Convictions: Slate's blog on legal issues

For three decades now the U.S. Department of State each year has issued a report on the human rights practices of other countries throughout the world. It does so to comply with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, §§ 116(d), 502B(b); that is, at the behest of Congress.

Last week State issued its 2007 Country Reports, assessing the promotion of human rights, or the lack thereof. The reports range from A to Z—Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, with 194 nation-states in between.

"Countries in which power was concentrated in the hands of unaccountable rulers remained the world’s most systematic human rights violators," State's introduction declared. Succeeding paragraphs then cited North Korea, Burma/Myanmar, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Eritrea, and Sudan as the worst-of-the-worst.

Duly raising eyebrows: the absence of China from this list.

Far from complimentary, the introduction's account of China's behavior included mention of interference with religious freedom and the imprisonment of activists, writers, and lawyers. Still, China was not listed among the worst-of-the-worst, but rather immediately after reference to "authoritarian countries that are undergoing economic reform" and "have experienced rapid social change but have not undertaken democratic political reform and continue to deny their citizens basic human rights and fundamental freedoms."

Among those criticizing this human-rights-upgrade-of-sorts was Sophie Richardson, Asia Advocacy Director, Human Rights Watch. According to Agence France-Presse, she urged that the Country Reports ought to be complete and sufficiently critical of the full spectrum of human rights violations, and adding that

if this decision 'signifiies that the State Department is paying less attention to chronic violations of human rights in China, yes, that is a problem.'