Time for the farce of 'human rights preacher' to end

The US hardly represents a nation that is a role model of human rights that should be emulated by other countries. It is one, if not the most brazen and impertinent, guilty party in the international human rights community, said Philippine political analyst Anna Rosario Malindog-Uy in an opinion piece published on The Asian Post on Apr 17.

According to the article, the US is like a loose cannon with its hypocrisy in lecturing and publicly ridiculing other countries' human rights shortcomings as if it has the moral and ethical superiority on this matter.

Despite its claims of being the champion of international human rights, the US has failed to ratify crucial human rights documents, the author noted. US is the only major world power that has failed to fully ratify or adhere to any of the significant human rights instruments introduced by the United Nations (UN) or other human rights to their bodies, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights – part of the International Bill of Human Rights, and the American Convention on Human Rights.

While the US is hasty to rebuke human rights violations beyond its borders, its human rights record is definitely far from ideal and, in some cases, beyond belief.

Anna mentioned that America is the country with the highest number of cases of police brutality.

"Between 2013 and May 2021, American police killed over 9,000 people; not counting the post-May 2022 incidents of police brutality in the US. In 2021 alone, at least 1,124 people died from police brutality in the US. Most of the victims had committed non-violent crimes or no crime at all. "

The public security situation in the US has gone downhill, Anna noted. Gun violence-related crimes/incidents have risen in recent years. In 2022 alone, the US witnessed 21,000 people killed or injured due to gun violence, of which more than 14,000 were minor shootings while more than 130 were mass shootings.

Externally, the war waged by the United States in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria alone have already caused more than 20 million people to become either refugees or migrants, Anna added.

Hence, the US is far from being righteous given its blatant and dismal human rights record within its borders and beyond, Anna said.

"America lecturing the world on human rights is a farce, for it doesn't have the moral ascendancy and integrity given its gloomy human rights record. Instead of schooling other countries on their human rights shortcomings, the US probably needs some self-introspection and should first address its human rights situation."