美国：人权真相起底
美国长期以来一直标榜自己对人权的承诺，并常常“及时”指出世界上其他地方那些“看似”侵犯人权的行为。但事实上美国真如它所标榜的那样吗？它的人民又是否真的享有他们应许的所有权利和自由呢？
据总部设在美国的人权监察机构自由之家（Freedom House）称，由于移民政策不完善，医疗体系破裂，社会经济不平等等原因，美国的民主机构遭受了侵蚀。
美国境内的人权问题比许多人认为的严重得多。
The United States has long boasted its commitment to human rights and has been quick to point out what it sees as violations in other parts of the world. But what's happening within its own borders? Do its people enjoy all the rights and freedoms they are promised?
According to U.S.-based human rights watchdog Freedom House, America's democratic institutions have suffered erosion, from flawed immigration policies and a broken healthcare system to socio-economic inequalities.
Problems in human rights within the U.S. are far more serious than what many have been led to believe.
A deep dive into these issues can help shed some light on the most staggering problems that have not been adequately dealt with by the U.S. government.
枪支暴力
枪支暴力就是一个典型的例子，并且这个长期存在的问题只会越来越严重。
2019年，美国与枪支有关的死亡人数高达39,427人，近一年内就发生了417起大规模枪击案，平均每天超过一起。在2019年的前46周内，发生了45次学校枪击事件，大约每周一次。
在2008年至2017年之间，平均每15分钟就有1人被枪杀。
而阻止美国实施全面枪支管制法的原因之一是宪法赋予公民携带武器的权利，另一原因则是国家步枪协会（NRA）的阻挠。NRA是华盛顿特区最大的政治力量之一，拥有500万成员，为政客提供资金并游说反对枪支管制。
在2016年的选举中，NRA花费了5400万美元支持共和党候选人。在535名国会议员中，有307名议员（占近60％）得到了NRA的支持。
Gun violence, a long-standing problem that's only getting worse, is a case in point.
Many of the incidents scattered throughout the country sound exceptional alarms on the urgent need to reduce gun violence.
In 2019 alone, the number of gun-related deaths was 39,427 in the U.S. There were 417 mass shootings that year, averaging more than one a day.
During the first 46 weeks of 2019, 45 school shootings took place, marking a frequency that was about once a week.
Between 2008 and 2017, on average, one person was killed with a gun every 15 minutes.
Americans make up 4 percent of the world's population but own 46 percent of all guns. That means there are 120 guns for every 100 U.S. residents.
The U.S. has as many gun shops as pharmacies. The second-hand gun market is huge and regulations on firearm sales have many loopholes in terms of background checks, age limits and eligibility.
One of the causes stopping the U.S. to implement a comprehensive gun-control law is the constitutional right to bear arms, which was enshrined in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a major barrier to implementing strict gun laws.
Another reason is the National Rifle Association. It's one of the biggest political forces in Washington DC, with five million members, funding politicians and lobbying against gun control.
Faced with one school shooting after another, the NRA says the answer is not fewer guns, but more. Its proposed solution, arming teachers and keeping children away from violent video games.
In the 2016 elections, the NRA spent 54 million dollars supporting Republican candidates. Among the 535 members of Congress, 307, or nearly 60 percent, were backed by the NRA in their campaigns.
The comfortable relationship between the NRA and American politicians put a roadblock in front of gun control efforts. When innocent young lives are lost, Washington can offer little more than thoughts and prayers.
With no gun control legislation on the horizon, and no end in sight to gun violence, the newspaper USA Today says America has entered "a new and disturbing era of mass shootings."
医疗服务的可负担性是全美激辩的一个主要问题。盖洛普(Gallup)报告显示，2019年，33％的美国人表示由于费用高昂，他们或家人不得不推迟治疗，而25％的美国人表示他们因费用问题推迟了对重症的治疗。
推迟治疗的患者比率达到20年来的最高水平。此外，在线医疗软件服务商Rx Savings Solution发布的报告显示，有3400种处方药的价格比前一年上涨了10％，是通货膨胀率的五倍。
The affordability of healthcare is a major issue drawing fierce debates across America. According to Gallup, in 2019, 33 percent of Americans said they or their family put off treatment for a medical condition due to high costs, and 25 percent said they delayed looking into a serious condition.
