The U.S. Record 2002-2003

Released June 24, 2003

Supporting Human Rights and Democracy:  The U.S. Record 2002-2003 is submitted to the Congress by the Department of State in compliance with Section 665 of P.L. 107-228, the Fiscal Year 2003 Foreign Relations Authorization Act, which was signed into law on September 30, 2002. It requires the Department to report on actions taken by the U.S. Government to encourage respect for human rights. This report is being submitted to Congress for the first time and complements the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2002.

Unlike the 196 Country Reports, Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2002-2003 highlights U.S. efforts to promote human rights and democracy in only 92 countries and entities -- the 92 with the most human rights abuses. References to Hong Kong, Macau and Tibet have been incorporated into the China report, and Western Sahara is mentioned in the Morocco report. Due to the rapidly evolving situation in Iraq, this report does not include that country.

"Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U. S. Record 2002 - 2003" is available in both PDF and HTML versions.  To view the PDF files, you will need to download, at no cost, the Adobe Acrobat Reader. 

--  Preface    [PDF Version]
--  Overview and Acknowledgements   [PDF Version]
--  Introduction   [PDF Version]
--  Africa   [PDF Version]
--  East Asia and Pacific   [PDF Version]
--  Europe and Eurasia   [PDF Version]
--  Near East   [PDF Version]
--  South Asia   [PDF Version]
--  Western Hemisphere   [PDF Version]
--  Human Rights Award   [PDF Version]
--  Remarks by Deputy Secretary's of State, Richard L. Armitage