State Department: Putin Oversaw Massive Human Rights Abuses
Source: The Daily Beast
The State Departments 2013 report on human rights is out and it contains a scathing critique of life inside Vladimir Putins Russia.
The Russian government led by Vladimir Putin systematically suppressed dissent, persecuted LGBT citizens, ignored the rule of law, allowed killing and torture by police, and committed a long list of other human rights abuses last year, according to new State Department report.
In its 2013 Russia country report on human rights, released Thursday, the State Department documented human rights violations by the Russian government and security services that included: allegations of torture and excessive force by law enforcement officials, life-threatening prison conditions, interference in the judiciary and the right to a fair trial, restrictions on freedom of speech and press, restrictions on free assembly and association, restrictions on religious freedom of some religious minorities, electoral irregularities, widespread corruption, societal and official intimidation of civil society and labor activists, violence against women and limits on the rights of women in certain regions, trafficking in persons, and limitations on workers rights.
Although many of the abuses occurred outside Moscow, especially in the North Caucasus region which includes Chechnya and Sochi, Putins government failed to take adequate steps to prosecute or punish most officials who committed abuses, resulting in a climate of impunity, the State Department reported. Putin is fighting a decades-long insurgency in Chechnya. Sochi was the location for the recently completed 2014 Olympic winter games.
In the North Caucasus alone, human rights abuses included killings, torture, physical abuse, and politically motivated abductions, according to the report. Other major violations included the governments abuse of a foreign agents law to harass, pressure, discredit, and/or prosecute individuals and entities that had voiced criticism of the government, including nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), independent media outlets, and the political opposition.
Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/27/state-department-putin-oversaw-massive-human-rights-abuses.html
sakabatou
(42,170 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)totodeinhere
(13,058 posts)That isn't to say that human rights abuses don't occur in Russia. But where is the report that our State Department has released about human rights abuses occurring right here in the good old USA? Pot meet kettle.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)Anytime anyone advocates for LGBT people complain. And here you are, complaining.
Nanjing to Seoul
(2,088 posts)Gtimo, prison prisons, police brutality, police shooting and killing people for no reason, torturing them. . .gross violations of civil and human rights. . .And our government allows it to happen.
We condemn others for doing it to their citizens, but we can do it to ours. It's called being stunningly and embarrassingly full of shit.
But, the US Government has had no problems having double standards and being hypocrites. Japanese internment, destruction of native American culture and people, rape culture, affluenza, slavery.
okaawhatever
(9,462 posts)have the moral authority to publish one on us? Here's a copy of the 2011 report, it was the first one that came up. Another headline read that China considers the 2nd Amendment a human rights issue. Now you don't have to worry about the American government invading the country, but those nut jobs at the NRA are probably trying to figure out a way to invade.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-05/26/content_15392452.htm
Russia does one on us, too.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/28/us-russia-usa-rights-idUSTRE7BR0ND20111228
So do a lot of international organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch...........
It's not about moral authority. Countries do them every year, whether they're published is a matter for each country. All the countries should do them on other countries to help keep everyone exposed, including the United States. It's the only way we all benefit.
Nanjing to Seoul
(2,088 posts)paper is just as much full of shit as the American. . .just as hypocritical and just as self-serving.
okaawhatever
(9,462 posts)function. I posted a brief synopsis of the HRW report on abuses in the US further down the thread. It's usually things we already know, but it's important to be reminded.
Did you say once that you worked in Korea? I just wondered because I am curious to know how locals felt about N Korea firing 4 missiles into S Korean waters. Maybe I've mistaken you for someone else, but if not i'd love to hear your opinion on the matter.
Nanjing to Seoul
(2,088 posts)From being in the ground, alot of South Koreans do NOT want to reunify at all. They see it as a death call for their economy. Most South Koreans I knew viewed the nutbags in Pyongyang as bellicose bullies that liked to "hit and run," and then hide behind their big brother China.
When I was there, North Korea just saber rattled. Each time it happened, the Koreans I lived around and knew yawned and then ate their galbi and bulgogi, then went to a Nore-bang to sing or a PC-Bang to spent ten hours playing Starcraft.
merrily
(45,251 posts)respective abuses before they point fingers at other nations.
But, they're better at hypocrisy.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)truth2power
(8,219 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts).
