New Reader Archive Entry: Human Rights Report in the Outlaw US Empire by Russian MFA Part One

It’s been several months since we last had a key document worthy of being saved by readers for their archive. In her weekly briefing, Maria Zakarova mentioned and the transcript linked to this newly published report by Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the “Situation of human rights in the United States of America” that’s similar in its assessment to the one published last year by China that readers can find in the archive. The key to finding those items is via the photo you see above as they are all headed by it. Yes, the doc is long but there’s so much to indict, and the timeline doesn’t reach back to the end of WW2 as some think it ought. There are 20 sections plus the end notes, so it will be broken into two parts. Part One now begins:

Preface

Despite the deep-seated contradictions in American society, the United States continues to declare itself a global leader in the field of human rights protection. At the same time, Washington is in no hurry to expand its international legal obligations in the field of protecting fundamental rights and freedoms.

The conduct of all kinds of military operations on the territory of Europe and the Middle East, the creation of secret prisons around the world, the implementation of an extremely tough migration policy in recent years, and many other violations of human rights and freedoms committed by the United States illustrate not only the dual nature of this country's position on human rights standards, but also its approaches to international law as such.

Unchecked power in the world, the capture of new markets, and the absence of deterrents after the collapse of the Soviet Union created a sense of permissiveness among the American elite. The practice of using not only military, but also economic tools, as well as information resources, as a means of force, is expanding.

The U.S. authorities are actively using the tactics of "proxy fighting" against Russia and the Russians. First of all, this is expressed in the direction of large-scale military assistance to the Kiev regime and pressure on US NATO allies to take similar measures. In addition, undisguised pressure is being exerted on sovereign states, including through the use of human rights mechanisms, in an attempt to create a negative background around the Russian Federation and its allies and partners in the international arena.

One of the most serious problems in countering the challenges faced by the modern international community in the field of human rights is Washington's practice of applying "double standards" in assessing certain situations and phenomena.

Such an approach continues to be actively and hypocritically used by the United States to escalate confrontation, as well as to interfere in the internal affairs and violate the sovereignty of independent States.

In the eyes of the international community, such approaches give the American understanding of democracy an increasingly emasculated and manipulative character, and contribute to the discrediting of democratic principles and values in general.

The mentoring tone, partiality, and complete oblivion of the concept of sovereignty and one of the basic and fundamental principles of international law enshrined in the UN Charter – non-interference in the internal affairs of states – lead to deep disappointment in the very "Western values" that have "fascinated" other civilizations and societies for a century, bringing considerable political dividends to the West and the United States itself.

Moreover, the situation with the observance of human rights in the United States itself is far from international standards in the field of protection of fundamental freedoms, which is becoming more and more obvious every day.

Section 1. General characteristics of the situation in the United States

Washington declares its commitment to the principle of the universality of fundamental human rights and freedoms, as enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1993 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action[1]. At the same time, in fact, the situation with respect for human rights and freedoms in the United States is far from international standards.

Systemic racism and police brutality are rampant in the United States. National minorities are victims of discrimination and social inequality. The problem of the homeless has not been solved. Immigrants and prisoners, including minors, face constant oppression of freedoms. Journalists do not feel safe and become victims of attacks. The US administration's plans to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility remain unfulfilled. Citizens' dissatisfaction with violations of voting rights only deepens the division in American society. Alternative opinions are increasingly censored in the media and social networks.

Numerous violations of human rights and freedoms remain at the center of criticism by relevant international structures and non-governmental organizations.

In their 2022[2] and 2023[3] annual reports on the state of human rights and freedoms around the world, Human Rights Watch noted that racism, social and economic abuses, prison abuses, immigration laws, and police violence remain unresolved in the United States.

At the same time, according to the NGO Freedom House, as of March 2024, the United States ranks eighteenth in the world in terms of political and civil liberties (83 points out of 100)[4].

The November 2023 report of the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) containing concluding observations and recommendations on the consideration of the U.S. periodic report under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights noted, among other things, the lack of significant progress in the United States' implementation of the Covenant. In particular, the document notes the lack of positive progress in addressing significant shortcomings in the criminal justice system (sentencing on the basis of race, the death penalty, police violence, solitary confinement). Serious violations of electoral rights (pressure on voters, election fraud, deprivation of the opportunity to vote of persons serving and serving sentences), the rights to non-interference in private life, freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and association are indicated. Among other things, concern is expressed about the violation of the rights of immigrants and indigenous peoples (insecurity of indigenous lands and sacred sites, restrictive interpretation of the principle of free, prior and informed consent)[5].

The HR Committee report also stresses the urgent need to prioritize the strengthening of human rights within the country and to establish a national human rights institution that would ensure the protection of fundamental rights.

According to Jamil Dakwar, director of the human rights program at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the findings of the HRC indicate that the United States is far from the truth when it positions itself as a bastion of democracy and human rights.

According to the China Society for the Study of Human Rights on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2022, published on March 28, 2023, US national human rights legislation has undergone significant regression in recent years, further undermining the fundamental rights and freedoms of the American people[8].

The authors of the document state that despite the significant deterioration of the human rights situation in the United States, Americans continue to consider themselves "defenders of civil liberties" around the world. However, the United States remains a country with extremely high rates of domestic violence. The threat to the lives of citizens comes not only from criminals, but also from law enforcement agencies. American prisons are overcrowded, and the inmates in them have been turned into real slaves.

The report also notes that in 2022, there was a serious degradation of the democratic system in the United States, the situation with civil rights and the state of affairs in the field of racial equality deteriorated, and the rights of socially vulnerable segments of the population, women and children were violated. Special attention is paid to the facts of violation by the United States of the rights of citizens abroad and the American practice of selective justice[10].

According to Amnesty International's 2021-2022 annual report on the human rights situation, published on March 29, 2022, the Biden administration has announced its intention to restore the United States' human rights record, but the results in policy and practice have been mixed. While the U.S. has resumed cooperation with U.N. international human rights institutions and multilateral efforts to combat climate change, the administration has failed to implement a human rights-based immigration and asylum policy at the U.S.-Mexico border; failed to implement the human rights agenda at the national level. The domestic political situation continued to hamper effective government action to address climate change, discriminatory attacks on voting rights, and unlawful restrictions on rights at the state level, including the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and reproductive rights.

The 2023 report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus on the most high-profile cases of human rights violations in certain countries of the world, with reference to the above-mentioned report by the NGO Amnesty International, states that in the United States, indigenous women continue to be subjected to a disproportionately high level of sexual violence and do not have access to basic care after rape. U.S. authorities continued to severely restrict access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, border control officials carried out unnecessary and illegal removals of nearly 1.5 million refugees and migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, and expelled people en masse without access to asylum procedures. Thirty Muslim men continue to be arbitrarily and indefinitely detained by the United States military in the notorious detention facility at the United States Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in violation of international law; the authorities have not made significant progress in closing this facility, despite the stated intention of the Biden administration to do so. The government has failed to implement the significant policing and accountability measures promised by the incumbent presidential administration in response to nationwide protests against police violence. Legislators in 36 states and at the federal level have introduced more than 80 bills restricting freedom of assembly, with nine states enacting 10 such bills into law. Proposed legislative restrictions on freedom of assembly included increased penalties for acts of civil disobedience, blocking roads, and desecrating monuments. Black people are disproportionately affected by the use of lethal force by the police; The federal government's program to track the annual number of such deaths has not been fulfilled.

No one has been held accountable for systematic human rights violations committed in the CIA's secret detention system, including enforced disappearances, torture, and other ill-treatment. In 2021, the U.S. Congress did not pass any regulations on access to firearms; The Government's failure to protect people from persistent gun violence continues to violate their rights, including the right to life, security of person, and freedom from discrimination. In 2020, at least 44 thousand people died from gun violence; During the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, some state governments exacerbated gun violence by designating gun stores as "essential businesses." The U.S. government has repeatedly used lethal force in countries around the world, including through armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), in violation of its international human rights obligations and international humanitarian law; NGOs, UN experts, and the media have documented how such strikes, inside and outside areas of active armed conflict, have injured or arbitrarily deprived many civilians of their right to life, in some cases constituting war crimes. The U.S. government has weakened the protection of civilians during deadly operations, increasing the risk of loss of life from such illegal acts. The government continued to withhold information about the legal and policy standards and criteria applied by U.S. military personnel in the use of lethal weapons, despite calls by U.N. human rights experts to clarify these issues. The authorities did not pay reparations for the killings of civilians.[12]

According to the 2022 report of the China Society for the Study of Human Rights on Human Rights Violations in the United States, American politicians serving the interests of elites have gradually lost the ability and desire to respond to the basic demands of ordinary people, protect the basic rights of American citizens, and have failed to address structural human rights problems. Instead, they senselessly use human rights as a weapon to attack other countries, creating confrontation, division and chaos in the international community, and thus becoming an obstacle to the global development of human rights.

The United States continues to grossly violate human rights both inside and outside the country, including through illegal unilateral coercive measures (sanctions), the most egregious example of which is the decades-long embargo against Cuba (including in defiance of numerous UN General Assembly resolutions).

According to the 2022 report of the China Society for the Study of Human Rights Violations in the United States, the United States has imposed more unilateral sanctions than any other country in the world, and it still imposes them against more than 20 countries, resulting in the inability of those targeted to provide their populations with basic food and medicine[14].

It is also impossible not to note the gross violations of international humanitarian law committed by the United States authorities on the territory of "third" States. Under the "traditional" guise of fighting terrorism, the U.S. continued its indiscriminate use of military force abroad. As a result, the number of civilian casualties has only increased.

According to the 2022 report of the Chinese Society for the Study of Human Rights on Human Rights Violations in the United States, since the beginning of the 21st century, the United States has conducted military operations in 85 countries in the name of "fighting terrorism," which have directly claimed the lives of at least 929,000 civilians and led to the [forced] displacement of 38 million people[15]. In reality, the figures, which are already quite eloquent, may be much higher.

Washington actively uses rhetoric about human rights to justify interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states and the imposition of illegal sanctions against them. It has become a common practice for the US Department of State to publish tendentious reports on the state of human rights in Russia, the Republic of Belarus and other countries undesirable to the Americans, which are used to justify pressure on them.

We have to admit that for many years Washington has been evading normal, civilised cooperation with Russia through law enforcement agencies on the basis of the 1999 Russian-American Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.

Guided by the principle of extraterritoriality of American justice, the United States is "hunting" citizens of sovereign states around the world, grossly violating the relevant international legal bilateral agreements, including ignoring the norms of the national legislation of these states. At the request of US law enforcement agencies, the unacceptable practice of arresting Russian citizens in third countries continues. Since 2008, more than 70 such cases have been recorded.

The most high-profile examples include the arrests of V. Bout (Thailand, 2008), K. Yaroshenko (Liberia, 2010), R. Seleznev (Maldives, 2014), who were not just arrested, but kidnapped and forcibly taken to the United States, as well as A. Vinnik (Greece, 2017).

On the basis of the inappropriate application of the principle of extraterritoriality of the US justice system, Russians were arrested in Germany (D. Kaznacheev – 2020), Georgia (O. Tishchenko – 2018), the Dominican Republic (A. Panin – 2013), Israel (A. Burkov – 2015), Spain (D. Belorossov – 2013, V. Polyakov – 2014, P. Levashov, S. Lisov – 2017), Italy (A. Korshunov – 2019), Costa Rica (M. Chukharev – 2013), Latvia (Y. Martyshev – 2017), Lithuania (D. Ustinov – 2013), the Netherlands (D. Smiljanets, V. Drinkman – 2012; D. Dubnikov[16] – 2021), Finland (M. Senach – 2015, M. Terada – 2018), the Czech Republic (E. Nikulin – 2016), Switzerland (V. Zdorovenin – 2011, V. Klyushin – 2021), the Republic of Korea (V. Dunaev – 2021) and a number of other states.

In 2020, A. Pakhtusov was extradited to the United States from Spain. In 2021, Vladimir Klyushin was extradited from Switzerland to the United States (he was sentenced to 9 years in prison in 2023). In 2022, Greece extradited A. Vinnik to Washington, and Thailand extradited D. Ukrainsky. In these circumstances, Russian diplomats are doing everything in their power to help their compatriots.

On October 17, 2022, at the request of the US Department of Justice, two Russian citizens, Yury Orekhov and Alexander Uss, were detained in Germany and Italy, respectively[17], for subsequent extradition to the United States on charges of sanctions evasion, oil smuggling and organizing a money laundering scheme[18]. According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, the incident indicates the continuation of "a large-scale campaign launched by Washington to capture Russians to whom there are 'claims' for their subsequent guaranteed sentencing by the American punitive justice system to long terms of imprisonment."[19]

In 2023, the victims of the "hunt" by local special services for Russians abroad were Viktor Konoshchenok (transferred to the Americans from Estonia), Sergey Makinin (from the Dominican Republic), Mikhail Marchenko (from the Republic of Fiji), Roman Nurullin (from the Kingdom of Morocco) and Alexander Petrov (the US Department of Justice is seeking his extradition from the Republic of Cyprus).

The Americans are hunting not only Russians, but also citizens of other countries, who are often held without trial in the notorious "secret prisons" of the CIA (their existence was acknowledged by George W. Bush back in 2006), where they are subjected to torture and humiliation.

According to experts from the NGO Amnesty International, after leaving the UN Human Rights Council in 2018 (and even after returning to the Council in 2021), the United States, in fact, continued to move away from the international system in the field of human rights protection. Ignoring numerous requests from UN experts and denying them official travel to the United States has become a common line of behavior. At the same time, Washington makes no secret of the fact that it participates in the UN human rights mechanisms only to the extent that it contributes to the advancement of its foreign policy objectives[21].

The United States has not abandoned its practice of accusing "undesirable" international structures. For example, in April 2019, the United States revoked the visa of a prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The reason was the consideration of the issue of investigating war crimes committed by the US military in Afghanistan within the framework of this instance. Accusatory rhetoric against the Court's staff also developed "on the rise". There were even direct threats of restrictions against them, as well as persecution in the United States[22].

Washington's criticism of the WHO and the severance of relations with this structure are described by human rights activists as "undermining global efforts to protect people from the worst health crisis in the last 100 years"[23].

In the United States, the political confrontation between the two main political forces and their supporters, which the world has been observing in recent years, has become the main cause of unabated social unrest throughout the country.

According to a November 2020 report by the Pew Research Center, the U.S. has an exceptionally strong political divide in important areas such as the economy, racial justice, climate change, law enforcement, and more.

