四、美国的弱势群体在疫情中生存维艰
4. Vulnerable Groups in the United States Struggling to Survive during the Pandemic文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
对于社会弱势和边缘群体的生存照顾，代表了一个社会的良心，也是验证一国真实人权状况的试金石。疫情期间，美国的“残酷资本主义”特征暴露无疑，致使老年人、无家可归者和儿童陷入悲惨境地。文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
The care for the survival of socially disadvantaged and marginalized groups represents the virtue of a society. It is also a touchstone for the human rights situation in a country. During the pandemic, the features of the United States’ cruel capitalism have been fully exposed, which have forced the elderly, homeless people, and children into a tragic situation.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
老年人成为政府抗疫不力的“牺牲品”。联合国秘书长古特雷斯多次强调，老年人和年轻人享有同等的生命权和健康权，疫情之下谁也不能被牺牲、被抛弃。然而在疫情中原本就面临更大风险的美国老年人群体，因年龄歧视被进一步弱化和边缘化，生命权无法得到基本保障。2020年3月23日和4月22日，得克萨斯州副州长丹·帕特里克在接受福克斯新闻网采访时两次表示，他“宁愿死也不愿看到公共卫生措施损害美国经济”，同意以老年人的生命为代价“冒险重启美国经济”。美国右翼媒体《每日连线》新闻网主编本·夏皮罗4月29日在一个访谈节目中冷血地宣称，“81岁的人死于新冠肺炎和30岁的人死于新冠肺炎不是一个概念”；“如果一个81岁的老奶奶死在养老院，这虽然很悲惨，但美国人的预期寿命就是80岁”。《纽约时报》网站5月11日报道，美国养老院等老年人长期照护机构已有至少2.81万名入住者和工作人员死于新冠病毒感染，约占美国新冠死亡病例的三分之一。在这些护理机构中，许多老年人生活在较为封闭的环境中，感染新冠病毒后死亡风险很高。《大西洋月刊》网站3月28日和4月29日先后刊发《年龄歧视使疫情恶化》《我们正在杀死老年人》两篇文章，指出美国的老年人长期照护系统存在资金投入、人员配备不足等严重缺陷，在保障老年人权益方面“比其他国家应对较弱”，“这出于很多政治上的原因”。《华盛顿邮报》网站5月9日报道称，美国的抗疫行动“成了一场国家批准的屠杀”，“它故意牺牲老年人、工人、非洲裔和拉美裔人口”。文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
The Elderly, the “Victims” of the Government’s Ineffectiveness in Fighting the Pandemic. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly stressed that the elderly, like young people, have the same rights to life and health amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and no person is expendable. Unfortunately, during the epidemic in the United States, the elderly group, which is naturally at greater risk, has been further weakened and marginalized due to age discrimination, and the elderly’s right to life has not been ensured. On March 23 and April 22, 2020, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick expressed in interviews with Fox News that he would rather die than see public health measures damage the U.S. economy and take the risk of restarting the U.S. economy at the cost of elderly people’s lives. Ben Shapiro, the editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire, which is a right-wing U.S. media outlet, declared coldly on an interview show on April 29, “If somebody who is 81 dies of COVID-19, that is not the same thing as somebody who is 30 dying of COVID-19.” He also said, “If grandma dies in a nursing home at age 81, and that’s tragic and that’s terrible, also the life expectancy in the United States is 80.” The website of The New York Times reported on May 11 that at least 28,100 occupants and staff members of long-term care institutions such as nursing homes in the United States have died of COVID-19, accounting for about one-third of COVID-19 deaths in the United States. In these care institutions, many elderly people live in a relatively closed environment, so their risk of death from COVID-19 infection is very high. The website of The Atlantic published two articles