Global human rights report sees little change
Friday, March 12, 2010 at 12:20PM The Obama administration's first global report on human rights differed little from the reports issued during President George W. Bush's second term, with the most notable exception being stepped-up criticism of the Iraqi government.
In the latest example of similarities between President Obama and Mr. Bush on foreign policy, Iran and China topped a list of 25 countries chided in the State Department's annual human rights report for imposing "draconian" new restrictions on free expression and political rights in 2009.
"In a significant number of countries, governments have imposed new and often draconian restrictions on" nongovernmental organizations, the department said in its "Year in Review" section, highlighting global human rights trends and highlighting China, Russia, Venezuela and others.
The report, released Thursday, is the first to have been worked on exclusively since the election of Mr. Obama, who criticized the Bush administration during the 2008 campaign as arrogant and high-handed in dealing with foreign governments and said he'd repair the U.S. image abroad. After eight often testy years dealing with Mr. Bush, European officials thought Mr. Obama would change the world to their liking, but now realize that any American president will act in his country's interests first.
Although he has changed some features of U.S. foreign policy, such as missile defense, Mr. Obama has not met his vow of closing the detention facility for terrorism suspects at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year, plans to keep tens of thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq for several more years, has ramped up the war in Afghanistan, and has overseen "continuity" in several other foreign-policy areas, such as North Korea, Latin America and NATO expansion, diplomats and analysts said.
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