U.S. singles out human rights abusers

The Trump administration in its first global human rights report called out China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea as “forces of instability” due to “daily” abuses of human rights.

The 2017 annual report includes nearly 200 countries and territories. Acting Secretary of State John Sullivan in his introduction to the report said the governments of the four nations consistently violate human rights within their borders.

“We seek to lead other nations by example in promoting just and effective governance based on the rule of law and respect for human rights,” Sullivan wrote.

The report held the Chinese government responsible for abuses including forced disappearances, torture, forced confessions, and official repression of the Tibetans and Uighurs, among others. In Iran, the report noted, the most significant abuses are political imprisonment and restrictions on religious freedom and the press.

Russia’s abuses included extrajudicial killings such as the murders of LGBT people in Chechnya, privacy interference, and refoulement, or sending refugees back to countries where they face persecution. And in North Korea, the report said impunity remains a problem with “no known attempts to prosecute officials who committed human rights abuses.”

In a news conference Friday, Sullivan also condemned the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, also known as Burma, where more than 670,000 Rohingya Muslims fled the country. He commended Liberia for its first peaceful transition of power in more than 70 years and praised Uzbekistan’s move to seek a reform agenda. “We hope to see many more positive accounts of countries taking serious action to improve the human rights record in the reports next year,” Sullivan said.

In its most notable change, the report excluded a “reproductive rights” section that previously detailed access to abortion and contraception for each country. In its place, the Trump administration added a section called “coercion in population control.” The United States first included abortion and contraception availability in the 2011 report under former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Michael Kozak, senior adviser at the State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, said the administration reverted the term to avoid sending the wrong message. “We went back to the term that’s used in the U.S. statute that requires the Human Rights Report, which is ‘coerced family planning,’ namely coereced abortion or involuntary sterilization,” he said.

Deadly protests in Nicaragua

Thousands of demonstrators on Monday flooded the streets of the Nicaraguan capital Managua to march against the government crackdown that killed nearly 30 people since a social security policy change triggered protests last week.

President Daniel Ortega on April 16 issued a decree that hiked taxes and altered the pension scheme in a bid to support the country’s failing social security system. The resulting clashes between security officials and protesters killed nearly 30 people. Marlin Sierra, director of the Nicaraguan Center of Human Rights, told Reuters that authorities arrested another 120 people.

Ortega withdrew the policy changes on Sunday, but the protests over government repression persisted. Protesters waved the country’s blue and white flag while chanting, “President, get out!” The United States ordered families of diplomats to vacate the country and encouraged people to “reconsider travel to Nicaragua due to crime and protests.”

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a statement Monday said Guterres called on the country’s government to protect human rights for all, “particularly the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.” —O.O.

Duterte ordered persecution of nun

An Australian nun working with poor farmers in Quezon City, the Philippines, awaits possible deportation over “disorderly conduct.”

The Australian Broadcasting Company reported that President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the investigation of 71-year-old Catholic nun Patricia Fox and criticized her outspokenness regarding human rights in the Philippines.

“You are a foreigner! Who are you?” he said, calling it a “violation of sovereignty.”

“It was not the military who arrested the nun,” Duterte said. “It was upon my orders implemented by the Bureau of Immigration, and I take full responsibility legal or otherwise for this incident.”

Authorities arrested Fox on April 16 with the intention of deporting her, UCA News reported, but she was later released pending investigation.

Her congregation’s superior-general defended the nun for devoting herself to the poor and marginalized.

The Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum also condemned Duterte’s actions, saying, “We express outrage at this evil-doing and demand that all politically motivated harassment against human rights defenders, peace and justice advocates, political activists, and church workers be put to a stop.”

Although Christians don’t face ongoing government persecution in the Philippines, religious workers who speak out against the government’s methods of fighting against drugs or Communist rebels can face hostility. Even working near rebels has sometimes resulted in false criminal accusations. —Julia A. Seymour

Myanmar grants new year amnesty to pastors

Newly elected Myanmar President Win Myint pardoned thousands of prisoners for the country’s new year celebration and began releasing people April 17.

“To bring peace and pleasure to people’s heart, and for the sake of humanitarian support, 8,490 prisoners from respective prisons will be pardoned,” the Presidential Office said, according to Reuters. Most were convicted of drug charges, but at least 36 were political prisoners.

Two of them were Kachin Baptist pastors Dumdaw Nawng Lat, 67, and Langjaw Gam Seng, 35. UCA News reported that both were freed and in good health. Myanmar military forces abducted them on Christmas Eve 2016. In late 2017, a court sentenced them for alleged ties to ethnic Kachin rebels.

Amnesty International condemned the politically motivated sentence, attributing it to the pastors helping organize a visit for journalists to view destruction from military airstrikes in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Another Kachin Baptist prisoner was also released, but UCA News reported his health was poor from torture and prison conditions. —J.A.S.

India adopts death penalty for child rape

The Indian government on Saturday approved the death penalty for convicted rapists of girls younger than 12. The ruling comes amid heightening frustration with serial rape and killing attacks on young girls. The executive order, approved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet, also amended the criminal law to include harsher punishments for other rape cases.

The order follows this month’s rape and killing of an 8-year-old Muslim girl in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Her death prompted protests demanding justice. Last week, authorities arrested a lawmaker in Uttar Pradesh as a suspect in the rape of a 17-year-old last year.

The Cabinet also increased to 20 years the prison sentence for raping a girl younger than 16 and raised the penalty for raping women to 10 years in prison. The Hindustan Times said Indian courts have achieved convictions in only about 30 percent of current and pending cases of assault against children. —O.O.

Europe accepted more than half a million refugees in 2017

European nations last year granted asylum to more than half a million asylum seekers, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical office. The majority of the 538,000 refugees came from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Germany took in more than 60 percent of the refugees. More migrants continue to make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. Since January, more than 18,575 migrants have arrived in Europe. The Libyan navy on Sunday said it rescued 263 people and recovered 10 casualties in two missions off the Libyan western coast. —O.O.