'U.S. Slams Foreign Rights Abuses, Fails to Note Own Complicity
by Jessica Azulay
In reporting on the human rights abuses around the world, the State Department has neglected facts and claims from its sources that implicate
by Jessica Azulay
In reporting on the human rights abuses around the world, the State Department has neglected facts and claims from its sources that implicate
Mar. 8 – In its yearly report on human rights violations abroad, the US State Department acknowledged the analyses come "at a time when [the United States’s] own record and actions… taken to respond to the terrorist attacks against us have been questioned." But the reports carefully omit US support for and involvement in the very practices it criticizes.
"There are clear and troubling gaps in this report," the US-based group Human Rights First said in a press statement. "As in years past, the US government has rightly identified and criticized countries for their repression of human-rights activists, but this in many instances only serves to highlight how US government policies fail to follow through on this commitment in practice."
In compiling its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, delivered to Congress annually, the State Department relied in part on documentation compiled by non-governmental human-rights groups. But in some cases, the State Department cherry picked the allegations of these sources to obscure the US government’s direct and indirect role in abuses.
For instance, the State Department’s assessment of human rights in Pakistan cites an Amnesty International (AI) report that, in the words of the State Department, "documented the [Pakistani] government's abuses against hundreds of its citizens and foreign nationals."
The State Department report continued: "AI reported that as the practice of enforced disappearance spread, people were arrested and held incommunicado in secret locations with their detention officially denied. They were at risk of torture and unlawful transfer to third countries. The [Amnesty] report noted that the ‘practice of offering rewards running to thousands of dollars for unidentified terror suspects facilitated illegal detention and enforced disappearance.'
"There are clear and troubling gaps in this report," the US-based group Human Rights First said in a press statement. "As in years past, the US government has rightly identified and criticized countries for their repression of human-rights activists, but this in many instances only serves to highlight how US government policies fail to follow through on this commitment in practice."
In compiling its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, delivered to Congress annually, the State Department relied in part on documentation compiled by non-governmental human-rights groups. But in some cases, the State Department cherry picked the allegations of these sources to obscure the US government’s direct and indirect role in abuses.
For instance, the State Department’s assessment of human rights in Pakistan cites an Amnesty International (AI) report that, in the words of the State Department, "documented the [Pakistani] government's abuses against hundreds of its citizens and foreign nationals."
The State Department report continued: "AI reported that as the practice of enforced disappearance spread, people were arrested and held incommunicado in secret locations with their detention officially denied. They were at risk of torture and unlawful transfer to third countries. The [Amnesty] report noted that the ‘practice of offering rewards running to thousands of dollars for unidentified terror suspects facilitated illegal detention and enforced disappearance.'
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