Washington’s long record includes instigating war, illegal occupations, proxy conflicts, experts say
Photo taken on March 28, 2022 shows the Capitol building in Washington, DC. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
The United States has been the worst violator of human rights in nations around the globe since the end of World War II, analysts say.
From starting wars and illegal occupations to crimes against humanity and the backing of proxy conflicts around the globe, the US is second to none, they said.
Jawaid Iqbal, chairman of the Department of West Asian and North African Studies at Aligarh Muslim University in India, said the US has emerged as “the greatest violator of human rights”.
“The US government has attempted to hide these violations by superficially deploying the language of democracy and rules, a language that results in the further attrition of human rights,” said Iqbal.
Last week, the China Society for Human Rights Studies, or CSHRS, published a study that found the US has committed a series of crimes that “seriously violate international law”.
These include war crimes, crimes against humanity, arbitrary detention, torture of prisoners and indiscriminate unilateral sanctions in the Middle East, constituting systematic violations of human rights that cause far-reaching harm.
The study cited statistics from the US Smithsonian Institution’s eponymous magazine which showed that since 2001, wars and military operations launched by the US in the name of “anti-terrorism” covered about 40 percent of the countries on the planet.
Not only did the US rally its allies to launch the Gulf war from 1990 to 1991, the Afghanistan war from 2001 to 2021, and the Iraq war from 2003 to 2011, it was also deeply involved in the relatively recent war in Libya and the 11-year conflict in Syria.
The study also said the US had used unilateral sanctions against sovereign countries. According to the Treasury 2021 Sanctions Review of the US government, more than 9,400 sanctions were in effect during the 2021 fiscal year.
“Our economic, political, civil, and cultural rights are being violated every day,” said Khaled Almasri, a former dean of the Faculty of International Relations and Diplomacy at Al-Sham Private University in Damascus.
Since the civil war broke out in 2011, Syria has been divided into enclaves, displacing millions and fueling a humanitarian crisis.
The country has yet to recover as rebuilding efforts have largely been hampered by sanctions, corruption, and proxy wars fought by domestic forces and foreign fighters.
In July, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported that US occupation forces had reportedly moved a convoy of 40 vehicles carrying Syrian oil plus logistical and military equipment out of the country, towards Iraqi territory.
“Economic sanctions are (trampling) on human rights. Stealing our resources against our will is a violation of human rights,” said Almasri.
The CSHRS study also highlighted how the US is creating a “clash of civilizations” narrative involving simplistic characterizations of East and West, and spreading Islamophobia.
It also touched on the Palestinian issue. “Obstructed by the US, the legitimate rights and legitimate demands of the Palestinian people have long remained unresolved, not to mention peace, development and human rights,” the report said.
Walaa Sabah, a community outreach and partnership officer at We Are Not Numbers, a youth-led Palestinian project in Gaza, said Palestinians have been living under occupation “for over 72 years now, let alone Gazans who (have been) living in the world’s biggest open-air prison for 15 years”.
The US has shown “obvious discrimination and lack of integrity through its continuous support for the Israeli occupation practices against harmless children and civilians during the latest aggression in the Gaza Strip, where more than 15 children were massacred, and (earlier) … with the deliberate killing of the well-known journalist Shireen Abu Akleh”, said Sabah.
Abu Akleh, a veteran Palestinian reporter with the Al Jazeera TV network, is widely believed to have died from Israeli gunfire while she was covering an army raid on May 11.
Palestinians have accused the US of failing to hold Israel to account for the killing.