The rate of postponing medical care was the highest in the past 20 years. Meanwhile, a report by Rx Savings Solutions said the prices of 3,400 types of prescription drugs went up by 10 percent from the year before, five times the rate of inflation.
To buy insulin at a tenth of the price it would cost in their own country, some in Minnesota need to travel 1,300 kilometers north to Ontario, Canada.
The drug is a life saver for those suffering from Type-1 diabetes.
On top of that, there is also anger that people continue to die from diabetes because they couldn't afford proper treatment.
The American Journal of Public Health suggests health issues have led to two-thirds of bankruptcies in the United States. Its report looked at a thousand cases between 2013 and 2016, and it found a majority of those who had trouble paying medical bills were middle-class Americans who had health insurance.
A Gallup report says between 2016 and 2018, 7 million Americans lost their medical insurance and 21 percent under the age of 35 were uninsured. Healthcare, or the lack of it, has become a key factor that divides the rich and the poor.
The U.S. Census Bureau says the income gap is at its largest in 50 years. It's measured through the Gini index, with zero representing total equality and one representing total inequality.
In 1967, the Gini index was 0.397. In 2018, it climbed to 0.485. By comparison, no European nation had a score greater than 0.38.
In 2018, the top 10 percent of U.S. households controlled 70 percent of all wealth, up from 60 percent in 1989. Meanwhile the share controlled by the top 1 percent of wealthy Americans went from about one-fifth to nearly one-third.
Those at the bottom half of the wealth distribution saw virtually no increase in their nominal net worth over the last 30 years, while their total share of national wealth dropped, from 4 percent to just one percent.
While half a million homeless people are without a roof above their heads every night and four in five working class Americans are living from paycheck to paycheck, a potentially record-setting amount of money is being poured into the 2020 presidential election campaigns by wealthy donors and powerful political forces.
药物过量
然后是公共卫生危机。
药物过量被称为美国历史上最严重的成瘾流行病。美国疾病预防控制中心说，每年有超过70,000的美国人死于药物过量，这使其成为该国主要的死亡原因。而大多数此类情况涉及处方鸦片类药物，死亡人数达到了日均130例。
官方数据显示，2018年有1030万美国人滥用处方鸦片类药物，包括808,000名使用海洛因的人。美国疾病预防控制中心表示，从1999年到2017年，有702,000多人死于药物过量。自2014年以来，这一数字急剧上升，与鸦片类药物有关的死亡案例更是以更快的速度增长。
And then there are the public health crises. Drug overdose has been called the worst addiction epidemic in American history.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 70,000 Americans die from drug overdose each year, making it a leading cause of death in the country. And a majority of those cases involve a prescription opioid.
On average, 130 die from opioid overdose every day.
Official figures show that in 2018, 10.3 million Americans misused prescription opioids, including 808,000 who used heroin.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, from 1999 to 2017, more than 702,000 people died from a drug overdose. And there's been a sharp increase since 2014.
And deaths involving opioids grew at an even faster rate. Low-income groups, especially blue-collar whites, had been disproportionately impacted.
The Journal of the American Medical Association published a research in 2019, which showed pre-mature deaths increased in 48 out of 50 U.S. states between 2010 and 2017; the Midwest and the South were the worst hit areas. And opioid overdose was a key contributor.
Meanwhile, life expectancy in the U.S. had been dropping in recent years. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says that in 2017, the average life expectancy in America was 78.6, the lowest among comparable developed countries.
种族歧视
2017年1月，特朗普政府发布了一项行政命令，禁止所有穆斯林占多数的国家的伊朗，伊拉克，利比亚，索马里，苏丹，叙利亚和也门的难民和移民入境。反对者称其为“穆斯林禁令”。
2020年1月，国家名单扩大到厄立特里亚，吉尔吉斯斯坦，缅甸，尼日利亚，苏丹和坦桑尼亚。
最重要的是，还有制度化种族主义的证据。
根据2019年的一项研究，在美国，每1000名黑人中就有大约1人有可能被警察杀害。美国黑人死于警察暴力的可能性是白人美国人的2.5倍。
黑人和西班牙裔占美国人口的28％，但占该国监狱人口的56％。非裔美国人被监禁的可能性是白人的5.9倍。
To say America's cross-racial relations are not getting better is perhaps an understatement.
In January 2017, an executive order was issued by the Trump administration, banning entry of refugees and immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - all Muslim-majority countries.
