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US Accuses Countries Across Globe of Human Rights Abuses

by Ken Bredemeier April 13, 2016

The U.S. accused authoritarian regimes around the world Wednesday of suppressing their people with "increasing vigor and viciousness" to control any activities that might threaten their power.

In its 40th annual human rights report, the U.S. State Department said, "In 2015, this global crackdown by authoritarian states on civil society deepened, silencing independent voices, impoverishing political discourse, and closing avenues for peaceful change."

The report said that "authoritarian governments stifle civil society because they fear public scrutiny, and feel threatened by people coming together in ways they cannot control."

The State Department singled out numerous governments for criticism, including what it described as "historically authoritarian regimes" in North Korea, Cuba, China, Iran, Sudan and Uzbekistan.

IS denounced

The report also denounced Islamic State terrorists for their brutal attacks on civilians.

"It is no surprise that one of the first things the terrorist organization [Islamic State] did when it took over the Syrian city of Raqqa was to kill or drive away civil society activists working to defend human rights and provide community services there," the report said.

Even as the U.S. has normalized diplomatic relations with Cuba and President Barack Obama recently visited the island nation off the U.S. southern coast, the State Department said Havana "continued its practice of arbitrary, short-term detentions to impede the exercise of freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly. The government also re-arrested several political prisoners it had released in January 2015 who had continued their activism during the year."

It said that in China "repression and coercion markedly increased during the year against organizations and individuals involved in civil and political rights advocacy. The crackdown on the legal community was particularly severe."

Russia's actions

The State Department said Russia "instituted a range of measures to suppress dissent. The government passed new repressive laws and selectively employed existing ones systematically to harass, discredit, prosecute, imprison, detain, fine, and suppress individuals and organizations engaged in activities critical of the government."

The report said in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Moscow seized in 2014, Russia has engaged in "systematic harassment and discrimination" against Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars by curbing their ability to speak out against the occupation.

The State Department said Malaysia, Tajikistan and Turkey, a NATO ally of the U.S., stifled civil society activity through "overly broad counterterrorism or national security laws," or stiff interpretation of the laws.

The report said governments in Iran, Egypt, Kenya, Cambodia, Uganda, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Vietnam, Pakistan and Ecuador all "deployed burdensome administrative and bureaucratic procedures as a means to restrict freedom of association."