The Foreign Service Journal, May 2006

M A Y 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 11 Human Rights: Questions of Credibility The State Department released its “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, 2005” on March 8 ( http:// www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/200 5/61550.htm ). The annual report- ing exercise, which began in 1977 in accordance with a congressional man- date, describes the performance of 196 countries in putting into practice the basic rights reflected in the United Nations’ Universal Declara- tion of Human Rights. According to the report, the human rights record grew worse dur- ing 2005 in North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Zimbabwe and Burma. In China, government censorship of the press, radio, television and the Internet increased, as did suppression of protests of those seeking to redress grievances. Russia was named for increasing “erosion of the account- ability of government leaders to the people.” The United Arab Emirates, a U.S. ally, was targeted for curtailing personal liberties and having no democratic institutions or general elections. Pakistan, too, was strongly censured for the depredations of its security forces. While lauding the State Depart- ment report for its frank and detailed, yet nuanced, appraisals, foreign and U.S. experts are asking to what extent its effectiveness has been compro- mised by U.S. silence on its own abus- es at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and in connection with renditions ( http:// www.globalsecurity.org/military/ library/news/2005/03/wwwh50308. htm ). “The State Department’s annual human rights report was once a bea- con of truth for American policy-mak- ers as well as the rest of the world,” Patricia Kushlis, a retired USIA FSO, told The Free Press , an independent online publication based in Ohio. “But how can it now be seen as any- thing more than a sham when the Bush administration consistently breaks our own laws — from illegal wiretaps at home to renditions abroad — yet still tries to portray itself as the protector of freedom, democracy and liberty for all?” ( http://www.freep - ress.org/departments/display/9/ 2006 ). However unprecedented, the one- C YBERNOTES Site of the Month: www.mipt.org The National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism ( http://www.mipt.org ) is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1999 as a living memorial to the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing tragedy of April 1995. Partly funded by the Department of Homeland Security, MIPT envi- sions a world in which terrorism is universally recognized as a tactic that is repu- diated , resisted and thereby reduced .” In January, retired FSO Donald R. Hamilton was named executive director of the institute. A veteran of the Counterterrorism Office at State, who has served as a senior adviser to the National Commission on Terrorism and to CPA Administrator L. Paul Bremer in Iraq, Hamilton aims to increase the institute’s national and international profile. “The MIPT has created the world’s best spe- cialized library on terrorism,” he says. “We need to make sure that people know these resources are there and how easy it is to take advantage of them.” MIPT.org is the go-to place for information on terrorism, whether you are a government servant directly involved in the war on terrorism or simply a con- cerned or citizen. The user-friendly Web site includes two especially useful databases. The first is a detailed listing of known terrorist incidents, groups, and perpetrators ( http://www.tkb.org/Home.jsp ) . The second features news articles that are relevant to “first responders” to terrorism, such as fire- fighters, police and emergency workers ( http://www.rkb.mipt.org/ index.cfm? ). The site also has a feature for e-mailing terrorism-related ques- tions to the MIPT’s experts but, like the database for first responders, this requires (free) registration. There is also a directory of training programs held by other organizations on terrorism-related topics and a listing of conferences on terrorism. Finally, the MIPT features a large bibliography of terrorism-related books. — Shawn Guan, Editorial Intern