US, a self-proclaimed human rights defender, fails to protect its children

(Cartoon by Tan Xiguang)

Touting itself as a "human rights defender", the United States has wantonly pointed fingers at the human rights situations in other countries. Human rights protection is a pretense of the U.S., which covers a "black hole" of the human rights situation in the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced that it found that Packers Sanitation Services Inc. (PSSI), one of the nation’s largest food safety sanitation services providers, employed over 100 children in hazardous occupations, and had them working overnight shifts at meat processing facilities. The minors were working with hazardous chemicals and cleaning meat processing equipment, and suffered injuries while working for PSSI.

Child labor is a chronic illness of U.S. society. The country has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child yet, and has been criticized by the International Labor Organization many times. The Guardian reported that child labor law violations have increased in the U.S., with a 37 percent increase in fiscal year 2022, including 688 children working in hazardous conditions. Estimates by the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs suggest that there are 500,000 to 800,000 child farmworkers in the U.S. These facts are a sharp reminder that the U.S., a self-proclaimed human rights defender, can hardly protect the legitimate rights of children.