U.S. human rights report vital tool for foreign policy goals: Eurasia Review

NEW YORK, March 27 (Xinhua) -- At a time when an estimated 3,897 people have been killed in 117 mass shootings in just three months in 2023 and another 5,280 people have died by suicide in the same period, the U.S. State Department released its "2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices," touting itself as the savior of human rights while slandering and smearing countries it deems as rivals or unfriendly, according to Eurasia Review on Monday.

Covering hundreds of pages on how other governments have "jailed, tortured, or even killed" political opponents, human rights defenders, and journalists, the report kept silent on the thousands of Americans who have lost their lives due to mass shootings, police brutality, and racism discrimination, said the journal.

"America's historical trajectory shows that it has always viewed human rights as a tool for hegemony and uses it selectively as an excuse to label countries as human rights violators. Under the pretext of defending human rights, the U.S. invaded Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan, but all of these war-torn countries suffered the murder of innocent civilians and catastrophic infrastructure destruction," it noted.

"Sadly, the U.S. does not uphold the common international standards or guarantee human rights from a fair and impartial standpoint when promoting human rights diplomacy and managing human rights matters. It always exercises double or even multiple standards," it said.

"Critics argue that the annual report has nothing to do with human rights but is a tool to malign rivals and coerce other countries," it added.