2011 U.S. Human Rights Reports Chronicle "Momentous Year"
By Jane Morse
Staff Writer
Washington - The year 2011 was "an especially tumultuous and momentous year
for everyone involved in the cause of human rights," according to Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"Many of the events that have dominated recent headlines, from the
revolutions in the Middle East to reforms in Burma, began with human rights,
with the clear call of men and women demanding their universal rights," she said
at a State Department briefing May 24 for the rollout of the 2011 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices.
In the Middle East and North Africa, for example, citizens demanded
universal rights, dignity, greater economic opportunity and increased political
participation. "Those demonstrations sent aftershocks rumbling around the
world," according to a State Department fact sheet on the report. In Burma, the
government took important steps toward political reform and released more than
200 of its political prisoners.
Michael H. Posner, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights
and labor, said that among the encouraging developments for 2011 were the free
elections in Zambia and Tunisia and the Colombian government's efforts to
improve justice in human rights cases.
In Tunisia, citizens participated in transparent and credible elections for
a Constituent Assembly, said the State Department fact sheet. That assembly
elected a former political prisoner as the country's interim prime
minister.
According to Posner, "disturbing trends" in many countries in 2011 include
flawed elections, restrictions on physical and Internet freedom, media
censorship and attempts to restrict the activities of civil society groups.
"Such restrictions stymie the efforts of citizens to change their own societies
peacefully from within," he said.
Other disturbing trends include an increase in anti-Semitism and continued
persecution of religious minorities, including Ahmadis, Baha'is and Tibetan
Buddhists. In many countries there was an increase in abuse, discrimination and
violence against members of racial and ethnic minorities, people with
disabilities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, the
State Department fact sheet said.
In the 21st century, according to Clinton, "human rights are not only a
question of civil and political liberties, it's about the fundamental question
of whether people everywhere have the chance to make the most of their God-given
potential."
To this end, she said, the United States is "supporting efforts around the
world to give people a voice in their societies, a stake in their economies, and
to support them as they determine for themselves the future of their own lives
and the contributions they can make to the future of their countries. We think
this is the way, together, we can make human rights a human reality."
The 2011 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which review human
rights conditions in some 200 countries around the world, are now more
accessible to the general public and easier to use.
"This year we've made the reports easier to read online, easier to track
trends across a region, easier to follow the progress of a particular group,
easier to find out which governments are or are not living up to their
commitments," said Clinton.
"These reports," Clinton said, "which the United States government has
published for nearly four decades, make clear to governments around the world:
We are watching and we are holding you accountable. And they make clear to
citizens and activists everywhere: You are not alone. We are standing with
you."
Last year's reports, according to Posner, were viewed online by more than a
million people. In an effort to make the reports even more accessible to a
broader spectrum of readers, the State Department has made them shorter and more
concise and easier to search, and each country report now has an executive
summary, he said.
"The public can share these reports on social media, and so they can have
their own conversations about human rights," Posner said.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs,
U.S. Department of State. )
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