V. On conditions of women, children and elderly people
Little can be spoken of the human rights record in the US in view of
protecting the rights of women, children, elderly people and other special
disadvantageous social groups.
American women cannot enjoy the equal rights with men to take part in
government and political affairs. Statistics from the Centre for American Women
in Politics indicated that in 2003, women hold 59, or 13.6 per cent of the seats
in the House of Representatives, and 14, or 14 per cent of the seats in the
Senate. Despite an increase in the number of women seated in state legislatures
in 2003, they made up only 22.3 per cent of the total 7,382 state legislators in
the United States (Women in Elected Office 2003 Fact Sheet Summaries,
www.cawp.rutgers.edu/Facts/Officeholds/cawpfs.html).
Women are not entitled to equal treatment with regard to employment and
income. American women are still largely pigeonholed in "pink collar" jobs, such
as secretaries, saleswomen and restaurant attendants, according to a report
released by the American Association of University of Women in May, 2003
(www.aauw.org/about/newspress_releases/230505.cfm).
Statistics from the US Department of Labour indicated that in 2002, the
average weekly income for women aged 16 and above was US$530, or 77.9 per cent
of the US$680 for their male counterparts. Analysis by the department noted that
there were twice as many as women whose earnings were below the Federal minimum
wage, compared with men. Among the whites and Hispanics, women are more likely
than men to become low income earners (Bureau of Labour Statistics of the US
Department of Labour, www.bls.gov)
There has been serious domestic and sexual violence against women. According
to figures released by the White House in October 2003, a total of 700,000
incidents of domestic violence were reported in the US in 2001. One-third of
women murdered each year are murdered by their current or former husbands or
partners (National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, 2003, by George W. Bush,
www.whitehouse.gov).
According to a survey conducted by the US National Coalition Against Domestic
Violence, 92 per cent of American women cite domestic and sexual violence as one
of their top worries. One out of every three women experiences at least one
physical assault during adulthood, and only one out of every seven cases of
domestic violence, however, drew the attention of the police. A report by the US
military on sexual harassment scandals in the US Air Force Academy showed that
109 out of the 579 female cadets, or almost 20 per cent, that were interviewed
said they had been sexually harassed and assaulted in different ways and to
varying extents.
The protection of children provided in the US is far below the international
standards. The United States is one of the only two countries in the world that
have not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Since 1980s, all the states in the US have lowered the age of criminal
culpability against juvenile offenders, and in some states, juvenile offenders
aged 10 even stood on trial in courts for adults.
According to the Department of Justice, 27 out of the 50 US states have set
minimum age of criminal culpability. Most states such as California set the age
at 14, states like Colorado at 12 and two states including Kansas at 10. In
states where there is no minimum age of criminal culpability, judges can decide
to try juvenile offenders in juvenile courts or transfer them to ordinary
criminal courts according to the seriousness of the crimes. In 2002, a
15-year-old student, who killed two of his classmates in a shooting rampage, was
sentenced to 50 years in prison. In the same year, Brian Robertson, an
18-year-old student in a high school in Oklahoma was arrested for his writing a
novel with "extraordinary violent" plots on a school computer and if convicted,
he faces up to 10 years in prison.
The US is the country that has handed most of the death penalties to juvenile
offenders and carried out the executions in the world. According to a report
released by the Amnesty International on January 21, two-thirds of the
documented executions of juvenile offenders in the world occurred in the US in
the past decade and more. Since 1990, there have been a total of 34 documented
executions of juvenile offenders worldwide, and 19 of them happened in the US
(an AP dispatch from London on January 2, 2004).
While many countries around the world are abolishing executions of minors,
some politicians in the US are asking to lower the minimum age for death
penalty, and the Federal Supreme Court has even set the age at 16. Up to date,
there are 80 such juvenile inmates on the death row waiting to be executed (a
Prensa Latina from Havana on August 4, 2003).
Among developed nations, the United States ranks first in terms of the number
of children living under the poverty line and the last in the life expectancy of
its children (Britain's Guardian newspaper on November 3, 2003). According to
statistics released by the US Census Bureau in September 2003, 10.4 per cent of
all US minors lived in poverty by the definition of income in 2002 (Poverty:
2002 Highlights, www.census.gov), up to 13 million people (Britain's Guardian
newspaper on November 3, 2003).
Of all the children, 11.6 per cent could not afford health insurance. Of the
millions of homeless population in the United States, children account for a
considerable proportion. The US Conference of Mayors said in its 2003 annual
report that of all homeless families, 40 per cent were families with children,
and among all the families applying for food subsidies, 59 per cent of them had
at least one child. And according to the United Nations Children's Fund, of the
27 well-off nations in the world, the United States ranks the first in the
number of deaths of its children as a result of violence and negligence (See
Reuters dispatch from Geneva on September 18, 2003).
The under-aged population are under threat in terms of physical and mental
health. According to statistics from the US Federal Government, of all the kids
under the age of 18, 10 per cent suffer from psychological illness to varying
extent, some to the point of committing crimes. But only one fifth of them have
been provided with medical treatment (See the edition of USA Today on October
26, 2003). Violent acts plaguing the US public media are bringing adverse impact
to the minors. Statistics show that before coming of age at 18, kids and
youngsters could be exposed to at least 40,000 murder scenes and 200,000 other
acts of violence in various public media (an AP dispatch on February 5, 2004).
They are so accustomed to fist fights, bloody killings that some have been
worshipping for violence, which gives rise to more malignant acts of violence in
the country accordingly.
Children are often the victims of sexual assault. In recent years, more and
more scandals have come to light that children were harassed, molested and raped
by priests in the US. In June 2003, USA Today reported that in the past 18
months, of all the 46,000 clergymen in the United States, around 425 were
dismissed by churches for crime allegations involved, including the crime of
sexual assault against children (edition of USA Today on June 17, 2003).
According to other reports, at least 1,000 people were arrested in the United
States for accused the acts of eroticism targeting at children since June 2003.
Of all the arrested, 400 were charged with the crime of making and spreading
erotic materials relating to children via the Internet.
The senior citizens are prejudiced against and
mistreated, which led to a higher rate of suicides among them. In the United
States, people aged over 65 account for 13 per cent of the national population,
and of all the people who committed suicide, the senior population make up 19
per cent. According to a report of the Christian Science Monitor, of every
100,000 people between the age of 15 to 24, 10.3 such people killed themselves
in 1999, and the number rose to 15.9 for the elderly people above the age of 65,
which was nearly 50 per cent higher than the national average level. All the
numbers boiled down to the fact that more than 6,000 senior citizens committed
suicide in the United States in 1999.
