US State Dep’t claims human rights problems still persist

Secretary of State John Kerry presents the 2015 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

The U.S. Department of State has released its country report on the condition of human rights in Macau SAR in the period July 2014 through to June 2015, noting that prominent rights problems persisted throughout the period including limitations on citizens’ ability to change their government, constraints on press and academic freedoms and a failure to enforce laws pertaining to workers’ rights.
Despite the existence of self-censorship among media managers – who are suspected of supposing that negative coverage of the MSAR government or the PRC government would limit public funding – international media mostly “operated freely.” However, there were nonetheless a handful of incidents that have concerned activists, such as when MSAR police denied two photographers of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily News entry to the territory, for “posing a threat to stability of internal security.”
In terms of academic freedoms, the report said: “The SAR’s public and private universities lacked a tenure system, leaving professors vulnerable to dismissal for political reasons. Some academics reported university officials dissuaded them from studying or speaking on controversial topics concerning mainland China and some academics reportedly practiced self-censorship.”
While there were no reports that the MSAR government or its agents had committed arbitrary or unlawful killings, used torture on detainees or supported politically-motivated disappearances, the country report recorded activists’ concerns that the “legal system was being abused to target political dissidents through exaggerated or misapplied charges.”
The U.S. Department of State also made reference to activists’ claims that the government had monitored their telephone conversations, though this “arbitrary interference” is prohibited by the law. Separately, the Office for Personal Data Protection acknowledged a continuing increase in complaints and inquiries regarding data protection.
Another notable issue raised by the report included the trafficking of persons, though the report noted that authorities “were building capacity to pursue trafficking cases.”
On the issue of corruption, the Department of State report recognized the authority of the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) to investigate the public and private sectors and to arrest and detain suspects. However it also raised alarm over the fact that the Ombudsman Bureau within the CCAC had reviewed complaints of mismanagement or abuse by the CCAC itself.
In reference to the Labor Relations Law, the department acknowledged that the some 180,523 non-resident workers, as per the law, enjoy equal treatment with local workers, including the same rights, obligations and remuneration. However there were concerns over the efforts to enforce laws pertaining to workers’ rights. DB

US says global protections declined

The Obama administration is blaming a global crisis in governance, as well as atrocities by non-state actors, for a decline in human rights standards around the world last year.
In its annual human rights report released Wednesday, the State Department said governments in 2015 pushed back with increasing vigor and viciousness” against groups that seek to empower ordinary people and fight corruption.
The report singled out North Korea, China, Cuba, Sudan and Iran and also cited Russia, Rwanda, Congo, Venezuela, Azerbaijan, Uganda, Egypt and Vietnam for repressive steps.
“In every part of the world, we see an accelerating trend by both state and non-state actors to close the space for civil society, to stifle media and Internet freedom, to marginalize opposition voices, and, in the most extreme cases, to kill people or drive them from their homes,” Secretary of State John Kerry said.
The report also condemned abuses by the Islamic State group, Boko Haram, al Shabab and the Taliban in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and several African nations where it said lack of governance, poor governance or outright repression fueled radical movements.