We often read about human rights violations on the other side of the world, in far off countries that we've never even heard of... in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, or Burundi... But what about human rights in our backyard? Amnesty International, a human rights organization that has worked for years for the release of political prisoners, recently launched a campaign to expose human rights violations right here in the USA. We asked Ron Lajoie, the Editor of "Amnesty Now," to give us the real breakdown on human rights in the land of the free...

If we wanted a symbol for the new, post-cold war America, it would be one of those big nerf fingers in red, white and blue; the kind you see at professional football games. The United States, we are constantly told, is the sole remaining superpower, the leader of the free world. Our President, our Secretary of State, our politicians and our media all trumpet our Number Oneness. We are the champions my friend, the big Kahuna, the indispensable nation.

But is the United States really Number One? Not when it comes to banning land mines. We're not Number One then; National security interests come first. In fact, out of hundreds of nations who signed on to the International Ban on Landmines, the United States was one of only four that didn't, even though its been repeatedly proven that the large majority of landmine victims are innocent civilians.

Is the United States Number One on global warming? Sorry, bad for business. How about pressuring the Chinese government to improve its human rights record? Nope. Defending women's rights? Hardly. Abolishing the death penalty? Fuhgedaboudit -- not politically popular. In fact, in all too many instances, particularly when moral issues come into question, we're not Number One at all. We're not even in the game.

A recent public opinion poll commissioned by Human Rights USA -- a coalition that includes Amnesty -- shows that Americans give generally low grades to their own country's performance on these issues, both domestically and internationally. The survey, conducted by Peter D. Hart Associates, grades the United States at a C to a C- overall, with particularly low marks in such domestic areas as education, equal pay for women in the workplace, race relations and access to affordable health care.

It needn't be this way. As the first nation founded on the basis of individual liberty, the United States should be in a unique position to lead on human rights. The vast majority of those polled believe the United States should do more in the international arena to live up to the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was developed under U.S. leadership after World War II.

For the next year Amnesty International members here and around the world will be focusing on human rights abuses in the land of freedom. They will shine the light on rampant police brutality, appalling prison conditions, and on our national love affair with the death penalty. If our leaders can't summon the courage to do the right thing, it is up to us to prod them along. Because being Number One should mean more than being able to maintain world bragging rights. And human rights should apply everywhere, from China to Nigeria to right here at home.

For more information about Amnesty International's campaign, visit the web site at: www.amnesty-usa.org/rightsforall.

In the United States of America...

4,000 Juveniles are in adult prisons and 65,000 juveniles pass through the jail system every year.

As of May 1998, 70 juvenile offenders are on death row in the USA.

Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the seventies, 11 juveniles have been executed, 7 of them in Texas.

As of 1997 there were 757 state prisons and 86 federal prisons in the USA.

As of 1997, there were over 1.7 million people in prison. 50% of these were black males.

In the last fifteen years, the number of women in prison has increased 557%.

The prison industry generates an estimated $40 billion a year.

In 1998, 400,000 private jobs will be taken away and American prison labor will be used instead.

21 prisons have been constructed in California since 1984.
1 university has been constructed in California since 1984.

The U.S. government spends up to $60,000 a year incarcerating one person.
The U.S. government spends up to $8,000 a year educating one person.

An average of 34 American public school students are expelled each school day for gun possession.

Average sentence for a first time federal drug offender: 6.9 years
Average sentence for a first time offender convicted of manslaughter: 2.2 years