Report: Freedom of Association Restrictions a Top Violation in 2013

Government restrictions and repression of citizens’ universal right to freedoms of assembly and association topped the list of violations in the State Department’s 2014 annual “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.” 

The report, released yesterday, also singled out the April collapse of the multistory Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh, which killed more than 1,100 garment workers, as among the worst incidences of human rights violations in 2013.

The congressionally mandated report is not an intellectual exercise, said Secretary of State John Kerry in discussing the findings.

It is “about accountability. It’s about ending impunity. The struggle for rights and dignity couldn’t be more relevant to what we are seeing transpire across the globe.”

Get the overview and the full report.

Read Kerry’s statement.