Answer:
Human rights in the United States comprise a series of rights which are legally protected by the Constitution of the United States, including the amendments,[1][2] state constitutions, conferred by treaty and customary international law, and enacted legislatively through Congress, state legislatures, and state referenda and citizen's initiatives. Federal courts in the United States have jurisdiction over international human rights laws as a federal question, arising under international law, which is part of the law of the United States.[3] On the Freedom in the World index, the United States is listed in the highest category for human freedom in civil and political rights, with 86 out of 100 points. The CIRI Human Rights Data Project placed the US 38th overall in human rights.[4] By Freedom of the Press, the United States is listed as "free", tied with Slovenia for a rank of 33 worldwide.
The Federal Government of the United States has, through a ratified constitution, guaranteed unalienable rights to citizens of the country, and to some degree, non-citizens. These rights evolved over time through constitutional amendments, supported by legislation and judicial precedent. Along with the rights themselves, the periphery of the population granted these rights has expanded over time. Today, the United States has a vibrant civil society and strong constitutional protections for many civil and political rights.[5]
On a number of human rights issues, the United States has been internationally criticized for its human rights record, including the least protections for workers of most Western countries,[6] the imprisonment of debtors,[7] and the criminalization of homelessness and poverty,[8 the invasion of the privacy of its citizens through surveillance programs,
police brutality, police impunity, the incarceration of citizens for profit, the mistreatment of prisoners and juveniles in the prison system, having the longest prison sentences of any country, being the last Western country with a death penalty, abuses of illegal immigrants, including children, facilitating state terrorism and the continued support for foreign dictators who commit abuses (including genocide), forced disappearances, extraordinary renditions, extrajudicial detentions, torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and black sites, and extrajudicial targeted killings (Disposition Matrix).
Some observers give the U.S. high to fair marks on human rights, while others charge it with a persistent pattern of human rights violations
