The United States has long boasted its commitment to human rights and has been quick to point out what it sees as violations in other parts of the world. But what's happening within its own borders? Do its people enjoy all the rights and freedoms they are promised?

According to U.S.-based human rights watchdog Freedom House, America's democratic institutions have suffered erosion, from flawed immigration policies and a broken healthcare system to socio-economic inequalities.

Problems in human rights within the U.S. are far more serious than what many have been led to believe.

A deep dive into these issues can help shed some light on the most staggering problems that have not been adequately dealt with by the U.S. government. 

Gun violence

Gun violence, a long-standing problem that's only getting worse, is a case in point.

Many of the incidents scattered throughout the country sound exceptional alarms on the urgent need to reduce gun violence.

In 2019 alone, the number of gun-related deaths was 39,427 in the U.S. There were 417 mass shootings that year, averaging more than one a day.

During the first 46 weeks of 2019, 45 school shootings took place, marking a frequency that was about once a week.

Between 2008 and 2017, on average, one person was killed with a gun every 15 minutes.

Americans make up 4 percent of the world's population but own 46 percent of all guns. That means there are 120 guns for every 100 U.S. residents.

The U.S. has as many gun shops as pharmacies. The second-hand gun market is huge and regulations on firearm sales have many loopholes in terms of background checks, age limits and eligibility.  

One of the causes stopping the U.S. to implement a comprehensive gun-control law is the constitutional right to bear arms, which was enshrined in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a major barrier to implementing strict gun laws.

Another reason is the National Rifle Association. It's one of the biggest political forces in Washington DC, with five million members, funding politicians and lobbying against gun control.

Faced with one school shooting after another, the NRA says the answer is not fewer guns, but more. Its proposed solution, arming teachers and keeping children away from violent video games.

In the 2016 elections, the NRA spent 54 million dollars supporting Republican candidates. Among the 535 members of Congress, 307, or nearly 60 percent, were backed by the NRA in their campaigns.  

The comfortable relationship between the NRA and American politicians put a roadblock in front of gun control efforts. When innocent young lives are lost, Washington can offer little more than thoughts and prayers.

With no gun control legislation on the horizon, and no end in sight to gun violence, the newspaper USA Today says America has entered "a new and disturbing era of mass shootings." 

Healthcare access not guaranteed

The affordability of healthcare is a major issue drawing fierce debates across America. According to Gallup, in 2019, 33 percent of Americans said they or their family put off treatment for a medical condition due to high costs, and 25 percent said they delayed looking into a serious condition.

The rate of postponing medical care was the highest in the past 20 years. Meanwhile, a report by Rx Savings Solutions said the prices of 3,400 types of prescription drugs went up by 10 percent from the year before, five times the rate of inflation.

To buy insulin at a tenth of the price it would cost in their own country, some in Minnesota need to travel 1,300 kilometers north to Ontario, Canada.

The drug is a life saver for those suffering from Type-1 diabetes. 

On top of that, there is also anger that people continue to die from diabetes because they couldn't afford proper treatment.

The American Journal of Public Health suggests health issues have led to two-thirds of bankruptcies in the United States. Its report looked at a thousand cases between 2013 and 2016, and it found a majority of those who had trouble paying medical bills were middle-class Americans who had health insurance.

A Gallup report says between 2016 and 2018, 7 million Americans lost their medical insurance and 21 percent under the age of 35 were uninsured. Healthcare, or the lack of it, has become a key factor that divides the rich and the poor.

The U.S. Census Bureau says the income gap is at its largest in 50 years. It's measured through the Gini index, with zero representing total equality and one representing total inequality. 

In 1967, the Gini index was 0.397. In 2018, it climbed to 0.485. By comparison, no European nation had a score greater than 0.38.

In 2018, the top 10 percent of U.S. households controlled 70 percent of all wealth, up from 60 percent in 1989. Meanwhile the share controlled by the top 1 percent of wealthy Americans went from about one-fifth to nearly one-third.

Those at the bottom half of the wealth distribution saw virtually no increase in their nominal net worth over the last 30 years, while their total share of national wealth dropped, from 4 percent to just one percent.

While half a million homeless people are without a roof above their heads every night and four in five working class Americans are living from paycheck to paycheck, a potentially record-setting amount of money is being poured into the 2020 presidential election campaigns by wealthy donors and powerful political forces.

