Press Releases

November 8, 2007

 

The Department of State of the United States of America Releases the Annual Human Rights Report in Guinea

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

To raise global awareness and spur countries to take effective actions to combat human rights abuses, the U.S. Department of State released the 2008 Human Rights Report at the State Department in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, March 11, 2008.  The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices are submitted annually by the U.S. Department of State to the U.S. Congress.

These reports cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United States understands that the existence of human rights helps secure the peace, deter aggression, promote the rule of law, combat crime and corruption, strengthen democracies, and prevent humanitarian crises. The Country Report for Guinea will be available online at http://conakry.usembassy.gov/ in both French and English. It details serious human rights abuses that occurred in Guinea in 2007, and specifically the Guinean Government’s response or lack thereof to these abuses.

The U.S. Government remains deeply concerned about the violence and resulting human rights abuses committed during the period of the strike and resulting civil unrest in January and February 2007. Estimates of those killed by security forces varied between 137 and 186 while more than 1,700 were injured. Although the Guinean Government established an investigatory commission for these crimes in September 2007, it did not have a budget nor had it begun investigations by year’s end, and there was no progress towards legal or disciplinary action against security force members responsible for the killings.

Aside from these events, other persistent human rights abuses continued such as inhumane and life-threatening prison conditions, arbitrary arrests, prolonged pretrial detention, and detention incommunicado. The judiciary was subject to corruption and outside influence. Ongoing records of violence and societal discrimination against women, including fistula victims, prostitution of young girls, and female genital mutilation (FGM) as well as reports of trafficking in persons, ethnic discrimination, government targeting of labor leaders, forced labor, including by children, and child labor also affected Guinea’s human rights record. While the press is generally free to openly criticize individuals and institutions, there were also instances of government infringement in this sector.

Respect for human rights is a key tenet of democracy.  Failure to protect those rights undermines development and democratic progress. The U.S. Government calls on the Government of Guinea to improve its human rights record and to effectively investigate the serious abuses of early 2007 in order to foster an environment in which democracy can take root and flourish.

2008 - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices