US not godfather of human rights: China Daily editorial

It is not surprising that the United States was heavily criticized when the Human Rights Council of the United Nations examined its human rights record on Monday in Geneva.

There is much to be desired when it comes to human rights protection in the US, a country that has a penchant for pointing an accusing finger at the human rights conditions in other countries.

In addition to institutional racism and police violence against African Americans, the separation of migrant children from their families, religious discrimination and denying women and girls access to the right to sexual and reproductive health, the bad job the US administration has done in its judgment of and response to public health crisis has betrayed that the lives and well-being of the majority of US citizens are secondary to the interests of the political parties and those at the top of the social pyramid.

The US has long acted as if it is the godfather of human rights. To such an extent that US politicians always believe that they are entitled to lecture other countries about what a bad job they are doing in safeguarding human rights.

The condescending manner in which they point their fingers at other countries makes it seem as if there is nothing to be desired as far as the human rights conditions are concerned in their own country.

Yet their actions are nothing but a fig leaf to cover up what is happening in the US. When looking at how African Americans are treated by the police, how the US administration has refused to accept the reality of the public health crisis and how the gap has greatly widened between the haves and have-nots, few will conclude that the US is justified in accusing other countries of human rights violations.

Likewise the US' withdrawal from an increasing number of multilateral agreements and organizations such as the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization can hardly verify its commitment to the development of human rights.

The fact that the US has followed unilateralism and trade protectionism in recent years shows it is pursuing its own interests rather than being a true champion of the human rights of people in other countries, as do the human rights disasters in the Middle East and elsewhere that have been brought about by the wars it has launched.

It is indeed high time that the US was told to get its own house clean before criticizing others.

No country can boast that their human rights situations leave nothing to be desired. Efforts to improve human rights must be perpetual.

So with its own house dirty and no respect for human rights in other countries, the US is not entitled to be the godfather of human rights.

And politicians in the US have no claim to the moral high ground.