O wad some Power the giftie gie us. To see oursels as ithers see us

The United States is beset by violence, racism and torture and has no authority to condemn other governments' human rights problems, China said. "The United States ignores its own severe human rights problems, ardently promoting its so-called 'human rights diplomacy', treating human rights as a political tool to vilify other countries and to advance its own strategic interests," said a passage from the Chinese report.

The US regards itself as "the beacon of democracy." However, its democracy is largely based on money, the report writes. According to a report from The Washington Post on October 26, 2010, U.S. House and Senate candidates shattered fundraising records for a midterm election, taking in more than $1.5 billion. The midterm election, held in November, cost $3.98 billion, the most expensive political rally in the US history.

While advocating Internet freedom, the US in fact imposes strict restriction on cyberspace. On June 24, 2010, the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs approved the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, which will give the American federal government "absolute power" to shut down the Internet under a declared national emergency rule.

In 2009, an estimated 4.3 million violent crimes, 15.6 million property crimes and 133,000 personal thefts were committed against U.S. residents aged 12 or older, and the violent crime rate was 17.1 victimizations per 1,000 persons.In 2009, weapons were used in 22 percent of all violent crimes in the United States, and about 47 percent of robberies were committed with arms. 20 million women are rape victims in the country; One in four women is a victim of domestic violence. 3 million children are victims of violence reportedly and the actual number is three times greater. Between 75 and 93 percent of children have experienced at least one traumatic experience, including sexual abuse and neglect.

The U.S. imprisons more people per capita than any country on earth, accounting for 25 percent of the world's prisoners, despite having just five percent of the world's population. America currently holds over two million in prisons with double that number under supervision of parole and probation, according to federal government figures. More than 93,000 children are currently incarcerated in the United States.

More than 60 percent of the two-million-plus people in American prisons are racial and ethnic minorities. African-Americans are 13 percent of America's population and 14 percent of the nation's drug users but are 37 percent of persons arrested for drugs and 56 percent of the inmates in state prisons for drug offenses. The number of life imprisonment without parole given to African-American young people was ten times of that given to white young people in 25 states. The figure in California was 18 times.

A report released in January 2011 by Pennsylvania's auditor general noted the Keystone State now spends $32,059 annually to imprison one person… a cost that exceeds the annual $20,074 tuition for the MBA degree program at Penn State University.A report released in January 2010 by a UCLA professor noted that the Golden State spends over $48,000 annually to imprison one person, more than four times the tuition cost of UCLA for a California resident.

The ranks of death row are filled by the poor, who cannot afford to retain well-trained and properly funded defense attorneys. Amnesty International in its 2006 report on the execution of mentally ill offenders in the United States found that one in every ten individuals executed in the United States suffered from a serious mental disorder other than mental retardation. In the last ten years, the United States has put to death dozens of prisoners suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other incapacitating mental disabilities. The execution of persons with mental disabilities is squarely prohibited by international law.

United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg famously observed that “people who are well-represented at trial do not get the death penalty.” According to a report published by Amnesty International, one in five of African-Americans executed in the modern era were convicted by an all-white jury. Ninety percent of these cases involved victims who were white. Death row conditions are harsh and inhumane in many parts of the United States.Prisoners are allowed no physical contact with family members, friends or even their attorneys.Generally, a death row prisoner will not have physical contact with anyone other than prison staff from the time of his entry onto death row until the time of his execution. Even in the days and hours before his execution, the prisoner is not permitted to touch any family member or loved one.California has the largest death row in the nation, with 701 inmates awaiting execution as of March 2, 2010

The United States ratified the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) without reservations in 1969. That same year, the United States ratified the treaty's Optional Protocol, giving its consent to the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over any claims arising under the VCCR. Under Article 36 of the VCCR, detaining authorities must inform detained foreign nationals of their rights to consular notification and access without delay. The ICJ issued its final judgment on March 31, 2004, finding violations of Article 36 in 51 of the 52 cases that it reviewed

The CIA began jailing suspects in 2002, creating an interrogation program from scratch to deal with so-called "high value detainees" of the war on terror.The CIA operated its detention system under a series of secret legal opinions by CIA and Justice Department lawyers. Those rules provided a legal basis for the harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding.Human Rights First has reported that the United States is holding suspects in more than two dozen detention centers around the world.The UK, Germany and Italy are among 14 states which have allowed the U.S. to forcibly remove terror suspects. Some 27,000 detainees are suspected to have been held by the U.S in secret prisons around the world including in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Island of Diego Garcia (Indian Ocean), Jordan and aboard U.S. amphibious assault ships. Since October 2001, when the current ongoing war on Afghanistan began, almost 800 detainees have been brought to Guantanamo. Rendition began to be used regularly under President Bill Clinton and its use expanded rapidly under President Bush after the terrorist attacks in September 2001. During the Bush Administration, there was controversy over the use of renditions by the United States, particularly with regard to the alleged transfer of suspected terrorists to countries known to employ harsh interrogation techniques that may rise to the level of torture, purportedly with the knowledge or acquiescence of the United States. The U.S. has admitted that terror suspects in Afghanistan are being held and interrogated for weeks at temporary sites, including one run by the elite special operations forces at Bagram Air Base, according to U.S. officials who revealed details of the detention network. Human Rights Watch has stated that the principle of “command responsibility” could make high-ranking officials within the Bush administration guilty of war crimes. United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, has said that numerous cases of torture ordered by U.S. officials and perpetrated by U.S. authorities are well documented. Red Cross inspectors and released detainees have described acts of torture, including sleep deprivation, beatings and locking in confined and cold cells. Human rights groups have also argued that indefinite detention constitutes torture. The Interrogation and detention regime implemented by the U.S. has resulted in the deaths of over 100 detainees in U.S. custody. In December, 2010, the Obama administration prepared an executive order that would dictate indefinite detention of some detainees at the notorious U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without a trial at either military or civilian courts.
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