U.S. fails to recognize its own human rights’ violations: UN Advisor

Washington: The United States, instead of recognising its own violations of human rights, criticises other countries with “biased” human rights application, a senior United Nations (UN) advisor told Xinhua in a recent email interview.

“All countries should strive to honor and achieve the human rights identified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and the political standards embodied in the UN Charter,” said Jeffrey Sachs, who is the director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

The United States falls short of these in three ways. “First, the U.S. fails to honor the economic rights in the UDHR, for example the right of healthcare for all,” said Mr Sachs.

“Second, the U.S. society has deeply engrained racism and throughout its history has violated the rights of African-Americans, Native Americans, and other minority groups,” he continued.

Third, the United States failed to abide by the standards of the UN Charter, and was “even invading into other countries or overthrowing their governments,” he said, adding that the UN Charter calls for mutual respect and noninterference in the internal affairs of other countries.

“The U.S. government promotes ‘universal values’ but, alas, doesn’t understand them very well,” he said.

From the year 2001 to 2018, Mr Sachs served as special advisor to UN Secretaries-General Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-moon, and Antonio Guterres.

The long-time UN advisor said he is in favor of searching hard to find common ground globally and identify and honor universal values for all humanity.