respectively on March 28 and April 29, titled Ageism Is Making the Pandemic Worse and We’re Literally Killing Elders Now. They pointed out that long-existing defects in the old-age care system, such as insufficient capital investment and staffing, caused the United States to fall behind in ensuring the rights and interests of the elderly, and that such a situation was due to many political reasons. The website of the Washington Post observed on May 9 that the U.S. anti-pandemic action had become a state-approved massacre that deliberately sacrificed the lives of the elderly, the working class, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
无家可归者在疫情中无处安放。《今日美国报》网站2020年4月22日报道，美国每晚都有55万多人无家可归；据无家可归者联盟统计，每1万名美国人中约有17人经历过无家可归，其中约33%是有孩子的家庭。无家可归者中有很多年迈的老人和残障人士，他们原本身体健康状况就不佳，生活和卫生条件恶劣，是病毒的易感群体。疫情期间，流落街头的无家可归者遭到严厉驱逐，被迫住进临时收容所隔离。路透社网站4月23日报道，美国各地的无家可归收容所因人员拥挤而难以保持社交距离，使得病毒极易传播。截至4月20日，纽约市收容所中已有43人因感染新冠病毒死亡，有617人病毒检测呈阳性。《纽约时报》网站4月13日报道称，无家可归者收容所成为纽约市疫情的“定时炸弹”，超过1.7万人住在为单身成年人准备的集中收容所中，睡在床上几乎可以手碰手。《自然》杂志网站5月7日报道，研究人员开始对美国无家可归者进行病毒检测时发现，那里的情况已经失控。《波士顿环球报》网站5月4日报道，波士顿市已有596名无家可归者确诊感染新冠病毒，占当地该群体已接受检测人口的三分之一。《洛杉矶时报》网站5月14日报道，研究显示美国的无家可归者数量受疫情影响可能一年内激增高达45%，导致公共卫生危机进一步加剧。
The Homeless Having Nowhere to Go during the Pandemic. The website of USA Today reported on April 22, 2020, that more than 550,000 people were homeless every night in the United States. The report also pointed out that according to the statistics released by the Homeless Alliance, about 17 out of every 10,000 Americans have experienced homelessness and about 33 percent of them are families with children. Many of the homeless Americans are elderly people and disabled people. Given their originally poor physical health and bad living and hygienic conditions, they are susceptible to the virus. During the epidemic, the homeless who are living on the streets are deported and forced to live in temporary shelters for isolation. The website of Reuters reported on April 23 that the crowded shelters made it impossible for the homeless who lived there to maintain social distance, which made it easier for the virus to spread. As of April 20, 43 homeless people living in New York City’s shelters had died from infection of COVID-19, and 617 tested positive for COVID-19. The website of The New York Times reported on April 13 that the shelters for the homeless had become a delayed-action bomb of a virus outbreak in New York City, where more than 17,000 people lived and slept almost side by side in centralized shelters. The website of Nature journal reported on May 7 that when researchers began conducting virus testing on homeless people in the United States, they found that the situation there had gotten out of control. The website of the Boston Globe reported on May 4 that 596 homeless people in Boston had been diagnosed with COVID-19, accounting for one-third of the confirmed cases in the region. The website of the Los Angeles Times reported on May 14 that research showed that due to the impact of the pandemic, the number of homeless people in the United States might surge by as much as 45 percent within a year, further exacerbating the public health crisis.
