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Au t umn&wi n t e r
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DEFENDERS
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more likely to be in locked facilities when
charged with the same offense as whites.
30-The ACLU shed light on the 3,728
people who currently serve life sentences
for non-violent crimes, detailing that “it
was nonviolent offenses like stealing a
$159 jacket or serving as a middleman in
the sale of $10 of marijuana.An estimated
65% of them are Black. Many of them
were struggling with mental illness, drug
dependency or financial desperation
when they commit-ted their crimes. None
of them will ever come home to their
parents and children. And taxpayers are
spending billions to keep them behind
bars.”
31- The extensive life sentences dished
out to juveniles without the possibility of
pardon is another case that is criticized
by human rights defenders in America.
They say that these punishments result
in juveniles being deprived of their rights
and face a grim future.
32- In 2012 Human Rights Watch
reported that 500 juveniles that had
been sentenced to life imprisonments in
America without possibility of pardon
had been subjected to sexual exploitations
and physical violence by guards or fellow
inmates.
33- According to international law
individuals under 18 must be tried in
juvenile courts and if found guilty must
be kept in special juvenile prisons. This
gives the children a chance to not be
faced with moral exploitations and other
forms of violence.
34- Many prisoners and even
individuals under 18 are placed in
solitary confinement for weeks and
months. In July approximately 30,000
prisoners in California (a State which has
the most solitary confinement prisoner
population) went on hunger strike over
their conditions.
35- The United States is one of the few
countries that has not joined the CEDAW
and the Convention on the Rights of
the Child. And this causes notable
problems in the protection of women
and children’s rights in this country
even though according to the accepted
recommendations from the first UPR,
the United States has been committed
unconditionally join these conventions,
but to-date we have not seen any efforts
in this regard.
36- “African American women earn 36
percent less than white men and Latinas
[45 percent less than white men]. Today,
in spite of increasing educational gains,
women of color are especially likely to
work in minimum-wage jobs, where even
a full-time, year-round worker will earn
just 14,500 dollars a year, scarcely enough
to keep one person – let alone a family –
afloat. In 2011, nearly 360,000 black and
Latina women were paid hourly rates that
were less than the minimum wage. Since
Social Security benefits are based upon an
individual’s lifetime earnings, these low
wages hurt women well into retirement,
leaving many elderly women in poverty
or on the brink.”
37-American women are faced with
discrimination in employment and
income. (According to Employment
Department information and statistics
women make up approximately two
thirds of the work force in America, who
in 2011 received only 61 percent of the
minimum full time work wages).
38-This is while increasing activities
towards the promotion of women and
minorities’ economic and social rights,
bringing about equal decent employment
opportunities, and the reduction of the
number of the homeless and putting an
end to child prostitution, violation against
women, and armed aggression are all
commitments made by America in its
first UPR.
39- High number of crimes, violation