US Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken released the 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices on Tuesday. According to him, there had been an alarming recession of democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights in many parts of the world, and this backsliding remained continued during the previous year. While discussing the depleting situation of human rights in several parts of the world, Secretary Blinken urged the international community to highlight the human rights abuses wherever they’re being committed and to bring the same urgency to stopping abuses and holding perpetrators accountable. According to him, the report contains individual chapters on nearly 200 countries and territories, each of which offers a factual, objective, and thorough accounting of their records on internationally recognized human rights.
US Department of States submits an annual human rights report to the US Congress, encompassing human rights practices covering individual, civil, political, and worker rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements across the world. The Biden administration has put human rights and democracy at the center stage of US Foreign Policy as well as domestic governance. The recent report by the US Department of States accused Russia, China, Korea, Nicaragua, Iran, and Syria of jailing, torturing, and killing human rights defenders and political opponents, while mentioning Burma, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Venezuela, and Sudan for blocking peaceful protests, harassment, intimidation, and murdering of dissidents and political adversaries. The report particularly focused on grave human rights violations by Russian troops in Ukraine in the ongoing Russian invasion of the country. The report leveled serious charges against the Chinese government including the genocide of Uyghurs separatists, and crimes against humanity in the Xinjiang autonomous region.
The report briefly encompassed the Taliban’s serious erosion of human rights, from arbitrary detentions of women, protesters, and journalists, to reprisals against security forces of the former government, along with growing restrictions on women and girls’ education and work. The report discussed human rights violations in India but remained failed to mention Indian repression against innocent Kashmiris. The report states that currently more than one million political prisoners are being held in over 65 countries of the world. Apparently, the non-binding nature of the Universal Human Rights Declaration incites the states to manipulate these social liberties of the public for their benefit.
Blinken claimed that the United States uses the same measuring stick for friends and foes, while the universal nature of human rights also means that the United States has to hold itself accountable to the same standards. According to him, the Biden administration acknowledges that there are challenges in the United States, and it takes a serious responsibility to address these shortcomings, together with citizens and communities without denying or sweeping them under a rug. However, the champion of human rights and democracy did not mention a single incident of Police highhandedness against African Americans as well as the ratio of hate crimes against the immigrants particularly Asian Americans during this time. Although, the Biden administration is a strong advocate of human, women, and religious rights in the world, however, selective and political use of these divine values by the great power has diminished the importance of this valuable work.
