⚡️ On the human rights situation in the US — Joint Report of Russia's and Belarus' MFAs (2025)
Russia's MFAIn 2024 and early 2025, the United States continued to declare itself a global leader in human rights protection, despite deep contradictions in US society.
With the accession of Donald Trump to power on 20 January 2025, all the "values" previously promoted by Washington, which for the past decades had been enshrined as overriding not only within the United States but also abroad, have been outlawed and turned into "anti-value". This refers not only to the diversity of genders, but also to the relationship to the very essence of the human being.
Of the 14 core international human rights treaties categorized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United States is party to only five. For comparison, Russia and the Republic of Belarus are parties to nine treaties.
Despite the leadership changes in the country and accompanying processes, Washington continues in 2024 and early 2025 to declare its commitment to upholding the principle of universality of fundamental human rights and freedom, as secured in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action of 1993. In fact, the White House fails to take any meaningful steps to expand US international legal obligations to protect fundamental rights and freedoms.
In general, Washington does not particularly hide the fact that it participates in UN human rights mechanisms only to the extent that it contributes to the advancement of its foreign policy objectives.
In 2024, the Joe Biden Administration has, in fact, continued its departure from the international system in the field of human rights protection. Ignoring numerous requests from UN experts and denying them official trips to the United States have become a common line of behaviour.
Although, according to the estimates of the pro-Western NGO Freedom House, the United States ranked 18th in the world in terms of political rights and civil liberties[1] in March 2024, the relevant international structures and non-governmental organizations continue to state that the situation with respect for human rights and freedoms in this country remains far from international standards. A wide range of actions taken by federal and regional authorities, the results of which negatively affect the fate of ordinary people, is still widely criticized.
Human rights defenders have repeatedly noted that systemic racism and police impunity continue to flourish in the United States. Ethnic minorities become victims of discrimination and social inequality. The homeless issue remains unresolved. Immigrants and prisoners, including minors, face continuous oppression of their liberties. Journalists do not feel safe and become victims of attacks. The US administration's plans to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre (Cuba) remain unfulfilled. Meanwhile, an initiative to accommodate a large number of illegal migrants on the territory of the naval base located there is being implemented. Citizens' dissatisfaction with violations of voting rights only deepens the divide within US society. Alternative views are more often subject to censorship in mass and social media.
The United States continue to blatantly violate human rights inside as well as outside the country, including through illegal unilateral measures of compulsion (sanctions), the most flagrant example of which is embargo of Cuba (including regardless numerous UN General Assembly's resolutions) since the 1960s.
The Wall Street Journal reports that on 21 January 2025, US President Donald Trump rescinded his predecessor Joe Biden's memorandum of 14 January 2025 to remove Cuba from the list of countries sponsors of terrorism and, just six days after his inauguration, put it back on the list.
The United States has imposed more unilateral sanctions than any other country in the world, and it still has sanctions in place against more than 20 countries, resulting in the inability of those targeted to provide basic food and medicine for their people.
It should be noted that the Joe Biden Administration, inter alia, has actively used the issue of protecting the rights of sex minorities to exert pressure on countries that do not share Washington's policies. And it did so, inter alia, in spite of increasing opposing trends around the world, including even in the United States itself, aimed at defending traditional values.
At the same time, US human rights defenders pointed to growing contradictions within the country – increasing hate speech from Conservatives and pressure in pro-Republican states.
Washington actively uses human rights rhetoric to justify its interference into internal affairs of sovereign States and introduction of illegal sanctions against them. It has become common practice to publish biased reports by the US Department of State on the state of human rights in Russia, the Republic of Belarus and other countries undesirable to the United States, which are used to justify pressure on them.
Provocations by the US intelligence services against Russian citizens became massive long ago, as evidenced by the number of numerous arrests and detentions in third countries at the request of the US Department of Justice. In fact, no Russian citizen is immune to the US gendarmerie's arbitrary behaviour, which has put on stream the widespread capture of our compatriots, ignoring the obligations under the 1999 Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters between Russia and the United States.
Since 2008, there have been about 80 arrests and detentions of Russian citizens in third countries. US law enforcement officials never hesitate to kidnap and even torture.
Russian diplomatic and consular missions abroad are constantly monitoring all such incidents and are making active efforts to provide consular and legal assistance, ensuring that the legitimate rights and interests of Russians are respected and that they are returned to their homeland as soon as possible.
The Americans are hunting not only Russians, but also citizens of other countries, who are often held without trial or investigation in the notorious "secret prisons" of the CIA (their existence was recognized by George W. Bush Jr. back in 2006), where they are subjected to torture and humiliation.
The United States is currently the only developed country where millions of people continue to starve.
According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the number of homeless people in the country reached a record high of 771,000 in 2024, an 18 per cent increase as compared to the previous year. Analysts believe that the number of homeless people in the United States will be even higher after the devastating fires in California in January 2025.
The United States faces rise in racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of similar discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The problem remains a weakness in Washington's policy. It should be noted that there has been a sharp outburst of hate speech against Jews and Muslims in the United States against the backdrop of the escalating Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
According to the latest FBI data, there were 11,477 incidents in the United States due to various forms of hostility (11,288 in the previous reporting period). The motivation for most of them (52.5 per cent) was rejection based on race, ethnicity and country of origin.
