work for six months-plus through the first quarter of 2021. The figure surpassed the portion of long-term unemployed among jobless workers of other ethnic groups.
Alexandra Suh, executive director of the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance in Los Angeles, said that Asians in the United States have been racialized, steered toward jobs and industries like catering, laundries and domestic work, nursing and personal care, which are devalued, underpaid and impacted hardest during the pandemic.
On July 30, 2021, USA Today reported on its website that a new Gallup poll showed that 59 percent Americans do not believe racial minorities have equal job opportunities.
The Hill reported on its website on Sept. 11, 2021 that 27 percent of minority-owned small businesses remained closed, much higher than White-owned small businesses. White-owned startups are seven times more likely to obtain loans than Black-owned ones during their founding year. Throughout the pandemic, businesses owned by people of color did not receive equitable access to federal aid, being hit harder economically.
CNN reported on July 15, 2021 that around 17 percent of African American households lack basic financial services compared to 3 percent of white households.
On Dec. 15, 2021, the Los Angeles Times reported on its website that despite representing 19 percent of the U.S. population, Hispanic families hold just 2 percent of the nation’s total wealth. The median net worth of white families is more than five times greater than Hispanic families.
Structural flaws in its system have led to increasing racial inequality in the United States. On Nov. 22, 2021, UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues Fernand de Varennes said at the end of a 14-day visit to the United States that when it comes to human rights and minorities, the United States is a nation “where support for slavery led to one of the world’s most brutal civil wars, where racial segregation persisted late into the 20th century, and where indigenous peoples’ experiences have for centuries been one of dispossession, brutality and even genocide.”
With a legal system that is structurally set up to advantage and forgive those who are wealthier, while penalizing those who are poorer, particularly minorities, minorities such as African Americans and Latino Americans in particular are crushed into a generational cycle of poverty, de Varennes said.
五、背离人道主义制造移民危机
美国政府经常挥舞“人权大棒”干涉别国内政，但“骨肉分离”移民政策却严重危及移民的生命、尊严和自由等多项人权。移民难民危机已沦为美国党派攻讦与政治斗争的政治工具，政府朝令夕改、暴力执法，移民群体遭受超期羁押、酷刑和强迫劳动等不人道待遇。