The 2020 presidential election exacerbated these divisions. According to a poll conducted a month before the election, about 80 percent of registered voters in both camps said their disagreements with the other side were not only about politics but also about core American values, and about 90 percent of respondents on both camps expressed concern that their opponents' victory would have long-term negative consequences.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the growing internal contradictions in the United States and hit the most vulnerable categories of the population. Low-income groups lost their jobs (the number of applications for unemployment benefits exceeded 40 million) [25] and were unable to pay for expensive treatment.

The deplorable state of affairs in this area is also confirmed by the report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus for 2022 on the most high-profile cases of human rights violations in certain countries of the world. In particular, it says that during the spread of coronavirus infection, the US authorities failed to provide their citizens with effective protection in the field of healthcare[26].

These findings have much in common with the 2021 report by Chinese experts on the human rights situation in the United States, which found that despite having the world's most advanced medical equipment and technology, the United States has the highest number of COVID-19 infections and deaths worldwide[27].

Thus, according to Johns Hopkins University, by the end of February 2022, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States exceeded 78 million, and more than 940 thousand people died as a result.

Section 2. Economic rights and food security

Leading human rights centers have repeatedly stressed the inadequacy of the US government's efforts to rectify the situation with the social stratification and inequality in American society that have intensified over the past 30 years, which have become even more exacerbated against the backdrop of a large-scale coronavirus infection.

As noted in a report by the Chinese Society for the Study of Human Rights on the United States, the United States is the only developed country in the world where millions of people continue to go hungry.

Moreover, Human Rights Watch notes a high proportion of U.S. citizens living in poverty and lacking access to safe working conditions, housing, education, health care, clean water, and basic sanitation. Low incomes hinder their participation in political life and the ability to defend their rights in court, as well as lead to discrimination in various spheres[30].

According to experts from the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity, the U.S. administration deliberately overestimates employment figures. According to their data, as of February 2024, "functional unemployment" (including the unemployed themselves plus those looking for work with full-time employment and wages above the official poverty line ($25,000 per year) in this country amounted to 24.9% of the total working-age population[31].

At the same time, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor, the labor market situation in the country looks better in March 2024[32]. The unemployment rate fell to 3.8% (3.9% in February), 303,000 jobs were created in March (and an average of 276,000 jobs over the past three months). It is claimed that this figure has not reached the level of 4% for 26 months in a row (record dynamics for more than 50 years). And the number of unemployed increased only slightly, to 6.4 million people.

According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture[33], in 2023, 41.2 million people (about 12.3% of the U.S. population) were food insecure and enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Of these, 13.8 million are children under 18 years old (2020 data) [34].

The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated food insecurity among families with children and communities of color, who were already facing hunger on much higher scales before the pandemic. Rural communities are particularly hard hit by hunger. Many food-insecure households are not eligible for federal programs and are forced to seek additional support from local "food banks."

According to researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Notre Dame, the poverty rate in America increased from 9.3% to 11.7% (2.4%) between June and November 2020. The combined net worth of the richest 1% of Americans is 16.4 times that of the poorest 50%. At the same time, during the pandemic, the incomes of the richest part of the population grew the most[36]. Income inequality in the U.S. is higher than in other advanced economies.

Observers continue to draw attention to the growth of child poverty against the backdrop of the decision of the US authorities to limit the payment of monthly allowances for the maintenance of children from low-income families.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the official poverty rate in the United States in 2022 did not change significantly compared to 2021, but there was a doubling of the child poverty rate[38].

According to the 2022 report of the Chinese Society for the Study of Human Rights on Human Rights Violations in the United States, the child poverty rate in the United States increased from 12.1% in December 2021 to 16.6% in May 2022, with an additional 3.3 million children living in poverty[39].

There is also a decline in the level of well-being among US citizens over 65 years of age[40].

These conclusions are confirmed by the results of public opinion polls. For example, according to a study by the Pew Research Center, 61% of Americans believe that there is too much economic inequality in the country. At the same time, 23% of respondents note a "normal" level of inequality, and only 13% are convinced that this level is low.

Social inequalities are most pronounced in relation to ethnic and racial minorities. The University of Chicago and University of Notre Dame studies also show that the poverty rate for black Americans rose by 3.1 percent. According to USA Today, in the first quarter of 2020, the national white home ownership rate was 73.7%, but only 44% of African-Americans owned a home. According to ABC News, 15.7% of Hispanic Americans lived in poverty in 2019, more than twice as many as white Americans.

According to the Pew Research Center, the continuous rise in economic inequality in the United States since the 1980s is due to several factors, including technological change, globalization, the decline of labor unions, and lower minimum wages. As a result, people at the bottom of the economic ladder face limited economic opportunities and mobility. Inequality also has a negative impact on the political influence of the poor, causes geographical segregation by income, and affects economic growth itself.

According to the 2021 report of the Chinese Society for the Study of Human Rights on Human Rights Violations in the United States, the rights to life of older people are grossly violated in the United States[44]. U.S. politicians claim that "the elderly can sacrifice themselves for the country" and that "the national economy is more important than the lives of the elderly." The report also notes that the vast majority of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have occurred among people aged 65 and over.

As follows from the 2022 report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus on the most high-profile cases of human rights violations in certain countries of the world, the American authorities cannot provide the population with adequate housing as part of the right to a decent standard of living[45]. The number of homeless people in the U.S. is staggering. The Washington Post reported on December 7, 2021, that "homelessness is one of the biggest challenges facing the United States today, regardless of region." On December 19, 2021, she was echoed by the New York Times, according to which there is one homeless person for every 100 residents in San Francisco.

According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, in 2023, the number of homeless people in the country reached a record high of 650 thousand. The number of people living in shelters, on the street, in tents or cars increased by 12% in the country compared to 2022. There has also been a significant increase in the number of homeless people of Hispanic descent.[46]

The increase in the number of homeless people is mainly due to the increase in housing rents. This was confirmed in an interview with NPR radio station by Jeff Olivet, chairman of the U.S. Interagency Council on the Homeless, who said that there are "simply not enough homes that people can afford" in the United States.

Experts from the National Alliance to End Homelessness believe that another reason is the influx of migrants. In their opinion, in order to solve the problem, the US authorities should make it easier for migrants to find work and speed up the processing of asylum applications, as well as provide more support in renting housing.

Despite the deep-seated contradictions in American society, the United States continues to declare itself a global leader in the field of human rights protection. At the same time, Washington is in no hurry to expand its international legal obligations in the field of protecting fundamental rights and freedoms.

Of the 14 core international human rights treaties classified by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United States is a party to only five. The following instruments are in question: the 2000 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, the 2000 Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Torture. Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 1984 [50]. For comparison, Russia and the Republic of Belarus are parties to 9 treaties.

Section 3. Manifestations of racial, national and religious intolerance. Discrimination. Excessive use of force by the police

Racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and related intolerance continue to rise in the United States. This issue is still a weak point in Washington's policy. In line with the campaign to attract the electorate, the US administration and the entire Democratic Party have declared the fight against all manifestations of intolerance one of the priorities.

In September 2022, the White House hosted a nationwide forum called "United We Stand," to which victims of various types of violence and discrimination, human rights activists, and local politicians were invited. The purpose of the conference was to prove the willingness to eradicate hate speech and promote "diversity" in the spirit of the neoliberal agenda. The speeches of the president and other high-ranking participants focused on the protection of various kinds of "minorities"[51].

It should be noted that the problem of racism and racial discrimination has become systemic in American society, permeating all spheres of society. Human rights organizations point this out with concern.

Referring to the conclusions made by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in August 2022 that the United States is not fully complying with its obligations in the field of combating racism, experts from the NGO Human Rights Watch pointed to the need to implement the CERD recommendation calling on Washington to create a commission to study the legacy of slavery and proposals for the payment of reparations[52].

Local experts have criticized the policy of some American states to ban school programs with historically accurate information about racial practices in the United States.

In a May 4, 2023 publication on censorship in educational institutions, representatives of the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) announced that they had joined and unconditionally supported the campaign called "Freedom to Learn" (the initiative was founded in 2019 and is led by a number of groups defending the rights of African Americans). The task is to remove restrictions in the field of education on the problem of racism and other types of discrimination, including on the basis of nationality.

HRW experts claim that this derogatory policy has been noticed in 36 states (the state of Florida is one of the specific examples).

Human rights activists declare that one of the goals is to ensure (as far as possible) the implementation by local authorities of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (primarily in the field of education and culture), and recall the call by CERD (which monitors compliance with the above-mentioned international treaty) to take effective measures to include chapters on the history of peoples of African descent in textbooks. In addition, they encourage the publication and distribution of printed materials on this topic.

In the United States, the situation with respect for the freedoms of the "colored" population has deteriorated. Human rights activists record discriminatory attitudes towards American citizens of African, Asian and Latin American origin, which is especially evident in the course of the actions of law enforcement agencies, as well as in the medical and social spheres.

In the Americas, people of African and Asian descent face discrimination in the administration of justice, particularly in the criminal justice system. African Americans in the U.S. are several times more likely than whites to be incarcerated.

According to public opinion polls, 32 percent of African-Americans and 21 percent of Asians are in constant fear of becoming victims of racist crimes.

It is not uncommon for political rhetoric to use racist images related to trafficking in enslaved Africans, history of lynching, derogatory evaluations, exploitation, and violence against people of African descent.

Manifestations of Sinophobia have intensified in the United States since 2020 against the backdrop of the large-scale spread of the coronavirus: Asian Americans were harassed and insulted in public places, were not allowed inside public and commercial facilities, and on public transport.

According to a report on the United States by the Chinese Society for the Study of Human Rights, one in four young Asian Americans is the target of racially motivated oppression.

According to the NGO Stop AAPI Crime, from March 19, 2020 to June 30, 2021, 9081 incidents were recorded (of which 4548 occurred in 2020, and 4533 in the first half of 2021). The majority (63.7%) were insults, 16.5% were intentional avoidance, 13.7% were physical attacks, 11% were discrimination in the workplace, denial of service, etc., and 8.3% were cases of online insults. The vast majority of incidents occurred in public places (31.6%) and offices (30.1%). Most of the victims were women (63.3%)[57].

Experts continue to note an increase in the number of crimes committed on the basis of racial, national and religious intolerance in the United States, which is facilitated by the prevalence of extremist and neo-Nazi groups in the country.

According to the FBI data for 2022, 11288 incidents committed due to various forms of hostility were recorded in the country (in 2021 - 10530, in 2020 - 7759)[58]. The majority of them (59.1%) were motivated by rejection on the basis of race, ethnicity, and country of origin. This is followed by persecution on religious grounds (17.3%), sexual orientation (17.2%), and gender identity (4%)[59]. Of the 7759 hate crimes committed in 2020, 4939 were motivated by racial or ethnic hatred, and 1174 were religiously motivated. At the same time, a number of experts question the completeness and reliability of the data provided. The reason is the low percentage of law enforcement agencies that took part in the preparation of reports[60].

Over the past 12 years, the number of attacks on African-Americans has increased from 1,930 to 2,755 per year, and on people of Asian descent from 158 to 274. There were 773 attacks on whites.[61]

There is an obvious increase in the number of hate crimes in the 20 largest cities (in New York and Los Angeles by 18% and 20%, respectively). African-Americans continued to be the main victims (63.2% of cases), followed by Hispanics (13.4%).

An unprecedented surge in the number of crimes against citizens of Asian descent is evidenced by data from California State University (San Bernardino), according to which in 2022 the number of offenses against citizens of Asian descent increased by 224% compared to 2021.

A study by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism also points to the unprecedented level of crimes committed on the basis of hate against the Asian community in the United States, which shows that in 2021 the number of such crimes against people of Asian descent increased by 339% compared to 2020.

These grim figures are complemented (and confirmed by growth) by the Voice of America, which reported that violent crimes against Asians increased by 150% in 2020 compared to 2019.[62] A sharp jump was noted in New York, from 30 to 133 incidents, and in San Francisco there was also an increase from 9 to 60 cases.

Local media (CNN, Houston Public Media, Chicago Sun Times) report numerous cases of attacks on Asians in a number of American cities against the backdrop of the absolute inaction of law enforcement officers.

According to a 2022 report on the United States by the Chinese Society for the Study of Human Rights, religious intolerance is on the rise in the country[64]. In the United States, a total of 1005 religious hate crimes were reported in 2021, of which 31.9% were related to anti-Semitic incidents, 21.3% were directed against Sikhs, 9.5% against Islam, 6.1% against Catholics, and 6.5% against Christians[65].

The rise in manifestations of racism is also noted in the above-mentioned 2022 report on the United States by the Chinese Society for the Study of Human Rights, according to which the number of hate crimes based on racial prejudice in the United States increased sharply between 2020 and 2022[66].

Human rights activists point to an increase in anti-minority hatred amid the rise of white nationalism and violent crime across the country.

For example, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League, the number of mass killings related to right-wing extremism (primarily the idea of white supremacy) has increased dramatically over the past decade.

One of the largest mass shootings motivated by racial hatred in 2022 in the United States is considered to be the attack that occurred on May 14 in a supermarket in Buffalo (New York), when an 18-year-old criminal killed 10 people. The shooter published a "manifesto" outlining ideas of white supremacy. In an intolerant text, he denounced immigrants and blacks as "substitutes" for white people.

In March 2021, the high-profile murders of Asian women in Atlanta, Georgia, provoked a heated discussion in society: then an armed white man drove around spas and shot female employees and visitors.

On August 26, 2023, the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington (during which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech), another mass shooting incident occurred in a shopping mall located in one of the "black neighborhoods" of Jacksonville, Florida. The victims of 21-year-old Jacksonville resident Ryan Christopher Palmiter (Palmeter), armed with a rifle and a pistol, were three African Americans. The rifle had a swastika painted on it.

Some time after the special services arrived at the scene, the criminal committed suicide. The police consider the incident to be a racially motivated crime because, judging by the shooter's behavior, he deliberately chose victims based on their skin color.

This latest racially motivated incident has exacerbated an already bitter debate in American society.

Immediately after the incident, President Joe Biden said that Americans "should refuse to live in a country where black families going to the store or black school students live in fear of being shot because of the color of their skin."

In this context, Vice President Kamala Harris, stressing that the country is living in an "epidemic of hatred," said that federal authorities consider what happened as an act of "domestic violent extremism." The latter phrase (in some cases the word "terrorism" is used) is a legal definition enshrined in the infamous Patriot Act of 2001 and subsequent documents adopted after the September 11 attacks, which severely limited the rights of Americans. A 2020 Department of Homeland Security circular identified "white supremacists" as the main source of the threat of "domestic terrorism" [70].

