State Department Reports On Rights

The world in 1999 saw "a positive trend toward freedom" as bold as when the Berlin Wall fell ten years before, according to the U.S. State Department's annual report card on the status of human rights around the world. CBSNews.com Producer Jarrett Murphy reports.

But in the State Department's 1999 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor on Friday, widespread disregard for religious tolerance, freedoms of expression and norms of due process are also reported.

"When governments respect human rights, they contribute to a more stable, just and peaceful world. When they do not, they often engender strife," she said.

In the introduction, the report notes that, "Thanks to democratic elections in Indonesia and Nigeria, two of the world's most populous states, more people came under democratic rule than in any other recent year."

It also cites NATO's intervention in Kosovo and the UN's role in East Timor as important demonstrations that the international community is willing to respond when rights are in peril.

But the report pans human rights abuses like the expulsion of Albanians from Serbia, the war in Sierra Leone and the military coup in Pakistan.

The report concludes, "the past year also saw a number of profound challenges to human rights."

"Too many authoritarian governments continue to deny basic human rights, including the right to democracy, to their citizens."

The report singles out traditional U.S. adversaries like Yugoslavia, Cuba, China, North Korea and Iraq for scorn. But it also slams former Soviet states like Belarus, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan for jailing dissidents, putting human rights activists under surveillance and religious intolerance.

The report was most critical of Russia's handling of the rebellious republic of Chechnya.

"The Russian Government…must not engage in extra-judicial killing, the blocking of borders to prevent civilians from fleeing, and other violations in the name of internal security," it reads.

Sudan, Columbia and Turkey are also cited as having poor human rights records. Several of the countries named are nations where civil wars or disturbances are raging, and the report often blames more than one party for trampling on freedoms, especially in the Democatic Republic of Congo.

In its criticism of Moscow's Chechen policy, the report is quick to note that, "Chechen separatists also reportedly committed abuses, including the killing of civilians."

Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Harold Hongju Koh said, "China, the government's poor human rights record deteriorated markedly throughout the year, as the government intensified efforts to suppress dissidents, particularly organized dissent."

China's use of force and imprisonment to shut down the banned Falun Gong sect was one major area where the State Department feels improvement is needed.

Albright had tough talk for those nations that abuse rights. " It is simply wrong to suggest, as some still do, that human rights violations are just an inevitable by-product of human nature," she said.

But she added, "There is no cookie-cutter solution to abuses of international norms."

"China is perhaps the most prominent example of a country with which we have substantial and well-known differences on human rights, but with which we are also engaged on a wide variety of other issues," said Albright.

The State Department's findings came the same day human rights groups called for an investigation into alleged Russian atrocities in Chechnya, and courts in Cuba sentenced a dissident to three years in prison for hanging a Cuban flag upside down in protest.

The report is required by the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. It is composed of reports from American embassies abroad.

The report can be read on the State Department's website.

By Jarrett Murphy