In Annual Rights Report, U.S. Warns Of 'Instability' Following Arab Spring

In a new report, the U.S. State Department calls last year’s uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa “inspirational."

The "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2011" says citizens in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria stood up and demanded their universal rights, greater economic opportunity, and participation in their countries’ political future.

Speaking at the release of the report in Washington on May 24, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said 2011 was “an especially tumultuous and momentous year for everyone involved in the cause of human rights."

"Many of the events that have dominated recent headlines, from the revolutions in the Middles East to reforms in Burma (Myanmar), began with human rights, with the clear call of men and women demanding their universal rights," Clinton said.

But the State Department report warns that “change often creates instability before it leads to greater respect for democracy and human rights.”

It also says overall human rights conditions remained “extremely poor” in many of the countries that were spotlighted in last year’s country reports, including Iran, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Syria, Belarus, and China.

On Iran, the report says severe limitations on the citizens’ right to peacefully change their government through free and fair elections, restrictions on civil liberties, and disregard for the sanctity of life were the most “egregious” human rights problems in the Islamic republic during the last year.

Along with “disregard" for civil liberties, arbitrary arrest, and torture, Turkmenistan continued to have no domestic human rights NGOs, due to "the government’s refusal to register such organizations and restrictions that made activity by unregistered organizations illegal."

And in Uzbekistan, “the centralized executive branch dominated political life and exercised nearly complete control over the other branches of government.”

The report says conditions in Belarus “remained poor following the flawed presidential election of December 2010.”

In neighboring Russia, it says, domestic and international monitors reported “significant irregularities and fraud” during the December elections to the State Duma, but also highlighted “unprecedented civic involvement by Russians committed to trying to improve the process.”

Meanwhile, the report points out that Egypt and Kyrgyzstan held historic elections that were deemed to be generally free and fair.

Here's a closer look at how RFE/RL's broadcast countries fared in the report:

ARMENIA

The report says citizens of Armenia live under significant limitations on their right to change their government, a lack of free speech and press, and a government-influenced judicial system. The report found that the Republican Party of Armenia, led by President Serzh Sarksian, continues to dominate the political system. It said Armenian authorities arrested and detained criminal suspects without reasonable suspicion, and often detained individuals because of their opposition political affiliations or activities.

The report found that Armenians with disabilities experienced discrimination in almost all areas of life, as did homosexual and transgender people. One positive development noted in the report was the release of the last six individuals imprisoned in connection with the 2008 presidential election and postelection unrest.

Source Publication: payvand.com
Source: http://www.payvand.com/news/12/may/1264.html

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