title: Human rights in the United States

text: The result of investigating of the UN Working Group on discrimination against women in law and practice associated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was that “The US, which is a leading State in formulating international human rights standards, is allowing its women to lag behind”. They declared that "the US is one of only seven countries which have not ratified the treaty, widely known as CEDAW."


title: Human rights in the United States

text: According to the report of HRW, The patchwork of healthcare coverage in the Trump administration caused the loss of insurance for many women and girls who are at risk of deadly diseases such as gynecological cancer.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The United States has adopted antidiscrimination legislation for people with disabilities, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). The ADA reflected a dramatic shift toward the employment of persons with disabilities to enhance the labor force participation of qualified persons with disabilities and to reduce their dependence on government entitlement programs. The ADA amends the CRA and permits plaintiffs to recover punitive damages. The ADA has been instrumental in the evolution of disability discrimination law in the United States. Although ADA Title I was found to be unconstitutional, the Supreme Court has extended the protection to people with Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Federal benefits such as Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are often administratively viewed in the United States as being primarily or near-exclusively the entitlement only of impoverished U.S. people with disabilities, and not applicable to those with disabilities who make significantly above-poverty level income. This is proven in practice by the general fact that in the U.S., a disabled person on SSI without significant employment income who is suddenly employed, with a salary or wage at or above the living wage threshold, often discovers that government benefits they were previously entitled to have ceased, because supposedly the new job "invalidates" the need for this assistance. However, the Stephen Beck, Jr. Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014 (the ABLE Act) amended Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Service Code of 1986 to create tax-free savings accounts (ABLE accounts) for qualified expenses, and with these accounts (each person may have only one account) people with disabilities who have a condition that occurred before age 26 can save up to $100,000 without risking eligibility for Social Security and other government programs. They can also keep their Medicaid coverage no matter how much money they accrue in their ABLE account. Under current gift-tax limitations as of 2014, as much as $14,000 could be deposited annually. However, each state must put regulations in place so that financial institutions can make the ABLE accounts available, and there is no guarantee a particular state will do so.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: SSI benefits also require frequent reviews to "prove" the person is still disabled, and require the disabled person to be diligent about returning paperwork and reporting any income they make, raising concerns that it is unfair to people with disabilities, especially those with mental disabilities who are often unaware of how to navigate the complex bureaucracy needed to not lose their benefits, a situation not dissimilar to probation. The U.S. is the only industrialized country in the world to have this particular approach to disability assistance programming. These factors make it so that disabled people are in some senses second class citizens.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The United States federal government voted in the United Nations General Assembly in favor of A/RES/57/214, A/RES/59/197, abstained A/RES/61/173, A/RES/63/182 A/RES/65/208, A/RES/67/168, and in favor of A/RES/69/182. The United States federal government also voted in favor of the United Nations Human Rights Council A/HRC/RES/17/19. The United States federal government signed the United Nations 2006 and 2008 Joint Statements. The United States federal government voted in the United Nations Security Council in favor of SC/12399.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Intersex people in the United States have significant gaps in protections for physical integrity and bodily autonomy, particularly in protection from non-consensual cosmetic medical interventions and violence, and protection from discrimination. Actions by intersex civil society organizations aim to eliminate harmful practices, promote social acceptance, and equality. In recent years, intersex activists have also secured some forms of legal recognition.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Privacy is not explicitly stated in the United States Constitution. In the "Griswold v. Connecticut" case, the Supreme Court ruled that it is implied in the Constitution. In the "Roe v. Wade" case, the Supreme Court used privacy rights to overturn most laws against abortion in the United States. In the "Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health" case, the Supreme Court held that the patient had a right of privacy to terminate medical treatment. In "Gonzales v. Oregon", the Supreme Court held that the Federal Controlled Substances Act can not prohibit physician-assisted suicide allowed by the Oregon Death with Dignity Act. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of criminalizing oral and anal sex in the "Bowers v. Hardwick" decision; however, it overturned the decision in the "Lawrence v. Texas" case and established the protection to sexual privacy.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Kate Ruane, senior legislative counsel for the First Amendment and consumer privacy at the American Civil Liberties Union declared that “We have these companies that are amassing just gigantic amounts of data about each and every one of us, all day, every day,” and “Your data is being taken and it is being used in ways that are harmful.”


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Edward Snowden’s document disclosed that "the federal government has routinely violated their right to privacy for more than a decade".


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The United States maintains a presumption of innocence in legal procedures. The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution deals with the rights of criminal suspects. Later the protection was extended to civil cases as well In the "Gideon v. Wainwright" case, the Supreme Court requires that indigent criminal defendants who are unable to afford their own attorney be provided counsel at trial. Since the "Miranda v. Arizona" case, the United States requires police departments to inform arrested persons of their rights, which is later called Miranda warning and typically begins with "You have the right to remain silent."


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment prohibits the establishment of a national religion by Congress or the preference of one religion over another. The clause was used to limit school praying, beginning with "Engel v. Vitale", which ruled government-led prayer unconstitutional. "Wallace v. Jaffree" banned moments of silence allocated for praying. The Supreme Court also ruled clergy-led prayer at public high school graduations unconstitutional with "Lee v. Weisman".


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The free exercise clause guarantees the free exercise of religion. The Supreme Court's "Lemon v. Kurtzman" decision established the "Lemon test" exception, which details the requirements for legislation concerning religion. In the "Employment Division v. Smith" decision, the Supreme Court maintained a "neutral law of general applicability" can be used to limit religion exercises. In the "City of Boerne v. Flores" decision, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was struck down as exceeding congressional power; however, the decision's effect is limited by the "Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal" decision, which requires states to express compelling interest in prohibiting illegal drug use in religious practices.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The United States is a constitutional republic based on founding documents that restrict the power of government and preserve the liberty of the people. The freedom of expression (including speech, media, and public assembly) is an important right and is given special protection, as declared by the First Amendment of the constitution. According to Supreme Court precedent, the federal and lower governments may not apply prior restraint to expression, with certain exceptions, such as national security and obscenity. Legal limits on expression include:


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Some laws remain controversial due to concerns that they infringe on freedom of expression. These include the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In two high-profile cases, grand juries have decided that "Time" magazine reporter Matthew Cooper and "New York Times" reporter Judith Miller must reveal their sources in cases involving CIA leaks. Time magazine exhausted its legal appeals, and Mr. Cooper eventually agreed to testify. Miller was jailed for 85 days before cooperating. U.S. District Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan ruled that the First Amendment does not insulate "Time" magazine reporters from a requirement to testify before a criminal grand jury that's conducting the investigation into the possible illegal disclosure of classified information.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Approximately 30,000 government employees and contractors are currently employed to monitor telephone calls and other communications.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In November 2013, leaked documents revealed that the government and some large corporations had censored many blogs and news articles using existing surveillance programs.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on protesting students at Kent State University, killing four students. Investigators determined that 28 Guardsmen fired 61 to 67 shots. The Justice Department concluded that the Guardsmen were not in danger and that their claim that they fired in self-defense was untrue. The nearest student was almost 100 yards away at the time of the shooting. Guards involved in the shooting were indicted. Eight of the guardsmen were indicted by a grand jury. The guardsmen claimed to have fired in self-defense, a claim that was generally accepted by the criminal justice system. In 1974 U.S. District Judge Frank Battisti dismissed charges against all eight on the basis that the prosecution's case was too weak to warrant a trial. Civil actions were also attempted against the guardsmen, the State of Ohio, and the president of Kent State. The federal court civil action for wrongful death and injury, brought by the victims and their families against Governor Rhodes, the President of Kent State, and the National Guardsmen, resulted in unanimous verdicts for all defendants on all claims after an eleven-week trial. The judgment on those verdicts was reversed by the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on the ground that the federal trial judge had mishandled an out-of-court threat against a juror. On remand, the civil case was settled in return for payment of a total of $675,000 to all plaintiffs by the State of Ohio.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Protesters have also been arrested for protesting outside of designated "free speech zones". At the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, over 1,700 protesters were arrested.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: On July 24, 2020, the United Nations human rights office urged U.S. security forces to limit their use of force against peaceful protesters and journalists, as clashes between federal agents and demonstrators continued in Portland, Oregon.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: As per § 707(b) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 1979, United States passports are required to enter and exit the country, and as per the and Haig v. Agee, the Presidential administration may deny or revoke passports for foreign policy or national security reasons at any time. Perhaps the most notable example of enforcement of this ability was the 1948 denial of a passport to U.S. Representative Leo Isacson, who sought to go to Paris to attend a conference as an observer for the American Council for a Democratic Greece, a Communist front organization, because of the group's role in opposing the Greek government in the Greek Civil War.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The United States prevents U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba, citing national security reasons, as part of an embargo against Cuba that has been condemned as an illegal act by the United Nations General Assembly. The current exception to the ban on travel to the island, permitted since April 2009, has been an easing of travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans visiting their relatives. Restrictions continue to remain in place for the rest of the American populace.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: On June 30, 2010, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of ten people who are either U.S. citizens or legal residents of the U.S., challenging the constitutionality of the government's "no-fly" list. The plaintiffs have not been told why they are on the list. Five of the plaintiffs have been stranded abroad. It is estimated that the "no-fly" list contained about 8,000 names at the time of the lawsuit.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The Secretary of State can deny a passport to anyone imprisoned, on parole, or on supervised release for a conviction for international drug trafficking or sex tourism, or to anyone who is behind on their child support payments.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The following case precedents are typically incorrectly cited in defense of unencumbered travel within the United States:


title: Human rights in the United States

text: "The use of the highway for the purpose of travel and transportation is not a mere privilege, but a common fundamental right of which the public and individuals cannot rightfully be deprived." Chicago Motor Coach v. Chicago, 337 Ill. 200; 169 N.E. 22 (1929).