Drug overdose

And then there are the public health crises. Drug overdose has been called the worst addiction epidemic in American history.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 70,000 Americans die from drug overdose each year, making it a leading cause of death in the country. And a majority of those cases involve a prescription opioid.

On average, 130 die from opioid overdose every day.

Official figures show that in 2018, 10.3 million Americans misused prescription opioids, including 808,000 who used heroin.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, from 1999 to 2017, more than 702,000 people died from a drug overdose. And there's been a sharp increase since 2014.

And deaths involving opioids grew at an even faster rate. Low-income groups, especially blue-collar whites, had been disproportionately impacted.

The Journal of the American Medical Association published a research in 2019, which showed pre-mature deaths increased in 48 out of 50 U.S. states between 2010 and 2017; the Midwest and the South were the worst hit areas. And opioid overdose was a key contributor.

Meanwhile, life expectancy in the U.S. had been dropping in recent years. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says that in 2017, the average life expectancy in America was 78.6, the lowest among comparable developed countries. 

Racism

To say America's cross-racial relations are not getting better is perhaps an understatement. 

In January 2017, an executive order was issued by the Trump administration, banning entry of refugees and immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - all Muslim-majority countries.

Opponents called it the "Muslim ban."

In January 2020, the list of countries was expanded to include Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania. 

On top of that, there's also evidence of institutionalized racism.

According to a 2019 study, in the US, about one in every 1,000 black men can expect to be killed by the police. Black Americans are 2.5 times more likely to die from police violence than their white counterparts.  

Blacks and Hispanics accounted for 28 percent of the U.S. population but made up 56 percent of the country's prison population.

African-American adults are 5.9 times as likely to be incarcerated than whites.

And it doesn't stop there. 

Fast forward to the early months of 2020, reports of racism emerged again, and this time, against the Chinese and other Asians in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

In New York City, a man assaulted an Asian woman wearing a face mask, both physically and verbally, calling her "diseased."

On a Los Angeles subway, a man claimed that Chinese people were filthy and said "every disease has ever come from China."

In some cities, misinformation about the coronavirus led to increasing xenophobia against those of East Asian heritage.

Even mainstream media took part in the trend, with the Wall Street Journal publishing an opinion piece that called China "the real sick man of Asia."

Human rights violations against refugees and migrants

Washington's recent immigrant policies have also been heavily criticized.

In April 2018, the White House announced a zero-tolerance policy against illegal immigration, though media reports showed some legal asylum seekers were also targeted. 

Adults who crossed the border from Mexico illegally were held in federal jails, while children were separated from their parents in shelters.

The New York Times reported chaotic and filthy conditions at some facilities, saying "most of the young detainees had not been able to shower or wash their clothes since they arrived...and they had no access to toothbrushes, toothpaste or soap."

At least three children died in U.S. federal custody in the first five months of 2019, highlighting both the treacherous journey to the U.S. and the conditions inside the shelters.

The American Civil Liberties Union says around 5,500 migrant children were separated from their parents by the White House policy. Most of them were from Central America.

Humanitarian crises caused by U.S. military interventions

Domestic policies aside, America has often billed itself as a promoter of freedom globally. But how's its foreign policy record in recent years?

Although the White House promised to cut military intervention abroad, as of early 2020, the U.S. still maintained military presence in many countries, including Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and Iraq.

A Brown University study says fighting in four countries, including Afghanistan, Iran and Syria, has cost American taxpayers 6.4 trillion U.S. dollars since 2001. That figure is two trillion U.S. dollars more than all federal spending in 2019. And more than 801,000 people have died as a direct result of armed conflicts. 

Coupled with these wars are Washington's economic sanctions.

Critics say sanctions as "economic warfare" have caused destruction and suffering, in many cases leading to shortages of medicine and malnutrition.

Official data show the U.S. has sanctions in place against more than 30 countries including Iran, Venezuela, Russia, Syria and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. More than 7,000 companies, groups and individuals are also targeted. Some are reported to have led to deadly consequences.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch says the country has moved backwards in that area both at home and abroad. It's true that Americans still enjoy many freedoms. But as our stories show, America doesn't always practice what it preaches when it comes to freedom and equality. And if anyone in Washington thinks the country's human rights standards should be indiscriminately promoted, they should perhaps think again.