United States this week hinted that it is documenting “record” human rights violations in China, Pakistan and Myanmar in its 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices report.
The report also covers 198 countries and territories, providing what it stated as “factual, objective” information compiled on basis of credible evidence and the events from the year 2022.
Worked by the US Department of State officials in Washington, D.C., and the US global overseas missions, the report stated that there has been an appalling level of violations and abuses of intense scale and severity in the aforementioned countries.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a remark on the 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices on March 20, in the Press Briefing Room at the US Department of State alongside Acting US Assistant Secretary Erin Barclay of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour.
‘Persons in marginalised communities suffered disproportionately’
According to the report, worldwide, persons in marginalised communities across these countries suffered disproportionately from human rights abuses coupled with the negative impacts of economic inequality, climate change, migration, food insecurity, and other global challenges.
The report elaborated on the so-called conversion “therapy” practices across the US, which included the forced or involuntary efforts to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, as well as additional reporting on the performance of unnecessary surgeries on intersex persons.
In the autonomous Xinjiang region of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), incidences of genocide and crimes against humanity continued to occur against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups, the 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices stated.
There have been “arbitrary detentions or other severe deprivation of physical liberty of more than one million civilians; forced sterilisation, coerced abortions, and more restrictive application of the country’s birth control policies; rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence; torture of a large number of those arbitrarily detained; and persecution including forced labour and draconian restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and freedom of movement,” the report noted.
It continued that in neighbouring Myanmar, the military regime that clutched the political power via a coup in February 2021 “continues to use violence to brutalize civilians and consolidate its control, reportedly killing more than 2,900 people and detaining more than 17,000.”
In March 2022 Myanmar Junta committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the ethnic minority Rohingya population, as per the findings documented.
In Afghanistan, as the Taliban’s regime came to power, it implemented “oppressive and discriminatory measures” that are in violation of women and girls’ rights, the US compiled report noted. “No other country in the world bars women and girls from getting an education, which is an internationally recognised human right. The Taliban’s edict barring female employees of non-governmental organisations from the workplace imperils tens of millions of Afghans who depend on humanitarian assistance for their survival,” the report further stressed. It continued that there can be no peace and prosperity if half its population which includes women is cut off from society and its economy.
Meanwhile, Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine that started in February 2022 has wreaked heavy loss of life and civilian infrastructure. Russia’s invading forces have been accused of committing war crimes and other atrocities during the course of the conflict.
Some of the crimes mentioned include summary executions of civilians, gender-based violence, and sexual violence against women and children. Iran also saw gory abuse of human rights as the Islamic Republic regime quashed with brutality the women’s rights marches and demonstrations following the tragic death of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amin in the custody of Iran’s “morality police
