WASHINGTON, D.C.—Members of Congress serving on the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission questioned Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner about the State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (2009) at a hearing, March 16, on Capitol Hill.
The writing of the ”Country Reports” was a massive undertaking, according to Posner, speaking at the press conference held March 11, the day that the Department of State released the document. No other documentation of human rights violations comes close to being as universal and comprehensive. It contains over 2 million words, covering virtually every country in the world. Posner said it took nearly a thousand people to report, write and edit reports covering 194 countries.
Yet, members of the Lantos Commission sighted shortcomings in the report.
The hearing was called by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission which Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Frank Wolf (R-Va.) co-chair.
Appointed in Oct. 2009, Posner heads the office of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the State Department, which is responsible for this report.
The Congressmen and women serving on the Lantos Commission asked Posner about serious human rights violations in the Philippines, China, Iraq, Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Vietnam, Honduras, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Israel’s occupied territories, and even the United States.
Assistant Secretary Posner Summarizes U.S. Policy on Human Rights
Posner stressed that it is better for the U.S. “to be engaged” with the governments with poor human rights records than “to stand on the sidelines.” In an answer to Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao (R-La.)’s question on Vietnam, Posner said that it was important for U.S. diplomats to express our positions publicly as well as in private conversations.
Posner said that one standard should be applied for all, and that means the U.S. has to scrutinize closely its own shortcomings on human rights. Hearings are being held across the country—New Orleans; El Paso, Texas; New York state; Dearborn, Mich.; Washington, D.C. and more to come—as the State Department prepares for its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) this coming fall.
Under the auspices of the United Nations Human Rights Council, all 192 members of the UN are required to undergo UPR by 2011. The United States human rights report will assess its own human rights violations and what is being done to improve human rights in the U.S.
Posner highlighted China, Iran, Cuba, and Nigeria for last year’s human rights violations. “China’s record remains poor and worsening in some areas.” Iran’s “already poor human rights record deteriorated after last year’s election.
Posner mentioned the 82-day hunger strike of Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo that resulted in his death Feb. 23, and said he heard that other political prisoners are on hunger strike in protest of Zapata’s death.
Assistant Secretary Posner Summarizes U.S. Policy on Human Rights
Posner stressed that it is better for the U.S. “to be engaged” with the governments with poor human rights records than “to stand on the sidelines.” In an answer to Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao (R-La.)’s question on Vietnam, Posner said that it was important for U.S. diplomats to express our positions publicly as well as in private conversations.
Posner said that one standard should be applied for all, and that means the U.S. has to scrutinize closely its own shortcomings on human rights. Hearings are being held across the country—New Orleans; El Paso, Texas; New York state; Dearborn, Mich.; Washington, D.C. and more to come—as the State Department prepares for its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) this coming fall.Under the auspices of the United Nations Human Rights Council, all 192 members of the UN are required to undergo UPR by 2011. The United States human rights report will assess its own human rights violations and what is being done to improve human rights in the U.S.
Posner highlighted China, Iran, Cuba, and Nigeria for last year’s human rights violations. “China’s record remains poor and worsening in some areas.” Iran’s “already poor human rights record deteriorated after last year’s election.”
Posner mentioned the 82-day hunger strike of Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo that resulted in his death Feb. 23, and said he heard that other political prisoners are on hunger strike in protest of Zapata’s death.
Violence in Nigeria was particularly bad last year. “Human rights problems during the year included “…politically motivated and extrajudicial killings by security forces, including summary executions; vigilante killings; abductions by militant groups; torture, rape, and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners, detainees, and criminal suspects,” says the report on Nigeria.
Congress Members Focus on Report Omissions
Chairman Jim McGovern told Posner that he found it “shocking” that during the Beijing Olympics there was only one person assigned as human rights officer at the U.S. embassy. “If we are serious about human rights in China, we need more than one person working on human rights,” said McGovern. He asked if we could “beef it up” or at least “double it,” which drew laughter from the audience because it would mean only two people instead of one. Posner said he would take the request and add it to his list.
The “people are suffering terribly” in Sudan, McGovern said. There are still a lot of small arms sales into Sudan fueling the conflict, said McGovern. Posner answered that the U.S. is opposing efforts by some nations to put aside the International Criminal Court indictment of President Omar Bashir, and he credited the Bush administration for resisting this impulse as well.Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) asked why there was no mention in the report of such a significant event as “the largest massacre of journalists in recent memory.” She was referring to the Philippines and the killing in broad daylight of a party intending to register for governor the candidacy of Esmael Mangudadatu in Maguindinao province. Some 57 bodies were uncovered, 30 of whom were journalists covering the event, according to the New York Times (Dec. 12, 2009).
Posner responded, “We are very much aware of the political violence and extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.”
McGovern mentioned his trip to Ecuador when the local people were responding to an oil spill caused by Texaco. Wherever you go, you smell oil, and it affects the drinking water, and fishing which has “ruined” the lives of the indigenous people, said McGovern. He criticized the lack of concern by the U.S. for what happened and said, “Environmental degradation is a human rights violation.” Posner answered that he would add it to the list and begin looking at oil spills in the context of human rights.
Posner shared his concerns on Vietnam with Rep. Cao, who is from Vietnam. Despite releasing Fr. Nguyen Van Ly on March 15 for medical reasons, Vietnam’s communist government has a particularly poor record on religious and Internet freedom, according to Posner. He said that human rights activists, journalists and bloggers, as agents of change in Vietnam, deserve U.S. support, as they do elsewhere.
Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-Ill.) asked about the Goldstone report, the result of the UN Fact Finding Mission headed by Justice Richard Goldstone in the Gaza territory that was critical of both the Israel army and the Palestinians. Posner said it is difficult to assess the situation due to “the asymmetrical nature of urban warfare.” He said, “Both governments have an obligation to review the allegations and establish credible accountability.”
Schakowsky noted that Secretary Clinton had denounced the report, and that Dr. Goldstone acknowledges shortcomings in his report. Posner said he has known Dr. Goldstone “for a long time” and that he has “great respect for him.”
Rep. Schakowsky also made assertions about the United States critical of its justice criminal system. She said that 25 percent of all prisoners incarcerated in the world are in the U.S.—more than any other country in the world. “Women prisoners are still shackled during labor,” she said.
Posner responded that the U.S. criminal justice system is under review in preparation for the U.S. report for the UPR. The hearings going on now cover a range of issues, he said, including the criminal justice system. Posner said, “We want the [U.S.] report to be a model.”
“Country Reports” was released March 11 and can be read on the Internet: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/index.htm
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