寻求庇护者遭受暴力执法。2021年，美国南部边境移民潮日益汹涌，边境执法人员以不断升级的暴力手段驱赶寻求庇护者或阻止其入境，导致人道主义危机持续加剧。美国边境执法部门公布的数据显示，2021财年，美国南部边境有高达557名移民死亡，比上一财年增长一倍多，创下1998年有记录以来的历史最高值。媒体报道称，“真实的移民死亡数字可能更大”。⑦《今日美国报》网站2021年11月29日报道，2021年1月至11月，公开报道的针对寻求庇护者的谋杀、强奸、酷刑、绑架和其他暴力袭击案件已超过7647起。
2021年9月，超过1.5万名来自海地的寻求庇护者聚集在得克萨斯州边境小镇德尔里奥的一座桥下，在酷热的天气下睡在肮脏的帐篷里或泥地上，周围满是垃圾，生活环境十分恶劣。美国边境执法部门残酷对待这些寻求庇护者，巡逻队骑在马背上，挥舞着马鞭冲向人群，将他们驱逐到河水里。这些现场画面被曝光后立即引发众怒。美国有线电视新闻网评论称，这一场景让人联想到美国历史上用奴隶巡逻队控制黑人奴隶的黑暗时代。《纽约时报》评论称，“骑在马背上的执法人员像赶牛一样驱赶移民的画面令人发指”，与美国政府所说的漂亮话相比，“他们的行为总是存在反差”。面对舆论潮水般的批评，美国政府很快将成千上万的寻求庇护者强制遣送回到海地，而他们中的大多数自2010年海地大地震离开后，已经10多年没有在那里生活过。2021年10月25日，联合国人权理事会种族歧视问题特别报告员、非洲人后裔问题工作组发表联合声明，谴责美国未评估个人状况就系统性、大规模驱逐海地难民移民的行为违反国际法，“大规模驱逐延续了美国边境口岸对海地难民移民进行种族排斥的历史”。不满于美国政府处理海地难民移民的非人道方式，刚刚上任两个月的美国海地事务特使丹尼尔·福特愤而辞职。
移民儿童面临超期羁押与虐待。《今日美国报》网站2021年11月29日报道称，美国政府在疫情期间援引“公共健康法”相关规定，对所有试图跨越边境的难民移民进行集体驱逐，创造了“骨肉分离政策”的2.0版，⑧迫使许多未成年子女与父母分离。美国有线电视新闻网2021年4月23日报道，美国海关和边境保护局还羁押着超过5000名无人陪伴的移民儿童，很多儿童的羁押时间都超出法定时限。英国《卫报》网站2021年10月11日报道，有160多起美国南部边境执法人员2016年至2021年间对包括儿童在内的寻求庇护者进行性虐待和身体虐待的案例被曝光，涉及美国海关和边境保护局、边境巡逻队等主要执法机构。
羁押移民的私营拘留设施条件恶劣。美国羁押移民的拘留设施大多由私营公司建设运营。而私营公司以利润最大化为目的，想方设法压低经营成本，一般都按照与政府签订合同的最低标准建设，造成拘留设施条件简陋，内部环境十分恶劣。监管缺位导致拘留设施内部管理混乱，侵犯人权的现象屡屡发生，被羁押人员身心健康受到不同程度伤害。2021财年美国关押的170多万移民中，高达80%被关押在私营拘留设施中，包括4.5万名儿童。《埃尔帕索时报》2021年6月25日报道，私营承包商问题加剧了美国布里斯堡收容点的可怕混乱，那里有将近5000名儿童，大约有1500名儿童被关押在“牲畜围场”般拥挤、糟糕的环境中，给他们带来严重的身心创伤。
不少移民成为美国人口贩运和强迫劳动的受害者。美国移民政策收紧，加之国内监管不力，加剧了针对移民的人口贩运和强迫劳动现象。美联社2021年12月10日报道，多年来，偷渡至美国的移民被迫长期在农场干苦力，生活在肮脏、拥挤的拖车里，缺少食物，也没有干净的饮用水，同时还遭受监管者的暴力威胁。这些劳工的身份和旅行证件被扣留，无法寻求帮助逃离困境。美国司法部网站2021年11月22日报道，一份人口贩运案件起诉书记录了几十名来自墨西哥和中美洲的工人被贩运至美国南佐治亚州农场，在恶劣条件下被非法监禁和强迫劳动，成为美国“现代奴隶制”的受害者。他们被以每小时12美元的劳动报酬承诺骗入农场后，却在持枪者监控之下，被迫徒手挖洋葱，每挖满一桶洋葱只能得到20美分的报酬，其中至少两人死亡，一人被多次性侵。《纽约时报》网站2021年11月11日报道，数百名印度劳工被诱骗到新泽西、亚特兰大、芝加哥、休斯敦和洛杉矶等地，被迫从事艰苦且经常面临危险的建筑工作，几乎没有时间休息。他们的护照被没收，被禁止与外人交谈，人身受到限制和暴力威胁。
对移民排斥越来越走向极端。移民政策摇摆不定、前后矛盾、罔顾人权，是导致边境危机和移民境遇悲惨的主因，折射出美国政府移民政策深受极端排外主义影响。《华盛顿邮报》网站2021年8月22日报道称，美国的移民政策受到国内种族主义怨恨和反移民情绪的推动，与国内政治恶斗纠缠在一起，越来越倾向于采取武力和胁迫的方式对待难民移民。《华盛顿邮报》2021年10月20日报道，2021财年，美国政府边境执法部门在南部边境拘留了170多万非法移民，创1986年以来的最高纪录。美国政府希望通过严厉的执法手段震慑非法越境者，加大了非法移民的入境难度，导致他们被迫选择穿越更危险的地区，进而带来更大的人道主义危机。
V. CREATING A MIGRANT CRISIS AGAINST HUMANITY
The U.S. government has often interfered in other countries’ internal affairs by wielding the club of “human rights.” However, the policy of separating migrant children from their families has severely endangered the migrants’ lives, dignity, freedom and other human rights. The migrant and refugee crisis has even been used as an instrument for American partisan attacks and political strife. Constant government policy changes and police brutality adds to the sufferings of the migrants who have already been subject to extended custody, cruel torture, forced labor and many other inhumane treatments.
