2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
March 20, 2023
foreword
For nearly 50 years, the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices have served as an essential resource for governments, researchers, advocacy groups, journalists and conscientious voices around the world advocating respect for human rights and accountability for injustice. Covering 198 countries and territories, each report provides factual, objective information based on credible accounts of the events that took place in 2022. These reports are carefully compiled by US State Department staff in Washington, DC and at our foreign missions around the world who collectively spend thousands of hours compiling the reports using credible information from US embassies and consulates abroad, foreign Government officials, non-governmental and international organizations, lawyers and legal experts, journalists, academics, human rights defenders, labor activists and published reports. We take our responsibility to ensure its accuracy seriously. Each country report speaks for itself, describing accounts of practices in calendar year 2022 in the light of international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Some of the reports highlight record violations and abuse that are staggering in their scale and severity. Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, which began in February 2022, has resulted in massive death and destruction, with reports of members of the Russian armed forces committing war crimes and other atrocities, including summary executions of civilians and horrifying reports of gender-based violence, including sexual violence against women and children. In Iran, the regime responded with brutality and violence to peaceful protests across the country following the tragic death of Mahsa Jina Amini in the custody of so-called “moral police”. This year’s Country Report extensively documents the Iranian regime’s violent repression and its continued denial of the universal human rights and fundamental freedoms of the Iranian people, including freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief.
In Xinjiang, in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the country report describes how genocide and crimes against humanity against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minorities continue to occur. In Burma, the report details how the military regime continues to use force to brutalize civilians and tighten its control, with more than 2,900 reportedly killed and more than 17,000 arrested since the February 2021 military coup. As part of our efforts to ensure accountability in Burma, I made the important finding in March 2022 that the military has committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya, most of whom are Muslims, furthering US efforts to facilitate it of justice and accountability for human rights violations affirms Rohingya and other ethnic and religious minorities across Burma. As the report on Afghanistan shows, the Taliban’s oppressive and discriminatory policies against women and girls are unrelenting. No other country in the world prohibits women and girls from an education, which is an internationally recognized human right. The Taliban’s edict barring women NGO workers from jobs endangers tens of millions of Afghans who depend on humanitarian aid to survive. No country can achieve peace and prosperity when half its population is cut off from society and the economy.
Protracted human rights crises such as in South Sudan, where a steady stream of sub-national violence combined with the transitional government’s lack of progress in implementing long-overdue commitments continue to cause misery and death. The report on Syria describes how the regime continues to imprison, torture and kill political opponents, human rights defenders and journalists. Over 154,000 people remain missing or unjustly detained by the regime, ISIS and other parties to the conflict. Authoritarian governments – including in Cuba, Belarus and Venezuela – have sentenced hundreds or thousands of peaceful protesters to long and unjust prison terms. In Cambodia, brave union activists who have led hundreds in a peaceful strike for over a year have reportedly faced arrests, detentions and other efforts to demoralize workers and silence their voices.
Yet we see people of courage and conscience who, at great personal risk, stand up for universal human rights to protect the well-being of their communities and the future of their countries. These human rights defenders work tirelessly to expose injustice, corruption and abuse, and to urge transparency and accountability.
The 2022 country reports also highlight the compounding impact of human rights violations and abuses on people in marginalized communities, who also suffer disproportionately from the negative impacts of economic inequality, climate change, migration, food insecurity and other global challenges. Specifically, in accordance with President Biden’s executive order of June 15, 2022, the 2022 country reports include expanded coverage of so-called conversion “therapy” practices, which are forced or involuntary efforts that violate sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to change a person, as well as additional reporting on the performance of unnecessary surgeries on intersex people.
Democracy, human rights and labor rights are mutually reinforcing, and supporting democratic renewal is essential to promoting these rights. President Biden, along with the governments of Costa Rica, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea and the Republic of Zambia, will host the second Summit for Democracy on March 29-30, 2023. Together we will present the great progress made by the Summit partners and the importance of working together in tackling the many challenges to democracy.
As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes, all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. We present these country reports at the service of our common humanity.
Antony J. Blinkingforeign minister
