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1 1 (April 25, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/govepup0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressionol Research Service nforming the IegisI9tive debate since 1914 Updated April 25, 2024 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 (1948) and other international human rights agreements. The most recent reports cover calendar year 2023 and were issued on April 22, 2024. The reports provide individual narratives on countries and territories worldwide and are available on the Department of State website. In remarks introducing the reports, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated, We once again see human rights and the rule of law under stress in more ways and in more places across the globe. As with prior reports, the 2023 reports do not compare countries or rank them based on the severity of human rights abuses documented. At the same time, in his remarks and in a preface to the 2023 reports, Secretary Blinken highlighted human rights challenges in a number of contexts, including Afghanistan, China, Cuba, Iran, the Israel-Hamas conflict, Russia and occupied Ukraine, Sudan, Nicaragua, and Uganda, among others. Blinken stated that China's government continues to carry out genocide, crimes against humanity, forced labor, and other human rights violations against ethnic and religious minority groups, and noted State Department assessments of international crimes in additional contexts, including by Russian forces in Ukraine and by both the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces in Sudan. Broad Topics Covered in the 2023 Reports Integrity of the Person Civil Liberties Political Freedoms Government Corruption Governmental Posture toward Human Rights Investigations Discrimination and Societal Abuses Worker Rights Legslative Mandate 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). Evout on ofthe Reports In the early reports, there was concern within the State Department about publicly characterizing the human rights conditions in other countries, particularly U.S. allies. The first reports were criticized for lacking objectivity and being thin on substance. Over time, with improvements in the breadth, quality, and accuracy of the reports, many observers have come to recognize them as more authoritative. At the same time, governments whose human rights practices are criticized in the reports may publicly defend their record, dismiss the reports as biased, and/or in turn criticize human rights conditions in the United States. 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. In addition, the reports now reference separate congressionally mandated reports on international religious freedom (IRF) and trafficking in persons (TIP). Topics that have received new or increased coverage in recent reports include transnational repression, threats and violence against human rights defenders, and abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex individuals. In December 2023, as part of the Department of State Authorization Act contained in the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2024, Congress amended the reporting requirements to codify and expand State Department reporting on transnational repression issues, where applicable (see §6707 of P.L. 118-31; 22 U.S.C. §2151n(d)(13)).

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