Opponents called it the "Muslim ban."
In January 2020, the list of countries was expanded to include Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania.
On top of that, there's also evidence of institutionalized racism.
According to a 2019 study, in the US, about one in every 1,000 black men can expect to be killed by the police. Black Americans are 2.5 times more likely to die from police violence than their white counterparts.
Blacks and Hispanics accounted for 28 percent of the U.S. population but made up 56 percent of the country's prison population.
African-American adults are 5.9 times as likely to be incarcerated than whites.
And it doesn't stop there.
Fast forward to the early months of 2020, reports of racism emerged again, and this time, against the Chinese and other Asians in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
In New York City, a man assaulted an Asian woman wearing a face mask, both physically and verbally, calling her "diseased."
On a Los Angeles subway, a man claimed that Chinese people were filthy and said "every disease has ever come from China."
In some cities, misinformation about the coronavirus led to increasing xenophobia against those of East Asian heritage.
Even mainstream media took part in the trend, with the Wall Street Journal publishing an opinion piece that called China "the real sick man of Asia."
对难民和移民的人权侵犯
华盛顿最近的移民政策也遭到了严厉批评。
2018年4月，白宫宣布了一项针对非法移民的零容忍政策，尽管媒体报道显示一些合法的寻求庇护者也成为目标。
从墨西哥非法越境的成年人被关押在联邦监狱中，而儿童则在避难所中与父母失散。
2019年的前五个月里，至少有3名儿童在美国联邦拘留中死亡，这凸显了前往美国的危险旅程以及收容所内的情况。
Washington's recent immigrant policies have also been heavily criticized.
In April 2018, the White House announced a zero-tolerance policy against illegal immigration, though media reports showed some legal asylum seekers were also targeted.
Adults who crossed the border from Mexico illegally were held in federal jails, while children were separated from their parents in shelters.
The New York Times reported chaotic and filthy conditions at some facilities, saying "most of the young detainees had not been able to shower or wash their clothes since they arrived...and they had no access to toothbrushes, toothpaste or soap."
At least three children died in U.S. federal custody in the first five months of 2019, highlighting both the treacherous journey to the U.S. and the conditions inside the shelters.
The American Civil Liberties Union says around 5,500 migrant children were separated from their parents by the White House policy. Most of them were from Central America.
美国军事干预造成的人道主义危机
且不论美国国内政策，在外交方面，美国一直标榜自己是全球自由的促进者。但近年来，美国的外交政策成绩如何呢？
2020年1月3日，美国在巴格达国际机场附近发动无人机袭击，炸死了伊朗革命卫队“圣城军”总司令卡塞姆·苏莱马尼。另有九人遇难，包括伊拉克“人民动员部队”副主席。暗杀事件在整个中东地区掀起巨大波澜。
尽管白宫曾承诺减少美国的海外军事干预，但截至2020年初，美国仍在包括叙利亚、阿富汗、也门和伊拉克在内的许多国家保持军事存在。
美国前总统吉米·卡特在2019年6月发表讲话时指出，美国在242年的建国历史中仅有16年没有打仗，堪称“世界历史上最好战的国家”。
Domestic policies aside, America has often billed itself as a promoter of freedom globally. But how's its foreign policy record in recent years?
Although the White House promised to cut military intervention abroad, as of early 2020, the U.S. still maintained military presence in many countries, including Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and Iraq.
A Brown University study says fighting in four countries, including Afghanistan, Iran and Syria, has cost American taxpayers 6.4 trillion U.S. dollars since 2001. That figure is two trillion U.S. dollars more than all federal spending in 2019. And more than 801,000 people have died as a direct result of armed conflicts.
Coupled with these wars are Washington's economic sanctions.
Critics say sanctions as "economic warfare" have caused destruction and suffering, in many cases leading to shortages of medicine and malnutrition.
Official data show the U.S. has sanctions in place against more than 30 countries including Iran, Venezuela, Russia, Syria and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. More than 7,000 companies, groups and individuals are also targeted. Some are reported to have led to deadly consequences.
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch says the country has moved backwards in that area both at home and abroad. It's true that Americans still enjoy many freedoms. But as our stories show, America doesn't always practice what it preaches when it comes to freedom and equality. And if anyone in Washington thinks the country's human rights standards should be indiscriminately promoted, they should perhaps think again.