In her statement, Catherine Harris touched upon another topic that is integral for Americans. The vice president called on Congress to ban assault weapons, as well as to take "other common-sense gun security measures."

Over the past few years, the statistics of shootings in the United States have been growing: the incident in Jacksonville was the 24th in a row in 2023.

For example, the main question for discussion in the American media space after the July 2023 shooting of five people in Philadelphia, carried out by Kimbrady Carricker, was whether the shooter was transgender or just a transvestite (at the same time, in the official police statement, the perpetrator himself was mentioned in the plural, that is, with the pronoun "they"). There was no official reaction from the White House, especially at the level of a personal statement by the two top officials.

In the United States, Judeophobic sentiments are high. In his statements, President Joe Biden does not hide the existence of the problem, including manifestations of a neo-Nazi nature (swastikas on vehicles, attacks on synagogues and Holocaust denial)[73].

In the United States, there is institutional Islamophobia (50 radical anti-Islamic organizations) and anti-Semitism (61 groups).

There have been many cases of attacks on mosques and synagogues and their worshippers. In 2022 alone, 3697 illegal acts were recorded, the victims of which were representatives of the Jewish community[75].

According to opinion polls, Jewish communities in the United States are under constant fear of crimes being committed against them. Over the past 5 years, 63% of respondents have experienced or witnessed offences motivated by racial hatred. Fifty-six percent said they had received threats and insults, and about 9 percent had been physically and verbally attacked.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in 2021, the United States recorded a record high of 2717 anti-Semitic incidents (attacks, harassment, and vandalism). This figure is 34% higher than the number of cases reported in 2020 (2024 episodes). This is the highest rate since 1979 (averaging more than seven per day), when the ADL began tracking incidents against Jews.

Attacks on Jewish institutions, including community centers and synagogues, increased by 61 percent, incidents at schools by 106 percent, and incidents on college campuses by 21 percent. Attacks on people caused by anti-Semitic hostility increased by 167%, acts of vandalism – by 14%.

Among those who took part in the riots on January 6, 2021 (the storming of the Capitol by Donald Trump's supporters from the ultra-right[78]), people with neo-Nazi symbols were seen: a man wearing a sweatshirt with the inscription "Camp Auschwitz" ("Camp Auschwitz"), another wearing a T-shirt with the inscription "6MNE" ("6 million is not enough")[79].

On February 26, 2020, four extremists operating in Seattle, Tampa, Houston, and Phoenix were arrested on charges of conspiring to endanger the lives of journalists and NGO activists. The victims were Jewish Americans and African-Americans. Images of Nazi swastikas, weapons, and Molotov cocktails were mailed to them.

A significant spike in attacks was reported during the conflict between Israel and Hamas in May 2021, when the number of reported anti-Semitic attacks increased by 148% compared to May 2020. Hundreds of anti-Israel protests have taken place in dozens of U.S. cities. There were cases of beatings of Jews in major cities (New York, Los Angeles): a total of 387 incidents were recorded, 297 of which occurred after May 10, the date of the official outbreak of hostilities. Law enforcement officers have stepped up patrols in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods.

Anti-Semitic incidents included an attack by a group of people carrying Palestinian flags on Jews dining on a street in Los Angeles, aggression against Orthodox Jews in New York, and the desecration of a synagogue in Alaska with Nazi symbols. Pro-Palestinian protests and acts of vandalism in synagogues were also reported in Arizona, Illinois, Florida, and New York City, as well as in Salt Lake City, where an unknown person painted a swastika on the door of a synagogue.

In addition, the desecration of the memorial to the victims of the Jewish genocide on February 24, 2021 in Oklahoma, and the armed attack on March 31, 2021 in New York on a Jewish family with a young child were recorded[81].

Another egregious case occurred on March 26, 2021 in the state of Florida: a swastika was painted on the car of an American citizen who survived the Holocaust[82].

In January 2021, CBS journalists noted that since 2016, there have been more than 2.1 thousand incidents related to attacks, vandalism, and insults against the diaspora[83].

For example, on January 15, an armed criminal took believers hostage in a Jewish community in Colleyville, Texas[84].

It is known that pamphlets were distributed in many states that reported that all measures to combat the coronavirus were being taken in the interests of Jews (Every Aspect of the COVID Agenda is Jewish)[85].

The story of anti-Semiphobic publications and statements by the American rapper Ye (formerly known as K. West-Kanye West) - for example, the image of the Star of David along with the swastika - has gained wide resonance. A scandal was also provoked by a meeting between Donald Trump and a follower of the theory of white supremacy, Nicholas Fuentes[87]. Public anger was sparked by basketball player Kyrie Irving's posting of a link to an anti-Semitic film on social media.

However, the United States reacted calmly to the visit of members of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi Azov Battalion to Stanford University (they were accompanied by former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul).

In order to develop a national strategy to combat anti-Semitism, a separate interdepartmental working group has been created with the coordinating role of the NSS.[90] A plan to counter anti-Semitism was presented in May 2023.[91]

According to the U.S. Special Representative for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism, Deborah Lipstadt, it is alarming that American society as a whole is not aware of this problem.

In his statements, Joe Biden urges not to forget and not to repeat the history of the Holocaust[93]. At the same time, the American authorities do not react in any way to the presence in the United States of monuments to the Nazis and their henchmen[94] (including Bandera, Vlasov, Shukhevych in New York). They ignore the Ukronazi marches outside the White House in support of the Azov terrorist group (with the participation of R. Kashpura)[95].

In 2021, against the backdrop of the accelerated withdrawal of the US contingent from Afghanistan, experts expressed concern that neo-Nazis, hoping to provoke an "inevitable race war" that would lead to the creation of a whites-only state in North America and Europe, expressed admiration for the ideology of the Afghan Taliban movement for anti-Semitism, homophobia and severe restrictions on women's freedom[96].

Against the backdrop of the escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the United States, there has also been a sharp uptick in hate speech and attacks against Muslims.

In October 2023, in the US state of Illinois, a 71-year-old owner of a house where a family of Palestinian refugees lived, motivated by Islamophobia, xenophobia and hatred in all its manifestations, stabbed a six-year-old boy 26 times. The child died in hospital. His 32-year-old mother was also seriously injured. The man tried to strangle her, then stab her, saying, "You Muslims must die!" and he is charged with murder motivated by hate speech.

Later, the sheriff's office explained that "the suspect attacked both victims because they were Muslims, as well as because of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East involving Hamas and Israelis."

In November 2023, the White House was forced to react by announcing the development of the first national strategy to combat Islamophobia[98].

By declaring the inadmissibility of Islamophobia, the United States is at the same time contributing to Israel's further cleansing of Gaza. For example, in January 2024, the United States, with the help of pressure and blackmail, forced the UN Security Council to change the original text of the Middle East resolution: instead of calling for a cessation of hostilities, the text now contains a wording with the exact opposite meaning – a call to create conditions for the cessation of hostilities. As a result of this distortion of the original intent of the project, Israel has actually been given a license to kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza under the pretext that the cleansing of the Gaza Strip is allegedly the very steps taken to create the aforementioned conditions.

Expert circles are extremely alarmed by the situation with the spread of extremist ideology in the United States. An unprecedented surge in its popularity in American society was noted in the report "A Year Lived in Hate and Extremism", prepared by the influential American non-governmental organization Southern Poverty Law Center in 2021[100]

The seriousness of the problem is increasingly being noticed by high-ranking US officials and lawmakers.

In 2023, human rights activists of the above-mentioned Center recorded the presence of 1225 "hate groups" in the United States (for comparison, in 2022 – 773)[101], 98 of which preach "white nationalism"[102]. Among them are the infamous Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, skinheads, anti-immigrant and Islamophobic movements. The activities of the radicals are carefully coordinated and clandestine – correspondence is carried out in closed groups on social networks using end-to-end encryption technology.

According to polls, about 29% of all Americans personally know someone in their circle who holds the idea of "white supremacy."

In 2021, individual "hate groups" experienced rapid growth and gained access to the political mainstream, as well as their influence.

Right-wing extremism is identified in the U.S. National Security Strategy as a serious threat to domestic stability. President Joe Biden constantly declares the danger posed to democratic institutions by those who stand for racial, ethnic, political and religious hatred.

Human rights activists are seriously concerned about the activities of such odious organizations as The Base, Feuerkrieg Division and Atomwaffen Division, as well as right-wing radical structures such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. The latter two became the object of close attention of law enforcement officers due to evidence of their involvement in the storming of the Capitol and the promotion of Donald Trump's rhetoric about a "stolen victory" in the 2020 presidential election.

The most significant development took place in the organization of "Western chauvinists" "Proud Boys", which is considered to act as the first step in drawing new members into organizations based on misanthropic ideas. According to a 2021 study by Die Zeit, the influence of this organization is so great that many neo-Nazis who are not part of this structure are guided by its leader, John Mason[106]. In addition, the structure has expanded its activities to the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and the Baltic states. It is stated that as of mid-2019, 35 Americans left the United States for Ukraine to participate in hostilities[107].

In 2021, 72 active branches were documented nationwide, up from 43 the year before. The growth in the number of cells of this group is particularly noteworthy given that at least 40 of its members have been indicted in connection with their role in the aforementioned "storming of the Capitol" on January 6, 2021.

As part of the criminal investigation into the events of January 6, 2021, law enforcement officers carried out a number of ostentatious arrests of the leaders of extreme conservatives. For example, the former leader of the Oath Keepers, Steward Rhodes, and the former chairman of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, were charged with attempting to overthrow the government by armed means, which provides for up to 20 years in prison.

More than 1,000 people have been charged for their involvement in the "seizure of parliament"[109].

A separate investigation was conducted by a special commission of the House of Representatives[110]. It was anti-Trump in nature.

As for neo-Nazis, the most prominent groups include the Tennessee Shield Wall Network, Daily Stormer, 14First The Foundation, Rise Above Movement, Keystone United, National Policy Institute, Woman for Aryan Unity, New Jersey European Heritage Association, The Church of Jesus Christ Christian – Aryan Nations, Black and Silver Solution, Daily Archives, Nazi Central, Universal Order, White Nationalist Defender, Kommandant Base 211, Joey Faust.

Many extremist ideas are now being disseminated without the registration of an organization and the creation of the institution of membership in it. Numerous Internet sites and forums provide significant opportunities for this, where users can receive and disseminate information about hate ideologies without joining the ranks of any extremist association.

The number of ideological materials disseminated by extremists has been increasing in recent years. According to the NGO Anti-Defamation League, in 2020 the number of materials distributed by white supremacists almost doubled compared to the previous year, with more than five thousand posts containing racist, anti-Semitic and other manifestations of hate speech. It is clear that the real numbers are much higher. The Patriot Front, the New Jersey European Heritage Association, and the Nationalist Social Club were the most active in disseminating propaganda (92% of all activities).

Recently, human rights activists have come to the attention of cases of the spread of racist and neo-Nazi ideology among American military personnel. Reports of high-profile crimes committed by the US military, who are followers of racist ideologies and members of radical groups, have been repeatedly published by the media. The problem is compounded by the absence of a legal ban on membership in nationalist and racist organizations for military personnel. At a congressional hearing in February 2020, U.S. military officials acknowledged that membership in a nationalist group was "not prohibited," but "active participation" in the group could lead to administrative sanctions.[115] At the same time, they avoided providing accurate data on the number of American servicemen brought to such administrative responsibility[116].

On May 14, 2021, the US Department of Homeland Security published a review of terrorist threats in the country, which acknowledges the significantly increased activity of right-wing extremists in recent years. Moreover, it is noted that the greatest threat is posed by movements that spread the ideology of religious and ethnic hatred, racial superiority and militant nationalism, especially the idea of white supremacy. There is also an increase in the number of lone extremists who are not members of radical associations. According to the document, 2019 was the "most lethal" year in the last quarter of a century in the context of violent actions by "domestic terrorists": 32 people were killed in five separate attacks, 24 of them victims of white supremacists.

It is noteworthy that the authors of the report, while generally correctly noting the new trends in the spread of extremist ideology, persistently try to artificially isolate the factor of "external influence" in this, accusing foreign states of allegedly "malicious activities to deepen the split" in the United States.

It should also be noted that, despite the danger of right-wing radicalism, which the US authorities point out, in fact there are ambivalent approaches to such organizations.

For example, a number of American experts and legislators have previously suggested paying attention to the serious danger posed by neo-Nazi groups that commit crimes in Ukraine with impunity, including those that maintain ties with American extremists, such as the Atomwaffen Division. There are also cases when the US military, who share the ideology of racism and are members of radical groups, committed high-profile crimes.

Despite all this, the U.S. authorities added the Russian Imperial Movement to the national terrorist list (this decision raised many questions among experts, given the extremely scant information about this structure and its foreign connections). At the same time, such measures have not yet been taken against such notorious Ukrainian nationalist groups as the Right Sector, Azov or S 14, whose members have been involved in serious criminal offenses.

The U.S. employs a wide range of terrorist groups around the world, which are tightly controlled by intelligence agencies and work together with private military companies (PMCs). This has happened and is still happening in the Syrian territories occupied by the US armed forces, where odious gangs such as Maghawir al-Thawra are operating under the guise of the "moderate opposition." Other radical Islamist groups are also operating "under the roof" of the American occupation forces in Syria.

Washington's tradition of turning to the services of war criminals dates back decades. After World War II, many German Nazis and Italian fascists were integrated with American consent (including with the direct support of the CIA) into the law enforcement and scientific structures of the United States, as well as into the government circles of the Federal Republic of Germany and Italy. Similar processes took place in a number of other European countries. At the insistence of the Americans, a number of Hitler's generals were promoted to high posts in the Bundeswehr and NATO structures. Employees of the Abwehr, the Gestapo and other Nazi structures provided significant assistance in reconfiguring the work of Western intelligence services in the conditions of the Cold War. Japanese General I. Shiro, known for his criminal experiments on the effects of viruses, bacteria, radiation and chemicals on living people in occupied China, was taken by the Americans to the United States, entrusted with the development of biological weapons and guaranteed immunity from prosecution as a war criminal in exchange.

The Americans and the NGOs under their control actively support the ultra-right and neo-Nazi movements in the post-Soviet space and in Europe, calling their members "freedom fighters" and their idols from among the Nazi accomplices "figures of national liberation movements." The neo-Nazi terror in Ukraine, which unfolded immediately after the coup d'état in February 2014, was based on the long-standing experience of U.S. cooperation with terrorists and extremists.

