On Dec. 10, 1948, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and December became the International Month of Human Rights. The United States, among many other countries, recognizes this month and the importance of protecting human rights across the globe. However, glaring violations of the 1948 rules still occur, even in the United States. Below are three common violations in the United States you may not have known are Human Rights violations.
Police Brutality: One of the most controversial violations of human rights is violence from law enforcement. Police brutality violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in several ways. The disproportionate use of force against the Black community violates the freedom from discrimination that the document outlines, as well as equal protection under the law. Violence in some of the worst cases can be considered torture, and in the horrible circumstances where violence turns into a loss of life, the most basic right to life has been violated. According to the Washington Post, over one thousand people are shot and killed by the police annually, a disproportionate number of them being Black men. Many in the United States acknowledge this issue, yet no strict and lasting rules have been implemented to stop the continued issue.
Voting Rights: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees that everyone can participate in voting, whether directly or through freely chosen representatives in their government. The United States has violated this right in several ways. The first is due to felony disenfranchisement, which does not allow those incarcerated or formerly incarcerated for a crime to vote in elections. According to an article by the Sentencing Project, 4.6 million people were kept from voting in the 2022 elections due to a criminal conviction. Along with felony disenfranchisement, voter ID laws and other provisions put in place by states add a level of difficulty to voting and are seen as violations of this rule and have led to UN recommendations on their dismissal. When states add these steps to the voting process, they disproportionately impact lower-income individuals and groups, creating a system where access is unequal, and specific individuals have more of a challenge becoming involved in the voting process.
Abortion Access: Following the Dobbs decision in 2022, millions of women and girls had their access to reproductive health care taken away. In a briefing paper published by Human Rights Watch, the decision to take away one's right to reproductive services infringes on the following basic human rights: "The rights to life; health; privacy; liberty and security; freedom from torture; freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief; equality and non-discrimination." By taking away reproductive services from women, the United States not only discriminated against female citizens but also infringed on their autonomy in several ways.
Sources: aclu.org, amnestyusa.org, gsa.gov, hrw.org, ohchr.org, sentencingproject.org and washingtonpost.com