WASHINGTON: The United States branded strategic rivals China and Russia “forces of instability” on Friday, grouping them with Iran and North Korea as countries whose rights abuses amount to a global threat.

The charge was made by acting secretary of state John Sullivan as he launched Washington’s annual global human rights report, which this year is focused on destabilising abuses by state actors.

Human rights groups were quick to criticise the report, saying President Donald Trump’s Republican administration had stripped the document of reporting on assaults on sexual and reproductive rights to focus on state-driven abuses.

But Sullivan insisted the report must focus on threats to US and international security.

“The 2017 US National Security Strategy recognises that corrupt and weak governance threatens global stability and US interests. Some governments are unable to maintain security and meet the basic needs of their people, while others are simply unwilling,” Sullivan wrote, in the report’s preface.

“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,” he wrote.

“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.” Global watchdog Human Rights Watch was unconvinced.

“This year’s US State Department human rights report guts the analysis of sexual and reproductive rights, reflecting the Trump administration’s hostility toward these issues,” the group’s Washington director Andrea Prasow said.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2018