Asylum seekers are subject to police brutality. In 2021, the humanitarian crisis continued to intensify as the southern border of the United States saw an increasing inflow of migrants, and border enforcement officers used increasingly violent means to expel or prevent asylum seekers from entering the country.
Data released by U.S. Border Patrol shows that in fiscal year 2021, as many as 557 migrants died on the southern border of the United States, more than double the previous fiscal year, hitting the highest number since records began in 1998. Media reports say this does not reflect the dire situation on the U.S. southern border and “the real number of migrant deaths may be greater.”
The USA Today website reported on Nov. 29, 2021 that from January to November 2021, there have been more than 7,647 publicly reported cases of murder, rape, torture, kidnapping and other violent assaults against asylum seekers.
In September 2021, more than 15,000 asylum seekers from Haiti crowded under a bridge in the Texas border town of Del Rio, sleeping in squalid tents or dirt in the sweltering heat, and surrounded by trash under dire living conditions. U.S. border patrol authorities brutalized the asylum seekers, with patrols on horseback, brandishing horsewhips and charging towards the crowds to expel them into the river. The footage of the scene immediately sparked outrage when they were released.
CNN commented that this scene is reminiscent of the dark era in American history when slave patrols were used to control black slaves. The New York Times commented that “there were the outrageous images of agents on horseback herding the migrants like cattle” and the U.S. government in general always seems to say the right things on racial issues, but too often their deeds come up short when measured against their talk.
Facing a flood of criticism, the U.S. government soon forcibly deported thousands of asylum seekers back to Haiti, most of whom had not lived there for nearly a decade since the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
On Oct. 25, 2021, the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism and the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent issued a statement, condemning the systematic and mass deportation of Haitian refugees and migrants by the United States without assessing the individuals’ situation was a violation of international law, “the mass deportations seemingly continue a history of racialized exclusion of Black Haitian migrants and refugees at U.S. ports of entry.”
Dissatisfied with the U.S. government’s inhumane handling of Haitian migrants and refugees, Daniel Footie, the U.S. special envoy for Haiti, resigned in anger after just two months in office.
Immigrant children face prolonged detention and abuse. “And while Biden has officially ended Trump’s policy of ‘family separation,’ his use of Title 42 has created family separation 2.0,” USA Today website reported on Nov. 29, 2021. It forced many minors to separate from their parents.
“There are more than 5,000 unaccompanied children in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody,” CNN reported on April 23, 2021. Many of them have been staying in custody for longer than the 72-hour limit set by federal law, it added.
“A stash of redacted documents released to the human rights group (Human Rights Watch) after six years of legal tussles uncover more than 160 cases of misconduct and abuse by leading government agencies, notably Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Border Patrol,” The Guardian reported on Oct. 11, 2021. “The papers record events between 2016 and 2021 that range from child sexual assault to enforced hunger, threats of rape and brutal detention conditions.”
Conditions in private detention facilities where migrants are held are poor. Most of the detention facilities in the United States are built and operated by private companies. In order to reduce operating costs and maximize profits, private companies generally build in accordance with the minimum standards contracted with the government, resulting in poor detention facilities and a harsh internal environment. A lack of supervision has led to chaotic management of the detention facilities and repeated violations of human rights, while detainees suffered varying degrees of physical and mental health damage.
