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1 1 (April 14, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/govegvf0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Informing sonal Researet, Service heled Iltive debato since 1914 Updated April 14, 2022 Global Human Rights: The Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices Introduction The State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices are an annual U.S. government account of human rights conditions in countries around the globe. The reports characterize countries on the basis of their adherence to internationally recognized human rights, which generally refer to civil, political, and worker rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights agreements. The most recent reports cover calendar year 2021 and were issued on April 12, 2022. They provide individual narratives on countries and territories worldwide and are available on the Department of State website. As with prior reports, the 2021 reports do not compare countries or rank them based on the severity of human rights abuses documented. In a preface to the 2021 reports, the State Department referred to ongoing human rights abuses and violations in many countries, continued democratic backsliding on several continents, and creeping authoritarianism that threatens both human rights and democracy. In remarks introducing the reports, Secretary of State Antony Blinken described alarming trends, including governments growing more brazen in reaching across borders to threaten and attack critics (sometimes referred to as transnational repression) and imprisoning domestic critics, citing more than a million political prisoners being held in over 65 countries. Blinken referred specifically to human rights violations in Afghanistan, China, Cuba, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Russia, among other countries, as well as widespread atrocities connected with Russia's invasion of Ukraine (the reports themselves cover only events that occurred during calendar year 2021). Categories Covered in the 2021 Reports Integrity of the Person Civil Liberties Political Freedoms Corruption and Government Transparency Governmental Attitude toward Human Rights Investigations Discrimination and Societal Abuses Worker Rights The foundational statutory requirement for the human rights reports is found in Sections 116 and 502B of the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) of 1961 (P.L. 87-195), as amended. Both of these provisions were first enacted via congressional amendments in the mid-1970s and have been broadened and strengthened over time through additional amendments. The 1970s was a formative period for human rights-related legislation as Congress sought to enshrine human rights as a priority in U.S. foreign policy. Section 502B of the FAA (22 U.S.C. §2304), added in 1974 and substantially strengthened in 1976, sought to withhold U.S. security assistance from countries the governments of which engage in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights. Section 116 (22 U.S.C. §2151n), added in 1975 and also strengthened in the years following, imposed similar restrictions for recipients of U.S. development assistance. Contained within these provisions was language requiring that the Secretary of State transmit to Congress each year a report on the human rights conditions of recipient countries; an amendment to Section 116 in 1979 broadened the reporting requirement to cover all other foreign countries. This language thus served as the legislative basis for the State Department's annual human rights reports. Despite the legislative origin of the reports in connection with U.S. foreign assistance, the role that the reports should play with regard to assistance decisions or U.S. foreign policy more broadly has been the subject of debate (see Relationship to U.S. Foreign Policy below). Evolution of the Reports In the early reports, there was concern within the State Department about publicly characterizing the human rights conditions in other countries, particularly that of U.S. allies. The first reports were criticized for being biased and thin on substance. Over time, with improvements in the breadth, quality, and accuracy of the reports, many observers have come to recognize them as authoritative. At the same time, countries whose human rights conditions are criticized in the reports often publicly defend their record and/or dismiss the reports as biased. The State Department has gradually broadened the scope of the reports to add or expand coverage of certain topics, sometimes due to congressional amendments to the statutory requirements or other directives, such as those accompanying State Department appropriations bills. Topics that now receive increased coverage include, for example, press and internet freedoms, corruption and government transparency, and human rights abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In addition, the reports now reference separate congressionally mandated reports on international religious freedom (IRF) and trafficking in persons (TIP). Most recently, topics that have received new or increased coverage in the 2020 or 2021 reports include country actions in response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic that negatively affected human rights, threats and violence against human rights defenders, transnational repression, and the use of technology to arbitrarily or unlawfully surveil or interfere with the privacy of individuals. The most recent reports also contain information on reproductive rights that was not included in the reports produced during the Trump Administration, but was included during the Obama

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