International human rights monitoring mechanisms and human rights NGOs have repeatedly noted the spread of racism, xenophobia, ethnic and religious intolerance in the United States.
Anti-Semitic sentiment is high in the United States. In his words, President Joe Biden has made no secret of the situation, including neo-Nazi expressions of swastikas (on automobiles, attacks on synagogues, and Holocaust denial).
There are institutional Islamophobia (about 50 radical anti-Islamic organizations are active) and anti-Semitism (about 60 groups) in the United States.
Many cases of attacks on mosques and synagogues and their congregations have been documented. In 2022 alone, 3,697 unlawful acts victimizing members of the Jewish community were recorded.
It should be noted that despite the threat posed by right-wing radicalism pointed out to by US authorities, in reality, double standards are commonly applied to such organizations.
Thus, a number of US experts and lawmakers earlier suggested addressing the danger posed by neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine who commit crimes with impunity and keep in touch with US-based extremist groups, e.g. Atomwaffen Division. There are well known high-profile crimes committed by US military espousing racist ideology and being members of radical groups.
Despite all this, the Russian Imperial Movement was designated as a terrorist group by the United States (experts questioned this decision due to scarce information on this structure and its ties abroad). Meanwhile, similar measures have not been taken so far in relation to infamous Ukraine-based groups, such as the Right Sector, Azov Battalion and C14, whose members were involved in serious crimes.
The United States engages a wide range of terrorist groups around the world, who are tightly controlled by intelligence agencies and work together with private military companies (PMCs). This was and still is happening in the US military-occupied Syrian territories, where odious groups operate under the guise of "moderate opposition."
Americans and the NGOs under their control actively support far‑right and neo-Nazi movements in the former Soviet Union and Europe, calling their members "freedom fighters" and their idols among Nazi collaborators "activists of national liberation movements". The neo-Nazi terror in Ukraine that started immediately after the coup d'état in February 2014 rested on the US long-standing experience of interaction with terrorists and extremists.
The US law enforcement system remains the focus of criticism from human rights activists and the media.
According to NGOs End Police Violence and Mapping Police Violence, in 2024, the number of murders committed by the US police amounted to 1,366 people (in 2021, it was 1,357).
Violence by the police is just one aspect of the violation of Americans' rights. As noted earlier, the entire US law enforcement system is far from perfect, and its activities fail to meet the transparency criterion. In 2023, the United States was shocked by the news about 215 unidentified graves found in front of a prison in Mississippi.
Racial profiling by the police is very clearly manifested in the United States.
The Second Amendment to the US Constitution gives Americans the right to bear arms. However, their availability, as well as flawed legislation and negligent attitude to the mental health of citizens result in the number of firearms-related victims growing every year.
The United State is known to rank first in the world in terms of absolute and per capita indicators of firearms ownership, that is around 400 million firearms. The number arms dealers with a federal license is over 70,000.
Along with the increased gun trafficking, the number of gun-related incidents is also growing.
The United States has for many years had the highest incarceration rate in the world, with an estimated 1.9 million people locked up in more than 6,000 penitentiaries. At the same time, conditions in many prisons do not stand up to any criticism.
Official statistics show that the rate of imprisonment has nearly quadrupled over the past 40 years, with the number of convicted Americans breaking the 2.3 million. Human rights NGOs have also drawn attention to the increasing number of women in prison in some states.
Another 4.5 million people have been sentenced on probation or released on. This results in serious prison overcrowding.
The United States ranks among the world's leaders in the number of juveniles deprived of their liberty in any form.
According to the US Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, under the jurisdiction of the US Department of Justice, more than one million criminal cases have been brought against minors.
The United States remains the only Western country whose legislation includes provisions for the capital punishment (for grave and especially grave crimes).
The death penalty shall be executed both on federal and state levels. As of January 2025, 27 states have regulations to this effect. In fact, five of them have a moratorium on its application by their governors.
Donald Trump's executive order of 20 January 2025 directs that the death penalty be reinstated at the federal level and to ensure that each state that allows capital punishment has a sufficient supply of drugs needed to carry out lethal injection.
Journalists, lawmakers and NGOs continue to draw attention to numerous violations of legal norms on the protection of personal data by US law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Human rights activists emphasize the systemic nature of the violations, calling the existing practice of controlling the electronic communications of Americans in the country a grave threat to constitutional rights to privacy, freedom of expression, and freedom of association. Members of national and religious minorities, including African Americans, Asians, Muslims, etc., are noted to be particularly affected by the actions of the intelligence services.
Amnesty International notes that mass surveillance is not only a violation of the right to privacy, but also a threat to the work of the organization itself, which exposes human rights violations around the world. According to the NGOs, the government is illegally conducting surveillance on researchers, activists and victims, with the potential for more human rights violations.
Human rights organizations and journalists have repeatedly pointed to the lack of a legal document in the United States that contains detailed, clear rules stipulating when competent authorities can gain access to citizens' personal data, including their personal correspondence.