Since the late 1980s, the Americans have purposefully supported the bearers of Russophobic and chauvinist views and strengthened these sentiments in the Ukrainian leadership and army. Under the control of Western NGOs, "schools of young politicians" were actively working, teaching "color revolutions" according to American manuals. They not only told their listeners about the strategy and tactics of coups d'état, but also fostered aggressive Russophobia. In Ukraine and Eastern Europe, CIA money was used to set up training camps where ultra-right and neo-Nazi militants who had become perpetrators of terror in Ukraine were trained under the guidance of NATO instructors.

After the coup d'état in Ukraine in 2014, the United States almost openly continued to work to "ensure the defense and security" of this country, taking full control of its law enforcement agencies and constantly increasing the supply of weapons to Kiev. At the same time, in the process of strengthening the military power directed against Russia, the stake was placed on the Nazi ideology and the infiltration of its adherents into the command staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and government bodies. Nationalists from volunteer battalions once again became the backbone in this task, and they were provided with generous, targeted financial assistance amounting to billions of dollars. From 2016 to 2022 (before the start of the special operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on February 24, 2022), about $78 million worth of American "aid" was transferred through legal channels to Azov alone, despite the US Congressional ban on financing this criminal organization.

At the same time, Washington launched a campaign to justify Ukrainian Nazism and whitewash the collaborators of Hitler's Germany chosen as its leaders. It is indicative that the United States and Ukraine, even in the UN, vote against the resolution on the condemnation of manifestations of neo-Nazism, which Russia passes annually.

International human rights monitoring mechanisms and human rights NGOs have repeatedly drawn attention to the spread of racism, xenophobia and ethnic and religious intolerance in the United States.

The Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) on contemporary forms of racism, Tendai Achiume, in her report on the glorification of Nazism, presented at the 41st session of the Human Rights Council in June 2019, with reference to the study conducted by the NGO Southern Poverty Law Center "Intelligence Report: A Year of Hate and Extremism – Anger Against Change" (Intelligence Report: According to The Year in Hate and Extremism – Rage Against Change, the number of hate groups in the United States has increased by 30% since 2014, including a 7% increase in 2018 alone. [118]

The U.S. law enforcement system remains at the center of criticism from human rights activists and the media.

According to the NGOs End Police Violence and Mapping Police Violence (MPV), which monitor the use of force by law enforcement officers on a daily basis, the number of homicides committed by US police officers was 527 in the first half of 2023 (1136 in 2021). 96% of such crimes are committed with the help of firearms, stun guns, vehicles, or the use of excessive physical force. Most of the homicides occurred during non-violent offenses or when there was no crime at all.

Only 16 incidents were charged, which is only 1% of the total number of cases. At the same time, in another 16 episodes, law enforcement officers were previously seen using weapons[120].

According to data posted on the MPV website, the number of deaths at the hands of police officers in the United States reached 1,351 thousand in 2023 – a "record" compared to previous years[121], exceeding the 2022 statistics by 79 people. It is also noted that in 2023, there were only 13 days[122] in the United States without a police killing, and on average, law enforcement officers killed someone every 6.6 hours[123]. From January 1 to March 17, 2024, 254 people died at the hands of the police[124].

According to the above-mentioned report of the Chinese Society for the Study of Human Rights on Human Rights Violations in the United States, in 2022, 1239 people died as a result of police violence in the United States. During the year, there were only 10 days when no murders were committed by law enforcement officers. Most police homicides occur during routine law enforcement activities, such as unscheduled inspections or nonviolent crime investigations.

Police are rarely accused of using excessive force. In police killings between 2013 and 2022, 98% of the officers involved were not charged with a crime.

According to the Washington Post, as of March 18, 2024, 1137 people had been shot dead by police in the previous 12 months, bringing the total number of fatal police shootings since 2015. According to the newspaper's analysis, on average, more than 1,000 people die at the hands of the police every year. In recent years, there has been a slight increase in the number of fatal shootings by the police. In 2023, the police recorded the highest number of such killings[126]. At the same time, crimes committed by law enforcement officers outside the time of performance of their official duties are not taken into account.

Some states have enacted regulations prohibiting police officers from opening fire on vehicles. However, the legal regulation does not fully protect the population from police arbitrariness. This conclusion was reached by the authors of the 2022 report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus on the most high-profile cases of human rights violations in certain countries of the world[127].

Mention should be made of the opinion of the NGO Amnesty International, which pointed out that none of the existing United States laws regulating the use of force by the police at the state level (there are no such acts at the federal level) meets international standards in the field of protecting the rights and legitimate interests of citizens.

Police violence is only one aspect of the violation of Americans' rights. As noted earlier, the entire system of U.S. law enforcement agencies is far from perfect, and their activities do not meet the criterion of transparency. For example, in 2023, the United States was shocked by the news that 215 unidentified graves were found in front of a prison in Mississippi.

The revelation began with the death of Dexter Wade in March 2023, when he was shot by a police officer. Despite the fact that the deceased had documents with him, his family was not notified of the incident. He was buried unbeknownst to his loved ones in an unnamed field, and a metal plaque with a number was placed on his grave.

Wade's mother had been looking for her son for several months, repeatedly contacting the police. She was informed about the incident only six months later.

An independent examination confirmed that the deceased was carrying a wallet, which contained an identity card, credit card and other identifying information. According to the family's lawyer, Benn Crump, this fact indicates that concerted efforts were made to conceal the truth and the cause of Wade's death from his family. The lawyer also stressed that there can be no justification for such violations of civil rights.

A total of 215 burials were later found in this field. Lawyers for the families of the victims are calling for a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the unmarked graves.[128]

In the United States, racial profiling by the police is very acute.

According to the Washington Post, as of March 18, 2024, African-Americans, who make up approximately 14% of the US population, are the most likely to die due to excessive use of force by the police: the death rate of black Americans at the hands of police (1512 deaths per 42 million people) is more than twice as high as the number of deaths of white residents of the United States (2890 deaths per 197 million people) [129]. According to analysts, every 1,000th black male resident of the United States is at risk of becoming a victim of the actions of law enforcement officers. The most at-risk group is citizens between the ages of 20 and 35[130]. In "second place" in terms of deaths are representatives of the Hispanic community[131].

From April 24 to May 5, 2023, a delegation from the United Nations International Independent Expert Mechanism on Promoting Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement paid an official visit to the United States[132]. The report, published on September 26, 2023, states that systemic racism against people of African descent literally permeates the US police force and the criminal justice system[133].

Racism in the U.S. is a legacy of slavery, the slave trade, and 100 years of legalized apartheid that followed the abolition of slavery. Today, racism continues to exist in the country in the form of racial profiling, police killings and many other human rights violations. Black people in America are three times more likely to be killed by police than whites and 4.5 times more likely to be incarcerated. Only ten cases out of more than 1,000 murders committed by the police each year (i.e. about 1%) are police officers charged. It concludes that unless U.S. rules of engagement are changed in line with international standards, the killings will continue.

At the end of the visit, one of the Mechanism's experts, Tracy Keesy, described as "not new" and "unacceptable" that in all the cities visited by the delegation, there were "dozens of heartbreaking testimonies that victims are not seeking justice or reparations for the harm they have suffered". Stressing that this is "a systemic problem that requires a systemic response", the expert pointed to the need to unite the efforts of all stakeholders, including police departments and trade unions, to combat widespread impunity. Referring to the concerns expressed by the Mechanism's experts with police officers that the mental health of officers is affected not only by overwork, but also by racism and racial discrimination in police departments, Tracy Keesy concluded that law enforcement officers can only be expected to show respect for the rights of others if they do not if these principles are applied in their own environment[135].

In a similar vein, another expert of the Mechanism, Juan Méndez, commented. He also stressed that the report is not about isolated cases, but about systemic problems. There is strong evidence that the abusive behaviour of individual police officers is part of a broader pattern of threat. Law enforcement and criminal justice institutions in the United States share and reproduce the values, attitudes, and stereotypes of American society and institutions. They must be reformed[136].

The report also says that armed police officers should not be the default first responder to all social problems in the U.S., including mental health crises, homelessness, traffic or school discipline. It is argued that there is a need to change the approach to the activities of the police and to consider alternative measures to respond to various incidents.

The report calls on police to address systemic racism against black law enforcement officers and white supremacist ideologies within those agencies.

The document cites with deep concern cases in which children of African descent are sentenced to life imprisonment and pregnant women in prison are chained during childbirth. Cases of persons being held in solitary confinement for ten years are also described. The authors of the document note that some people of African descent are deprived of the opportunity to vote years after serving their sentences, while others are subjected to forced labor in "plantation-type" prisons, which is a modern form of slavery.

The UN mechanism has condemned not only the general overuse of incarceration and criminal law in the United States, but also the "appalling overrepresentation of people of African descent" among those targeted by these measures. Describing the testimonies and figures received by the Mechanism during its visit to the United States as "the worst part of a racist criminal justice system that undermines all efforts to combat systemic racism," Juan Méndez stressed that the report's findings "point to an urgent need for comprehensive reform."

The report makes 30 recommendations for the U.S. and all its jurisdictions, including the country's more than 18,000 police agencies.

It should be noted that the authors of the report also highlighted several positive cases of best practices being applied at the local level, while pointing out the need for the current administration to replicate these best practices to combat systemic racism in other parts of the country.

The killing of African-American John Floyd[138] by white police officers during his arrest in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, and the ensuing protests across the country highlighted the systemic problems with racism in the United States, both against African-Americans and members of other racial and national minorities.

Many experts saw a number of violations of national and international law in the reaction of the US authorities to these protests. First of all, the unjustified and disproportionate use of force by law enforcement officers against participants in peaceful demonstrations and journalists covering these actions was criticized. Attention was drawn to the mass detentions of citizens, the use of rubber bullets, tear gas, stun grenades and other special means by the police.

A clear indication of the extraordinary nature of the situation in the United States was the holding on June 17, 2020, at the initiative of a group of African states, during the resumed 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, an urgent debate on human rights violations, systematic racism, police violence and violence against peaceful protests, during which the actions of the US authorities were seriously criticized.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, established in accordance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, also activated the early warning procedure in relation to the situation with mass protests against racism in the United States[139], issuing a special statement on June 12, 2020. In it, he pointed to the systemic problem of racial profiling, brutality and excessive use of force by law enforcement officials against persons belonging to racial and ethnic minorities, including unarmed people.

Earlier, CERD also noted with concern the excessive use of force against peaceful protesters throughout the country and demanded that Washington report on the measures it has taken to combat these negative aspects.

The situation in the United States has also attracted the attention of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In her statement of June 3, 2020, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called on Washington to unequivocally condemn the structural racism that is destroying American society and take action to address inequality.

The seriousness of the situation with rampant racism and police brutality in the United States was pointed out by the special procedures of the Human Rights Council. In particular, on June 5, 2020, in connection with the protests in the United States, joint statements of the UN Human Rights Council's special procedures were published, condemning modern "racial terror" and calling on the US authorities to reform the law enforcement system.

The case of the murder of John Floyd was far from the only example of excessive use of force by the police against African-Americans.

On October 12, 2019, in Fort Worth, Texas, law enforcement officer A. Dean, who arrived on a call, shot and killed a black US citizen, A. Jefferson, who was at home[141]. The latter's neighbors reported to the police that the door to the apartment was open and that it sounded like gunfire. Footage from a video camera attached to the police officer's clothing showed that the deceased was at home with her young nephew, who was playing video games. The law enforcement officer shot to kill immediately after the warning, leaving the victim no chance of survival.

On January 28, 2020, in Temple Hills, Maryland, a police officer shot and killed W. Green, an African-American detained for dangerous driving and handcuffed[142]. A law enforcement officer fired several shots at the detainee, who was in the front seat of the patrol car and did not resist.

On March 13, 2020, in Louisville, Kentucky, a police officer mistakenly shot and killed nurse B. Taylor during a search of her home[143]. Suspicions about the participation of the deceased in drug trafficking were not confirmed.

On September 1, 2020, an African-American cyclist was shot dead by police in Los Angeles for allegedly violating traffic rules. After the suspect stopped, a scuffle ensued, during which he was shot.

On April 11, 2021, in the suburbs of Minneapolis, a policewoman shot and killed an African-American man, D. Wright, during her arrest[144]. According to the city police leadership, their employee wanted to use a stun gun, but mistakenly shot an African-American.

On April 20, 2021, in Columbus, Ohio, a police officer who came to a call with information about an attack by a girl with a knife shot and killed a dark-skinned 16-year-old girl, M. Bryant. The incident took place at about the same time as the verdict in the case of the murder of John Floyd was announced during the arrest by police officers. The jury found police officer D. Chauvin guilty on all charges.

On April 21, 2021, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, African-American E. Brown Jr. was killed due to a shooting opened by deputy police chiefs. [146] The incident also sparked widespread riots in the city, prompting a curfew.

On January 7, 2023, five black police officers stopped the car of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old African-American man who was unarmed, for reckless driving. They used a stun gun, pepper spray, kicked him, punched him, and beat him with a truncheon.[147] The man died on 10 January 2023 at St. Francis Hospital. Nichols' relatives explained that he suffered a broken neck and suffered a cardiac arrest while in police custody, and the cause of death was kidney failure and cardiac arrest.

The city of Memphis, Tennessee, released three videos of Tir Nichols being brutally detained by local police officers. After that, protest demonstrations began in Memphis, and actions were also held in New York, Washington and other cities. The officers were charged with second-degree murder.[149] The Memphis government and the U.S. authorities criticized the actions of law enforcement officers. President Joe Biden said the case is "another painful reminder of the deep fear and trauma, pain and exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day." In this context, the president demanded that Congress expedite the passage of the George Floyd Police Justice Act,[150] which is designed to reduce the share of misconduct by the agency's employees[151].

In August 2023, in Ohio, two police officers shot and killed a 21-year-old pregnant black woman, Ta'Kiya Young, who was sitting in a car in a parking lot next to a grocery store. They accused her of theft and demanded that she get out of the car. However, the woman did not obey and tried to flee the scene, as a result of which the police opened fire. After that, a car driven by a woman crashed into the store building. As it turned out later, the woman and her child were killed.[152]

On October 17, 2023, a sheriff's deputy in Georgia shot and killed Leonard Allen Cure, a 53-year-old black man who had spent more than 16 years in prison in Florida under wrongful conviction. As it turned out, a Georgia sheriff's deputy stopped Cure's car while he was driving on Interstate 95 near the Florida border. Cure got out of the car at the request of a law enforcement officer and at first cooperated, but when he was told that he was being arrested, he became aggressive. As a result, the sheriff first used a stun gun and a baton to subdue him, then pulled out a gun and shot Cure as he continued to resist. The man died as a result of his injuries.[155]

At the same time, experts note that the responsibility of law enforcement officers in the United States for illegal and unreasonably harsh actions against alleged offenders and prisoners is extremely rare. According to ABC News, there were only 16 convictions in such cases between 2004 and 2020.