title: Human rights in the United States

text: "The right of the citizen to travel upon the public highways and to transport his property thereon, either by carriage or by automobile, is not a mere privilege which a city may prohibit or permit at will, but a common law right which he has under the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Thompson v. Smith, Supreme Court of Virginia, 155 Va. 367; 154 S.E. 579; (1930).


title: Human rights in the United States

text: "Undoubtedly the right of locomotion, the right to move from one place to another according to inclination, is an attribute of personal liberty, and the right, ordinarily, of free transit from or through the territory of any State is a right secured by the 14th amendment and by other provisions of the Constitution." Schactman v. Dulles, 225 F.2d 938; 96 U.S. App. D.C. 287 (1955).


title: Human rights in the United States

text: "The right to travel is a well-established common right that does not owe its existence to the federal government. It is recognized by the courts as a natural right." Schactman v. Dulles 225 F.2d 938; 96 U.S. App. D.C. 287 (1955) at 941.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: "The right to travel is a part of the liberty of which the citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law under the Fifth Amendment." Kent v. Dulles, 357 US 116, 125 (1958).


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Federal courts have ruled that a person does not have the right to drive an automobile, it is a privilege.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Freedom of association is the right of individuals to come together in groups for political action or to pursue common interests.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Freedom of association in the U.S. is restricted by the Smith Act, which bans political parties that advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Between 1956 and 1971, the FBI attempted to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" left-wing and indigenous groups through the COINTELPRO program.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In 2008, the Maryland State Police admitted that they had added the names of Iraq War protesters and death penalty opponents to a terrorist database. They also admitted that other "protest groups" were added to the terrorist database, but did not specify which groups. It was also discovered that undercover troopers used aliases to infiltrate organizational meetings, rallies and group e-mail lists. Police admitted there was "no evidence whatsoever of any involvement in violent crime" by those classified as terrorists.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The right of revolution is the right or duty of the people of a nation to overthrow a government that acts against their common interests, and is a traditional assumption in American political thought. The right to revolution played a large part in the writings of the American revolutionaries in the run up to the American Revolution. The political tract "Common Sense" used the concept as an argument for rejection of the British Monarchy and separation from the British Empire, as opposed to merely self-government within it. It was also cited in the Declaration of Independence of the United States, when a group of representatives from the various states signed a declaration of independence citing charges against King George III. As the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 expressed it, natural law taught that the people were "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" and could alter or abolish government "destructive" of those rights.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The United States government has declared martial law, suspended (or claimed exceptions to) some rights on national security grounds, typically in wartime and conflicts such as the United States Civil War, Cold War or the War against Terror. 70,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were legally interned during World War II under Executive Order 9066. In some instances the federal courts have allowed these exceptions, while in others the courts have decided that the national security interest was insufficient. Presidents Lincoln, Wilson, and F.D. Roosevelt ignored such judicial decisions.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Sedition laws have sometimes placed restrictions on freedom of expression. The Alien and Sedition Acts, passed by President John Adams during an undeclared naval conflict with France, allowed the government to punish "false" statements about the government and to deport "dangerous" immigrants. The Federalist Party used these acts to harass many supporters of the Democratic-Republican Party. While Woodrow Wilson was president, broad legislation called the Espionage Act of 1917 and Sedition Act of 1918 were passed during World War I. Thousands were jailed for violations of these laws, which prohibited criticizing conscription and the government, or sending literature through the US Mail doing the same. Most prominently it led to the conviction of Socialist Party of America Presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs for speaking out against US participation in World War I and conscription. Debs received ten years in prison, and ran for president a third time while in prison (on December 25, 1921, his sentence was commuted by President Warren G. Harding, releasing Debs early). Numerous conscientious objectors to conscription were also jailed, with a few dying due to mistreatment. In the post-war Palmer Raids, foreign-born dissidents were arrested in the thousands without legal warrants, and deported for their political beliefs.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Presidents have claimed the power to imprison summarily, under military jurisdiction, those suspected of being combatants for states or groups at war against the United States. Abraham Lincoln invoked this power in the American Civil War to imprison Maryland secessionists. In that case, the Supreme Court concluded that only Congress could suspend the writ of habeas corpus, and the government released the detainees. During World War II, the United States interned thousands of Japanese-Americans on alleged fears that Japan might use them as saboteurs-the US Supreme Court upheld this policy.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution forbids unreasonable search and seizure without a warrant, but some administrations have claimed exceptions to this rule to investigate alleged conspiracies against the government. During the Cold War, the Federal Bureau of Investigation established COINTELPRO to infiltrate and disrupt left-wing organizations, including those that supported the rights of black Americans.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: National security, as well as other concerns like unemployment, has sometimes led the United States to toughen its generally liberal immigration policy. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 all but banned Chinese immigrants, who were accused of crowding out American workers.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The federal government has set up a data collection and storage network that keeps a wide variety of data on tens of thousands of Americans who have not been accused of committing a crime. Operated primarily under the direction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the program is known as the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative or SAR. Reports of suspicious behavior noticed by local law enforcement or by private citizens are forwarded to the program, and profiles are constructed of the persons under suspicion. See also Fusion Center.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Labor rights in the United States have been linked to basic constitutional rights. Comporting with the notion of creating an economy based upon highly skilled and high wage labor employed in a capital-intensive dynamic growth economy, the United States enacted laws mandating the right to a safe workplace, workers compensation, Unemployment insurance, fair labor standards, collective bargaining rights, Social Security, prohibiting child labor and guaranteeing a minimum wage.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: During the 19th and 20th centuries, safer conditions and workers' rights were gradually mandated by law, but this trend has reversed to some extent towards pro-business policies since the 1980s.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In 1935, the National Labor Relations Act recognized and protected "the rights of most workers in the private sector to organize labor unions, to engage in collective bargaining, and to take part in strikes and other forms of concerted activity in support of their demands." However, many states hold to the principle of at-will employment, which says an employee can be fired for any or no reason, without warning and without recourse, unless violation of State or Federal civil rights laws can be proven. In 2011, 11.8% of U.S. workers were members of labor unions with 37% of public sector (government) workers in unions while only 6.9% of private sector workers were union members.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: , U.S. workers worked longer hours on average than any other industrialized country, having surpassed Japan. Info published in 2007 showed U.S. workers rank high in terms of production.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: , the United States' maternity leave policy is distinct from other industrialized countries for its relative scarcity of benefits. The length of protected maternity leave ranks 20th out of the 21 high-income countries. Moreover, most foreign wealthy nations provide some form of wage compensation for the leave of absence; the United States is the only one of these 21 countries that does not offer such paid leave.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In 2014, the United States received a poor grade of "4" on the ITUC's Global Rights Index, which ranks the worst places in the world for workers' rights, with "1" being the best and "5" the worst. Other nations and regions that scored a "4" include Argentina, Bahrain, El Salvador, Haiti, Hong Kong, Iraq, Iran, Mexico and Yemen.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In 2014, the United States was considered a "medium risk" country for child labor according to Maplecroft's 2014 Child Labor Index.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In 2015, the United States and Papua New Guinea were reported to be the only countries in the world that did not guarantee paid maternal leave by law.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, states that "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one's family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care." In addition, the "Principles of Medical Ethics" of the American Medical Association require medical doctors to respect the human rights of the patient, including that of providing medical treatment when it is needed. Americans' rights in health care are regulated by the US Patients' Bill of Rights.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Unlike most other industrialized nations, the United States does not offer most of its citizens subsidized health care. The United States Medicaid program provides subsidized coverage to some categories of individuals and families with low incomes and resources, including children, pregnant women, and very low-income people with disabilities (higher-earning people with disabilities do not qualify for Medicaid, although they do qualify for Medicare). However, according to Medicaid's own documents, "the Medicaid program does not provide health care services, even for very poor people, unless they are in one of the designated eligibility groups."