The systemic abuses of US intelligence agencies, which engage in widespread mass surveillance of citizens, also show signs of racial profiling.
Under the slogan of the "global war on terrorism," the United States has consistently pursued indiscriminate use of military force abroad. As is widely known, the US military machine has never been stopped by civilian victims, the number of which continues to rise. Such actions have been criticized by international human rights entities and non-governmental organizations.
According to a 2022 Pew Research Centre survey of 12,000 working US‑based journalists, every six-in-ten (57 per cent) are extremely concerned about restrictions on press freedom in the country, and just one-in-five have low levels of concern about the future of press freedoms in the United States.
Statistics show that journalists in the United States have repeatedly been victims of misconduct by law enforcement and intelligence agencies during both the Republican and Democrat administrations. This includes the use of physical force and means of restraint, illegal detentions, searches and confiscation of equipment, as well as demands to disclose sources of information.
In recent years, Russian journalists on assignment in the United States have repeatedly fallen victim to cruel and unjustified actions by law enforcement officials, faced bans on broadcasting on US territory, as well as restrictions on access to official events and blocking of bank accounts. The process of issuing work visas has been complicated.
In a blatant attack on freedom of speech, the blocking financial sanctions imposed in September 2024 by the US authorities against the MIA Rossiya Segodnya, RIA Novosti and Sputnik and the autonomous non-profit organizations (ANOs) TV-Novosti, RT and Ruptly, which impose "freezing" of USD assets.
The US Department of State failed to respond to any of the messages from the Russian ambassador calling for a full investigation into each of these incidents, for the guilty parties to be prosecuted, and for measures to be taken to ensure the safety of media professionals.
Despite the US authorities' declared commitment to freedom of speech, in reality the US journalists are subjected to severe censorship. Major media corporations and the professional community itself are also exerting pressure on reporters at the behest of the authorities, forcing journalists to resort to self-censorship, i.e. to deliberately distort or silence information. The dissemination of information that did not correspond to the content of the guidelines issued by the authorities was equated with a violation of professional ethics and threatened severe consequences, ranging from dismissal or banishment from the profession for life to criminal proceedings. Journalists were often prosecuted under completely far‑fetched or fabricated pretexts such as "ties to Russian authorities" simply for trying to convey balanced information to their audience. In addition, Washington exerted increased pressure on media outlets in partner countries, forcing them to impose even stricter censorship (including by coordinating significant news with US Embassy officials).
According to the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, "unlimited political bribery" has created "a complete subversion of our political system" and "now it's just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and US senators and congress members." In an interview with famous political scientist Tom Hartmann, Jimmy Carter noted that "American democracy is a sham, no matter how much it's pumped by the oligarchs who run the country (and who control the nation's 'news' media)". As a result of the US Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and in the Federal Election Campaign Act's compliance with the US Constitution, candidates were allowed in 2014 to pay for their competitors' anti-advertising, and the limit on election campaign sponsorship by private contributors was lifted. As a consequence, the United States has become a marketplace where political decisions can be bought. Moreover, both politicians and oligarchs are happy with the situation."
A similar point of view on the corruption of the US system was previously expressed by former Vice President Albert Gore and a number of authoritative political scientists.
Many Americans criticize their electoral system for being archaic and undemocratic and propose reform. About 60 per cent of Americans are in favour of it.
Violence and intimidation are not uncommon in US elections. On 4 August 2022, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism published a report entitled "Americans' Fears Suppressing Participation in Democracy," which stated that 40 per cent of Black people and 37 per cent of Hispanic people are worried about being denied the ability to cast a ballot. Historically, groups such as the notorious Ku Klux Klan prevented African Americans from voting through violence such as beatings, lynchings, and assassinations, creating a sense of fear that continues to this day.
Serious shortcomings of the US electoral system are also recorded in the area of voter identification directly at the polling stations: in many states it is allowed to vote practically without documents – on the basis of a receipt of payment for housing and utilities. Meanwhile, the work of international observers at polling stations is prohibited in many regions of the United States. Prosecutors openly warn: they are ready to arrest any international observer who tries to approach the polling station closer than 30 metres.
Another important problem of the US electoral system is the lack of an election observation institution.
Indigenous people in the United States are still among the most socially disadvantaged members of the US society.
About 574 Indian Nations are federally recognized under US law, with more than 500 tribes do not have this status. In general terms, the number of Indigenous people in the United States of America is estimated at between 4 and 7 million.
The US law contains a number of requirements that in practice discriminate against members of American Indian Native communities. Among such examples is the lack of residence addresses of Indians living on reservations, due to which they face denial of registration as voters. In addition, the long distance between polling stations and their places of residence affects the exercise of indigenous peoples' voting rights. Hence, many members of indigenous communities refuse to take part in elections.
Over 20 per cent of Alaska's indigenous population lives below the poverty line.
The land issue remains unresolved. It is estimated that Indigenous nations across the United States have lost 98.9 per cent of their historical land base since European settlers began colonizing the continent. More than 42 per cent of tribes now possess no federal or state recognized land, and of the tribes that still have a land base, their present-day lands are an average of 2.6 per cent the size of their estimated historical area.