DASH / Blinken report: An alarming setback to democracy, the rule of law and human rights

“Unfortunately, the setback (for respect for human rights) continues,” said Secretary Blinken, referring to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“We see what this wave leaves behind – bodies, hands tied, abandoned in the streets; “Theaters, train stations, apartment buildings turned into ruins with civilians inside,” said the US diplomat, while Russia continues with systematic and widespread atrocities in Ukraine.

For Russia, the State Department’s report on human rights for 2021 highlighted the violence against Kremlin critics and their imprisonment. Just this week, one of the main opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a critic of Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, Vladimir Kara-Murza, was arrested and detained in Moscow.

Others, including Alexei Navalnin, who was poisoned and imprisoned, are cited as examples of arbitrary deprivation of life by Russia and politically motivated retaliation against individuals at home and abroad.

“Governments are imprisoning more critics,” he said. “Today, more than one million political prisoners are being held in over 65 countries,” said Secretary Blinken.

“We call on Russia to stop abusing repressive laws” to target its citizens, nonviolent and peaceful protesters, and individuals who are doing nothing more than defending their universal rights, the spokesman said. of State Department Ned Price during a news conference Tuesday.

Even before the Russian offensive began, the State Department said that the Moscow attack in 2014 and the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine had a significant negative effect on the human rights situation.

“The Russian government continued to arm, train, direct and fight alongside Russian-led separatist forces in eastern Ukraine. “The authorities are also conducting arrests, detentions and politically motivated trials of Ukrainian citizens in Russia, many of whom claim to have been tortured,” the report said.

For China, the State Department said “genocide and crimes against humanity” against mostly Muslim Uighurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang have continued, with “mass arrests of more than one million Uighurs” and groups of other Muslim minorities in extrajudicial internment camps and another two million undergoing “re-education” during the day.

In January 2021, the United States formally classified China’s Uighur policies as genocide and crimes against humanity.

Chinese government and security officials often committed human rights violations with impunity, the report said.

“Significant human rights issues included credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings by the government; enforced disappearances by the government; torture by the government; harsh and threatening conditions for life in prison and during detention “, says the State Department.

For Iran, the US report presents a grim picture, citing significant human rights abuses, including credible reports of executions for crimes that do not meet international legal standard; arbitrary killings by the government and its agents; enforced disappearances attributed to the government and its agents; torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by the government and its agents; as well as arbitrary arrest or detention.

“We continue to find ways both in public and in very discreet ways to support people who are trying to advance the human rights situation in Iran,” said Lisa Peterson, acting secretary of state for democracy. human rights and labor issues. “We have also put in place a number of sanctions mechanisms,” she added.

The report also noted the Egyptian government’s actions against political dissidents, the ongoing corruption by Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his top aides, and the restrictions placed on political speech by governments such as Cuba, Ethiopia, Sudan and Belarus.

For nearly five decades, the State Department has published its annual report on human rights practices. The 2021 report covers 198 countries and territories across the globe./VOA

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