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Nonetheless, some states offer subsidized health insurance to broader populations. Coverage is subsidized for persons age 65 and over, or who meet other special criteria through Medicare. Every person with a permanent disability, both young and old, is inherently entitled to Medicare health benefits — a fact not all disabled US citizens are aware of. However, just like every other Medicare recipient, a disabled person finds that his or her Medicare benefits only cover up to 80% of what the insurer considers reasonable charges in the U.S. medical system, and that the other 20% plus the difference in the reasonable amount and the actual charge must be paid by other means (typically supplemental, privately held insurance plans, or cash out of the person's own pocket). Therefore, even the Medicare program is not truly national health insurance or universal health care the way most of the rest of the industrialized world understands it.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986, an unfunded mandate, mandates that no person may ever be denied emergency services regardless of ability to pay, citizenship, or immigration status. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act has been criticized by the American College of Emergency Physicians as an unfunded mandate.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: 46.6 million residents, or 15.9 percent, were without health insurance coverage in 2005. This number includes about 10 million non-citizens, millions more who are eligible for Medicaid but never applied, and 18 million with annual household incomes above $50,000. According to a study led by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, uninsured children who are hospitalized are 60% more likely to die than children who are covered by health insurance.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth amendments to the United States Constitution (each part of the Bill of Rights), as well as the Fourteenth amendment, ensure that criminal defendants have significant procedural rights. The incorporation of the Bill of Rights has extended these constitutional protections to the state and local levels of law enforcement. The United States also possesses a system of judicial review over government action.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the United States, currently used by 23 states, the federal government, and the military. , there have been 1,517 executions in the United States since 1976 (when the death penalty was reinstated after it had been effectively invalidated as a punishment by a 1972 Supreme Court ruling). The United States is one of 55 countries worldwide that uses the death penalty, and was the first to develop lethal injection as a method of execution. Among the 56 countries categorized as 'Very high' on the Human Development Index, it is one of only 12 that retain the death penalty (the others being Singapore, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Belarus, Kuwait, Qatar, Malaysia, and Taiwan). Among the world's most economically and politically powerful countries, it is one of the few who utilize capital punishment. In 2011, for instance, it was the only country in the G8 that carried out executions, and was among only three countries in the G20 (along with China and Saudi Arabia) that carried out executions. Of the 56 members states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the United States and Belarus were the only two that carried out executions in 2011.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The vast majority of executions are carried out by state governments, largely as a result of the federal political structure of the United States, in which most crimes are prosecuted by state governments rather than the federal government. Capital punishment is heavily concentrated among several states, with Texas overwhelmingly leading in number of executions at 569 between 1976 and 2020, followed by Virginia with 113 executions, and Oklahoma with 112. The disparity is particularly stark when broken down by county: since 1976, only 2% of counties have been responsible for more than half of all executions. As of January 25, 2008, the death penalty has been abolished in the District of Columbia and fourteen states, mainly in the Northeast and Midwest.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The death penalty has a complex legal history. While modern critics have challenged capital punishment on grounds that it violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on the use of "cruel and unusual punishment", the United States Supreme Court has held that it does not. At the time of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, societal moral standards did not hold the death penalty was "cruel and unusual", so it was used throughout early American history. However, the death penalty was temporarily halted by the Supreme Court on Eighth Amendment grounds from 1972 to 1976. In 1958, the United States Supreme Court ruled in "Trop v. Dulles" that the Eighth Amendment "must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency". This opened the way to the 1972 US Supreme Court case "Furman v. Georgia" , which found that the imposition of the death penalty at the states' discretion constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, with the Court stating that the death penalty had been applied in a "harsh, freakish, and arbitrary" manner. This ruling was preceded by the Supreme Court of California's ruling in "California v. Anderson" 64 Cal.2d 633, 414 P.2d 366 (Cal. 1972), which classified capital punishment as cruel and unusual and outlawed the use of capital punishment in California (however, this was reversed the same year through a ballot initiative, Proposition 17). However, the death penalty was ultimately reinstated nationally in 1976 after the US Supreme Court rulings "Gregg v. Georgia", , "Jurek v. Texas", , and "Proffitt v. Florida", . Further refinements have been made to death penalty since then, with a ruling on March 1, 2005, by the Supreme Court in "Roper v. Simmons" prohibiting the execution of people who committed their crimes when they were under the age of 18 (between 1990 and 2005, Amnesty International recorded 19 executions in the United States for crimes committed by juveniles). In international law, it has been argued that the United States may be in violation of international human rights treaties in its use of the death penalty. In 1998, the UN special rapporteur recommended to a committee of the UN General Assembly that the United States be found to be in violation of Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with regards to the death penalty, and called for an immediate capital punishment moratorium. The recommendation of the special rapporteur, however, is not legally binding under international law and in this case the UN did not act upon the lawyer's recommendation.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Capital punishment within the United States is controversial. Death penalty opponents consider it "inhumane", criticize it for its irreversibility, and assert that it is ineffective as a deterrent against crime, pointing to several studies which show it has little deterring effect on crime (though this point is controversial as studies have conflicted in their conclusions on the effectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent). Human rights organizations have been particularly critical of it, with Amnesty International, for example, stating that "the death penalty is the ultimate, irreversible denial of human rights." Notably, the European Union, in accordance with its official policy of attempting to achieve global abolition of the death penalty, has been vocal in its criticism of the death penalty in the US and has submitted "amicus curiae" briefs in a number of important US court cases related to capital punishment. The American Bar Association also sponsors a project aimed at abolishing the death penalty in the United States, criticizing the US's execution of minors and the mentally disabled and arguing that the US fails to adequately protect the rights of the innocent.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Some opponents criticize the over-representation of black people on death row as evidence of the unequal racial application of the death penalty. In "McCleskey v. Kemp", for example, it was alleged the capital sentencing process was administered in a racially discriminatory manner in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This over-representation is not limited to capital offenses—in 1992, at a time when black people accounted for 12% of the US population, about 34% of prison inmates were from this group. Furthermore, in 2003 Amnesty International reported those who kill whites are more likely to be executed than those who kill blacks, citing that of the 845 people executed since 1977 eighty percent were put to death for killing whites and 13 percent were executed for killing blacks, even though blacks and whites are murdered in almost equal numbers. The extent of racism in this is, however, disputed—black people also commit crimes at a rate disproportionate to their representation in the population and over half of homicides where the race of the offender is known were perpetuated by black people.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The United Nations estimates there are about 80,000 prisoners in solitary confinement in the U.S., 12,000 of whom are in California. The use of solitary confinement has drawn criticism and is increasingly viewed as a form of torture because of the psychological harm it causes. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez, has requested that the United States stop holding prisoners in solitary confinement, as "it often causes mental and physical suffering or humiliation, amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and if the resulting pain or sufferings are severe, solitary confinement even amounts to torture." In a severe example, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox, two prisoners at the Angola prison in Louisiana, have each spent more than 40 years in solitary confinement.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The NGO Human Rights Watch has stated that there are human rights issues created by the current sex offender registration laws, and that they believe that the burden of being publicly listed as a sex offender, combined with the onerous restrictions placed on former offenders and their family members, are serious human rights violations. They have criticized the over-breadth of the registration requirements, which tend to treat all offenders the same regardless of the nature of the offense and without accounting the risk of future re-offending, as well as the application of such laws to juvenile offenders, consensual teenage sex, prostitution, consensual teenage sexting, and exposing oneself as prank. The ACLU and advocacy group RSOL also believe that measures against sex offenders are inhumane and that current legislation violates the constitutional rights of those with a legal obligation to register. Both organizations have challenged elements of the registration laws in court. By comparison, the European Court of Human Rights has found that indefinite placement on the United Kingdom sex offender registry, which is not available to the general public, is incompatible with an offender's right to privacy if the person has no right to judicial review.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: International and domestic human rights groups, civil rights organizations, and social critics have criticized the United States for violating fundamental human rights through the use of disproportionately heavy penalties compared to many other countries, overly long prison sentences, over-reliance on police control, excessive control of individual behavior, and societal control of disadvantaged groups through a harsh police and criminal justice system. Human Rights Watch, for instance, has argued that "the extraordinary rate of incarceration in the United States wreaks havoc on individuals, families and communities, and saps the strength of the nation as a whole."