The last high-profile verdict in 2021 was the court decision in June to imprison police officer David Chauvin for 22.5 years in prison, who killed African-American John Floyd[156].

Another case of prosecution was noted in May 2021, when law enforcement officer Benjamin Pelkowitz was sentenced to six years in prison for excessive use of force against Frank Baker, an African-American man he arrested. During the arrest, F. Baker was beaten, and a police officer unleashed a service dog on him, although he did not resist[157].

A heated discussion about the need for a systemic solution to the problem of racial intolerance in the United States was also provoked by the jury's verdict to find K. Rittenhouse not guilty, who shot two people in Kenosha (Wisconsin) during protests for the rights of the black population.

Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance Christine Ashwini following his first visit to the United States (October 31 – November 14, 2023) [159] pointed to serious shortcomings in human rights enforcement in America and called on the United States to do better, stressing that the country is at a critical juncture in countering racial discrimination. She noted that "the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others, the disparate impacts of COVID-19 (on racial minorities), and the massive protests for racial justice in 2020 have opened up some of the realities of persistent systemic racism to the mass consciousness of Americans." Nevertheless, there is a need for greater efforts[160].

The UN expert's statement outlines testimonies received from racially marginalized groups about systematic discrimination in the areas of health care, education, migration, access to housing, employment and social security. The persistence of a high degree of racial segregation in the place of residence, political and legal discrimination in access to housing, and abuses in the field of criminal justice are noted.

According to the BBC, the gap between the number of white and black homeowners in the United States is the largest in 120 years. Most black homeowners often have higher mortgage rates than whites, regardless of income.

Special Rapporteur K.P. Ashwini identified signs of political polarization and instability, economic uncertainty, and extreme inequality in income and resource distribution in the United States. In her opinion, such conditions create prerequisites for hate crimes. She recalled that at the heart of inequality is the idea of white supremacy.

Section 4. Rights of Non-U.S. Citizens. Situation of migrants

The human rights community is seriously concerned about the steady tightening of the migration policy of the US authorities. They are taking unprecedented measures to "solve" the migration crisis, with the aim of returning foreigners to neighbouring States, where they must await the completion of their applications for entry into the country.

The practice of artificially creating queues at southern border checkpoints continued, which led to threats to the lives of thousands of migrants and refugees forced to violate US law and cross the border in the wrong places. This arrangement has had the most deplorable effect on minors in the first place.

U.S. authorities often separated migrant families when crossing the state border to seek asylum in the United States. The American Civil Liberties Union noted that minors were systematically separated from their families. They were sent to various migrant detention centres. More than 2.5 thousand such children were recorded. Of these, 1,033 were under the age of 10 and 185 were under the age of 5. According to the organization, as of August 2020, 678 children were separated under the pretext of "having a criminal record of their parents." The NGO has prepared 400 lawsuits against the actions of the US authorities against migrants, including in order to block the expulsion of child asylum seekers at the border.

According to the Washington Post, one in 10 of the 895 detained migrant minors interviewed by journalists had been insulted by U.S. law enforcement officers, and 147 teenagers had been physically abused. More than 40 percent of those surveyed said they were deprived of food and water during their detention.[167] In 2018-2019, about 2.6 thousand teenagers were in custody, five died. As of March 2021, 4.2 thousand minors were in detention.

The Washington Post reported on an incident in which 10-year-old asylum seeker Hugo Obregón was deported by the authorities to Mexico and then kidnapped by unknown assailants. Reporters are convinced that there are thousands of such incidents.[168]

The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the situation. The United States has begun to use it as a pretext to deny asylum seekers access to the U.S. asylum system, as required by U.S. law and treaty obligations.

Launched in January 2019, the U.S. Remain in Mexico (RMX) program, under which applicants must await a U.S. court decision granting them asylum outside the U.S., has been heavily criticized by human rights activists. It is alleged that its rules have led to widespread violations of fundamental freedoms. Nearly 70,000 asylum seekers in the United States were in border towns on the Mexican side. Many migrants have been victims of crimes, including sexual exploitation and human trafficking.[170] Experts also criticized the conditions of their living – in tent cities or overcrowded "barracks" type rooms, in rooms without heating and access to basic hygiene products. The diet includes frozen foods, including those with an expired shelf life[171].

Among other problems, analysts noted unemployment and the crime situation. There are known cases of refugees being resettled in religious and places of worship. Migrant children were not given the opportunity to attend educational institutions. Adequate measures have not been taken to prevent the spread of serious infectious diseases, including HIV.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the right of asylum seekers to a fair and timely trial was also violated. Hearings in the cases of applicants were postponed for an indefinite period of time, which further endangered their lives and health. Since the launch of the Remain in Mexico (RMX) program, only 615 people (less than 1% of applicants) have been granted asylum in the United States. In total, in 2020, about 400 thousand people were waiting for responses to such requests[174].

Asylum seekers have faced denial of their applications and unjustified expulsion to countries where they were at risk or even death (according to the NGO Human Rights Watch, 138 expelled Salvadorans have died since 2013). The conditions of detention in American deportation centers also did not stand up to criticism – overcrowding, unsanitary conditions.

Since March 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has pursued an expulsion policy using a rule issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as orders from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which allow authority to be invoked under public health laws codified in Title 42 of the United States Code. Human Rights First (HRF) has tracked at least 8,705 violent assaults and abductions against people denied asylum under Section 42 and other restrictions on asylum access. Many of these families and individuals are living in brutal conditions, exacerbated by the pandemic, without safe, adequate health care and adequate nutrition.

On December 23, 2020, DHS and the Department of Justice under the Trump administration introduced a rule depriving refugees who come from or transit through a country where COVID-19 or potentially other contagious diseases are widespread, calling them "dangerous to the national security of the United States."

Since January 2021, the United States has expelled nearly 25,000 Haitians, including children, including asylum seekers, to Haiti without access to the asylum process, despite growing political instability and violence in the country.

As of the end of February 2022, direct Title 42 removals were also continuing to other countries, including El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Under Donald Trump's administration, the United States concluded asylum cooperation agreements (ACAs) with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, which the Biden administration subsequently suspended and decided to terminate. The U.S. government has expelled at least 945 asylum seekers to Guatemala under the ACA without providing a remedy. Agreements with Honduras and El Salvador have never been implemented.

Leading U.S. medical experts have repeatedly concluded that asylum restrictions are unjustifiable from a public health perspective and threaten the health and safety of migrants. While asylum seekers are not allowed to seek protection along the border, including at ports of entry, vaccinated tourists and other visitors with visas have been allowed to enter the United States through southern border ports since November 2021, highlighting the discriminatory nature of the asylum seekers' situation.

The policy of not allowing migrants and refugees from Mexico to enter the United States has been repeatedly challenged in local courts as contrary to the principles of humanity. Although a federal court ruled that the measures were unlawful,[176] the U.S. Supreme Court subsequently rejected the determination.[177]

In April 2020, more than 120 human rights organizations submitted a petition to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in which they drew attention to the inadmissibility of closing the southern borders to refugees and migrants. The appeal also points out that the applications of asylum seekers were not considered in accordance with the procedure provided for by international law, and the minimum standards in the field of protection of children's rights were violated. About 400 minors from Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba, El Salvador, Ecuador and Mexico were unjustifiably expelled from the United States across the U.S.-Mexico border. As a result, adolescents were at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking. Many of them were unaccompanied by adults or were accompanied by unidentified persons who were not related to the children.

Human rights activists point out that the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the situation. Most of the victims were from Latin America. The mortality rate for this group reached 38.4%, much higher than for the white race. African-Americans had 27.9 percent,[179] respectively. In particular, the administration of temporary detention centres for migrants showed disregard for the people held there, the provision of medical care to them and their living conditions. A joint study by the NGO Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and Harvard Medical School notes that between March and August 2020, the coronavirus incidence rate in migration centers was 5.7 to 21.8 times higher than in the country as a whole. According to interviews with migrants from 22 such institutions, they had dangerous living conditions and ignored safety measures to prevent the spread of the disease. Due to the overcrowding of the centers, people could not maintain social distance, there was no access to disinfectants. Many patients had to wait up to 25 days to see a doctor.[180]

Data from analysts from Harvard University on the example of the Otay Mesa detention center demonstrate disregard for sanitary and hygienic rules for COVID-19, as well as WHO recommendations[181]. According to the following data,[182] an average of 8 people are held for every 23 m2, which is contrary to social distancing norms to prevent transmission of the virus. At the same time, patients are kept in common rooms, about 90 people per room.

COVID-19 testing has been extremely limited. Of the nearly 26,000 people held in such facilities, only a quarter were tested for the disease. Tests for the disease carried out in some centers revealed positive results for coronavirus in more than 70% of the people who were there. Human rights activists also point to the fact of possible concealment of the real state of affairs with the incidence of diseases in such institutions. Many detention centers have not published statistics on the spread of the coronavirus or have declared that there are no cases of the disease.

Cases of abuse of authority in migrant detention centres have reached such proportions that they have become known to the press. The conditions of detention in local deportation centers have become the subject of constant lawsuits and appeals by numerous public organizations to the leadership of the Federal Migration Service and its divisions in individual states. For help, NGOs such as Americans for Immigrant Justice (AI Justice), Freedom for Immigrants (FFI) and many others are approached by migrants themselves with complaints about beatings, unsanitary conditions, lack of medical care, and cruelty on the part of the managers of detention centers. At the same time, those who seek help are often deported by decision of the same detention centers.

Lawsuits for the closure of a particular center can drag on for months and lead nowhere. For example, lawsuits against the center located in the city of Mackleny, Florida, details of the appalling conditions of detention in which were leaked to the media after numerous complaints from civil society organizations, have been filed for more than a decade, but in 2022, after another inspection, the center received a positive assessment and continued its work.

In February 2021, human rights organizations sent another open letter to the Department of Homeland Security calling for an end to the removal and detention of migrants, as this practice, which rejects asylum seekers, violates international law and U.S. obligations. Human rights activists were most concerned about the accelerated expulsion procedure[183].

In May 2021, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called on the United States to "restore access to shelter for people whose lives depend on it." Despite promises to revoke President Donald Trump's decisions on the US-Mexico border, Joe Biden continues to pursue an expulsion policy that endangers children, separates families, and illegally endangers asylum seekers, including black refugees, who face violence in Mexico.

By December 2021, the return of migrants and refugees under the Remain in Mexico (RMX) program had resumed (following a court order that is currently under appeal). In a December 2021 letter, dozens of members of the U.S. Congress denounced the administration's reintroduction of RMX and called on it to reverse its decision to expand the potential pool of nationalities covered by the Remain in Mexico program. The administration has indicated that it will use the program to return to Mexico people who cannot be removed under Title 42.

The combined use of the "Remain in Mexico" policy and Title 42 allows the Department of Homeland Security to block, return, or deport to Mexico an even wider range of migrants and asylum seekers. In the two years that the Trump administration implemented the program, Human Rights First (HRF) tracked at least 1,544 publicly reported cases of kidnapping, murder, torture, rape, and other violent attacks against people who had returned to Mexico. At least two asylum seekers who returned to Mexico under the Remain in Mexico (RMX) program have been killed.

On August 8, 2022, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the end of the "Stay in Mexico" strategy initiated by the previous administration[185].

However, according to a report by The New York Times on February 2, 2024, the United States, after almost two years, has decided to resume special flights that are designed to deport illegal migrants from the country to Mexico. The first flight to Morelia, a city in central Mexico, carrying more than 100 Mexicans, took off on January 30, 2024.

On January 12, 2024, the Texas National Guard built a barbed wire fence near the border with Mexico to combat illegal migration. After the administration of US President Joe Biden appealed to the Supreme Court, the latter decided to remove the fence, but the Texas National Guard does not allow federal patrols to the border. On January 25, 2024, Republican governors from 25 states came out in support of Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Texas' constitutional right to self-defense.

In an interview with CBS News, the head of the U.S. Border Patrol Service, Jason Owens, said that since the beginning of fiscal year 2024 (it has been in the United States since October 2023), the number of cases of migrants detained at the U.S.-Mexico border has approached 1 million, and by the end of fiscal 2024, the number of detained migrants could be about 2 million. that border security is an important part of national security, stating the following: "If we don't know who enters our country, we don't know their intentions. It's a threat, and they're exploiting our vulnerability." As measures aimed at tightening immigration policy and reducing the number of those who illegally cross the southern border of the United States, Jason Owens named imprisonment, expulsion from the country and a ban on entry from the country.

On February 4, 2024, in an interview with Fox News, former US President and presidential candidate Donald Trump said that if he was re-elected as American leader, he would close the country's border, as well as begin mass deportations of illegal migrants[189].

Representatives of relevant international organizations sharply criticize the policy of the US authorities in this area. For example, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, F. Türk, called the actions of the US government in relation to asylum seekers a gross violation of human rights, creating a threat of a global migration crisis.

With regard to the influx of migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border, there has been a sharp increase in the share of Russian compatriots in the total flow of "refugees." According to the electronic register of Russians detained for illegally crossing the US state border maintained by the Russian Embassy, in the period from January 1 to November 1, 2023, Russian foreign missions received about 10 thousand notifications about the arrest of Russian citizens (mainly in the area of San Ysidro and Calexico, California). As a rule, "fugitives" refuse to provide consular and legal assistance and do not plan to return to their homeland in the hope of obtaining political asylum in the United States.

Researchers from the American Civil Liberties Union have criticized the White House administration for supporting and funding private immigration centers and prisons that violate the rights and freedoms of asylum seekers.

The migrant detention system expanded during Donald Trump's presidency, which allowed private prison corporations such as the GEO Group, the Corrections Corporation of America (CoreCivic), LaSalle Corrections and the Management and Training Corporation (MTS) to take control of most immigration prisons. Most of these places hold people who have been detained at the border, who have entered the United States illegally, and foreign nationals whom the government wants to deport because they "pose a threat to national security."

