A Human Rights Scorecard

It was three years ago that members of Congress first asked then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger if he could report on the condition of human rights in countries that receive U.S. aid. Kissinger ran a test inside the State Department, took one horrified look at the findings and then told Congress that the idea was impractical. Whereupon a law was passed making the report mandatory.

Last week the State Department diffidently issued its first, 143-page roundup, based on reports from U.S. embassies and prepared by staffers working with James Wilson, State's coordinator for human rights and humanitarian affairs.

The scorecard had separate sections for each of the 82 countries that receive U.S. aid. Each section listed reported violations of 13 fundamental rights recognized by the United Nations, including protection from personal violence, the right to a fair trial, due process of law and the freedoms of expression, religion, assembly, travel and association. Among the most frequent worldwide violations: lengthy imprisonment without trial, blanket security laws that allow governments to suspend civil liberties and curbs on free expression (the press in 52 of the countries works under the threat of government restriction). Incidents of torture often involving terrorists and dissidents were reported in 32 of the states.

No comparisons of countries were offered in the report. It is not easy to choose between South Korea's assumption that a defendant is guilty until proved innocent and Saudi Arabia's custom of severing a thief's hand after three convictions. And there is little to be gained by comparing Israel's use of detention without trial in the occupied Arab territories with Egypt's control of the major news media.

Nor did the report say whether human rights were increasing or decreasing throughout the world--no doubt because freedom is not easily measured. Of the judicial system in Singapore, for example, the report states: "Fair hearings are guaranteed an accused. The Internal Security Act and Criminal Detention Statute are exceptions to this practice, however." This is somewhat more freedom than the State Department finds in, say, Afghanistan, but how much more is difficult to say. Even when available, figures can be misleading. For example, estimates of the number of prisoners held without trial in the Philippines reach as high as 6,000, but only a small fraction (perhaps 500) qualify as "political prisoners," meaning nonviolent political opponents of the regime.

Still, one sobering numerical conclusion could be drawn by readers who made their own tally of nations for which no major violations were reported: of the 82 countries that now receive U.S. aid, human rights seem to be alive and well in only 23, barely one-quarter of the total. The 23 states: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, France, Greece, Israel (except the occupied territories), Italy, Japan, Malta, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland), Venezuela and West Germany.

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