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The United States has been criticized for its large prison population, with more than 2.2 million people in prisons or jails. It has the world's highest incarceration rate, imprisoning roughly 1 out of every 136 Americans (737 per 100,000 people) and disproportionately imprisoning racial minorities and those from the lowest socioeconomic backgrounds. In particular, The United States has been criticized for incarcerating a large number of non-violent and victim-less offenders. Half of all persons incarcerated under State jurisdiction were convicted of non-violent offenses and 20 percent for drug offenses, mostly the possession of cannabis. Marijuana legalization and decriminalization is seen as a step of progress in decreasing the prison population. Other non-violent offenses which carry extremely long prison sentences in the United States include fraud and other acts of corruption, offenses relating to child pornography, and contempt of court.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The United States also has a high rate of youth imprisonment, with many held in the same prisons as adults. According to The National Council on Crime and Delinquency, since 1990 the incarceration of youth in adult jails has increased 208%. They found that juveniles were often incarcerated awaiting trial for up to two years, subjected to the same treatment as adult inmates, and were at greater risk of assault, abuse, or death. The length of prison sentences in the United States is widely criticized in other countries and is believed to be the biggest contributor to the country's large prison population. The length of the average prison sentences in the United States tends to exceed those in other developed countries. The United States is currently the country with the most life sentences, most of which are life without parole (LWOP). Mandatory minimum sentences and three-strikes laws are probably the largest contributors to the country's frequency of life imprisonment. It is estimated that 35% of federal US prisoners are older than age 60, many of whom were younger than 30 at the time of sentencing.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The US also has a large number of foreign nationals in US prisons, with 21% of all federal inmates in 2017 being non-citizens or non-nationals. Additionally, the US Justice Department rarely approves extraditions of foreign prisoners to their home countries, and most are deported after serving their sentences rather than before their trials. This is seen as a huge contributor to prison overcrowding, especially in California, Arizona, and Texas. This goes hand-in-hand with the US immigration policies, which have also been criticized by human rights groups.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Tolerance of serious sexual abuse and rape in United States prisons is also an area of concern to human rights watchers. Human Rights Watch, for instance, raised concerns with prisoner rape and medical care for inmates. In a survey of 1,788 male inmates in Midwestern prisons by Prison Journal, about 21% claimed they had been coerced or pressured into sexual activity during their incarceration and 7% claimed that they had been raped in their current facility.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The United States has also been widely criticized for its attitude towards parole and incarceration alternatives. There is no parole in the federal prison system, which has drawn international outrage from human rights groups and is believed to be a major contributor to prison overcrowding. In addition, 16 states have no parole in their prison systems. Parole is rarely granted where it is allowed, and the United States is the only country that currently has juveniles serving life sentences without parole. The United States has also been heavily criticized for having few or no alternatives to incarceration. Probation, fines, and community service are extremely rarely issued instead of prison time.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In a 1999 report, Amnesty International said it had "documented patterns of ill-treatment across the U.S., including police beatings, unjustified shootings and the use of dangerous restraint techniques."


title: Human rights in the United States

text: According to a 1998 Human Rights Watch report, incidents of police use of excessive force had occurred in cities throughout the U.S., and this behavior goes largely unchecked. An article in "USA Today" reports that in 2006, 96% of cases referred to the U.S. Justice Department for prosecution by investigative agencies were declined. In 2005, 98% were declined. In 2001, "The New York Times" reported that the U.S. government is unable or unwilling to collect statistics showing the precise number of people killed by the police or the prevalence of the use of excessive force.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: From 1999 to 2005, at least 148 people have died in the United States and Canada after being shocked with Tasers by police officers, according to a 2005 ACLU report.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In one case, a handcuffed suspect was tasered nine times by a police officer before dying, and six of those taserings occurred within less than three minutes. The officer was fired and faced the possibility of criminal charges.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: On June 2, 2020, George Floyd's official post-mortem report declared the cause of death as asphyxia (lack of oxygen) due to a compression on his neck and back. It also found that the death was a homicide, a statement from the family's legal team said.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: On June 23, 2020, a report from the University of Chicago Law School claimed that law enforcement policies in the police departments of 20 largest cities in the United States failed to meet even basic standards under international human rights guidelines. The law enforcement forces are authorized to commit ‘state-sanctioned violence’ without significant reform.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The use of strip searches and cavity searches by law enforcement agencies and in the prison system has raised human rights concerns.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The practice of taking an arrested person on a perp walk, often handcuffed, through a public place at some point after the arrest, creating an opportunity for the media to take photographs and video of the event has raised civil and human rights concerns.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Human rights organizations, civil rights groups, academics, journalists, and other critics have argued that the US justice system exhibits racial biases that harm minority groups, particularly African Americans. There are significant racial disparities within the United States prison population, with black individuals making up 38.2% of the federal prison population in 2020 despite accounting for only 13.4% of the total population. Studies have also found that black people, as well as other minority groups, are shot and killed by the police at higher rates than white people, tend to receive harsher punishments than white people, are more likely to be charged for drug crimes despite consuming drugs at similar rates as white people, are at higher lifetime risk of being killed by police than white people, are more likely to be stopped by police while driving, and are more likely to be arrested during a police stop. As the Sentencing Project said in their report to the United Nations:


title: Human rights in the United States

text: African Americans are more likely than white Americans to be arrested; once arrested, they are more likely to be convicted; and once convicted, they are more likely to experience lengthy prison sentences.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The cause of this is disputed. There is a widespread belief among the American public that racial discrimination by the police is a persistent problem, and many academics and journalists assert that systemic racism, as well as a number of factors like concentrated poverty and higher rates of substandard housing (which has also led to greater rates of lead poisoning among African Americans) that they argue arise out of past racial segregation or other forms of historical oppression, contribute to the racial disparities. Some—particularly conservative political commentators—however, allege that the disparities arise primarily out of greater rates of criminal activity among black people, and point to studies that have found little evidence that anti-black racism causes disparities in altercations with the police.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: There have been a number of criticisms over certain legal procedures. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and Human Rights Watch have, for instance, argued that there exists a "trial penalty"—a penalty for electing to go to trial that arises from the significant discrepancy between the punishment a defendant would receive by waiving the right to trial and accepting a plea bargain compared to the punishment they might receive at trial—which they argue abridges the right to trial guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. There has also been significant criticism over qualified immunity, a judicial precedent that grants government officials—including police officers—significant immunity from civil suits. Critics have argued that qualified immunity makes it excessively difficult to sue public officials for misconduct, including civil rights violations; this has been implicated in particular for enabling police brutality.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: There has also been criticism of police department hiring practices. Despite safeguards in place around recruitment, some police departments have hired officers who had histories of poor performance or misconduct in other departments, an issue known as hiring "gypsy cops".


title: Human rights in the United States

text: International and U.S. law prohibits torture and other acts of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of any person in custody in all circumstances, especially in a state of armed conflict. However, the United States Government has categorized a large number of people as unlawful combatants, a classification which denies the privileges of prisoner of war (POW) designation of the Geneva Conventions.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Certain practices of the United States military and Central Intelligence Agency have been widely condemned domestically and internationally as torture. A fierce debate regarding non-standard interrogation techniques exists within the U.S. civilian and military intelligence community, with no general consensus as to what practices under what conditions are acceptable.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Abuse of prisoners is considered a crime in the United States Uniform Code of Military Justice. According to a January 2006 Human Rights First report, there were 45 suspected or confirmed homicides while in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan; "Certainly 8, as many as 12, people were tortured to death."


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In 2004, photos showing humiliation and abuse of prisoners were leaked from Abu Ghraib prison, causing a political and media scandal in the US. Forced humiliation of the detainees included, but was not limited to: forced nudity; rape; human piling of nude detainees; masturbation; eating food out of toilets; crawling on hands and knees while American soldiers sat on their backs, sometimes requiring them to bark like dogs; and hooking up electrical wires to fingers, toes, and penises. Bertrand Ramcharan, the acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, stated that while the removal of Saddam Hussein represented "a major contribution to human rights in Iraq" and that the United States had condemned the conduct at Abu Ghraib and pledged to bring violators to justice, "willful killing, torture and inhuman treatment" represented a grave breach of international law and "might be designated as war crimes by a competent tribunal".