贫困儿童和移民儿童状况堪忧。美国至今未批准联合国《儿童权利公约》这一核心国际人权公约。近年来，美国的儿童贫困和受虐待问题一直非常严重，疫情暴发使之进一步加剧。福布斯新闻网2020年5月7日报道，调查显示，大量美国儿童在疫情中面临饥饿问题。截至4月底，五分之一以上的美国家庭面临食品危机；在拥有12岁以下儿童的美国家庭中，面临食品危机的比例高达五分之二。福布斯新闻网5月9日报道，疫情期间美国有关儿童剥削的报告数量激增，全国失踪和受虐儿童中心4月份收到420万份相关报告，比2020年3月增长200万份，比2019年4月增长近300万份。更令人担忧的是，美国还关押着大量无人陪伴的移民儿童，在病毒大流行中处于极端危险境地。联合国移民人权问题特别报告员莫拉莱斯等多位联合国人权专家4月27日发表联合声明，要求美国政府将移民从人满为患且卫生条件恶劣的拘留中心转移；5月29日，联合国人权理事会15名特别机制专家发表联合声明，敦促美国采取更多措施，防止疫情在拘留中心暴发。联合国网站5月21日报道，自3月以来，美国政府不顾疫情风险，将至少1000名无人陪伴的移民儿童遣送回中南美洲，联合国儿童基金会批评此举将导致儿童处于更大的危险之中。
Worrisome Situation of Poor Children and Immigrant Children. The United States has not yet ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is one of the core international human rights conventions. In recent years, child poverty and abuse has remained a grave problem in the United States. This problem has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Forbes News reported on May 7, 2020 that a survey showed a large number of American children were facing hunger during the pandemic. As of the end of April, more than one-fifth of American households had been facing food crises, and two-fifths of American households with children under 12 years of age have been facing such crises. Forbes News reported on May 9 that the number of child exploitation reports in the United States surged during the pandemic. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received 4.2 million reports in April, an increase of 2 million from March 2020 and an increase of nearly 3 million from April 2019. Apart from that, a more worrisome fact is that a large number of unaccompanied immigrant children are still being held in detention centers in the United States. They are currently in an extremely dangerous situation during the pandemic. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights of migrants Felipe Gonzalez Morales and other UN human rights experts issued a joint statement on April 27, requesting the U.S. government to transfer immigrants from overcrowded and insanitary detention centers. On May 29, 15 experts of the Special Procedures of United Nations Human Rights Council issued a joint statement urging the United States to take more measures to prevent virus outbreaks in the detention centers. The website of the United Nations reported on May 21 that since March, the U.S. government had repatriated at least 1,000 unaccompanied immigrant children to Central and South America regardless of the risk of the pandemic. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) criticized this move, for it would expose the children to greater danger.
五、美国政府相关行为严重背离国际人权法精神
5. Relevant Behaviors of the U.S. Government Seriously Violating the Spirit of International Human Rights Law
面对美国国内疫情蔓延对公民生命权和健康权的巨大威胁，美国政府非但未将精力投入疫情防控，反而挥舞霸权大棒四处煽风点火，试图转移视线、推卸责任，对国际社会团结合作应对疫情造成严重破坏。
When the citizens’ right to life and health is severely threatened by the spreading pandemic, the U.S. government, instead of focusing on controlling the pandemic, wields a hegemonic stick and fans the flames of trouble everywhere, trying to divert attention and shirk responsibility. Its behaviors have seriously undermined the international community’s concerted efforts to control the pandemic.
抗疫不力违反保障生命权的国家义务。《公民权利和政治权利国际公约》规定，人人享有生命权，国家有义务采取积极措施保障生命权。作为此公约的缔约国，美国政府面对新冠肺炎疫情未将人民的生命权和健康权置于首位，反而将国内政党竞选和国际上打压中国的政治需要置于人民生命安全之上，错失遏制病毒传播的最佳时机，造成约200万人感染、11万多人死亡的重大人权灾难。美国政府显然未能履行其应尽的保护人民生命免受流行疾病威胁的国家义务。英国《独立报》网站2020年4月10日评论称，美国总是把人权挂在嘴边，却忽视自己的人权义务，对人民生命公然漠视。《赫芬顿邮报》网站5月6日报道，耶鲁大学流行病学家格雷格·贡萨尔维斯对美国政府应对新冠肺炎疫情的拙劣表现进行严格评估后，毫不留情地指出这“非常接近于默许的大屠杀”。
Ineffective Anti-pandemic Efforts Failing the National Duty of Ensuring the Citizens’ Right to Life. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) stipulates that every human being has the inherent right to life, and countries are obliged to take proactive measures to guarantee their citizens’ right to life. As a party to the convention, the U.S. government, however, has not given priority to its citizens’ right to life and health during the pandemic. Instead, it has been prioritizing the political campaign at home and the political drive to suppress China abroad, rather than safeguarding the lives and safety of its citizens. Given this, it has missed the best chance to curb the spread of the virus, and caused a grave human rights disaster in which about 2 million people have been infected with COVID-19, and more than 110,000 have died from the virus. Clearly, the U.S. government has failed to fulfill its due national obligations to protect its people’s lives from the threat of epidemics. The website of The Independent, a British newspaper, commented on April 10, 2020, that the United States, an active advocator for human rights, ignored its own human rights obligations and blatantly overlooked its citizens’ lives. The website of the Huffington Post reported on May 6 that after making a rigorous assessment of the U.S. government’s poor performance during the COVID-19 pandemic, Yale University epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves directly pointed out that this was getting awfully close to genocide by default.
