On March 13, 2019 the State Department through the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor released their “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2018“.
This year’s report evaluates the practices of roughly 200 countries and territories.
This report has been a legislative requirement on the Executive Branch going back to the late 1970s. The origins of this were that Congress, in making decisions on security assistance, found themselves giving security assistance to countries that sometimes have pretty unsavory records, and they would like to know what the factual situation is before they make those judgments. So they imposed on the Executive the requirement that each year a report is prepared. Initially it was on the situation of human rights in countries that were recipients of security assistance, but then in later years Congress broadened that out so now reports are done on every country that is a member-state of the UN and some territories as well – for example, Hong Kong, while part of China, has a distinct system so a separate report on it is done.
By articulating abuses and pressuring noncompliant regimes, we can effect change. We’ve certainly seen that. Over the years, this report has pushed governments to change course and cease engaging in brutality and other abuses. We hope that it will continue to do so and cause oppressive regimes to honor human rights in places where those voices are often silenced and where deep yearnings for tolerance and respect have for too long gone unfulfilled.
Mike Pompeo
United States Secretary of State
You can check the full Remarks of Mike Pompeo on the Release of the 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices here.
Obviously, we can’t document every abuse that’s occurred in a place because sometimes, unfortunately, they’re so widespread that you just wouldn’t have enough pages to write them. So what we try to do is have a description of the trend in that country and then give an example. So if it says there were credible reports of torture, we try to quantify that a bit – was it one isolated incident or was it widespread and systematic – but then we’ll give an example. But it’s just that, an example. The fact that some other case isn’t mentioned in the report doesn’t mean it was less important. It’s just that we’re using one as an illustration of the behavior that unfortunately is sometimes replicated en masse.
Michael G. Kozak
Senior Bureau Official, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
You can read the full Briefing With Ambassador Michael Kozak on the Release of the 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices here.
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