(Essential question) Short comment: Why is it said that "American human rights" is not universal?

　　China News Service, Beijing, December 10th, title: Why is "American human rights" not universal?

　　Author Cui Bailu

　　Today is World Human Rights Day.

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly passed the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights", a landmark human rights document.

Over the past 70 years, human rights concepts and practices have been continuously enriched, developed and improved on this basis. Everyone fully enjoys human rights and has become the dream of human society.

　　The promotion and protection of human rights is a dynamic historical process.

However, a few countries have repeatedly imposed their own human rights standards on other countries, especially the United States.

In fact, the human rights model advertised by the United States is not universal, nor is it a "textbook," on the contrary, it has obvious limitations and even harmfulness.

Data map: On May 29, 2020, local time, in Washington, U.S., demonstrators protested against the death of George Freud, an African-American man, in Congress.

　　First, starting from the concept of human rights, the content of "American-style human rights" is only "half hanging".

At present, modern human rights concepts based on United Nations documents include not only the right to survival and development of human beings, but also civil and political rights such as freedom, equality, and democracy, reflecting the consensus of the international community.

However, in the United States, capitalist private ownership and liberalism have given birth to a capitalist human rights concept in which private rights are higher than public rights, and property and citizenship rights are higher than other rights. They narrowly equate human rights with citizenship rights and despise other development rights.

The long-formed mentality of "God's elect" and the self-respectful superiority make it the only prevailing standard for its own human rights, and based on its strength and status, it violates the right of other countries to determine human rights standards.

　　Second, in terms of human rights in the country, the effectiveness of "American human rights" is still "black under the light."

The United States has yet to ratify core international human rights conventions such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Human Rights Council has caused an uproar in the international community.

More than 200 years after the founding of the country, the legacy of racism, interventionism, expansionism, and imperialism has not yet been eradicated, while problems such as hate crimes, social divisions, polarization between the rich and the poor, and the proliferation of guns have emerged one after another.

Facing the epidemic of the century, the United States, as a developed country, has set a negative record of 49 million cumulative confirmed cases and 790,000 deaths.

What the United States is doing is quite different from its advertised image as a "human rights defender." The reality is like a "mirror mirror", reflecting its human rights concept of "strengthening outside but doing the same."

Data map: The streets of Washington are filled with people holding up anti-gun slogans.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Deng Min

　　Third, from the perspective of the fundamental purpose, the essence of "American human rights" is still "a snake".

In the 1970s, then President Carter promoted "human rights diplomacy" at the national level. Since then, human rights have been used as a "moral" weapon in US foreign policy to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and implement hegemonic acts.

Since 2001, the United States has launched wars and military operations in about 80 countries around the world in the name of anti-terrorism, triggering serious humanitarian disasters, killing more than 800,000 people, and displacing more than 38 million people. In order to maintain the monopoly of domestic enterprises, the United States has launched " The banner of "human rights" implements "long-arm jurisdiction" and unilateral sanctions, infringing on the sovereignty of other countries and the rights of enterprises and citizens; from the torture of prisoners in Guantanamo prison to large-scale surveillance, international human rights scandals are endless; from the government, intelligence agencies, think tanks to the media, collective enthusiasm Fabricate human rights lies to attack other countries.

It can be said that the United States is only interfering in the name of human rights.

　　"American human rights" has been practiced for a long time, not only depleting the credibility and reputation of the United States, but also gradually losing the expectations of its domestic people: The latest poll by the Pew Research Center this year shows that the proportion of Americans who trust the government has changed from 1958. 75% fell to less than 25%, and 85% of the interviewees believed that the US political system urgently needs complete changes or major adjustments.

Globally, the "2021 Democracy Awareness Index" of the Alliance of Democracies Foundation surveyed more than 50,000 people in 53 countries and regions. 44% of the interviewees believed that the United States was "a source of threats to their own democracy."

In this year’s vote for the Biden administration to return to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the United States only ranked second from the bottom of the 18 applicant countries, which is quite ironic.

Data map: US President Biden.

　　There is no universal human rights standard or human rights model in the world. Only by combining the universal principle of human rights with the country’s reality can we blaze a trail for human rights development that suits our national conditions.

As China’s State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi said, “the human rights outlook of some Western countries does not represent the international human rights outlook”.

　　On the 73rd World Human Rights Day today, the world should perhaps listen to and absorb the opinions of developing countries and make the definition of human rights more comprehensive, rich and balanced.

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