U.S. authorities detained more than 1.7 million migrants along the Mexico border during the 2021 fiscal year that ended in September.
Among them, up to 80 percent are held in private detention facilities, including 45,000 children.
“Conditions were deteriorating inside the ‘emergency intake’ shelter erected in the harsh desert of Fort Bliss (Texas),” reported the El Paso Times on June 25, 2021.
“There were nearly 5,000 children there, and some 1,500 children are still being held at the troubled site, where conditions in ‘jam-packed’ tents resembled ‘a stockyard,’ were ‘traumatizing’ and risky for the children’s health and safety, according to half a dozen current and former workers, volunteers and civil servants, as well as internal emails obtained by the El Paso Times.
Many immigrants are victims of human trafficking and forced labor in the United States. Tighter U.S. immigration policies, combined with weak supervision at home, have exacerbated human smuggling and labor trafficking targeting immigrants.
A report by AP on Dec. 10, 2021 said that for years, immigrants who smuggled into the U.S. have been forced to work long hours on farms, living in filthy, overcrowded trailers, lacking food and clean drinking water, and facing threats of violence from regulators. The workers’ IDs and travel documents were withheld, which limits their ability to seek help to escape their predicament.
A human trafficking indictment released on Nov. 22, 2021 on the website of U.S. Department of Justice documents that dozens of workers from Mexico and Central American countries have been smuggled to farms in the southern part of the state of Georgia, where they were illegally imprisoned under inhumane conditions as contract agricultural laborers, becoming victims of U.S. modern-day slavery.
After being cheated into farms with the promise of an hourly salary of 12 U.S. dollars, they were required to dig onions with their bare hands, paid 20 cents for each bucket harvested, and threatened with guns and violence to keep them in line. At least two of the workers died as a result of workplace conditions and one suffered from multiple sexual assault.
The New York Times website reported on Nov. 11, 2021 that hundreds of workers from India were lured to New Jersey, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles etc. with the promise of fair pay and good hours, but instead they had nearly no time off from work that was grueling and frequently dangerous, moving stones that weighed several tons and facing health risks from exposure to harmful dust and chemicals. The workers were confined to their living quarters and had their passports confiscated, and were also threatened with retaliation, said the report.
Exclusion of immigrants becomes more and more extreme. The immigration policy, that is wavering, inconsistent and often disregards human rights, is the main cause of border crisis and immigrants’ tragedy. The situation reflects that the policy is deeply affected by extreme xenophobia. According to an article published by Washington Post on Aug. 22 last year, with domestic debates in the U.S. over immigration increasingly driven by racialized resentment, anti-immigrant sentiment and entangled with domestic political battles, U.S. policymakers are more inclined to use techniques like force and coercion when resettling refugees. According to another article on Washington Post published on Oct. 20 last year, more than 1.7 million immigrants were detained by the U.S. Border Patrol along the southern border during the 2021 fiscal year, soaring to the highest level since 1986. The U.S. government hopes to deter illegal border crossing through tough law enforcement, which has made it more difficult for illegal immigrants to enter the country, resulting in them being forced to cross more dangerous areas. The situation in turn creates a larger humanitarian crisis.