恶意“污名化”中国违反平等与不歧视原则。平等与不歧视原则是国际人权法的核心准则，经《世界人权宣言》等一系列国际人权文书所确认。疫情暴发以来，美国政府高层不顾人类良知和伦理底线，为维护自身霸权借疫情大搞政治操弄，持续“污名化”中国，“武汉病毒”“中国病毒”等称呼在美国政客口中层出不穷。在科学界普遍认为病毒来自自然界的情况下，美国国务卿蓬佩奥甚至不惜以所谓虚假“情报”为幌子，一再声称病毒来自中国武汉的实验室。美国政客的行为明显违反世界卫生组织、世界动物卫生组织和联合国粮农组织2015年联合发布的《病毒命名最佳实践原则》，与世界卫生组织关于新冠肺炎的正式名称建议相悖。联合国当代形式种族主义问题特别报告员滕达伊·阿丘梅2020年3月23日指出，美国政府官员故意不使用国际认可的病毒名称，而是选择别有用心的名称来称呼新冠病毒，这种不负责任的、歧视性的国家言论植根于并会助长种族主义和仇外情绪，导致特定人群被污名化、排斥和暴力侵害，与国际人权法义务不符，是不可原谅的。
Maliciously Stigmatizing China in Violation of the Principles of Equality and Non-discrimination. The principles of equality and non-discrimination are the core norms of international human rights laws and are confirmed by a series of international human rights instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since the outbreak of the virus, high-ranking U.S. government officials have violently disregarded human conscience and ethical bottom lines. To maintain the U.S. hegemony, these officials have politicized the pandemic and constantly stigmatized China by referring to the virus as the “Wuhan Virus” or the “China virus”. When the scientific community came to the conclusion that the exact source of the virus was from nature, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo still repeatedly claimed that the virus came from some lab in Wuhan according to some “intelligence reports” he read. These politicians’ behaviors have clearly violated World Health Organization Best Practices for the Naming of New Human Infectious Diseases, which was jointly issued by the World Health Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2015. The way they refer to the virus goes against the World Health Organization’s suggestion for the official name of the novel coronavirus disease. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Tendayi Achiume, pointed out on March 23 that some U.S. government officials refused to use the internationally-recognized name of the virus and deliberately replaced it with other names that linked this particular disease to a particular country or nation, which was an irresponsible and disturbing expression that came from and would give rise to racism, xenophobia, stigmatization, and exclusion of certain groups, and violence against certain groups. She held that such behaviors were unforgivable and incompatible with the obligations stipulated by the international human rights laws.
停缴世卫组织会费阻碍全球共同抗疫。美国政府为推卸自身抗疫不力的责任，试图将世界卫生组织打造成“替罪羊”，一边挖空心思罗织各种不实指责，一边以停止缴纳会费相威胁。2020年4月14日，美国政府宣布暂停向世卫组织缴纳会费，遭到国际社会一致批评。联合国秘书长古特雷斯4月14日发表声明称，全球正在抗击新冠疫情，削减世卫组织或任何其他人道主义组织行动所需资源不合时宜。美国医学会主席帕特里斯·哈里斯4月15日发表声明说，抗击疫情需要国际合作，美国在这一关键时刻暂停向世卫组织提供资金支持，是在错误方向迈出的危险一步。欧盟外交与安全政策高级代表博雷利4月15日表示，“在现在这个时候，没有任何理由可以为这个行为进行辩护”。英国《卫报》网站4月15日发表评论称，在世界迫切需要共同战胜这场全球从未经历过的威胁时，美国政府停缴世卫组织会费是一种缺乏道德和破坏国际秩序的行为，是“对全球团结的骇人背叛”。德国外交部长马斯4月16日表示，世卫组织是全球抗击疫情的支柱，美国此时停缴世卫组织会费是“把飞行员扔出飞机”的不负责任行为。而美国国务卿蓬佩奥却在4月22日再次对世卫组织发起攻击，威胁永久停缴会费。5月29日，美国总统宣布终止与世卫组织关系。
Suspending the Payment of WHO Membership Fees Impeding the Joint Anti-Pandemic Efforts of the International Community. In order to shirk its responsibility for its disastrous anti-pandemic measures, the U.S. government tried to scapegoat the World Health Organization by fabricating false charges against the organization and threatening to stop paying its membership fees. On April 14, 2020, the U.S. government announced its suspension of paying dues to the WHO, which was unanimously criticized by the international community. