25 February 2009
Human Rights Report Sees Worldwide Demand for Greater Freedom
But there is continued “push back” from repressive governments
Washington — More people worldwide are demanding greater personal and political freedom, but many governments are resisting this trend, says this year’s human rights report released February 25 by the U.S. Department of State.
“A disturbing number of countries imposed burdensome, restrictive or repressive laws and regulations against NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and the media, including the Internet,” the report says. “Many courageous human rights defenders who peacefully pressed for their own rights and those of their fellow countrymen and women were harassed, threatened, arrested and imprisoned, killed or subjected to violent extrajudicial means of reprisal.”
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in remarks at a press briefing for the release of the report, vowed to work with NGOs, businesses, religious leaders, schools and universities and individual citizens to “create a world where human rights are accepted.”
She cited her many years of work on human rights issues and her determination to focus her energies on human rights in her capacity as secretary of state.
“I am looking for results,” Clinton said. “I am looking for changes that actually improve the lives of the greatest numbers of people.”
She emphasized that the United States believes it enhances its own security, prosperity and progress when the human rights of people in other countries are protected. “The promotion of human rights is an essential piece of our foreign policy,” she said.
REPORT DOESN’T INTERFERE IN INTERNAL GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS
The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices is mandated by the U.S. Congress and reviews the human rights practices of 194 governments around the world. This year, under the Obama administration, the report notes that the United States takes no offense at scrutiny of its human rights record nor should other governments consider the report interference in their “internal affairs.”
There is, the report says, “a continuing need for vigorous United States diplomacy to act and speak out against human rights abuses, at the same time that our country carefully reviews its own performance.”
“We and all other sovereign nations,” the report says, “have international obligations to respect the universal human rights and freedoms of our citizens, and it is the responsibility of others to speak out when they believe those obligations are not being fulfilled.”
REGIONAL CHALLENGES
Authoritarian rule continued to characterize many African countries, the report says, citing the campaign of terror of the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. But bright spots for 2008 were to be found in the peaceful elections in Angola, Ghana and Zambia.
Vietnam, Burma and China continue to repress human freedoms in varying degrees, and human trafficking continues to be a problem throughout the East Asia and Pacific region.
In response to questions at the February 25 press briefing, Karen Steward, acting assistant secretary for the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, said the report’s criticism of China’s human rights policies is not expected to stymie continued dialogue with Chinese leadership.
Steward said that for North Korea, where the human rights situation is “abysmal,” human rights will be part of the overall dialogue in any efforts to normalize relations.
Key challenges in Europe and Eurasia, according to the report, remain the strengthening of new democracies and stemming government restrictions on human rights organizations. Another pressing challenge is the need to address hate crimes and hate speech while protecting fundamental freedoms, against a backdrop of migration, rising nationalism and economic recession.
Human rights face “serious challenges” in Iran, Egypt, Libya and Syria, where activists continue to be imprisoned for their beliefs. In many areas of the Middle East as well as in South and Central Asia, governments continue to suppress the media and those who wish to access it.