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In addition to the acts of humiliation, there were more violent claims, such as American soldiers sodomizing detainees (including an event involving an underage boy), an incident in which a phosphoric light was broken and the chemicals poured on a detainee, repeated beatings, and threats of death. Six military personnel were charged with prisoner abuse in the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal. The harshest sentence was handed out to Charles Graner, who received a 10-year sentence to be served in a military prison and a demotion to private; the other offenders received lesser sentences.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The [Bush] administration effectively sought to re-write the Geneva Conventions of 1949 to eviscerate many of their most important protections. These include the rights of all detainees in an armed conflict to be free from humiliating and degrading treatment, as well as from torture and other forms of coercive interrogation...[M]ethods included holding detainees in painful stress positions, depriving them of sleep and light for prolonged periods, exposing them to extremes of heat, cold, noise and light, hooding, and depriving them of all clothing...Concern for the basic rights of persons taken into custody in Afghanistan and Iraq did not factor into the Bush administration's agenda. The administration largely dismissed expressions of concern for their treatment, from both within the government and without.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: On February 6, 2008, the CIA director General Michael Hayden stated that the CIA had used waterboarding on three prisoners during 2002 and 2003, namely Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Abu Zubayda and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The June 21, 2004, issue of "Newsweek" stated that the Bybee memo, a 2002 legal memorandum drafted by former OLC lawyer John Yoo that described what sort of interrogation tactics against suspected terrorists or terrorist affiliates the Bush administration would consider legal, was "... prompted by CIA questions about what to do with a top Qaeda captive, Abu Zubaydah, who had turned uncooperative ... and was drafted after White House meetings convened by George W. Bush's chief counsel, Alberto Gonzales, along with Defense Department general counsel William Haynes and David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney's counsel, who discussed specific interrogation techniques," citing "a source familiar with the discussions." Amongst the methods they found acceptable was waterboarding.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In November 2005, ABC News reported that former CIA agents claimed that the CIA engaged in a modern form of waterboarding, along with five other "enhanced interrogation techniques", against suspected members of al Qaeda.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, stated on the subject of waterboarding "I would have no problems with describing this practice as falling under the prohibition of torture," and that violators of the UN Convention Against Torture should be prosecuted under the principle of universal jurisdiction.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Bent Sørensen, Senior Medical Consultant to the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims and former member of the United Nations Committee Against Torture has said:


title: Human rights in the United States

text: It's a clear-cut case: Waterboarding can without any reservation be labeled as torture. It fulfils all of the four central criteria that according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT) defines an act of torture. First, when water is forced into your lungs in this fashion, in addition to the pain you are likely to experience an immediate and extreme fear of death. You may even suffer a heart attack from the stress or damage to the lungs and brain from inhalation of water and oxygen deprivation. In other words there is no doubt that waterboarding causes severe physical and/or mental suffering – one central element in the UNCAT's definition of torture. In addition the CIA's waterboarding clearly fulfills the three additional definition criteria stated in the Convention for a deed to be labeled torture, since it is 1) done intentionally, 2) for a specific purpose and 3) by a representative of a state – in this case the US.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have condemned waterboarding as a form of torture, the latter group demanding that former president George W. Bush be prosecuted.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, concurred by stating, in a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, that he believes waterboarding violates Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal and United Nations War Crimes Commission both defined waterboarding as ill-treatment and torture in the aftermath of World War II.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In April 2009, the Obama administration released four memos in which government lawyers from the Bush administration approved tough interrogation methods used against 28 terror suspects. The rough tactics range from waterboarding (simulated drowning) to keeping suspects naked and denying them solid food.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: These memos were accompanied by the Justice Department's release of four Bush-era legal opinions covering (in graphic and extensive detail) the interrogation of 14 high-value terror detainees using harsh techniques beyond waterboarding. These additional techniques include keeping detainees in a painful standing position for long periods (Used often, once for 180 hours), using a plastic neck collar to slam detainees into walls, keeping the detainee's cell cold for long periods, beating and kicking the detainee, insects placed in a confinement box (the suspect had a fear of insects), sleep-deprivation, prolonged shackling, and threats to a detainee's family. One of the memos also authorized a method for combining multiple techniques.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Details from the memos also included the number of times that techniques such as waterboarding were used. A footnote said that one detainee was waterboarded 83 times in one month, while another was waterboarded 183 times in a month.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The Fox News website carried reports from an unnamed U.S. official who claimed that these were the number of pourings, not the number of sessions.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Physicians for Human Rights has accused the Bush administration of conducting illegal human experiments and unethical medical research during interrogations of suspected terrorists. The group has suggested this activity was a violation of the standards set by the Nuremberg Trials.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The United States maintains a detention center at its military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba where enemy combatants of the war on terror are held. The detention center has been the source of various controversies regarding the legality of the center and the treatment of detainees. Amnesty International has called the situation "a human rights scandal" in a series of reports. 775 detainees have been brought to Guantánamo. Of these, many have been released without charge. The United States assumed territorial control over Guantánamo Bay under the 1903 Cuban–American Treaty of Relations, which granted the United States a perpetual lease of the area. United States, by virtue of its complete jurisdiction and control, maintains "de facto" sovereignty over this territory, while Cuba retained ultimate sovereignty over the territory. The current government of Cuba regards the U.S. presence in Guantánamo as illegal and insists the Cuban-American Treaty was obtained by threat of force in violation of international law.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: A delegation of UN Special Rapporteurs to Guantanamo Bay claimed that interrogation techniques used in the detention center amount to degrading treatment in violation of the ICCPR and the Convention Against Torture.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In 2005, Amnesty International expressed alarm at the erosion in civil liberties since the 9/11 attacks. According to Amnesty International:


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The Guantánamo Bay detention camp has become a symbol of the United States administration's refusal to put human rights and the rule of law at the heart of its response to the atrocities of September 11, 2001. It has become synonymous with the United States executive's pursuit of unfettered power, and has become firmly associated with the systematic denial of human dignity and resort to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment that has marked the U.S.'s detentions and interrogations in the "war on terror".


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Amnesty International also condemned the Guantánamo facility as "... the gulag of our times," which raised heated conversation in the United States. The purported legal status of ""unlawful combatants"" in those nations currently holding detainees under that name has been the subject of criticism by other nations and international human rights institutions including Human Rights Watch and the International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC, in response to the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan, published a paper on the subject. HRW cites two sergeants and a captain accusing U.S. troops of torturing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: However, former Republican governor Mike Huckabee, for example, has stated that the conditions in Guantánamo are better than most U.S. prisons.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The U.S. government argues that even if detainees were entitled to POW status, they would not have the right to lawyers, access to the courts to challenge their detention, or the opportunity to be released prior to the end of hostilities—and that nothing in the Third Geneva Convention provides POWs such rights, and POWs in past wars—such as Japanese prisoners of war in World War II—have generally not been given these rights. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in "Hamdan v. Rumsfeld" on June 29, 2006, that they were entitled to the minimal protections listed under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. Following this, on July 7, 2006, the Department of Defense issued an internal memo stating that prisoners would in the future be entitled to protection under Common Article 3.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In a process known as extraordinary rendition, foreign nationals have been captured and abducted outside of the United States and transferred to secret US-administered detention facilities, sometimes being held incommunicado for months or years. According to "The New Yorker", "The most common destinations for rendered suspects are Egypt, Morocco, Syria, and Jordan, all of which have been cited for human-rights violations by the State Department, and are known to torture suspects."