From a legal point of view, the presence of immigrants in the establishments of the above-mentioned companies is of a civil, not a criminal nature, however, as noted by experts in the field of human rights protection, the conditions of detention in immigration prisons are practically no different from the institutions of the punitive and correctional system.

While still a presidential candidate, Joe Biden promised to stop using private facilities to hold asylum seekers. In January 2021, he signed a decree obliging the Ministry of Justice to gradually terminate its contracts with representatives of the prison industrial complex. However, the regulatory act did not affect the centers of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Moreover, the number of detained immigrants, as well as the income of the above-mentioned enterprises, has only increased. For example, as of July 2023, 90.8% of people detained daily by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are held in centers owned or operated by private prison companies.

Contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) generate significant revenue for the aforementioned corporations. In 2022, GEO Group received $1.05 billion. income from contracts with the immigration service alone, which accounted for 43.9% of total income ($2.4 billion). The Corrections Corporation of America (CoreCivic) earned a similar fee, receiving $552.2 million in 2022 through such cooperation. – 30% of its total income.

In order to achieve such indicators, companies save on almost everything. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is much worse at cleaning and cooking. Migrants often do not receive the necessary medical care. The situation with psychological support is no better: it happens that one psychologist works part-time for the entire prison. This situation leads not only to suicides, but also to outbreaks of violence, which occur in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement nearly 30% more often than in federal prisons. At the same time, unarmed guards with only walkie-talkies, who receive a minimum wage and have completed only a three-week training course, are not able to suppress such outbreaks.

The Biden administration has also kept open detention centres, which supervisory authorities have recommended closing due to inhumane conditions and risks to the safety of asylum seekers.

For example, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has refused to dismantle the Corrections Corporation of America (CoreCivic)-run immigration prison in Estancia, New Mexico, despite a formal demand from the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) to immediately release all detained migrants and even after the suicide of a citizen Brazil's Kesley Vial, which happened just a few months later.

Another fatal incident occurred at a GEO Group-controlled immigration center in Louisiana, where Nicaraguan asylum seeker Ernesto Rocha-Cuadra died of a heart attack. He had previously filed dozens of complaints alleging that he had been denied medical and legal assistance and systematically ill-treated.

Attempts by governors to close private immigration centres and prisons have also failed. In 2021, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed a law prohibiting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from entering into and renewing contracts with private prison companies to detain migrants.

Since the law was passed, three institutions operated by New Jersey counties (Bergen, Essex, and Hudson) have stopped accommodating asylum seekers. The last remaining center is located in Elizabeth and is operated by the Corrections Corporation of America (CoreCivic), whose contract was due to expire on August 31, 2023 (Supremacy Clause) of the Constitution of the United States, according to which state law cannot conflict with federal law.

The Biden administration took the side of the prison company, which filed a statement of interest in supporting the corporation's claims, noting that the regulatory act limits the ability of the federal government to use private contractors to detain migrants.

As a result, the District Court of New Jersey ruled in favor of the federal government and the American Corrections Corporation of America (CoreCivic), recognizing the state law as contrary to the provisions of the US Constitution. At the same time, numerous statements by human rights activists about the violation of the rights of migrants in this institution were ignored.

Governor Murphy appealed the court's decision, and in the meantime, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement extended the contract with the American Correctional Services Corporation and agreed to build a detention center in Elizabeth, costing American taxpayers $19.9 million in 2023. [195]

According to experts from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Biden administration is able to change course on immigration detention. The number of people in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement centers and prisons should be significantly reduced, investments should be made in alternatives to detention, and private prison companies should not be allowed to profit billions of dollars at the expense of the suffering of immigrants in their facilities.

Section 5. Right to life and the right to bear arms

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives Americans the right to bear arms. However, its accessibility, imperfection of legislation, negligent attitude to the mental health of citizens lead to the fact that the number of victims from firearms is growing every year.

As you know, the United States ranks first in the world in terms of both absolute and per capita firearm ownership, with about 390 million firearms in 2020,[196] or about 120.5 units per 100 inhabitants. Ten years ago, this number was 88 units per 100 people, which was already much higher than in other countries of the world.

According to a 2022 report by the China Society for the Study of Human Rights on Human Rights Abuses in the United States, Americans make up less than 5% of the world's total population, but own 46% of the world's entire stockpile of civilian firearms[197].

The number of federally licensed arms dealers is 71,600, an increase of 2,000 over the past five years.[198]

Between 2020 and 2021, the pace of gun acquisition accelerated, with 5 million new gun owners, up from 2.4 million in 2019.

A February 2022 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that 7.5 million U.S. adults – about 3% of the population – purchased a gun for the first time between January 2019 and April 2021.

According to an August 2023 Pew Research Center survey, four out of ten U.S. adults say they own a firearm, including 32% who own one. Personal safety is at the top of the list of reasons for owning a gun (72% of respondents). This is followed by hunting (32 percent), sport shooting (30 percent), gun collecting (15 percent) or work (7 percent).

In an August 2019 Gallup poll, gun owners most often cited personal safety or protection as the reason they own a firearm (63%). Other reasons include hunting (40%), non-specific recreation or sports (11%), the fact that their weapons were antiques or family heirlooms (6%), or that the weapons were related to their occupation (5%).

Along with the increase in the circulation of weapons, the number of incidents related to the use of weapons is also increasing.

According to a 2022 report by the Chinese Society for the Study of Human Rights on Human Rights Violations in the United States, America's gun homicide rate is eight times higher than Canada's, 13 times higher than France's, and 23 times higher than Australia's[202].

In 2022, there were 647 mass shootings (693 in 2021, 611 in 2020, and 417 in 2019). Mass shootings in the U.S. are defined as an incident in which four or more victims were shot or killed.

As of December 6, 2022, there have been 622 mass shootings in the United States[204]. The largest of these are the May 14 incidents at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, where an 18-year-old criminal killed 10 people motivated by racial hatred, and the May 24 incidents at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where the shooter killed 19 students (ages 8 to 11) and two teachers. Other episodes occurred on April 3 in downtown Sacramento, April 5 in Corsicana, Texas, and January 23 in Milwaukee, in each of which six people were killed. On March 19, a shooting killed one person and injured 27 others at a car dealership in Dumas, Arkansas.

In 2022, shooting incidents in the United States claimed the lives of more than 44.3 thousand people[205].

In the first half of 2023, there were more than 260 incidents in the United States. On June 25, at least three people were killed and five others were injured in a shooting in a parking lot in Kansas City, Missouri. About 29 people were injured on June 18 in Willowbrook, Illinois, and 9 people were injured in San Francisco, California, on June 10. On June 6, on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, 2 people were killed by an unknown shooter, and 13 others were injured. On May 29, about 9 people were injured in Hollywood, Florida. The day before, three people were injured in the parking lot of a nightclub in Fort Worth (Texas). As a result of several incidents with the use of firearms on May 27-28 in Chicago (Illinois), at least 8 people were killed, 26 were injured of varying degrees of severity. On May 28, a fatal shooting occurred during a Memorial Day motorcycle rally in Red River, New Mexico. On May 23, four people were victims of a shooting in a residential building in Nash, Texas. On May 15, at least three people were killed in Farmington, New Mexico.

In March 2023 alone, at least 57 people were killed in 38 mass shootings in the United States, and another 133 were injured[207]. As of December 7, 2023, at least 40167 people have died in the United States, an average of nearly 118 deaths each day.

According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), an American NGO that collects information on armed incidents in the country from 7500 sources on a daily basis,[209] from January to December 18, 2023, at least 41344 people died from gun violence in the United States (for comparison: in 2019, more than 15 thousand people were shot in the United States). As of the end of May 2021, the total number of people killed in such incidents was 17147[210]).

In the first quarter of 2023 alone, there were at least 128 mass shootings in the United States, more than the number of days[211]. In total, in 2023, there were 604 incidents involving the use of firearms, 10 of them in educational institutions. 746 people were killed and 2,442 wounded.

In the first two months of 2024, there have already been more than 60 tragic cases. If you look at the map with the marks of the places of such incidents, you will see that the most "bloody" picture is in the states adjacent to the east coast of the United States.

Firearms are the leading cause of death among children and adolescents between the ages of 1 and 19. In these incidents, 1,338 teenagers and 286 children were killed.

More than 1,000 firearms have been reported on U.S. school campuses since 2018, a significant increase from any similar period since at least 1970.[214] In 2022 alone, 273 people were killed or injured in 303 incidents on campuses.

Between 2013 and 2022, the firearm death rate among children and adolescents increased by 87%[215]. In 98% of educational institutions, students were taught how to behave in the event of an unknown person with a weapon.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2022, 48117 people died from firearms (that is, an average of one person every 11 minutes), 26993 people died from suicide with a firearm (for comparison, in 2020, a total of 45222 people died from gunshot wounds as a result of homicide or suicide). The number of firearm deaths has increased by 21% compared to 2019. Mass shootings and gun homicides tend to get more media attention, but statistics show that the majority of gun deaths are suicides.

According to published FBI statistics, the use of firearms involves a quarter of violent crimes and 60% of homicides. Approximately 8,500 hate crimes committed against national, religious, and other minorities a year are committed with the use of weapons.

The NGO Amnesty International, after reviewing the latest available official data on deaths from gunshot wounds, came to the disappointing conclusion that more than half of the deaths in the country (58.5%) were among the African-American population.

At the same time, a number of experts note that representatives of national minorities in America themselves take part in shootings. According to the NGO Foundation to Combat Gun Violence, 37 percent of homicides are committed by African Americans between the ages of 15 and 34.

It is noteworthy that at the federal level in the United States there is no ban on the purchase of pistols, rifles and other types of such weapons for people who have a criminal record for any minor crime.

As the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) points out, while mass shootings don't make up the majority of gun violence in America, their impact on communities and residents is clear. Incidents such as the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, continue to plunge cities into mourning and prompt repeated calls for gun reform.

According to a 2022 report by the China Society for the Study of Human Rights on Human Rights Violations in the United States, the number of cases of gun violence is increasing in tandem with the increase in the number of gun owners. A study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) shows that the loosening of gun control in the United States has led to a simultaneous rise in gun ownership and mass shootings. The United States leads the world in the number of people who own guns, as well as in the number of homicides with guns and mass murders. According to the report's authors, gun violence has become an "American disease."

Another problem associated with the use of weapons is that representatives of American law enforcement agencies are often guided by forceful methods and use firearms, as well as other special means or ill-treatment, regardless of the real need to prevent a threat to their lives from the violators of the order. Racial profiling is closely related to this problem, as non-whites are the most affected by police abuse.

Human rights activists note the lack of social programs for survivors of such violence, as well as serious problems with the system of material compensation for victims. The high cost of psychological care in the United States does not allow those in need to turn to specialists.

American human rights activists continue to campaign for stricter legislation on the circulation and use of firearms. According to the NGO Amnesty International, special training requirements for potential firearms purchasers are insufficient. It is necessary to work out additional acts aimed directly at preventing violence in "risk groups". The campaign has yielded some results. For example, in some states, relevant regulations have been adopted.

In the state of California, from January 1, 2019, the minimum age from which a citizen can purchase a gun was raised from 18 to 21 years. The statute, however, contains a fairly extensive list of exemptions: military personnel, law enforcement officers, holders of hunting licenses. It also stipulates that any person convicted after January 1, 2019 of certain types of crimes involving domestic violence is automatically prohibited from owning a firearm. Legislators also extended this restriction to citizens with mental illnesses who were treated in an inpatient setting more than twice within one year. Californians are required to take a mandatory eight-hour gun safety course. On July 1, 2019, the obligation of firearms sellers to check the buyer in the registers of the US Department of Justice for the absence of prohibitions on such transactions came into force.

In the state of Illinois, in order to prevent incidents with firearms, a system has been created for the removal of the latter from persons who pose a public danger for a period of two weeks to 6 months. Applications with such a requirement can be submitted to law enforcement officers by family members, representatives of religious communities, employees of educational institutions, and employers.

However, according to experts and lawyers, the measures taken to stop the violence are clearly insufficient.[222] The administration is expected to adopt a legal act at the federal level that restricts the circulation of firearms and protects the right to life.

An August 2023 Pew Research Center poll found that Americans are increasingly saying gun violence is a serious problem. 60% of those surveyed believe that gun violence is a big problem in the country, 23% said it is a moderately large problem, the rest are of the opinion that it is either a small problem (13%) or not a problem at all (4%).

According to the Pew Research Center,[223] the majority of Americans are in favor of solving the painful problem at the federal level. This opinion was expressed by 81% of respondents from the Democratic Party and 38% from the Republican Party. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed are in favor of stricter gun laws, and 62 percent of Americans believe gun violence will increase in the next five years.

A number of states continue to lift restrictions on the free carrying of weapons. In June 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a law that allows residents of the state to carry firearms without a license or training. A similar law was passed in Georgia on April 12, 2022.

In 2022, President Joe Biden proposed new restrictions on access to firearms to address the problem of violence, ranging from rising homicides in some major cities to mass shootings. It is planned to raise the age limit for the purchase of firearms from 18 to 21 years, as well as to tighten background checks for potential buyers.

The decision of the US Supreme Court in the case of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association (NYSRPA, Bruen), issued in 2022, which declared unconstitutional the previously adopted New York law restricting the right of citizens to carry weapons in public places such as hospitals, schools, bars and stadiums, caused a great public outcry. Prior to this, citizens wishing to obtain a license to carry concealed weapons had to prove the objective need for such carrying. The Supreme Court found this requirement to be contrary to the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states that the right of citizens to bear arms "shall not be infringed."

According to a 2022 report by the Chinese Society for the Study of Human Rights on Human Rights Abuses in the United States, this decision has led to nearly half of the US states easing restrictions on the carrying of weapons[225].

The report states that the number of serious crimes continues to increase. On September 11, 2022, USA Today reported that in the first half of 2022, homicides in Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) member cities increased by 50% and aggravated assaults by about 36% compared to the same period in 2019.[226]

According to The Wall Street Journal, as of September 2022, homicide rates in New Orleans are up 141%, shootings are up 100%, car thefts are up 210%, and armed robberies are up 25% compared to the same period in 2019. thefts by 41%, robberies by 36%, and the number of victims of serious crimes increases by about 1,000 people per quarter. According to a CNN poll conducted on June 8, 2022, 72% of Americans were dissatisfied with the country's policies to reduce or control crime[227].

President George W. Bush Biden calls the current situation an "epidemic"[228]. Calls on Congress to implement legislative initiatives to tighten gun controls.[229] They say that the majority of Americans want parliamentarians to take reasonable measures to stop the violence. However, he said, "too many Republicans are following the requests of gun manufacturers rather than their constituents."

