This month’s release of the State Department’s annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices shows the value of consistently monitoring human rights around the globe. 

 

As Chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission charged with monitoring international human rights commitments in 56 countries from the U.S. and Canada to Europe and Central Asia, this annual report is a key tool that we, and others, use to track progress being made on universal freedoms.

 

This year’s reports have increased significance as 2010 is the 35
^th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act and the 20
^th anniversary of historic international human rights agreements, the Copenhagen Document, and the Charter of Paris for a New Europe.

 

In a year commemorating such landmark human rights documents, this month’s State Department reports remind us that many of the commitments countries made in the past still have not been met with meaningful action today.

 

In Belarus, where I visited last summer, the political space for opposition remains tightly controlled, independent media face continual harassment, and elections are a farce.

 

The overall situation in Russia remains disturbing as well. There 2009 was a year again filled with mourning the very people who stood for freedom, be they journalists, human rights advocates or lawyers simply trying to present a case against corruption. The country’s harassment of Jehovah’s Witnesses and forceful break up of public demonstrations remain particularly concerning.

 

I urge Kazakhstan, as the current chair of the OSCE, to lead by example through concrete actions, starting with the release of activist Yevgeny Zhovtis, whom staff from the Helsinki Commission visited this week in prison. Zhovtis at least deserves the same freedoms afforded other prisoners in his facility, including the right to work outside the facility during the day.

 

In Kosovo, in addition to problems with human trafficking, official corruption and a lack of judicial due process, the State Department notes the lack of progress regarding displaced persons of all ethnicities, politically and ethnically motivated violence, and societal antipathy against Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church.  The lack of progress regarding the country’s international recognition, while unfortunate, does not absolve Kosovo authorities from their responsibility to ensure greater respect for human rights and adherence to the rule of law.

 

Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner, who serves as the State Department Commissioner on the U.S. Helsinki Commission, did a superb job of unveiling the report with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

 

I was heartened to hear him specifically flag examples of 2009 human rights violations within the OSCE region that drew the attention of the Commission last year. The banning of construction of Muslim minarets in Switzerland, the pervasiveness of discrimination against Roma – Europe’s largest ethnic minority, and the continued rise of anti-Semitism in Europe sadly still remain concerns this year.

 

While these country reports help to hold all governments — including our own — to account; and while much of their text shows the reality of a world troubled by violent conflicts and the mistreatment of our most vulnerable people; the State Department reports also show the positive that surrounds us.

 

In this vein, Assistant Secretary Posner was right to mention the fairness of Ukraine’s recent elections, for which my colleague Co-Chairman Hastings led the election observation mission. And the reports are eager to cite progress where appropriate.

 

But these reports affirm something else, and that is the strength of the legislative-executive branch cooperation when it comes to upholding universal standards. The Helsinki Commission is unique among all federal agencies for being comprised of Senate, House and executive branch commissioners, and Assistant Secretary Posner’s activity with the Commission and the State Department’s annual human rights reports mandated by Congress are but two examples of our two branches working together to keep a spotlight on human rights abuses.