http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/20/us/politics/state-dept-sees-little-progress-on-global-human-rights.html?_r=0
By BRIAN KNOWLTON
Published: April 19, 2013
WASHINGTON — The human rights picture in many countries remained deeply troubling last year, the State Department said Friday, with the Middle East facing “the harsh realities of incomplete and contested transitions,” Russia and Iran cracking down on activists, and many governments harshly suppressing both new and traditional media.
For countries undergoing wrenching transitions, in the Middle East or elsewhere, “the way forward is much less clear” than before, said Secretary of State John Kerry, in releasing the department’s annual report on human rights practices at a briefing for reporters.
It was a difficult year for nongovernmental organizations, journalists and bloggers, including ordinary civilians using social media, to vent sometimes daily complaints. The report said that 2012 was the deadliest year for journalists since at least 1997; and that the number of journalists in prison had more than quadrupled since 2011.
But the State Department report also highlighted a few bright spots: Myanmar, formerly Burma, which continued a move away from authoritarian rule; Georgia, which had a rare peaceful transfer of power; and Tunisia, which secured some gains from its 2011 rebellion.
Some of the gravest challenges to human rights, according to the voluminous report, came in countries where the Arab Spring movement had once raised the greatest hopes.
In Syria, Mr. Kerry said, President Bashar al-Assad was “desperately clinging to power, responding to the cries for freedom with murder and mayhem.” The number of deaths in the rebellion there soared to more than 5,000 per month by last July from about 1,000 per month in mid-2011, the report said.
Using some of its toughest language, the report said the Assad government “continued to use indiscriminate, disproportionate and deadly force to terrorize the Syrian population into submission.”
Egypt, a vital United States ally, held “contested and credible elections for the first time in decades.” But there were also crackdowns on nongovernmental organizations, a failure of security forces to protect minority Coptic Christians from violence and “increasingly targeted sexual violence against women.”
The report appeared to be more critical than in previous years of another important ally, Turkey, which was identified as the country with the greatest number of imprisoned reporters, 49. While judicial overhauls had led to the release of thousands of people from jail, it said, the authorities continued to engage in arbitrary arrests of opponents.
The scene in Iran, a perpetual dark spot in the report, appeared no better in 2012. The government there executed 523 people, often without due process.
Another frequent target in the annual reports, China, again came in for criticism. The report said the government had made it nearly impossible to form independent groups that might challenge Beijing’s authority, employing “extralegal measures including enforced disappearance.”
Uzra Zeya, the acting assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, called the situation in Russia “deeply troubling” and said it had continued to deteriorate this year, particularly in regard to limits on civil liberties, nongovernmental organizations, the press and Internet freedom.
Asked about the treatment of detainees at the United States. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Ms. Zeya said, “We hold ourselves to the same standards by which we assess others.”
A version of this article appeared in print on April 20, 2013, on page A3 of the New York edition with the headline: State Dept. Sees Little Progress on Global Human Rights.
Comment: This article is part of the government-corporate fascist propaganda. It basically ignores many of the humane rights violations of the U.S. Government and its obsession with perpetual world war. ~ @Peta_de_Aztlan
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