By WILLIAM C. MANN
WASHINGTON (AP) — Authoritarian rulers are violating human rights around the world and getting away with it largely because the U.S., European and other established democracies accept their claims that holding elections makes them democratic, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report Thursday.
By failing to demand that offenders honor their citizens' civil and political rights and other requirements of true democracy, Western democracies risk undermining human rights everywhere, the international rights watchdog said.
Still, Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch's executive director, wrote in a segment of the report called "Despots Masquerading as Democrats": "It is a sign of hope that even dictators have come to believe that the route to legitimacy runs by way of democratic credentials."
Among countries named as major violators of their democratic credentials in 2007 were Kenya, Pakistan, Bahrain, Jordan, Nigeria, Russia and Thailand. The report covered the year through November. In December, Thailand's military government allowed elections and was voted out of power by a large majority to end 16 months of rule by the junta.
The annual report is the 18th compiled by Human Rights Watch. It summarizes human rights shortcomings in more than 75 countries.
Among other countries listed as abusers were Chad, Colombia, Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam. It spoke of abuses by the United States, France and Britain, along with Pakistan, in the name of a "war on terror."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other European leaders were criticized for their reluctance to allow Turkey to join the European Union, despite its improved human rights record.
The report said the EU "lost leverage itself and diminished the clout of those in Turkey who have cited the prospect of EU membership as a reason for reform."
The report's emphasis, however, was the false democracies and the countries that enable them.
"It's now too easy for autocrats to get away with mounting a sham democracy," Roth said in a statement. "That's because too many Western governments insist on elections and leave it at that."
Ignored are "the key human rights issues that make democracy function: a free press, peaceful assembly and a functioning civil society that can really challenge power," he said.
The report said elections were manipulated in a number of ways, including:
In the face of this, Human Rights Watch said, "The United States and the European Union should ... demand they uphold rights guaranteed by international law, including a free media, freedom of assembly and a secret ballot."
"It seems Washington and European governments will accept even the most dubious election so long as the 'victor' is a strategic or commercial ally," Roth said.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday he had not seen the report and could not comment on it. He said, however, "In terms of the United States and this administration speaking up in defense of, and advocating for, and putting its effort behind its rhetoric, I don't think there's any question about where we stand in terms of promotion of democracy."
The report said some of the Western countries, including the United States, have made it difficult to demand that offending governments honor human rights by committing abuses themselves in campaigning against terror.
Also, "they will devalue the currency of democracy" if they allow the need for resources, trade and security to make despotism acceptable, and the despots will have "a powerful tool for deflecting pressure to uphold human rights."
"It is time to stop selling democracy on the cheap."
By failing to demand that offenders honor their citizens' civil and political rights and other requirements of true democracy, Western democracies risk undermining human rights everywhere, the international rights watchdog said.
Still, Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch's executive director, wrote in a segment of the report called "Despots Masquerading as Democrats": "It is a sign of hope that even dictators have come to believe that the route to legitimacy runs by way of democratic credentials."
Among countries named as major violators of their democratic credentials in 2007 were Kenya, Pakistan, Bahrain, Jordan, Nigeria, Russia and Thailand. The report covered the year through November. In December, Thailand's military government allowed elections and was voted out of power by a large majority to end 16 months of rule by the junta.
The annual report is the 18th compiled by Human Rights Watch. It summarizes human rights shortcomings in more than 75 countries.
Among other countries listed as abusers were Chad, Colombia, Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam. It spoke of abuses by the United States, France and Britain, along with Pakistan, in the name of a "war on terror."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other European leaders were criticized for their reluctance to allow Turkey to join the European Union, despite its improved human rights record.
The report said the EU "lost leverage itself and diminished the clout of those in Turkey who have cited the prospect of EU membership as a reason for reform."
The report's emphasis, however, was the false democracies and the countries that enable them.
"It's now too easy for autocrats to get away with mounting a sham democracy," Roth said in a statement. "That's because too many Western governments insist on elections and leave it at that."
Ignored are "the key human rights issues that make democracy function: a free press, peaceful assembly and a functioning civil society that can really challenge power," he said.
The report said elections were manipulated in a number of ways, including:
- Fraud: Chad, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Uzbekistan.
- Control of electoral machinery: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Malaysia, Thailand, Zimbabwe.
- Interfering with opposition candidates: Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories, Libya, Turkmenistan, Uganda.
- Political violence: Cambodia, Congo, Ethiopia, Lebanon.
- Stifling the media and civil society: Russia, Tunisia.
- Undermining the law: China, Pakistan.
In the face of this, Human Rights Watch said, "The United States and the European Union should ... demand they uphold rights guaranteed by international law, including a free media, freedom of assembly and a secret ballot."
"It seems Washington and European governments will accept even the most dubious election so long as the 'victor' is a strategic or commercial ally," Roth said.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday he had not seen the report and could not comment on it. He said, however, "In terms of the United States and this administration speaking up in defense of, and advocating for, and putting its effort behind its rhetoric, I don't think there's any question about where we stand in terms of promotion of democracy."
The report said some of the Western countries, including the United States, have made it difficult to demand that offending governments honor human rights by committing abuses themselves in campaigning against terror.
Also, "they will devalue the currency of democracy" if they allow the need for resources, trade and security to make despotism acceptable, and the despots will have "a powerful tool for deflecting pressure to uphold human rights."
"It is time to stop selling democracy on the cheap."
8 comments:
What does one do when highly education Cambodian in the Long Beach, CA and even professors as for "proof of" human right violation in Cambodia?
ហេ រតនា,
រតនា ចង់និយាយថាម៉ិចហ្នឹង? ពន្យល់អោយ បានច្បាស់បន្តិចទៀតមើល? អរគុណ៕
Passer-by
Look good for Cambodia! I hope it will be better and better!
international law.
Hang on, what kind of International Law, the author is talking about.
There's no such international law at Camp Delta.
America, if to help cambodia with democracy, please to plant seed all the way to the end. please do not abandon cambodia like your gov't did in the 1970s when the khmer rouge took over cambodia. please don't let history repeat itself again. thanks for all America's assistance in anti-corruption, establishing permanent democracy in cambodia, in health and education fields; and now cambodia would like to see more big American investment interest in cambodia. thank you and god bless cambodia and America.
Fraught is nothing new in Cambodia or Asian countries or the Western Hemisphere countries. However, fraught in Cambodia is drastically and draconianly different from other countries, which involved killing machines aim to silence the critics and opposition supporters.
What does one do when highly education Cambodian in the Long Beach, CA and even professors as for "proof of" human right violation in Cambodia?
1:16 AM
ANSWER: NOTHING!
You either educated or uneducated; you cannot be highly educated. Additionally, there is no such thing as "proof of human rights violations in Cambodia." There is not a damn thing you can do.
Countries throughout the world must bear human rights violations, or there wouldn't be any non-profit organizations in those countries, which employed these irresponsibles to monitor human rights violations.
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