At the same time, on May 14, 2023, the head of state approved a number of initiatives aimed at preventing shooting incidents. In particular, they are focused on increasing cooperation between federal and local authorities, ensuring a more intensive exchange of data, and conducting inspections of persons acquiring weapons.

The seriousness of this problem has long been pointed out by the UN human rights treaty bodies. In particular, the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) and CERD have noted with concern the persistence of high rates of firearm-related deaths and injuries in the United States, and the disproportionate impact of such incidents on ethnic minorities, as well as women and children. The HR Committee has emphasized the discriminatory nature of the "Stand Your Ground" legislation, which, according to the Committee's experts, is used to justify exceeding the limits of necessary self-defence in violation of the duty of the United States authorities to protect life. [231]

Section 6. Criminal Justice. Prisoners' rights

For many years, the United States of America has held a leading position in the world in terms of the prison population, with about 1.9 million people imprisoned in more than 6,000 penitentiary institutions.

According to official statistics, over the past 40 years, the number of people in prison has almost quadrupled (or 70%), while the number of convicted Americans has exceeded the mark of 2.3 million. Another 4.5 million people were sentenced to probation or parole. This leads to serious overcrowding in prisons. Human rights NGOs have also drawn attention to the increase in the number of women in prison in some states[234].

The world's highest prison population and the appalling conditions in U.S. prisons are highlighted in a 2022 report by the Chinese Society for the Study of Human Rights on Human Rights Abuses in the United States.[235] For example, citing a report by The Guardian on October 1, 2022, the report states that in the United States, about 500 out of every 100,000 people are incarcerated. which is about five times more than the UK, six times more than Canada, and nine times more than Germany.

Cases of abuse of authority and inhuman treatment of convicts by prison staff are regularly noted. Detainees are often subjected to torture and degrading treatment. Inhumane treatment of convicts is expressed, among other things, in the limited medical care provided to them, as well as in unsatisfactory sanitary and hygienic conditions of detention.

Facts of abuse of authority by police officers in relation to arrested and suspected of committing crimes during investigative actions have been repeatedly recorded. The number of such precedents allows us to state the systemic nature of the problem in the US penitentiary system.

The annual report of the Ministry of Justice states that there are high rates of crimes of a sexual and violent nature committed by prison officers against prisoners and remand prisoners.

For example, on July 21, 2020, employees of the Lewis County, Arizona, prison were dismissed as a result of an internal audit of the incident. The investigation revealed that the officer responsible for the supervision of the prisoners, M. Has, and the acting head of the penitentiary, S. Holland, unjustifiably used force against one of the prisoners. In particular, M. Has inflicted bodily injuries on the victim in the presence of witnesses. This is evidenced by the distributed video recording from the internal surveillance camera. Such a criminal act is punishable by up to imprisonment[236].

On November 9, 2020, two police officers in Schenectady County, New York, beat up a citizen they had previously detained. As a result of the inspection, the culprits were dismissed from the security forces. A criminal case was opened against them[237].

On November 14, 2020, B. Ford, an employee of Valdosta Prison, Georgia, was found guilty of unjustified and excessive use of force against a prisoner. The court records indicate that the law enforcement officer deliberately took the handcuffed prisoner to the courtyard of the prison and beat him[238].

There are cases when victims manage to get criminal cases initiated, however, after several years. For example, Mark Bryant, a prison officer in Cheetham County, Tennessee, was prosecuted in November 2020 for unjustifiably using a stun gun on an inmate in November 2016.[239] The court sentenced him to five years in prison. Such verdicts are often described by human rights activists as excessively lenient.

Hawaii Correctional Center Officer J. De Mattos was found guilty of concealing the use of force by his colleagues in 2015, falsifying witness statements, and conspiracy to do so. Under U.S. law, the defendant faces up to 35 years in prison for the totality of the offense.[240]

The largest number of episodes of violence against prisoners is noted in Dublin (California). In 2020, 422 complaints were filed, four of which were confirmed and the rest are under investigation[241].

A separate problem is the institution of complete isolation of the prisoner (solitary confinement). Many convicts are placed in solitary confinement in violation of the legal time limits. Prisoners who are subject to this measure are placed in Special Housing Units (SHUs). Serious misconduct that endangers the health and safety of other inmates and/or prison staff may be grounds for tightening the regime.

According to the NGO Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), as of November 2020, there are more than 60,000 prisoners in solitary confinement in the United States.

Human rights activists consider the situation with convict Tykin Lee, who was held in solitary confinement in a Virginia prison for more than 600 days, to be outrageous. His case is complicated by the fact that the prisoner has a history of severe mental disorder. According to the mother, her son was subjected to merciless abuse in the punishment cell, which led to severe mental and physical exhaustion. The man began to weigh less than 45 kg and almost forgot how to speak.[242]

Human rights organizations and statistical bureaus have noted an increase in the number of deaths of prisoners in American prisons. The causes of death are both the negligence of staff and the increase in conflicts in penitentiary institutions.

On February 14, 2022, in Florida, an inmate died in a transport van after being brutally beaten by three officers.

The reason for the aggression was that the prisoner poured urine on the officers when they took him out of the cell. At the same time, he did not offer any resistance, was handcuffed and obeyed orders. Three correctional officers were arrested and charged with second-degree murder.[243]

Another episode occurred on March 1, 2022, in Alabama. Terry Jones, 46, died after being stabbed at Easterling Correctional Facility in Clio. He was imprisoned for nearly 15 years out of a 20-year sentence for burglary. The attack reportedly went unnoticed due to a lack of proper oversight and it took several hours before Jones was given medical attention.

The day after Terry Jones' death (March 2, 2022), 49-year-old William Jennings was beaten to death in a cell in the same prison.

Fatal violence continues unabated and goes unpunished, leading federal prosecutors to sue the Alabama Department of Corrections for failing to address dangerous and abusive conditions in the state's prisons.

The murder of Jones and many other inmates could have been prevented if the Alabama Department of Corrections had taken meaningful steps to correct the "lack of oversight" that federal investigators identified as a crisis in 2019.

A 2022 report by the Chinese Society for Human Rights Studies on Human Rights Abuses in the United States states that the lives of prisoners in the United States are at risk. Citing a study published in October 2022 in Prison Legal News (PLN), the report noted that a shortage of guards and inadequate infrastructure at the Alabama prison have led to high rates of violence and death among inmates. In the first eight months of 2022, there were 39 deaths[245].

The U.S. has also been criticized for many other shortcomings in the prison system. For example, the practice of prolonged pre-trial detention of detainees continues to be in force in the country. According to the law, the pre-trial stage should last no more than 70 days.[246] However, the process often takes longer. This is formally justified by the complexity of the case or the abundance of materials on it. The case law system allows the judge to arbitrarily set procedural deadlines and go beyond the limits established by statutes and other legal acts.

A 2022 report by the Chinese Society for the Study of Human Rights Violations in the United States also points to deep flaws in the U.S. prison system. For example, according to an article published by the Fair Justice Initiative on April 25, 2022, inmates in Mississippi prisons were held in dark cells with no light or clean water. On February 19, 2022, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that cells at Joliet Prison in Illinois were infested with rats, and rotten food and untreated sewage were leaking into public areas.

In addition, the above-mentioned report by the Chinese Society for the Study of Human Rights noted that prisons have become places of modern slavery. According to a report published by the University of Chicago Law School in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union on June 16, 2022, there are more than 1.2 million people in US prisons, of which about 800000 are involved in forced labor, which is 65% of the total prison population. More than 76 per cent of the prisoners surveyed said that they could face solitary confinement and deprivation of family visits if they refused to work. A June 15, 2022 study by the American Civil Liberties Union also found that inmates are generally either not paid at all or receive an amount that is grossly disproportionate to their work[248].

In the United States, private correctional facilities are established. According to the statistics of the NGO Sentencing Project, as of 2019, they held 8.1% (almost 116 thousand people) of all American prisoners[249]. At the same time, in the period from 2000 to 2020, the number of citizens staying in such institutions increased by 39%. The "leaders" in terms of the number of convicts held in non-state prisons are the states of Texas and New Mexico. Over the past 20 years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of inmates in private correctional facilities: Arizona (480%), Indiana (313%), Ohio (253%), North Dakota (221%), Florida (205%), Montana (125%), Tennessee (118%), and Georgia (110%).

According to human rights activists, the state of prisoners' rights in such institutions is at a lower level than in state prisons. As a rule, such correctional structures are created for the purpose of making a profit. Private penitentiary institutions receive guaranteed payments from the authorities for each convict, regardless of the actual cost of their maintenance. In this regard, it is in the interests of the prison administration to reduce the cost of prisoners as much as possible. Reducing the number of guards, minimizing the cost of food and medical treatment for prisoners, etc., make it possible to "save" money.

In connection with the widespread use of arrest as a preventive measure in the United States, the rights of the population below the poverty line are significantly infringed. As the financial situation of most of the accused does not allow them to post bail with a view to their release during the investigation, citizens are forced to remain behind bars without charges for the duration of the investigation.

Human rights organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) have traditionally drawn attention to the quality of medical care provided to people held in U.S. penitentiary institutions. Often, the negligent attitude of medical personnel to their official duties causes a deterioration in the health of prisoners or even their death.

NGOs regularly report to the public and the media on egregious cases of negligence on the part of prison staff, the denial of medical care and medication necessary to maintain health by prisoners. This was especially true against the backdrop of the coronavirus epidemic, which caused significant damage to the health of thousands of prisoners in the United States. Treatment for coronavirus was carried out with the help of a set of the simplest remedies designed to fight the common cold[251]. In this context, an American Civil Liberties Union in Virginia noted an increase in the number of complaints from inmates about being denied medical care.

At a time when all democracies recognize the need for transparency and regular monitoring of prison conditions, the United States is the only country that does not have an independent body responsible for carrying out these tasks and ensuring that minimum standards of health and safety for prisoners are met, according to the human rights organization.

According to Michelle Deitch, a senior lecturer at the University of Texas and director of the Prison Innovation Lab at the Lyndon B. Johnson School, the United States is an "anomaly" on the world stage. Prisons in this country are among the most opaque state institutions: the public has no information about what is happening behind the barbed wire, and there is no reliable information about the health and safety of people in detention. At the same time, in many states, data on the number of dead prisoners are unreliable.[254]

Section 7. Violations of the rights of minors in penitentiary institutions

The United States leads the world in the number of juveniles deprived of their liberty in any form.

According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which is subordinate to the U.S. Department of Justice, more than one million criminal cases have been initiated against minors. According to a 2022 report by the Office, law enforcement agencies made nearly 700,000 arrests of people under the age of 18 in 2019 alone. At the same time, the share of arrests of female minors has increased[257]. Many juveniles participate in trials as if they were adults, serving time in general prisons. According to former U.S. District Judge Marcia Maury, teenagers need help, not punishment, but their cries for help too often become crimes.

The past two decades have brought tremendous changes to the U.S. juvenile justice system: In nearly every state, the number of young people in incarceration has been reduced by half or more, and probation, therapy, and community programs are favored for all but those who commit the most serious crimes.

However, the system is still not perfect: many adolescents do not receive quality legal representation, there is a high rate of recidivism among young people in juvenile detention centers due to ineffective rehabilitation programs, and the state and local officials continue to fund institutions in which 70% of the places are unoccupied.

In Virginia, Valerie Slater, executive director of Rise for Youth, a group that advocates for teens in the juvenile justice system, and other experts have documented racial discrimination in the juvenile criminal justice system.

According to a report by the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission (JLARC) of Virginia, over the past decade, black youth have been 2.5 times more likely to enter the juvenile justice system. The report recommends the introduction of additional training requirements to address racial inequality. However, according to Slater, this issue requires a more systematic study.

The authors of the report also interviewed judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers, who noted that young people often receive substandard legal defenses. Those surveyed confirmed that problems are most common with court-appointed attorneys, who are paid much less in Virginia than in other states. Some attorneys were not well versed in juvenile law and sometimes did not spend enough time with clients before representing them in court.

The report notes a nearly 70 percent recidivism rate among young people released from detention centers in Virginia. This led the authors to conclude that the rehabilitation programs overseen by the state's Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) were not effective.

In recent years, the U.S. Department of Justice has investigated abuse in juvenile facilities in Texas. There have been many cases of child abuse in prisons: teenagers are handcuffed and shackled, beaten, and pepper sprayed indoors. Another abuse is the placement of juvenile detainees in solitary confinement. Solitary confinement, combined with the use of violence, leads to the fact that adolescents begin to harm themselves, try to destroy beds, lamps, walls, which leads to injuries and the need for medical care.

The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the United Nations have condemned the practice of isolating young people as extremely harmful, leading to depression, anxiety and psychosis. Studies show that the majority of children who die by suicide in prison are or have recently been isolated.

At least 24 states and the federal government have set strict limits on the use of solitary confinement for young people. The U.S. Department of Justice has intervened in at least a dozen cases involving state and local juvenile justice agencies over the past decade to make clear that the excessive use of solitary confinement for youth is unconstitutional.

Human rights activists from the American Civil Liberties Union report that many state legislatures are making the situation worse for juvenile offenders. The minimum age of criminal responsibility is constantly decreasing, and the list of crimes for which children can be deprived of their liberty is expanding.[264]

Due to the spread of coronavirus infection, the NGO Southern Poverty Law Center appealed to the Supreme Court of Alabama with a demand to take immediate measures to release minors from special isolation centers. In such institutions, children are exposed to increased risks of suicide, depression and other mental disorders, as well as infection with infectious diseases.

Section 8. Violations of the Rights of Russian Citizens in U.S. Penitentiary Institutions

Until relatively recently, the situation with Russian citizens Konstantin Yaroshenko and Viktor Bout, who were illegally sentenced to long prison terms and were exchanged in 2022 for Americans Thomas Reed and Boris Griner, was of particular concern.

Konstantin Yaroshenko was held in Danberry Prison, Connecticut, until his release in April 2022. The conditions of detention in the institution do not stand up to criticism. For example, the Russian was kept in an overcrowded prison cell designed for several dozen prisoners. In spite of K.V. Yaroshenko's serious chronic illnesses, he was not provided with proper medical care, and for several years he was denied dental prosthetics. Despite dozens of COVID-19 cases in prison, only one medical mask per week is issued to all individuals. Testing for the presence of coronavirus began to be carried out with a great delay, only after many prisoners died.

