Attacks upon Freedoms from the USA to China - a Frightening Reality Emerges

Reuters has reported that United Nations(UN) human rights investigators have described as "alarming and undemocratic" a recent trend since the election of Donald Trump, to curb freedom of expression in America. In China, long beards and veils have been banned in Xinjiang province, the scene of past alleged Muslim violence.

Yet, that 19-U.S. states have introduced bills seeking to curb freedom of expression and the right to protest ever since Trump's ascension to the presidency, is damning to the American Republic as a historic country of democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law. 

Reuters cited both Maina Kiai and David Kaye, independent UN experts on freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, as categorizing the States' bills to curb protest and speech, as being incompatible with international human rights law. "The trend also threatens to jeopardize one of the United States' constitutional pillars: free speech," the two experts declared.

Legislation before Republican-governed states like Indiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Michigan and Missouri, seek to block fundamental rights to protest. Another piece of legislation in Minnesota seeks to criminalize peaceful protesters for participating in demonstrations that subsequently turned violent. Anti protest bills have also been proposed in Colorado, North Dakota and Oklahoma.

However, the UN experts have duly noted that there was no such thing as a violent protest, only violent protesters because "One person's decision to resort to violence does not strip other protesters of their right to freedom of peaceful assembly," Reuters reported.

Meanwhile in China, the BBC-News reports that Chinese communists have moved to ban long beards and the wearing of veils in public places. China also seeks to criminalize any refusal to watch state television.

As feared by many, actions to abridge the rights of the people have started in this era of Trump. Proposed legislation in some US States are reading like many from the soviet-era and like those usually invoked in places like China and  in places of failing dictatorships.