US gets ‘D’ grade for human rights in University of RI’s 2024 report

The report rates each of the world’s countries on a 100-point scale using what the university calls “the world’s largest quantitative human rights data set,” known as the CIRIGHTS Data Project — an initiative launched by the school back with two years with Binghamton University in New York. .

The project uses data it compiles from the US State Department, Amnesty International and the United Nations, among other organizations. This year’s report is based on data collected for 2022.

“The CIRIGHTS project shows that global respect has declined over the past decade,” Mark said. “Despite the growth of human rights legislation, institutions, NGOs and technology to document and disseminate human rights information, things are getting worse.”

Specifically, nations are classified into four categories: physical integrity, empowerment, workers’ rights, and justice rights. Among them, a total of two dozen factors are considered, such as political imprisonment and extrajudicial killings, religious freedom and women’s rights, the minimum wage and unionization and the right to a fair trial, among others.

According to the researchers, respect for human rights is more often observed in democratic nations and wealthier countries, although there are exceptions.

While the United States has “strong domestic laws protecting civil and political rights,” the researchers noted that the nation received failing scores “in rights categories such as physical integrity (such as extrajudicial killings, torture, and political imprisonment) and workers’ rights (like freedom). unionization and children’s rights at work),” according to a press release.

“The US has not ratified many human rights treaties (it is the only country that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child), and excessive police violence and police shootings disproportionately targeting racial minorities are so bad that they are criticized across the world,” Mark said in his statement.

“Political imprisonment of nonviolent protesters has increased in recent years, and laws restricting the right to protest undermine a basic mechanism through which citizens can advocate for better rights,” added Mark. “Workers’ rights continue to be violated with increasing restrictions on unionization, limits on the right to strike, a minimum wage people cannot live on, and an increase in child labor and laws that weaken child labor protections.”

In 66th place, the United States was tied with Jamaica.

“Students are often surprised by how the U.S. compares to the rest of the world, and it sparks really interesting conversations about what we could be doing better,” Mark said. “Human rights education is the first step towards creating a demand for human rights, which is necessary to improve human rights.”

The top five ranked countries are Iceland, Estonia, Denmark, Finland and Monaco, and the bottom five are Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, Yemen and South Sudan respectively.

Overall, “the distribution of human rights scores has remained largely stable over the past 17 years, suggesting that human rights have not improved or declined significantly in recent times,” the researchers wrote in the report.

“This is worrying for human rights defenders, but not surprising. We have cause for concern in the 21st century, and these findings suggest a pressing need to strengthen human rights,” the researchers wrote. “The current tools used to improve human rights and hold leaders accountable are not working, and new approaches will be needed to improve human rights globally.”

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Christopher Gavin can be reached at [email protected].