Bill76
(39 posts)And how many buy the hypocritical propaganda.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)anyone outside the US buys the hypocritical propaganda which is largely directed toward your own citizens for whom I cannot speak. The US's antics in Iraq and Afghanistan create credibilty problems which will last at least another 60 years or so. I used that figure based on the fact the US's past efforts in Latin America remain a matter of distaste even after the same time period - Guatemala was 1954.
merrily
(45,251 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)PeoViejo
(2,178 posts)Charity begins at Home.
Feh.
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)djean111
(14,255 posts)It is terrible what Russia does. And we do most of the same damned things.
Some as a country, some by factions within the country.
another_liberal
(8,821 posts)God and the Flag are on our side (and robots will do most of the fighting anyway) so saddle-up people! It'll be a fucking walkover!
okaawhatever
(9,462 posts)China and Russia both do a report on us. So does Human Rights Watch and other organizations. From HRW 2013 World Report: United States
What they say we do that constitutes Human Rights Abuses:
Incarceration rate compared to population
Death Penalty
Life sentences for juveniles
Prison Conditions and sexual abuse within the system:
In May 2012, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) issued final standards under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), for the detection, prevention, reduction, and punishment of prison rape. The standards are immediately binding on all DOJ facilities. A presidential memorandum clarified that other federal agencies operating detention facilities, including the Department of Homeland Security, are also bound by PREA and must propose rules or procedures to comply with PREA.
Racial disparities in the justice system
There are some interesting statistics in a few paragraphs
Non-Citizens Rights
Labor Rights-I didn't know this about child labor in this country
As a result, child farmworkers, most of them Latino, often work 10 or more hours a day and risk pesticide poisoning, heat illness, injuries, life-long disabilities, and death. Of children under age 16 who suffered fatal occupational injuries in 2010, 75 percent worked in crop production. Thousands more are injured each year. Federal protections that do exist are often not enforced.
In April, the Department of Labor withdrew new regulations proposed in 2011 that would have updated, for the first time in decades, the list of hazardous agricultural tasks prohibited for children under age 16. (Federal law bans hazardous work for children under age 18 outside agriculture). Several members of Congress claimed, inaccurately, that the rules would hurt family farms and agricultural training, and introduced bills to block them.
Millions of US workers, including parents of infants, are harmed by weak or non-existent laws on paid leave, breastfeeding accommodation, and discrimination against workers with family responsibilities. Inadequate leave contributes to delaying babies immunizations, postpartum depression, and other health problems, and causes mothers to stop breastfeeding early.
Health Policy:
HIV infections in the US continue to disproportionately affect minority communities, men who have sex with men, and transgender women. Many states continue to undermine human rights and public health with restrictions on sex education, inadequate legal protections for HIV-positive persons, resistance to harm-reduction programs such as syringe exchanges, and failure to fund HIV prevention and care. Harmful criminal justice policies include laws that target people living with HIV for enhanced penalties and the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution. This practice, which Human Rights Watch documented in four major cities, makes sex workers reluctant to carry the number of condoms they need to protect themselves from disease and pregnancy, and undermines both human rights and public health.
Women and Girls Rights:
They discuss VAWA, the Pentagon report that showed how 21k sexual assaults were committed with only 3k victims who pressed charges. Also, unreported sexual violence against women.
LGBT Rights:
They pretty much just say that attitude and laws are shifting. They remark how several states passed same sex marriage laws and how 30 states had DOMA in their state constitution. They talk about how federal law offers no protection.
Counterterrorism:
There's a page on that for those interested in reading.
http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/united-states?page=3
another_liberal
(8,821 posts)When you aren't afraid to trade places with any of your fellow American citizens, then feel free to lecture Russia on her injustices to those she treats badly.
okaawhatever
(9,462 posts)keeps all the citizens of the world informed. I'm glad other countries do a report on us, but more importantly groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. If it doesn't keep the politicians honest, at least it reminds them that someone is watching.
another_liberal
(8,821 posts)Is it really in anyone's interest (except, of course, the Military Industrial Complex) to be poking the wounded bear with a sharp stick right now?
merrily
(45,251 posts)I don't see much evidence that they do. That said, Amnesty has shown up on my credit statement every month for quite a few years.
jsr
(7,712 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)jakeXT
(10,575 posts)pampango
(24,692 posts)International and Human Rights Watch (among others) do a more thorough, more objective job of this without the politics.