The United States does not only report on human rights and abuses but work together to make things better, says an embassy official
UNB: The United States on Wednesday said that promoting democracy, good governance and human rights would remain paramount in the 50th anniversary year of the Bangladesh-US bilateral relationship.
“Working together, we must commit ourselves to promoting respect for human rights. We must speak honestly about the challenges we face. Progress on human rights begins with the facts,” US Ambassador to Bangladesh Ambassador Peter Haas said.
Meanwhile, at a briefing on the latest country report on Bangladesh’s human rights practices and US support to advance protection of human rights at the American Centre auditorium, an US Embassy official said that the United States did not only report on human rights and abuses. “We also come alongside countries to work together to make things better.”
The official, who cannot be identified under briefing rules, said that the United States was committed to a world in which human rights are protected, their defenders are celebrated, and those who commit human rights abuses are held accountable.
“The human rights report does not rank countries or draw comparisons across them. It does not attempt to catalog every human rights-related incident that occurred in a country in a given year,” he said, adding that the human rights report did not include recommendations or policy suggestions.
Rather, the official said, it focused on seven areas of human rights – respect for the integrity of the people, which deals with unlawful killings, disappearances, torture, and arbitrary arrest; respect for civil liberties, including freedom of expression, assembly and association, religion, movement, and protection of refugees; freedom to participate in the political process; corruption and lack of transparency in the government; governmental posture towards international and nongovernmental investigation of alleged abuses of human rights; discrimination and societal abuses, including rights of women, children, sexual and gender minorities, ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities; and worker rights, including the right to unions and safe working conditions, and the prohibition of forced labor, child labor, and employment discrimination.
On Tuesday, the State Department released the annual human rights report that strives to provide an “objective record” of the status of human rights worldwide. It covers 198 countries and territories for the calendar year 2021.
“These are factual reports,” said the US Embassy official, adding that the guiding principle is that all information be reported objectively, thoroughly, fairly.
