China’s Report on US Human Rights Record in 2000
Information Office of China's State Council
VII. Conclusions
The United States has always adopted a passive attitude towards
international human rights conventions. Although the United States was a
founding member of the U.N., it did not accede to any key international
human rights convention until 1988 when it joined the convention the
Convention on The Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
That is to say, the United States did not ratify the treaty until 40
years after it was signed. In addition, it did not ratified the
International Covenant on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination and the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights for 28 years and 15 years respectively after it signed them. The
United States still has not ratified the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, although it signed it 24 years
ago. The United States is one of the only two countries in the world
that have not acceded to the International Convention on Children's
Rights, and one of several countries that have not joined the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The United States has always opposed the right to development as a human
right, and it is the only western country that has voted against the
Declaration on the Right to Development. Although it is a founding
member of the Organization of American States, it refuses to accede to
the Human Rights Convention of America and other human rights
conventions approved by the organization. As for the international
conventions it has already signed, the United States has always ensured
that the enforcement of the conventions is strictly limited to within
the scope of the US constitution and laws, or let them only apply to the
federation instead of states, by making reservations, declarations and
allowances for them. In this way, the United States has reduced the
international conventions into nothing but empty rhetoric.
Actions speak louder than words, and the public champions justice.
The promotion of human rights is the common task of all nations in the
world. The United States not only closes its eyes to its own serious
human rights problems, but also releases the " Human Rights
Report" annually to condemn other countries' human rights records.
All these realities have exposed the true face of the United States,
showing it to be a defender of power politics rather than human rights.
China would like to offer this advice to the US government: abandon
your old ways and make a new start, take effective measures to improve
the human rights record in your own country, take steps to promote
international cooperation in human rights, and stop ordering other
countries on the pretext of safeguarding human rights.
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