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a statement on April 14 stating that when the world was fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, it was inappropriate to reduce the resources required by the WHO or any other humanitarian organization for operations. The President of the American Medical Association, Patrice Harris, issued a statement on April 15 stating that combating the pandemic required international cooperation and that the suspension of financial support to the WHO at this critical moment is a dangerous step in the wrong direction. Josep Borrell, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, expressed on April 15 that at this time, there was no reason to justify such an action. On April 15, the website of The Guardian, a British newspaper, published an editorial and commented that when the world desperately needed to jointly overcome this threat that the world had never experienced before, the suspension of the WHO dues by the U.S. government was an act that lacked morality and disrupted the international order, and was a horrible betrayal to global solidarity. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on April 16 that the WHO was the mainstay of the global fight against the pandemic, and the suspension of the WHO dues by the United States at this time “would be nothing other than throwing the pilot out of the plane in mid-flight”. Under such circumstances, the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo once again attacked the WHO on April 22, threatening to permanently suspend the payment of dues. On May 29, the president of the United States announced the suspension of relations with the WHO.
单边制裁违反人道精神和国际合作原则。国际合作是维持国际社会生存和运作的基石，是在全球层面确保人权和基本自由得以落实的重要原则，也是《联合国宪章》等国际文书确认的各国义务。在疫情全球蔓延、关乎人类生命与健康福祉的重要时刻，各国应当团结协作以应对疫情，维护全球公共卫生安全。美国政府在疫情期间依然对伊朗、古巴、委内瑞拉等国实施制裁，导致被制裁国家难以及时获得抗疫需要的医疗物资，严重威胁民众生命权和健康权。联合国人权事务高级专员米歇尔·巴切莱特2020年3月24日表示，在病毒全球大流行的情形下，制裁会阻碍医疗工作，给所有人增加风险；无论是出于维护全球公共卫生安全，还是为了维护被制裁国家数百万人的权利和生活，都应放松或暂停特殊领域的制裁。联合国极端贫困与人权问题特别报告员、安全饮用水和卫生问题特别报告员、教育权问题特别报告员5月6日发表联合声明，表示美国对委内瑞拉的制裁正对该国民众的人权产生严重影响，敦促美国在疫情肆虐情形下立即解除加剧该国民众苦难的制裁。
Unilateral Sanctions Violating the Spirit of Humanitarianism and the Principle of International Cooperation. International cooperation is the cornerstone of the existence and operation of the international community. It is an important principle for ensuring the implementation of human rights and fundamental freedoms across the globe. It is also a national obligation stipulated by international instruments, such as the Charter of the United Nations. At this critical moment when the deadly pandemic spreads globally and threatens human life, health, and well-being, all countries should work together to respond to the pandemic and maintain global public health security. Nevertheless, during this pandemic, the U.S. government has still imposed sanctions on countries such as Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela, which made it difficult for the sanctioned countries to obtain needed anti-pandemic medical supplies in a timely manner, and posed threats to the people’s rights to life and health in the sanctioned countries. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, expressed on March 24, 2020, that in the case of a global pandemic, sanctions would hinder medical work and increase risks for everyone. She argued that to maintain global public health security and protect the rights and lives of millions of people in sanctioned countries, sanctions should be relaxed or suspended in certain sectors. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the Special Rapporteur on human rights for safe drinking water and sanitation, and the Special Rapporteur on the right to education issued a joint statement on May 6 stating that the U.S. sanctions on Venezuela were seriously harming the human rights of the people in the country. They urged the United States to immediately lift sanctions that exacerbated the suffering of the people when the pandemic raged in the country.