六、滥用武力制裁侵犯他国人权
美国一贯奉行霸权主义、单边主义、干涉主义，频频动用武力导致大量平民伤亡，滥用单边制裁引发人道主义危机，以强权挑战公理，以私利践踏正义，肆意侵犯他国人权，已成为国际人权事业健康发展的最大阻碍者和破坏者。
“反恐”造成大量平民丧生。《今日美国报》网站2021年2月25日报道，布朗大学沃森国际和公共事务研究所战争代价项目研究显示，美国近20年发动的所谓“反恐”战争已经夺去超过92.9万人的生命。美国在阿富汗20年的军事行动，累计造成包括3万多平民在内的17.4万人死亡，受伤人数超过6万。《今日美国报》网站2021年8月26日评论称，美国在阿富汗的撤军行动是一场彻头彻尾的灾难。美军撤离阿富汗和当年撤离越南相似的悲剧表明，美国政府一贯为了一己私利而罔顾最基本的人道主义。在喀布尔机场的混乱中，一架美军C-17运输机不顾阿富汗民众生命安全强行起飞，有人被强行收起的起落架在轮舱内活活碾碎，有人从高空坠落身亡。就在仓皇撤离的最后时刻，美军发动的空袭还造成了严重的平民伤亡。美国国防部却公然表示，没有美军人员会因无人机空袭致平民死亡事件遭受处分。《纽约时报》网站2021年12月18日报道，调查发现，美国在伊拉克、叙利亚和阿富汗超过5万次的空袭行动鲁莽草率，目标选择不当，造成成千上万平民死亡。而军方一直隐瞒伤亡人数，实际造成的平民死亡人数远高于军方公布的数据。以2016年美军对叙利亚托克哈尔村发动的空袭为例，军方声称“可能有7至24名平民与战斗人员混杂在一起”被炸死，但美军实际上袭击的是民房，有超过120名无辜平民遇害。
持续的战争与动荡导致阿富汗近三分之一人口沦为难民，350万阿富汗人因冲突而流离失所，近2300万人面临极端饥饿，其中有320万名5岁以下儿童。⑨美国撤离阿富汗后，立即将阿富汗中央银行数十亿美元外汇储备冻结，导致阿富汗经济处于崩溃的边缘，人民生活雪上加霜。联合国粮食及农业组织和世界粮食计划署2021年11月的评估报告显示，阿富汗全国仅有5%的人能够每日获得足够的粮食。《纽约时报》报道称，美国国防承包商是“反恐”战争的真正赢家，美国在阿富汗的20年“真正建设的不是一个国家，而是500多个军事基地，以及为这些基地提供物资者的个人财富”。美国2020年至2021年向阿富汗提供的重建援助中，只有约12%的资金真正给了阿富汗政府，其余大部分资金都流入了路易斯伯杰集团等美国公司的腰包。阿联酋《今日海湾》网站2021年12月19日发表《美国是如何毁掉伊拉克的》一文称，食品供应不足和通货膨胀使伊拉克人长期忍饥挨饿。由于美军轰炸对发电厂和水处理设施造成的破坏，患腹泻病的人数是战前的4倍。而药品和医疗器材的缺乏，使得伊拉克卫生系统陷入危机，首当其冲的受害者是穷人、儿童、寡妇、老人等最脆弱的群体。
单边制裁祸及他国民众。联合国人权理事会单边强制措施对享受人权的负面影响问题特别报告员阿莱娜·多汉称，美国对委内瑞拉制裁造成的经济影响，已经转嫁到委内瑞拉人民身上，对其享有人权产生严重负面影响。美国对伊朗石油部门的制裁导致伊朗无法进口足够的医疗用品，影响伊朗人民的生命权和健康权。美国对叙利亚的制裁，严重影响叙利亚人民享有经济、社会、文化权利。2021年6月23日，联合国大会连续第29次通过决议，呼吁美国终止对古巴长达50年的经济封锁，与古巴开展对话，改善两国关系。古巴外交部长布鲁诺·罗德里格斯表示，在古巴面临新冠肺炎疫情的挑战时，美国却继续对古巴实施禁运和制裁，使古巴经济及社会遭受巨大损失，古巴人民正在承受这一极不人道行为造成的伤害。经济封锁是一种“大规模、公然和不可接受的对古巴人民人权的侵犯”“制裁就像病毒一样，令人窒息和死亡，必须停止”。
关塔那摩监狱再曝酷刑丑闻。2021年2月23日，联合国人权理事会在反恐中促进和保障人权问题特别报告员、酷刑问题特别报告员、任意处决问题特别报告员等16名特别机制专家发表联合声明称，很多仍被关押在关塔那摩监狱的人已经步入暮年，身体虚弱，他们长期被剥夺自由并无休止地承受精神和肉体的酷刑。哥伦比亚广播公司新闻网2021年10月29日报道，美国在关塔那摩监狱仍关押着39人。曾被关押在那里的马吉德汗首次公开揭露了自己遭受的酷刑，包括反复遭受殴打、水刑、强制灌肠、性侵犯，被长期剥夺睡眠。他描述说，“我大喊“我要死了”，恳求他们停下来，但仍被长时间裸体悬挂在天花板的横梁上反复浇冰水，连续几天不让睡觉”。在遭受水刑时，他的头被长时间摁在水里，几近窒息。联合国人权理事会委派的人权问题独立专家组2022年1月10日发表声明表示，20年来，美国未经审判就将人任意拘押在关塔那摩监狱，并施加酷刑或虐待的做法，违背国际人权法，是“美国政府在法治承诺上的污点”。尽管遭到国际社会“强烈、反复、明确”的谴责，美国仍我行我素。专家组敦促美国关闭关塔那摩监狱，结束“肆意侵犯人权的丑陋一页”，同时按照国际法赔偿遭受酷刑和任意拘押的人，并追究相关人员责任。
VI. ABUSE OF FORCE AND SANCTIONS VIOLATES HUMAN RIGHTS IN OTHER COUNTRIES
The U.S. has always pursued hegemonism, unilateralism and interventionism. The country frequently uses force, resulting in a large number of civilian casualties. Its abusive use of unilateral sanctions has caused humanitarian crises, challenging justice with hegemony, trampling on righteousness with self-interest, and wantonly violating human rights in other countries. It has become the biggest obstacle and destroyer of the sound development of the international human rights cause.