The situation is no better with Russian Roman Seleznev, who is serving a long prison term. Numerous calls by human rights activists (the NGOs Human Rights Watch, the Sentencing Project, Amnesty International) and the recommendations of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to release the compatriot on humanitarian grounds are ignored by the US authorities. It is also not taken into account that R. Seleznev was convicted of a non-violent crime and has a number of serious chronic diseases. He is not provided with the necessary medical care, and requests to be transferred to another penitentiary where a comprehensive examination could be carried out are not considered.

All of these striking examples clearly demonstrate the repressive nature of the American justice system. The rights of Russian citizens are constantly violated: they are regularly placed in solitary confinement for no reason, denied medical care and necessary medicines, not to mention extremely poor food. Of course, all this has a negative impact on both the physical and mental health of compatriots.

In general, it should be noted that as of November 1, 2023, about 100 Russian citizens are being held in US penitentiaries, about whom the Russian Embassy in Washington is aware. Unfortunately, there are no exact statistics on how many Russians are in American prisons and pre-trial detention centers.

The lack of such information on the number of imprisoned compatriots is explained by the fact that the American authorities do not always notify about their detention or release from custody. Numerous appeals by the Russian Embassy to the U.S. Department of State with a request to provide comprehensive data on all citizens of the Russian Federation in prisons are ignored.

As practice shows, the majority of Russian compatriots are accused of committing non-violent crimes (cyber fraud, violation of immigration laws, money laundering, theft, etc.). Russian citizens, once in the hands of the U.S. justice system, are usually subjected to bias on the part of law enforcement agencies and courts. Psychological measures are applied to them. The well-known situation with Maria Butina is another confirmation of this.

Washington continues to try to exert pressure on Russia by openly "hunting" for compatriots. It is increasingly using accusations of circumventing illegitimate anti-Russian restrictions as a pretext.

Once in the hands of the U.S. justice system, Russian citizens typically face bias on the part of investigative authorities and courts. Psychological measures are applied to them. Various methods, including direct threats, are used to persuade Russian compatriots to plead guilty and make a deal with the investigation, most of them on trumped-up charges, and in case of refusal to cooperate, they are sentenced to significant prison terms.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, on February 13, 2024, a court in New York accused Kristina Puzyreva, a citizen of Russia and Canada, of conspiring to launder funds obtained by sending weapons to sanctioned Russian enterprises. The girl pleaded guilty: she allegedly supplied components for drones, missile systems and other types of weapons, violating export control and sanctions. The sent items were allegedly later found in the zone of the special military operation. K. Puzyreva faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison[265].

In October 2023, Nikolai Goltsov, a citizen of Russia and Canada, and Salimjon Nasriddinov, a citizen of Russia and Tajikistan, were also charged in this case (with conspiracy to conduct financial transactions with the proceeds of illegal activities: the purchase and transfer to Russia of components used in unmanned aerial vehicles and guided missile systems, as well as other military technologies; components were allegedly purchased by firms, appearing on the sanctions lists, the details were allegedly found in electronic reconnaissance equipment used by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the context of the special military operation). The legal basis for the accusation is a violation of U.S. law regarding export restrictions concerning, among other things, the export of advanced dual-use developments from the United States.

During the spread of coronavirus infection, the plight of Russians held in penitentiary institutions has further worsened. Despite dozens of COVID-19 cases that U.S. prison authorities tried to suppress, each inmate was given only one medical mask per week and was rarely provided with qualified medical care. Testing for the presence of coronavirus was carried out in exceptional cases and with a long delay, mainly only after the inmates had already died.

Protecting the rights and legitimate interests of Russian prisoners has always been one of the top priorities of the Russian Embassy in the United States. Close attention is paid to the state of health and the conditions of their detention. Regular contacts with Russian citizens are maintained by phone, as well as through the electronic messaging system. On a weekly basis, most Russians are sent reviews of Russian media, as well as periodicals and books in Russian.

There are no problems with consular access to detainees. In 2023, the Embassy staff visited A.V. Vinnik, V.I. Dunaev, G.K. Kavzharadze, V.D. Klyushin, V.V. Konoshchenko, A.V. Legkodymov, D.V. Ukrainsky, as well as P.N. Krasilnikov and I.Y. Nagaev (to issue certificates of return to Russia).

Section 9. Prison at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay

The U.S. authorities continue to hush up cases of torture, inhuman and other degrading treatment of detainees in the notorious Guantanamo Bay.

As of 2023, the U.S. still held 30 of the nearly 800 men and boys transferred to Guantanamo Bay between 2002 and 2008. Many lack proper medical care and even access to their medical records. The system of military commissions set up to prosecute Guantánamo suspects is fundamentally flawed.

French human rights activist and secretary general of the British NGO Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, stressed in an interview that "few of these people have ever been accused of a crime, and absolutely none of them have ever been brought to justice."

The statement of the Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin[268], published on June 26, 2023, following her visit to the penitentiary institution, received wide resonance. The official called on the United States to close the prison at the US base Guantanamo Bay, where "systematic arbitrariness" reigns. Expressed serious concern about the continued detention of 30 men and the conditions of their stay in a special detention facility. She drew attention to the insecurity, suffering and anxiety of all prisoners without exception[269]. In her view, the current conditions at Guantánamo Bay constitute circumstances that fall within the definition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under international law.

On April 21, 2023, Patrick Hamilton, head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the United States and Canada, criticized the US authorities[270]. As a result of the visit to the correctional facility, the ICRC noted that prisoners held in the prison at the United States Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be able to communicate more with their relatives, as well as receive quality medical care.

As follows from the 2022 report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus on the most high-profile cases of human rights violations in certain countries of the world, the US authorities do not comply with the principles of fair trial and procedures[271]. And the example of Guantanamo is a vivid illustration of this. The defendants are deprived of their basic rights,[272] including the right to judicial protection. In August 2020, the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (Judge N. Rao) ruled that Guantanamo detainees do not have the right to access to justice and due process under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Five prisoners accused of planning the 9/11 attacks have yet to stand trial.

Numerous cases of torture and humiliation of prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay prison, including sleep deprivation, exposure to noise, simulated drowning, have been repeatedly reported by the leading American publications New York Times and Los Angeles Times. These facts were acknowledged, among others, by former CIA psychologist J. Mitchell, who took part in the development of "advanced interrogation techniques"[274], as well as by the judge of the Military Judicial Commission, Colonel D. Watkins[275]. In particular, the latter reports on torture and other degrading methods of interrogation against Indonesian citizen M. Khan and a number of other defendants. Such a vicious practice is a gross violation of the U.S. Constitution and its obligations under international law. In 2019, under the influence of years of physical and psychological abuse, prisoner S. al-Hajj attempted suicide[277].

According to Fox News and the New York Times, nine inmates have died in Guantanamo Bay over the past eight years, several under mysterious circumstances. For example, one of the most well-known cases, thanks to publicity in the media, was the death of Yemeni citizen A. Latif[279]. In February 2021, I. Idris, a former prisoner of a special detention center, died in Sudan at the age of 60. According to the New York Times, his death was largely due to deteriorating health and illnesses acquired at Guantanamo Bay.

According to Professor S. Crosby of Boston University, the prison system is not able to meet the minimum needs of prisoners for treatment and maintaining a normal level of health. Often, the needs of prisoners who have suffered torture and other ill-treatment are simply ignored by the military administration of the institution.[281]

At the same time, the leading American media note that tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars are spent annually on the maintenance of the facility at the US naval base. [282] For example, the New York Times estimated that more than $540 million was spent on the prison in 2017 alone. As of 2022, the Guantanamo Bay prison has cost $7 billion over its lifetime. Each prisoner is held at about $13 million a year.

Human rights groups regularly call for the closure of the prison. The NGO Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), Human Rights First, and the National Religious Campaign Against Tortures are calling for the immediate abolition of the prison. To this end, they presented a program of recommendations.[284] Amnesty International called on the U.S. government to stop human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay and to strictly comply with its international legal obligations, and to refrain from torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In January 2021, special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council demanded the closure of the special center at Guantanamo Bay and the transfer of the cases of detainees held there to civilian courts. Experts noted that the very existence of the prison is incompatible with Washington's international legal obligations.

More than 10 years ago, the former head of the White House, Barack Obama, announced his intention to close this prison. He stated that he planned to complete this process within a year. During the 2020 election race, Joe Biden spoke about the same thing. Such intentions were subsequently repeatedly confirmed by Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson Anthony Horne.

Nevertheless, according to a number of American experts, the correctional institution will continue to exist in the coming years, largely due to political and legal obstacles. It is expected that the prison closure strategy will initially focus on reducing the number of prisoners by repatriating them or finding other countries to accept them. The specific timing of the special prison's closure is currently unknown.[288]

Currently, the Biden administration is trying to reduce the number of people held at Guantanamo Bay as part of a broader effort to close the facility. For example, on March 9, 2023, the Pentagon announced the return of Saudi Arabian prisoner Ghassan Al-Sharbi. On February 23, 2023, two inmates, Abdul Rabbani and Mohammed Rabbani, were transferred to Pakistan. On February 2, 2023, the "most valuable" prisoner, Majid Khan, was released from prison and sent to Belize.

Section 10. Death penalty

The United States remains the only Western country whose legislation contains provisions on capital punishment. The death penalty is provided for in 27 state and federal regulations. At the same time, in fact, a moratorium is currently in effect in 5 of them[289].

In 2003, a de facto moratorium on the death penalty was introduced at the federal level. However, in July 2020, the practice of carrying out capital punishment was resumed by a decision of the Supreme Court[290].

Since the 1970s, more than 8,500 people have been sentenced to death in the United States. In the mid-1990s, the number of annual death sentences peaked at more than 300 per year. Over the past 25 years, this number has decreased by more than 80% and has remained a near record low since 2015. In 2022, 11 sentences were carried out[291]. In the first six months of 2023, Deitch is 13[292].

According to the American portal Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), which has been keeping statistics since the return of capital punishment in 1976, 1582 people were executed in the country by January 3, 2024, most of them (1402) were injected, hanging and shooting were the least frequent (3 cases each). In 2023, 24 executions were carried out, with the highest number of executions carried out in 1999 – 98. In terms of the number of people executed among the states, Texas leads with 586 people. Currently, 2,333 people are awaiting execution in the United States, the most in California (665). Since 1973, 196 people sentenced to death have had their cases reviewed and acquitted.

According to the latest Gallup survey, which was conducted in October 2023, the number of supporters of the death penalty in the United States is gradually decreasing. For example, 53% of Americans believe that execution is acceptable for a convicted murderer. In 2022, this opinion was shared by 55% of respondents, in 1994 - 80%. For the first time since 2000, a majority of Americans (50 percent) believe death sentences are being handed down unfairly, while 39 percent said the death penalty is not being used often enough, and 28 percent say it is being carried out unfairly. Opinions also differ depending on political preferences: among Republicans, the share of supporters of the death penalty for murder reaches 81%, among independents – 51%, among Democrats – 32%[294].

Over the past decade, several U.S. Supreme Court rulings have narrowed the use of the death penalty. The court abolished the death penalty for mentally retarded offenders in Atkins v. Virginia (2002) and juvenile offenders in Roper v. Simmons (2005) – each ruling states that the execution of such persons is unconstitutional.

According to the NGO Death Penalty Information Center, the majority of those sentenced to death are African-American, Latino, or other ethnic minorities. The NGO pointed out, inter alia, that African-Americans accounted for 34.1 per cent of those convicted. Often, due to miscarriages of justice, death sentences are handed down against innocent citizens. According to the NGO Amnesty International, a total of 156 people were sentenced to death "without justification". At the same time, more than half of this group of people belonged to national minorities.

In June 2021, the media learned that the state of Arizona had purchased toxic substances for use in gas chambers. The fact that such poisonous substances were used by the Nazis during the Holocaust caused a resonance.

In connection with the "forced" implementation of death sentences, which many experts linked to the change of administration, on December 22, 2020, a group of Democratic senators led by Anthony Warren (Massachusetts) appealed to US Department of Justice Inspector General Mark Horowitz with a request to open an investigation into the current administration for resuming the death penalty at the federal level. According to the legislators, such a step contradicts the established law enforcement practice in this area[297].

Separately, it is worth noting that the punishment in the form of deprivation of life for criminals in the United States has been repeatedly condemned by the international community.

Despite this, the death penalty of American Kenneth Smith was carried out in Alabama using pure nitrogen. A 58-year-old man found guilty of the contract murder of the preacher's wife, Elizabeth Sennett, in 1988, is executed by asphyxiation with nitrogen in Etmore.

It is noted that on January 25, 2024 at 19:58 local time, K. Smith began to convulse (for at least two minutes). While immobilized, the prisoner was able to tear his head off the surface of the gurney, then dropped it. At 8:25 p.m., his death was announced.[299]

The U.S. authorities had to resort to a previously unused method of execution due to the physiological characteristics of the convict. In November 2022, an attempt was made to execute Christopher Smith using a standard US lethal injection, but they could not find a suitable vein for him to insert a needle.

Tellingly, in Alabama, the death penalty with pure nitrogen was allowed in 2018 due to a shortage of drugs used for lethal injections. This method of execution is also legal in Mississippi and Oklahoma, but these two states have not yet used it.

The local prosecutor's office claims that this method is similar to euthanasia used around the world, including in some European countries - after the gas is applied, a person quickly and painlessly loses consciousness, and then he has a cardiac arrest.

However, Smith's lawyers insisted that the Alabama authorities did not have the necessary equipment to carry out this type of execution. In their opinion, the oversized mask can leak enough oxygen, which will lead to the suffering of the defendant, and suffocation will occur while he is still conscious.

In addition, lawyers stressed that a second attempt at execution could amount to an excessively harsh punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court denied the petitions.[300]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights F. Türk expressed deep regret over the execution of a prisoner with nitrogen in Alabama. In a special statement, he drew attention to the existence of serious concerns that an untested method of asphyxiation with nitrogen gas could amount to torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Fürk stressed that the death penalty is "incompatible with the fundamental right to life" and called on all states to introduce a moratorium on its use "as a step towards the universal abolition of the death penalty."

The European Union also expressed regret over the execution of Christopher Smith, pointing out in a press release that the death penalty is "a violation of the right to life and a definitive denial of human dignity" and that the use of this punishment is unacceptable under any circumstances. The Brussels report also expressed concern about the increase in the number of executions in the United States in 2023.[302]

A number of human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, questioned the legitimacy of the procedure for using such an inhumane method of the death penalty against a convict.[303]

End Part One.