U.S. Policy on Voting Rights in Global Perspective
The 55-page report, “Out of Step: US Policy on Voting Rights in Global Perspective,” examines the laws of 136 countries around the world with populations of 1.5 million and above and finds that the majority—73 of the 136—never, or rarely, deny a person’s right to vote because of a criminal conviction. In the other 63 countries, the United States sits at the restrictive end of the spectrum, disenfranchising a broader swath of people overall.
On May 26, 1996, Albanians voted in parliamentary elections—the third multi-party elections since the fall of the communist government in 1991. Unfortunately, numerous human rights violations before, during and after the vote undermined the democratic process and threatened the legitimacy of the elections.
Macedonia has taken some important steps toward democratization since declaring its independence from the Yugoslav federation in 1991. Substantive reform has opened the door to the European institutions and laid the foundation for a multi-party system based on the rule of law. Nevertheless, some serious problems remain.
The fierce struggle for power between Bangladesh's main political parties has fostered a situation of lawlessness and civil strife in which wanton acts of violence and intimidation by both the former ruling party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, backed by security forces, and the opposition parties, have become routine features of the political process.
In 1995, under strong pressure from the U.S., the Bolivian government began an aggressive coca eradication effort that was strongly resisted by coca growers. Periods of negotiation alternated with outbursts of violence in the Chapare, the sub-tropical region in which thousands of poor farmers produce most of the Bolivian coca.
In 1996, the conflict in Kashmir entered it seventh year, with little indication that parliamentary elections in May would either lead to peace or end the widespread human rights abuses that characterized the war.
In 1992, a devastating civil war in Tajikistan led to the deaths of more than 20,000 (with some estimates as high as 50,000) and created more than 800,000 displaced persons and refugees.
Laws of War Violations and the Use of Weapons on the Israel-Lebanon Border
For over a decade, a conflict has raged on the border of Israel and Lebanon, where Israel occupies a large section of Lebanese territory. Civilians have been the principal targets and victims in this conflict.
Despite the government of Uzbekistan's professed commitment to freedom of the press—made both explicitly and publicly over the past two years—state censorship of the media remains pervasive and intimidation of journalists is rampant. The tone and subject matter of articles published in Uzbekistan is strictly controlled by the government.
In late 1994, the authoritarian government of Uzbekistan, long stigmatized as a serious human rights abuser, showed the first signs that it desired to change its image.
As the 1997 parliamentary elections in Indonesia approach, the political atmosphere has begun to heat up and civil liberties are deteriorating. Since the first such election under the “New Order” government of President Soeharto in 1971, they have never been the “democratic festival” that the government would have both outsiders and its own citizens believe.
Since the National Islamic Front in Sudan took power following a military coup in 1989, it has created restrictions on daily life and political activity in an effort to maintain control. The Sudanese refer to these rules as the “red line,” and anyone who breaks the rules and crosses the line while expressing their political or civil independence is severely punished.
Three years after the deaths of more than 1,000 people in Bombay’s worst incident of communal violence since independence, the government of the Indian state of Maharashtra unexpectedly terminated the commission of inquiry that had been set up to investigate the riots.
In 1954 Turkey signed the 1953 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Since that time, Turkish citizens who believe that the state has violated their rights guaranteed under the Convention and who have not been able to find domestic legal redress can bring suit against their own government under Article 25.