The website of USA Today commented on Aug. 26, 2021 that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was a total disaster. Tragedies like the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and Vietnam show that Washington has a history of ignoring basic humanitarianism for its own selfish ends.
In the chaos at Kabul airport, a U.S. C-17 transport plane forcibly took off regardless of the safety of Afghan civilians, with someone crushed to death in wheel well while the plane retracting landing gear, and others falling to their deaths from the air.
Even in the last minutes of the frantic evacuation, U.S. army’s air strikes caused heavy civilian casualties. However, the U.S. Defense Department publicly said that no U.S. military personnel would be punished for the deaths of civilians in drone strikes.
The U.S. war on terror has killed millions of people. Since the 21st century, the United States has launched a series of global foreign military operations in the name of anti-terrorism, resulting in nearly one million deaths. The website of USA Today reported on Feb. 25, 2021 that the so-called anti-terrorism war launched by the United States in the past 20 years has claimed the lives of more than 929,000 people, according to the “costs of war” study by Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs of Brown University. The 20-year U.S. military operations in Afghanistan have killed 174,000 people, including more than 30,000 civilians, and injured more than 60,000 people. The New York Times reported on Dec. 18, 2021 that investigation found that more than 50,000 U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan were reckless and poorly targeted, killing tens of thousands of civilians. The military has been concealing the number of casualties, and the actual number of civilian deaths is much higher than the military’s published figures. The most obvious case is the U.S. airstrike on the Syrian hamlet of Tokhar in 2016. The military claimed that about seven to 24 civilians “intermixed with the fighters” might have died, but the U.S. military actually attacked private houses and more than 120 innocent civilians were killed.