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In November 2001, Yaser Esam Hamdi, a U.S. citizen, was captured by Afghan Northern Alliance forces in Konduz, Afghanistan, amongst hundreds of surrendering Taliban fighters and was transferred into U.S. custody. The U.S. government alleged that Hamdi was there fighting for the Taliban, while Hamdi, through his father, has claimed that he was merely there as a relief worker and was mistakenly captured. Hamdi was transferred into CIA custody and transferred to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, but when it was discovered that he was a U.S. citizen, he was transferred to naval brig in Norfolk, Virginia and then he was transferred brig in Charleston, South Carolina. The Bush Administration identified him as an unlawful combatant and denied him access to an attorney or the court system, despite his Fifth Amendment right to due process. In 2002 Hamdi's father filed a "habeas corpus" petition, the Judge ruled in Hamdi's favor and required he be allowed a public defender; however, on appeal the decision was reversed. In 2004, in the case of "Hamdi v. Rumsfeld" the U.S. Supreme court reversed the dismissal of a "habeas corpus" petition and ruled detainees who are U.S. citizens must have the ability to challenge their detention before an impartial judge.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In December 2004, Khalid El-Masri, a German citizen, was apprehended by Macedonian authorities when traveling to Skopje because his name was similar to Khalid al-Masri, an alleged mentor to the al-Qaeda Hamburg cell. After being held in a motel in Macedonia for over three weeks he was transferred to the CIA and extradited to Afghanistan. While held in Afghanistan, El-Masri claims he was sodomized, beaten, and repeatedly interrogated about alleged terrorist ties. After being in custody for five months, Condoleezza Rice learned of his detention and ordered his release. El-Masri was released at night on a desolate road in Albania, without apology or funds to return home. He was intercepted by Albanian guards, who believed he was a terrorist due to his haggard and unkept appearance. He was subsequently reunited with his wife who had returned to her family in Lebanon with their children because she thought her husband had abandoned them. Using isotope analysis, scientists at the Bavarian archive for geology in Munich analyzed his hair and verified that he was malnourished during his disappearance.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In 2007, U.S. President Bush signed an Executive order banning the use of torture in the CIA's interrogation program.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: According to the Human Rights Watch report (September 2012) the United States government during the U.S. President Bush republican administration "waterboarding" tortured opponents of Muammar Gaddafi during interrogations, then transferred them to mistreatment in Libya.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: According to Canadian historian Michael Ignatieff, during and after the Cold War, the United States placed greater emphasis than other nations on human rights as part of its foreign policy, awarded foreign aid to facilitate human rights progress, and annually assessed the human rights records of other national governments.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The U.S. Department of State publishes a yearly report "Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record" in compliance with a 2002 law that requires the department to report on actions taken by the U.S. Government to encourage respect for human rights. It also publishes yearly "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices." In 2006 the United States created a "Human Rights Defenders Fund" and "Freedom Awards." The "Ambassadorial Roundtable Series", created in 2006, are informal discussions between newly confirmed U.S. Ambassadors and human rights and democracy non-governmental organizations. The United States also support democracy and human rights through several other tools.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The "Human Rights and Democracy Achievement Award" recognizes the exceptional achievement of officers of foreign affairs agencies posted abroad.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Under legislation by congress, the United States declared that countries utilizing child soldiers may no longer be eligible for US military assistance, in an attempt to end this practice.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) are the legal treaties that enshrine the rights outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Together, and along with the first and second optional protocols of the ICCPR they constitute the International bill of rights The US has not ratified the ICESCR or either of the optional protocols of the ICCPR.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The US's ratification of the ICCPR was done with five reservations – or limits – on the treaty, 5 understandings and 4 declarations. Among these is the rejection of sections of the treaty that prohibit capital punishment. Included in the Senate's ratification was the declaration that "the provisions of Article 1 through 27 of the Covenant are not self-executing", and in a Senate Executive Report stated that the declaration was meant to "clarify that the Covenant will not create a private cause of action in U.S. Courts." This way of ratifying the treaty was criticized as incompatible with the Supremacy Clause by Louis Henkin.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: As a reservation that is "incompatible with the object and purpose" of a treaty is void as a matter of international law, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, art. 19, 1155 U.N.T.S. 331 (entered into force January 27, 1980) (specifying conditions under which signatory States can offer "reservations"), there is some issue as to whether the non-self-execution declaration is even legal under domestic law. At any rate, the United States is but a signatory in name only.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The U.S. has not ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which was drafted for prosecuting individuals above the authority of national courts in the event of accusations of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crime of aggression. Nations that have accepted the Rome Statute can defer to the jurisdiction of the ICC or must surrender their jurisdiction when ordered.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The US rejected the Rome Statute after its attempts to include the nation of origin as a party in international proceedings failed, and after certain requests were not met, including recognition of gender issues, "rigorous" qualifications for judges, viable definitions of crimes, protection of national security information that might be sought by the court, and jurisdiction of the UN Security Council to halt court proceedings in special cases. Since the passage of the statute, the US has actively encouraged nations around the world to sign "bilateral immunity agreements" prohibiting the surrender of US personnel before the ICC and actively attempted to undermine the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The US Congress also passed a law, American Service-Members' Protection Act (ASPA) authorizing the use of military force to free any US personnel that are brought before the court rather than its own court system. Human Rights Watch criticized the United States for removing itself from the Statute.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Judge Richard Goldstone, the first chief prosecutor at The Hague war crimes tribunal on the former Yugoslavia, echoed these sentiments saying:


title: Human rights in the United States

text: I think it is a very backwards step. It is unprecedented which I think to an extent smacks of pettiness in the sense that it is not going to affect in any way the establishment of the international criminal court ... The US have really isolated themselves and are putting themselves into bed with the likes of China, the Yemen and other undemocratic countries.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: While the US has maintained that it will "bring to justice those who commit genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes," even though the U.S.A. has supported many genocides, for example the Indonesian genocide in the 1960s; its primary objections to the Rome Statute have revolved around the issues of jurisdiction and process. A US ambassador for War Crimes Issues to the UN Security Council said to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that because the Rome Statute requires only one nation to submit to the ICC, and that this nation can be the country in which an alleged crime was committed rather than defendant's country of origin, U.S. military personnel and US foreign peaceworkers in more than 100 countries could be tried in international court without the consent of the US. The ambassador states that "most atrocities are committed internally and most internal conflicts are between warring parties of the same nationality, the worst offenders of international humanitarian law can choose never to join the treaty and be fully insulated from its reach absent a Security Council referral. Yet multinational peacekeeping forces operating in a country that has joined the treaty can be exposed to the court's jurisdiction even if the country of the individual peacekeeper has not joined the treaty."


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Where the signature is subject to ratification, acceptance or approval, the signature does not establish the consent to be bound. However, it is a means of authentication and expresses the willingness of the signatory state to continue the treaty-making process. The signature qualifies the signatory state to proceed to ratification, acceptance or approval. It also creates an obligation to refrain, in good faith, from acts that would defeat the object and the purpose of the treaty.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The US is a signatory to the 1948 American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and has signed but not ratified the 1969 American Convention on Human Rights. It is a member of Inter-American Convention on the Granting of Political Rights to Women (1948). It does not accept the adjudicatory jurisdiction of the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The US has not ratified any of the other regional human rights treaties of the Organization of American States, which include:


title: Human rights in the United States

text: Studies have found that "The New York Times" coverage of worldwide human rights violations is seriously biased, predominantly focusing on the human rights violations in nations where there is clear U.S. involvement, while having relatively little coverage of the human rights violations in other nations. Amnesty International's Secretary General Irene Khan explains, "If we focus on the U.S. it's because we believe that the U.S. is a country whose enormous influence and power has to be used constructively ... When countries like the U.S. are seen to undermine or ignore human rights, it sends a very powerful message to others."


title: Human rights in the United States

text: The Polity data series generated by the Political Instability Task Force, a U.S. government research project funded by the CIA, rating regime and authority characteristics, covering the years 1800–2018, has given the US 10 points out of 10 for the years 1871–1966 and 1974–2015. The US score declined to 8 in 2016, 2017, and 2018.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: According to the "Economist Magazine"'s Democracy Index (2016), the US ranks 21 out of 167 nations. In 2016 and 2017, the United States is classified as a "Flawed Democracy" by Democracy Index and received a score of 8.24 out of 10.00 with respect to civil liberties. This is the first time the United States has been downgraded from a "Full Democracy" to a "Flawed Democracy" since The Economist began publishing the Democracy Index report.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: According to the annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders, due to journalist harassment and public distrust in mainstream media, the U.S ranked 44 out of 197 countries for press freedom.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: According to the annual Corruption Perceptions Index, which was published by Transparency International, the United States ranked 25th out of 180 countries with of 67/100 for political transparency.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: According to the annual Privacy International index of 2007, the United States was ranked an "endemic surveillance society", scoring only 1.5 out of 5 privacy points.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: According to the annual Democracy Matrix, which is published by the University of Würzburg, the US was a "working democracy" in 2019, which is the highest category in that index, although it is the third-lowest ranking country in that category (36th overall).


title: Human rights in the United States

text: According to the Gallup International Millennium Survey, the United States ranked 23rd in citizens' perception of human rights observance when its citizens were asked, "In general, do you think that human rights are being fully respected, partially respected or are they not being respected at all in your country?"


title: Human rights in the United States

text: In the aftermath of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, criticism by some groups commenting on human rights issues was made regarding the recovery and reconstruction issues The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Prison Project documented mistreatment of the prison population during the flooding, while United Nations Special Rapporteur Doudou Diène delivered a 2008 report on such issues. The United States was elected in 2009 to sit on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which the U.S. State Department had previously asserted had lost its credibility by its prior stances and lack of safeguards against severe human rights violators taking a seat. In 2006 and 2007, the UNHCR and Martin Scheinin were critical of the United States regard permitting executions by lethal injection, housing children in adult jails, subjecting prisoners to prolonged isolation in supermax prisons, using enhanced interrogation techniques and domestic poverty gaps.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: On 28 October 2020, Amnesty International raised concerns over the condition of human rights in the United States, and decided to monitor and expose the human rights violations related to protests during and after the 3 November United States elections.


title: Human rights in the United States

text: On 9 November 2020, during the 3.5 -hour session at the UN's main human rights body, the United States came under scrutiny for the first time in five years, regarding the detention of migrant children and the killings of unarmed Black people during Donald Trump’s tenure. The US critics, including Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Russia and China, raised concerns on the United States human rights records that followed up on an August report about past rights records of the US.


