A senior Chinese human rights expert on Thursday reproached the United States for practicing double standards by pointing the finger at the human rights situation in other countries but keeping silent on its own problems.

Dong Yunhu, Vice-Chairman and Secretary-General of the China Society for Human Rights, made the remarks after China's State Council issued a report entitled "Human Rights Record of the United States in 2005" in response to the "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2005" published by the U.S. State Department on Wednesday.

"The Chinese report represents the voice of the international community for justice and strongly condemns the U.S. State Department report and it will also help the international community know about the true human rights situation in the U.S.," he said.

Released by the Information Office of China's State Council, the Chinese report listed a multitude of cases to show the serious violations of human rights both in and outside the United States.

Dong noted that the U.S. not only had a long history of racial discrimination, but also frequent cases of judicial officials infringing upon civilians' rights, as well as a large population suffering from poverty, hunger and lack of housing.

The U.S. is one of the few countries that sentences child offenders to death and ranked next to the last among 22 developed nations in the world in terms of the child poverty index.

Refusing to pass the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the U.S. is one of the two last nations that have not attended the International Convention on the Children's Rights, and one of the few that has not joined the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. It is also the only Western nation voting against Declaration on the Right to Development.

Over the past year, several scandals in the U.S. have exposed the government's violation of human rights. The U.S. government's authorization of the use of surveillance on common civilians without going through the courts sparked controversy and protests nationwide. Exposure of lobbyist Jack Abramoff evoked a furor in the U.S. political circle, giving people a clearer picture of the truth behind money buying power. News stories also revealed that the U.S. strangled international media during the Iraqi war, planned to bomb Al Jazeera's headquarters, and even secretly set up prisons in Europe.

"Such undeniable facts have drawn wide attention and sharp criticism from the international community," Dong said.

Furthermore, the United Nations recently issued a human rights report, revealing the cruel treatment people received in the U.S. prisons, Dong acknowledged. The pictures of Iraqi people abused in the U.S. prisons have also caused global uproar.

Dong indicated that all these facts demonstrated that the U.S. human rights record does not comply with its economic and social development, and also sharply contrasted with its so-called title of "human rights guard". With the whole world focusing on the U.S. human rights problems, the U.S. still adopts inappropriate and unpopular acts to publish human rights reports on other countries but without mentioning its own problems.

According to the Charter of the United Nations, the fundamental way to promote human rights is to enhance international cooperation based on mutual respect, without interfering in each other's internal affairs.

On the contrary, the U.S. government, proclaiming itself the "world's judge for human rights", overrode other countries yet kept itself out of the human rights rules, which violated the international rules and lost moral support.

Dong stressed that China issued a human rights record of the U.S. not to interfere with the U.S. internal affairs, but to persuade the U.S. to face up to its own problems before judging others.

"The U.S. human rights report, disregarding the world's trend for peace and development, will give rise to confrontation among nations, destroy human rights dialogue and cooperation, and poison international relations," Dong said.

Source: Xinhua