The United States denounces a “regression” of human rights in the world

Government American from Joe Biden put the war on Ukraine as an example of the “regression” of human rights in the world, in a report published this Tuesday in which Cuba and Nicaragua come out badly.

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“For many years, we have witnessed an alarming setback in democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights in many parts of the world,” said the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, when presenting to the press the State Department’s annual report on human rights.

“Since the publication of our previous report,” a year ago, “sadly, this backsliding has continued,” he added.

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Blinken cited the situation in Ukraine since it was invaded by Russia as the “most blatant” case of the “human consequences of this backsliding.”

And he again accused Russian troops of “widespread atrocities” in the areas they have occupied, such as “bodies left in the streets with their hands tied; theaters, train stations, buildings reduced to rubble with civilians inside”; “testimonies of women and girls who have been raped, and besieged civilians, who die of hunger and cold.”

The Secretary of State denounced above all the human rights violations in countries with which the United States has mediocre relations, such as China, which he accuses once again of committing “genocide” against Uyghur Muslims. Or the “arbitrary arrests of women, protesters and journalists” in Afghanistan, since the Taliban took power in August.

-Cuba and Nicaragua-

The report points to governments that “have unjustly imprisoned, tortured or even killed political opponents, activists, human rights defenders or journalists” citing, in addition to Russia and China, North Korea, Syria and Nicaragua, where it accuses the President Daniel Ortega to “actively favor impunity” for those who violate human rights if they are loyal to them.

The text, which covers 198 countries and territories, documents abuses against peaceful protesters demanding democracy and fundamental freedoms in Burma, Belarus, Hong Kong, Sudan or Cuba, an “authoritarian state”, it says, where most of the abuses are committed by “government officials under the direction of their superiors”.

Blinken also condemned drifts in countries allied with Washington, such as Egypt, to which he blamed the imprisonment of the lawyer and human rights defender Mohamed al-Baqer, or Ethiopia, where he assures that “all the belligerents” have “committed atrocities”.

The head of diplomacy rejected criticism from human rights organizations that lament that the US government does not exert enough pressure on certain allied countries. “Whether it is a friendly country or a country with which we really have discrepancies, our unit of measurement is the same,” because human rights “are universal,” he insisted.

Instead, the United States sings the mea culpa behind closed doors. “We have recognized that our nation has not always succeeded in protecting the dignity and rights of all Americans,” the report acknowledges.

Joe Biden considers human rights as a cornerstone of his foreign policy and last December he held the Summit for Democracy, from which several Latin American countries were excluded: Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Bolivia, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Haiti. , all of them cited in the report, which accuses them of corruption and impunity.

But in 2021 there were also advances in human rights, some “signs of progress and glimmers of hope” that the report lists: in Iraq, the elections were more transparent than in 2018, in Botswana a court decriminalized same-sex relationships and in Turkmenistan, Jehovah’s Witnesses imprisoned for being conscientious objectors to military service were pardoned.

Source: Elcomercio

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