UC Irvine

In this chapter we contrast the goals and principles enshrined in two United Nations’ treaties — the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families — with their implementation in the United States. We expose the gaps between de jure declarations based on universal principles of human rights and de facto practices, between rhetoric and reality, while noting increasing trends toward the erosion of personhood rights. We underscore the consequences of universal human rights violations for various communities in the United States, noting the social suffering and harm that it engenders. In doing so, we note the discrepancies and the dissonance between contemporary laws contained in national edicts that are in principle unbiased and “neutral” and the gross violations of the rights of the individuals that they putatively protect.