The ongoing war and instability have made nearly a third of the Afghan population refugees. A total of 3.5 million Afghans have been displaced by the conflict, and nearly 23 million face extreme hunger, including 3.2 million children under the age of five. When the United States withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, it immediately froze billions of dollars in foreign exchange reserves at the Afghan central Bank, causing the Afghan economy to be on the brink of collapse and making life worse for the people. According to an assessment by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program which was released November 2021, only 5 percent of Afghans receive enough food on a daily basis. The New York Times reported that U.S. national defense contractors were the real winners in the “war on terror” and that the United States’ 20 years in Afghanistan “really built not a country but more than 500 military bases and the personal wealth of those who supplied them.” Only about 12 percent of the reconstruction aid the United States provided from 2020 to 2021 actually went to the Afghan government, with most of the rest going to American companies like Lewis Berger. The Gulf Today website of the United Arab Emirates published an article titled “How the United States Destroyed Iraq” on Dec. 19, 2021, saying that inadequate food supply and inflation have left Iraqis chronically hungry. As a result of the damage to power plants and water treatment facilities caused by U.S. bombings, the number of people suffering from diarrhoeal diseases was four times higher than pre-war level. The lack of medicine and medical equipment has left Iraq’s health system in crisis, with the poor, children, widows, the elderly and other most vulnerable groups suffering the most.
Unilateral sanctions affect negatively people of other countries. Alena Douhan, UN Special Rapporteur on Negative Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures on Human Rights, highlighted the sanctions’ devastating impact on all of Venezuela’s population, as well as on their enjoyment of human rights. The U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil sector have resulted in Iran’s inability to import sufficient medical supplies, affecting the Iranians’ right to life and health. The U.S. embargoes against Syria have severely affected the Syrian people’s enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights. On June 23, 2021, the UN General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution for the 29th consecutive year to call on the United States to end embargo on Cuba and start dialogue to improve bilateral ties with the country. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the United States continues to impose the embargo and sanctions against Cuba in the face of COVID-19, causing huge losses to the Cuban economy and society, and the Cuban people are suffering from the harm caused by this extremely inhumane act. Economic embargo is a massive, flagrant and unacceptable violation of the human rights of the Cuban people and “like the virus, the blockade asphyxiates and kills, it must stop,” he added.
The Guantanamo Bay prison has been the scene of repeated torture scandals. On Feb. 23, 2021, a group of 16 UN experts said many of the remaining detainees are vulnerable and now elderly individuals whose physical and mental integrity has been compromised by unending deprivation of freedom and related physical and psychological torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The experts, including the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, are part of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. CBS News reported on Oct. 29, 2021 that the United States still holds 39 people at Guantanamo Bay. Majid Khan, a former detainee there, publicly revealed for the first time the torture he suffered, including being beaten, given forced enemas, sexually assaulted, starved, and deprived of sleep. “I thought I was going to die,” he said, “I would beg them to stop.” He said he was suspended naked from a ceiling beam for long periods, doused repeatedly with ice water to keep him awake for days. He described having his head held under water to the point of near drowning.
The independent panel of experts on human rights appointed by the UN Human Rights Council issued a statement on Jan. 10, 2022, saying that two decades of practicing arbitrary detention without trial accompanied by torture or ill treatment violates international human right laws, and is a “stain on the U.S. government’s commitment to the rule of law.” Despite forceful, repeated and unequivocal condemnation of the operation of this horrific detention and prison complex, the United States continues to detain persons many of whom have never been charged with any crime, the experts said. The experts urged the U.S. to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. They also called for reparations to be made for tortured and arbitrarily detained prisoners, and for those who authorized and engaged in torture to be held accountable, as required under international law.
①美国《外交政策》网站（https://foreignpolicy.com），2021年7月15日。
②美国有线电视新闻网（https://edition.cnn.com），2021年11月26日。
③皮尤研究中心网站（https://www.pewresearch.org），2021年8月16日。
④美国有线电视新闻网（https://edition.cnn.com），2021年7月7日。
⑤YouGov舆观调查网报道，2021年8月16日。
⑥《芝加哥论坛报》网站（https://www.chicagotribune.com），2021年11月16日。
⑦美国有线电视新闻网（https://edition.cnn.com），2021年10月29日。
⑧2018年4月，美国政府开始实施强制移民儿童与父母骨肉分离的政策，将移民儿童和父母分开关押。此举严重违反儿童利益最大化原则，遭致国际社会强烈谴责。
⑨联合国网站（https://news.un.org），2021年12月3日。