WASHINGTON DC: The 2017 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released by the State Department has criticised South and Southeast Asian governments for abuses ranging from extrajudicial killings to placing limits on citizens’ rights to free speech. “Some governments are unable to maintain security and meet the basic needs of their people, while others are simply unwilling. States that restrict freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly; that allow and commit violence against members of religious, ethnic, and other minority groups; or that undermine the fundamental dignity of persons are morally reprehensible and undermine our interests. The governments of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, for example, violate the human rights of those within their borders on a daily basis and are forces of instability as a result,” Acting Secretary of StateJohn J Sullivan said while releasing the report. “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. The United States will continue to support those around the world struggling for human dignity and liberty,” he said. The reports document the status of human rights and worker rights in nearly 200 countries and territories. The report also covers Pakistan in human rights abuses, political atmosphere, corruption, judicial systems, freedom of media, FATA, minorities and others. In the report, Department of State expressed concern on the judicial system in Pakistan saying that extensive case backlogs in the lower and superior courts, together with other problems, undermined the right to effective remedy and to a fair and public hearing. Delays in justice in civil and criminal cases were due to antiquated procedural rules, unfilled judgeships, poor case management, and weak legal education. It further says the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the high courts does not extend to several areas that operated under separate judicial systems. “For example, the AJK has its own elected president, prime minister, legislature, and court system. Gilgit-Baltistan also has a separate judicial system. Many lower courts remained corrupt, inefficient, and subject to pressure from wealthy persons and influential religious or political figures,” it maintains. The report says the military conducted multiple counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations to eradicate militant safe havens. “In 2014, the military launched Operation Zarb-e-Azb against foreign and domestic terrorists in FATA. The operation continued until February, when the military replaced it with Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad, a nationwide counterterrorism campaign aimed at consolidating Zarb-e-Azb’s gains. The government also acted throughout the country to weaken terrorist groups and prevent recruitment by militant organizations. For example, law enforcement agencies reported seizures of large caches of weapons in urban areas such as Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi. Police arrested Karachi gang members and TTP commanders who allegedly provided logistical support to militants in the tribal areas. Police arrested would-be suicide bombers in major cities, confiscating weapons, suicide vests, and planning materials,” the report says. The report says that the civilian authorities in Pakistan have managed to maintain effective control over security forces in the last few years as orderly transitions in top political and military leadership helped solidify the democratic process in the country. The report criticised India for violations by police and security forces while at the same time noting the ‘serious abuses’ by separatist insurgents and terrorists. “The most significant human rights issues included police and security force abuses, such as extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, rape, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, and lengthy pretrial detention,” it said.However, it also said, “Separatist insurgents and terrorists in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the northeast, and the Maoist-affected areas committed serious abuses, including killings and torture of armed forces personnel, police, government officials, and of civilians, and recruitment and use of child soldiers.” Keeping Jammu & Kashmir in the section of ‘Internal Conflict’, the State Department says the use of force by all parties to the conflicts resulted in deaths and injuries to both conflict participants and civilians. There were reports government security forces committed extrajudicial killings, including staging encounter killings to conceal the deaths of captured militants. Human rights groups claimed police refused to release bodies in cases of alleged encounters. The report further saysthat various domestic and international human rights organizations continued to express serious concern at the use of pellet guns by security forces for crowd control purposes in Jammuand Kashmir. In 143 instances in which pellet guns were reportedly used across 12 districts of the Kashmir Valley throughJuly 31, one civilian was killed and 36 were injured. ?By comparison, in 2016 777 instances of pellet gun use across Jammu and Kashmir, mostly during violent protests following the July 2016 killing of HizbulMujahideenBurhanWani, left at least 15 civilians dead and 396 injured. Both national and international media sources and NGOs have reported on the harm, both physical and psychological, to individuals injured by pellet guns, said the report. On Afghanistan, the report stated that the most significant human rights issues included extrajudicial killings by security forces, disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrest, detention, including of women accused of so-called moral crimes, and sexual abuse of children by security force members. Additional problems included violence against journalists, criminalization of defamation, pervasive government corruption and lack of accountability and investigation in cases of violence against women. Discrimination against persons with disabilities and ethnic minorities and discrimination based on race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation persisted with little accountability, the report read. Widespread disregard for the rule of law and official impunity for those who committed human rights abuses were serious problems and the government did not consistently or effectively prosecute abuses by officials, including security forces, the report added. “The Taliban and other insurgents continued to kill security force personnel and civilians using indiscriminate tactics such as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), suicide attacks, and rocket attacks, and to commit disappearances and torture. “The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) attributed 67 percent of civilian casualties (1,141 deaths and 3,574 injured) to non-state actors. The Taliban used children as suicide bombers, soldiers, and weapons carriers. Other antigovernment elements threatened, robbed, kidnapped, and attacked government workers, foreigners, medical and nongovernmental organization (NGO) workers, and other civilians,” the report read. The report specifically cited Bangladesh, India and the Philippines for extrajudicial killings. It targeted Indonesia for arbitrary or unlawful killings by government security forces, and blamed Malaysia for degrading treatment by security officials that led to death in some cases. Published in Daily Times, April 22nd 2018.