In most recent years, the United States seemed to fail in protecting the fundamental human and civil rights of its own citizen as well as in the world outside it.
The social experts and the human rights activists across the globe unanimously hold the US’s policies responsible for the situation.
Some serious violations such as the acts of racism have raised many questions with people expressing anger and calling many acts as inhumane and against the fundamental rights guaranteed in the American constitution as well the United Nation’s charter of the human rights.
In 2009, the Council on Foreign Affairs mentioned on its website in a report, “The U.S. State Department’s annual global rating of human rights performance antagonizes friend and foe alike.
Many rights activists embrace the reports while some express doubts about their influence on U.S. policy.
The report further suggested that the annual U.S. State Department report cataloguing the human rights failures and progress of nations around the world regularly arouses controversy as well as acclaim.
Nations that receive poor ratings in the report, sometimes, important U.S. partners, bitterly resent the exercise and often accuse Washington of hypocrisy.
The report since 9/11, many states have sharply criticized the United States for singling out their records when Washington has itself been under scrutiny for its actions at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
At the same time, many rights activists say the annual U.S. report shines a useful spotlight on abusive nations.
Since the U.S. Congress mandated the reports in 1976, policymakers have sought to balance the need to engage friends and allies while acknowledging the human rights shortcomings cited by the State Department.
The Obama administration stressed a commitment to improving the United States’ own record, but grappled with reconciling strategic interests with China and other partners against the human rights concerns.
On May 8, 2018, Tarah Demant, Director of Gender, Sexuality, & Identity Program, Amnesty International USA in her comment under the subject “A Critique of the US Department of State 2017 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices’ maintained, “The reports have, in the past, represented a significant human rights effort by the staff of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and staff in US embassies around the world to educate readers about human rights conditions in different countries and help reinforce human rights norms.
Unfortunately, this year’s reports have been overshadowed by an unprecedented and alarming level of politicized editing by the Trump administration that undermines the credibility of the reports — and worse, undermines the human rights they are intended to promote and support”.
That is how the US influences the human rights reports or it makes attempts to keep the facts hidden from the human rights experts and the related organizations.
The Amnesty International in its report on the “United States in 2017-18, available on the website expressed serious reservations on the situation after 20 January, Donald Trump was sworn in as President and it maintained, “following an election campaign in which he made comments and promised policies that were discriminatory or otherwise contradicted international human rights principles”.
The report in its very outset criticizes that the executive orders to suspend travel to the USA from several Muslim-majority countries sparked legal challenges, which continued through the year.
The report suggests that there were major attacks on the rights of women and girls.
Eighteen detainees were transferred from the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; 41 detainees remained at the base and pre-trial military commission proceedings continued. Gun violence remained high. Death sentences were handed down and executions were carried out.
The report under the heading “Refugees and migrants rights” quotes: “A number of executive orders affecting migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees were signed by President Trump during the year.
Two orders dated 25 January called for a wall to be built along the USA-Mexico border, allowed for refoulement(forcible return) and the increased detention of asylum-seekers and their families, increased the functions and number of immigration and customs enforcement agents, prioritized deportation of migrants, especially those suspected of crimes, and cancelled funding for “sanctuary cities” that did not co-operate with federal authorities in apprehending irregular migrants.
A third executive order signed on 27 January banned entry of foreign nationals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, suspended the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for 120 days, reduced the number of refugees eligible for entry during the 2017 fiscal year from 110,000 to 50,000, and imposed an indefinite ban on the resettlement of refugees from Syria.
The order immediately led to chaos, protests and legal challenges on the basis of discrimination towards Muslims.
A week later a federal judge issued a nationwide temporary injunction, which was upheld on appeal.
The government issued a revised version of the order on 6 March, again suspending USRAP for 120 days, repeating the limit of 50,000 refugees, and imposing a 90-day ban on entry into the USA of nationals of six countries (the original seven minus Iraq).
Federal judges in the states of Maryland and Hawaii issued nationwide injunctions temporarily blocking its implementation. On 26 June, the Supreme Court allowed a limited version of the order to take effect. The Court also ruled that the ban could be applied to refugees being supported by resettlement agencies.
A second revision of the order, signed on 24 September, indefinitely banned immigration into the USA by nationals of seven countries: Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
It also banned the issuance of certain types of non-immigrant visas to nationals of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria and Yemen, and specifically barred visas for Venezuelan officials from certain government agencies and their families.
On 17 October, federal judges in Hawaii and Maryland again ruled against the measure, blocking the government from enforcing it on nationals from six of the countries.
On 13 November, a federal appeals court panel allowed the third ban to take effect for people with no legitimate ties to the USA. On 24 October, President Trump issued an executive order to resume USRAP “with enhanced vetting procedures”.
On 4 December the Supreme Court granted the administration’s request to temporarily allow the latest so-called “Muslim ban” to take full effect as the case continued to be litigated. The report further points out violation of fundamental rights in women rights, terrorism and security, rights of fraternities and community protection.
The Human Rights Watch went a step ahead and criticized by stating: “The strong civil society and democratic institutions of the United States were tested in the first year of the administration of President Donald Trump. Across a range of issues in 2017, the US moved backward on human rights at home and abroad”. The human rights watch further noted, “the individuals most likely to suffer abuse in the United States—including members of racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, children, the poor, and prisoners—are often least able to defend their rights in court or via the political process. Many vulnerable groups endured renewed attacks on their rights during the year. Other longstanding US laws and practices—particularly related to criminal and juvenile justice, immigration, and national security—continued to violate internationally recognized human rights.
The most interesting criticism surfaced when the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China launched a 16 pages long report on the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2017. The report comprehends almost every walk of life and it suffered in the US during the year 2017. The report in its foreword says: “On April 20 local time, the State Department of the United States released its country reports on human rights practices for 2017, posing once again as "the guardian of human rights" and a self-styled "human rights judge." It continued to point fingers and cast groundless blame on the domestic affairs and human rights situation of other countries as if it had the most perfect human rights condition in the world. However, looking back on the year of 2017, even those with the slightest sense of righteousness will find that the human rights record of the United States itself remained tarnished and showed a continued deterioration tendency”.