The State Department’s annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices document the human rights situation in 199 countries and territories around the world. As mandated by Congress, the U.S. government uses the Human Rights Reports as part of our foreign policy formulation, including our decision making on foreign assistance.
The Human Rights Reports are also used by asylum judges and lawyers in the United States, and are a reference for governments, civil society, scholars, journalists, and others around the world.
The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – the Human Rights Reports – cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements.
The U.S. Department of State submits reports on all countries receiving assistance and all United Nations member states to the U.S. Congress in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 197.
For more information on the U.S. Government’s engagement on human rights, visit HumanRights.gov.
To read the 2016 Human Rights Report, please go to the Department of State official website.