title: Gavin Harrison

text: Gavin Richard Harrison (born 28 May 1963) is an English musician. He is best known for playing with the progressive rock bands Porcupine Tree (2002–2010; 2021–present), King Crimson (2008, and 2014–present) and The Pineapple Thief (2016–present). Harrison's drumming has received many awards from music publications and earned praise from other musicians.


title: Gavin Harrison

text: Gavin started to work professionally in 1979. He worked as a freelance session drummer on records and tours for the following artists: Incognito, Lisa Stansfield, Lewis Taylor, Artful Dodger, Paul Young, Iggy Pop, Level 42, Porcupine Tree, OSI, King Crimson, Shooter, Dizrhythmia, The Pineapple Thief, The Kings Of Oblivion, Sam Brown, Tom Robinson, Go West, Black, Gail Ann Dorsey, B J Cole, Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin, Nathan East, Yasuaki Shimizu, Camouflage, Kevin Ayers, Claudio Baglioni, Franco Battiato, Chizuko Yoshihiro, Renaissance, Mick Karn, Eros Ramazzotti, Nick Johnston, Randy Goodrum, and Fates Warning.


title: Gavin Harrison

text: In 2002 he joined Porcupine Tree and has played on the band's albums released since that time: "In Absentia, Deadwing, Fear of a Blank Planet", "The Incident", and "Closure/Continuation", with each receiving critical acclaim and raising the band's status to one of the most influential modern progressive rock bands. He remained a permanent member of the band until an indefinite hiatus was announced in 2010, and then again in 2021 when the band announced a return to playing together with the release of the album "Closure/Continuation".


title: Gavin Harrison

text: In 2007 Harrison began a long term collaboration with singer/extended range bass player 05Ric, which led to the release of three CDs, "Drop" (2007), "Circles" (2009) and "The Man Who Sold Himself" (2012).


title: Gavin Harrison

text: In 2008, Harrison joined King Crimson as part of a dual-drummer line-up with Pat Mastelotto. He played a number of shows in the United States in August with the band. He also recorded drums on Steven Wilson's debut solo album, Insurgentes.


title: Gavin Harrison

text: On 23 August 2011, he was a featured performer on the 'Late Show with David Letterman' as part of their second "Drum Solo Week", along with such players as Sheila E, Stewart Copeland, Neil Peart, and Dennis Chambers.


title: Gavin Harrison

text: As of September 2014, Harrison plays live in the new formation of King Crimson, as one of the three drummers.


title: Gavin Harrison

text: In 2016, he joined The Pineapple Thief as a session drummer for the band's 11th studio album "Your Wilderness", which received widespread critical acclaim and an overwhelmingly positive fan reception. He joined the band on the tour following the album in January 2017. In August 2018, just prior to the release of Dissolution, the band announced that Harrison had officially joined the band as a full member. He has since been actively involved and credited in the band's songwriting and album production together with the founder Bruce Soord.


title: Gavin Harrison

text: Harrison was influenced by his father's jazz collection and by drummers such as Steve Gadd and Jeff Porcaro.


title: Gavin Harrison

text: Harrison won the "Modern Drummer" readers' poll for "best progressive drummer of the year" consecutively from 2007–2010 and again in 2016 and 2019. He won "Best Prog Drummer" in DRUM USA magazine 2011. "Prog" voted him best drummer in 2011, 2012, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. He is the featured cover story on "Modern Drummer" January 2009, February 2015 and July 2022. "Rolling Stone" polls rate him as the third best drummer in the past 25 years. In 2014, "Modern Drummer" magazine placed Harrison in the "Top 50 Greatest Drummers of All Time".


title: Gavin Harrison

text: Many artists have cited Harrison as an influence, including Chad Szeliga, Chris Pennie, Ryan Van Poederooyen, Dirk Verbeuren, Andrew Spence, Raymond Hearne of Haken, John Merryman of Cephalic Carnage, Jamie Saint Merat of Ulcerate, Aaron Stechauner of Rings of Saturn, Baard Kolstad of Leprous, Francesco Paoli of Fleshgod Apocalypse, Matija Dagović of Consecration, Vishnu Reddy of Crypted and Abhay Rathore (former Mocaine).


title: Gavin Harrison

text: In addition, other artists have been quoted expressing admiration for his work including Neil Peart, Bill Bruford, Mike Portnoy, Devin Townsend, Steve Smith, Martín López, Matt Garstka, Dave Bainbridge, Hannes Grossmann, Blake Richardson, Kai Hahto, Jimmy Keegan, Ian Mosley, Dan Presland of Ne Obliviscaris, Evan Sammons of Last Chance to Reason, Bodo Stricker of Callejon, Joshua Theriot of Abigail's Ghost, and Blake Anderson of Vektor.


title: Gavin Harrison

text: Harrison authored two instructional drum books entitled "Rhythmic Illusions" and "Rhythmic Perspectives". He also wrote and produced his own instructional DVDs, "Rhythmic Visions" and "Rhythmic Horizons", at his home studio. 2010 saw the release of "Rhythmic Designs", a book of transcriptions by Terry Branam, and a 3-hour DVD of Gavin's explanations and demonstrations. It won 'Best in Show' at the summer NAMM show in the USA. 2014 sees the release of "Rhythmic Compositions" a book of 20 detailed drum transcriptions (by Terry Branam) of recorded Porcupine Tree performances – plus photos and stories of the recording and creative process.


title: John King (journalist)

text: John King (born August 30, 1963) is an American news anchor. He is CNN's chief national correspondent, based in Washington, D.C., and is the weekday anchor of its roundtable political discussion program "Inside Politics". He formerly anchored "State of the Union" and "John King, USA".


title: John King (journalist)

text: King was born in Boston. He is of Irish descent with ancestors from Dún Locháin, Co. Galway. He attended Boston Latin School, and earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Rhode Island. John King and Jean Makie, his first wife, have two children, named Noah and Hannah.


title: John King (journalist)

text: On May 25, 2008, King married his second wife, fellow CNN anchor Dana Bash. Before marrying Bash, King (previously a Roman Catholic) converted to Judaism, Bash's religion. Bash and King have a son, Jonah, who was born in June 2011. The couple separated in March 2012.


title: John King (journalist)

text: On October 19, 2021, King revealed on his show "Inside Politics" that he has multiple sclerosis and is thus immunocompromised. The following day, October 20, 2021, King revealed when asked about the subject of his multiple sclerosis by CNN New Day anchor John Berman, that he has been diagnosed for 13 years. According to King, he had problems feeling his legs since covering the Clinton administration in the late 1990s. After those problems worsened during the 2008 presidential campaign, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.


title: John King (journalist)

text: In 1985, King joined the Associated Press where he began as a writer. In 1991, King was named chief political correspondent and headed the AP's political coverage of the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections. Also in 1991, King won the top reporting prize from the Associated Press Managing Editors' Association for his coverage of the Gulf War in Kuwait.


title: John King (journalist)

text: In 1997, King joined CNN where he served as the senior White House correspondent from 1999 to 2005. In 2005, King was named CNN's chief national correspondent, a position he still holds. From 2014 to 2021, he anchored the Sunday morning (and more frequently during presidential-election years) news program "Inside Politics," which features a rotating roundtable of members of the media who share their insights of current political topics with King. He frequently appears on the nightly news programs "The Situation Room" and "Anderson Cooper 360°" and sometimes fills in as anchor.


title: John King (journalist)

text: King also uses the Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall, nicknamed the "Magic Wall" or "Magic Map". First used during the primaries of the 2008 presidential campaign, it allows him to display and manipulate various graphics and maps relating to poll and election results. He and the Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall have both been featured in a "Daily Show" segment, as well as CNN coverage of the US Presidential Election in 2016 and 2020.


title: John King (journalist)

text: Just prior to the 2009 US presidential inauguration, King began hosting his new talk show "State of the Union," which replaced CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer". With Lou Dobbs' sudden resignation from the network on November 12, 2009, CNN announced that King would take over Dobbs' timeslot in early 2010. On January 31, 2010, King announced that CNN's senior political reporter, Candy Crowley, would replace him as anchor of "State of the Union". King began hosting his new weeknight show on March 22, 2010, called "John King, USA". On May 2, 2011, John King was the CNN anchor who confirmed the death of Osama bin Laden to that network's viewers.


title: John King (journalist)

text: On January 19, 2012, King moderated a Republican presidential debate before the South Carolina Primary.


title: John King (journalist)

text: On April 17, 2013, King, citing law enforcement sources, erroneously reported that a suspect in the April 15, 2013, bombing at the Boston Marathon had been identified by police and that the suspect was a dark-skinned male. King was the first to erroneously report on this identification of a suspect; other news outlets, such as "Fox News", soon erroneously reported that a suspect had been arrested.


