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Chinese Cabinet report questions US human rights record
February 28, 2014, 6:52 am

File photo of a protest against Guantánamo Bay in front of the US supreme court in Washington [AP]

File photo of a protest against Guantánamo Bay in front of the US supreme court in Washington [AP]

China has hit back at the US over the human rights debate alleging the “world judge of human rights” has serious question marks hanging over its own record.

The Chinese Cabinet (State Council) on Friday released the report- “Human Rights Record of the United States in 2013”.

Retaliating against the US State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013 published on Thursday, China has alleged in the report that the human rights track record of the US is “deteriorating”.

Washington has long “made arbitrary attacks and irresponsible remarks” on the human rights situation in almost 200 countries and regions again in its just-released reports, the Chinese report says.

“However, the US carefully concealed and avoided mentioning its own human rights problems,” it adds.

Chinese ally Russia has also repeatedly said the United States has no right to claim a mantle of moral leadership. Moscow has criticized Washington sharply over human rights, pointing to secret CIA jails abroad and treatment of inmates at the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba and elsewhere.

 Meanwhile, hitting out at the controversial US surveilance program,PRISM, which exercises long-term and vast surveillance both at home and abroad, Beijing on Friday said this is “a blatant violation of international law” and it “seriously infringes on human rights.”

The Chinese Cabinet report also pointed out that the US is among the countries most prone to mass gun violence.

“In 2013, 137 people died in 30 mass killings, which caused four or more deaths each, in the US,” said the report.

Mark LeVeine, Professor of History at the University of California, says America’s gun violence is rooted in how its society is structured.

“In an average year, some 10,000 people are killed due to gun violence in the US. This is a ratio that is by far the highest among so-called “advanced countries” and comparable to some of the most violence-plagued developing countries as well – only slightly behind drug-war torn Mexico and Panama in that dubious category,” LeVine writes for The BRICS Post.

The report also cites figures to show that frequent drone strikes by the US in countries including Pakistan and Yemen have caused heavy civilian casualties.

The US has carried out 376 drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004, causing deaths of up to 926 civilians, cites the report.

Meanwhile, rates of unemployment for the lowest-income families have topped 21 per cent.

“The US still faces grave employment situation with its unemployment rate remained high,” the report says.

The homeless population in America has surged to 16 per cent from 2011 to 2013, it added.

To date, the U.S. remains a country which has not ratified or participated in a series of core UN conventions on human rights, 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, according to the report.

TBP and Agencies