title: John King (journalist)

text: On January 11, 2021, Abby Phillip was announced to be the new anchor on the Sunday edition of "Inside Politics", replacing King, starting Sunday, January 24, 2021. The new show is called "Inside Politics Sunday With Abby Phillip".


title: John King (journalist)

text: King received widespread praise in the wake of the 2020 United States presidential election for his coverage of the event, which was positively mentioned by many sources.


title: Zack Martin

text: Zachary Edward Martin (born November 20, 1990) is an American football offensive guard for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Notre Dame and was drafted 16th overall by the Cowboys in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft. He has made seven Pro Bowls and been selected to seven All-Pro teams. Martin is considered one of the best guards in the NFL.


title: Zack Martin

text: Zack and his brother Nick, spent their entire elementary years from kindergarten through eighth grade at Saint Matthew Catholic School, in Indianapolis, Indiana, according to their then principal, Dr. Martin Erlenbaugh. The Martins are products of Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) sports in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. Zack and Nick each enrolled their freshman year at Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. Zack tallied 114 pancake blocks during his senior campaign, and was named a first-team all-state selection as a senior and junior. He was a member of the Indiana Class 3A State Championship team as


title: Zack Martin

text: a sophomore with a 12–3 record, and helped lead his high school team to a 14–1 record and second consecutive Indiana Class 3A state championship as a junior in 2007.


title: Zack Martin

text: He started both ways as a sophomore on the offensive and defensive lines, and recorded 73 tackles, including five tackles for loss as a defensive tackle during his sophomore season in 2006. He also starred in basketball during his sophomore and junior years at Bishop Chatard. His style of play earned him the nickname "The Butcher", given to him by opposing fans. He was selected to play in the 2009 Under Armour All-America Game in Orlando, Florida. He also competed in track & field as a shot putter and discus thrower. He played for legendary coach Andrew Slome.


title: Zack Martin

text: Considered a four-star recruit by Rivals.com, he was rated the 22nd best offensive tackle in the nation. He accepted a scholarship from Notre Dame over offers from Indiana, Kentucky, and Michigan.


title: Zack Martin

text: After redshirting in 2009, he became the starting left tackle for the Irish in 2010. He saw action in all 13 games in 2010, and was one of 11 players to start all 13 games for the Irish that season. As a junior in 2011, he started all 13 games at left offensive tackle, and was part of a unit that only allowed 17 sacks during the season. He helped pave the way for a running game that averaged 4.8 yards a carry, the best by a Notre Dame team since 1996. In 2012, he was named one of four team captains for the Irish. He started all 13 games and helped lead the team to a 12–0 regular season record and a trip to the 2013 BCS National Championship Game against the Alabama Crimson Tide, but lost 42–14. He announced he would return to the Irish for the 2013–2014 season.


title: Zack Martin

text: In his final season, he was named team captain for the second time, becoming only the 18th player in school history to earn such an honor. Martin would start all 13 games, setting a new school record for career starts by an offensive lineman with 52. He was leader of a unit that allowed only 8 sacks, tied for second best in the FBS. He was named MVP of the 2013 Pinstripe Bowl after a 29–16 win over Rutgers, becoming the first offensive lineman since 1959 (Jay Huffman) to receive that distinction in a college bowl game.


title: Zack Martin

text: In the 2014 NFL Draft, there was speculation that the Dallas Cowboys would select quarterback Johnny Manziel if he was available. Instead, the team had targeted linebacker Ryan Shazier, who ended up going to the Pittsburgh Steelers. With the 16th pick of the first round the Cowboys drafted Martin with the intention of converting him to an offensive guard.


title: Zack Martin

text: He was named the starter at right guard from the first day of Organized Team Activities in the preseason, replacing Mackenzy Bernadeau, who had been the starter in the previous two years. His addition contributed to the offensive line becoming arguably the best in the league.


title: Zack Martin

text: On December 23, Martin became one of four rookies selected to the 2014 Pro Bowl. On January 2, 2014 he was voted to the AP 2014 All-Pro Team, the only rookie to make the team, and was the first Cowboys rookie since running back Calvin Hill was named to the team in 1969. Also, he was the first rookie offensive lineman to be named first-team AP All-Pro since Dick Huffman in 1947.


title: Zack Martin

text: Martin had a second All-Pro caliber season in as many years despite losing DeMarco Murray to the division rivals Philadelphia Eagles in free agency. Martin and company led the NFL's ninth best rushing attack as teammate Darren McFadden finished fourth in rushing with 1,089 yards. Martin played for Team Irvin along with each of his elected teammates in the 2016 Pro Bowl and was named second team All-Pro by the Associated Press.


title: Zack Martin

text: Martin was named to his third straight Pro Bowl and was named First-team All-Pro, both honors being shared with fellow Cowboy offensive linemen Travis Frederick and Tyron Smith. He was also ranked 58th on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2017.


title: Zack Martin

text: On April 18, 2017, the Cowboys picked up the fifth-year option on Martin's rookie contract. He was named to his fourth straight Pro Bowl alongside tackle Tyron Smith and center Travis Frederick for the fourth straight year. He was ranked 71st by his peers on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2018.


title: Zack Martin

text: On June 13, 2018, Martin signed a six-year, $84 million contract extension with the Cowboys with $40 million guaranteed, making him the highest paid guard in the NFL. He suffered a knee injury in Week 14 and missed the following week, the first time in his career that he had missed a game.


title: Zack Martin

text: In 2019 Martin become one of five offensive linemen ever to secure a Pro Bowl invitation in each of their first six seasons, joining Lou Creekmur (1950–57), Jon Morris (1964–70), Joe Thomas (2007–16) and Richmond Webb (1990–96).


title: Zack Martin

text: In Week 11, Martin made his first career start at right tackle due to injuries across the offensive line. On December 7, 2020, Martin was placed on injured reserve with a calf strain. He was activated on January 2, 2021.


title: Zack Martin

text: On September 5, 2021, it was announced that Martin was ruled out for the 2021 season opener due to testing positive for COVID-19.


title: Zack Martin

text: Martin married his wife Morgan in July 2016 and has a son and a daughter. His wife is the sister of former NFL tight end Tyler Eifert. Before becoming brothers-in-law, Martin and Eifert were teammates and roommates at the University of Notre Dame. Martin's brother Nick is also an NFL center. He also played college football at Notre Dame and was drafted by the Houston Texans in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft.


title: Berne Convention

text: The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, was an international assembly held in 1886 in the Swiss city of Bern by ten European countries with the goal to agree on a set of legal principles for the protection of original work. They drafted and adopted a multi-party contract containing agreements for a uniform, crossing border system that became known under the same name. Its rules have been updated many times since then. The treaty provides authors, musicians, poets, painters, and other creators with the means to control how their works are used, by whom, and on what terms. In some jurisdictions these type of rights are being referred to as copyright.


title: Berne Convention

text: The United States became a party in 1989. As of November 2022, the Berne Convention has been ratified by 181 states out of 195 countries in the world, most of which are also parties to the Paris Act of 1971.


title: Berne Convention

text: The Berne Convention introduced the concept that protection exists the moment a work is "fixed", that is, written or recorded on some physical medium, its author is automatically entitled to all copyrights in the work and to any derivative works, unless and until the author explicitly disclaims them or until the copyright expires. A creator need not register or "apply for" a copyright in countries adhering to the convention. It also enforces a requirement that countries recognize rights held by the citizens of all other parties to the convention. Foreign authors are given the same rights and privileges to copyrighted material as domestic authors in any country that ratified the convention. The countries to which the convention applies created a Union for the protection of the rights of authors in their literary and artistic works, known as the "Berne Union".


title: Berne Convention

text: The Berne Convention requires its parties to recognize the protection of works of authors from other parties to the convention at least as well as those of its own nationals. For example, French copyright law applies to anything published, distributed, performed, or in any other way accessible in France, regardless of where it was originally created, if the country of origin of that work is in the Berne Union.


title: Berne Convention

text: In addition to establishing a system of equal treatment that harmonised copyright amongst parties, the agreement also required member states to provide strong minimum standards for copyright law.


title: Berne Convention

text: Copyright under the Berne Convention must be automatic; it is prohibited to require formal registration. However, when the United States joined the convention on 1 March 1989, it continued to make statutory damages and attorney's fees only available for registered works.


title: Berne Convention

text: However, "Moberg v Leygues" (a 2009 decision of a Delaware Federal District Court) held that the protections of the Berne Convention are supposed to essentially be "frictionless", meaning no registration requirements can be imposed on a work from a different Berne member country. This means Berne member countries can require works originating in their own country to be registered and/or deposited, but cannot require these formalities of works from other Berne member countries.