Coding Examples

PTS Ratings and Significant Events: Examples

Level 5

Bur­undi (U.S. State De­part­ment 1996): The hu­man rights situ­ation con­tin­ued to de­teri­or­ate. The se­cur­ity forces con­tin­ued to com­mit nu­mer­ous, ser­i­ous hu­man rights ab­uses, in­clud­ing ex­traju­di­cial killings. Mil­it­ary forces com­mit­ted mas­sacres of un­armed ci­vil­ian Hu­tus and fre­quently per­mit­ted Tut­si ex­trem­ists to en­gage in vi­ol­ence against Hu­tus. The Gov­ern­ment was largely un­able to pre­vent such ab­uses, and per­pet­rat­ors gen­er­ally went un­pun­ished. Ser­i­ous in­cid­ents of eth­nic­ally mo­tiv­ated ex­traju­di­cial killing and de­struc­tion of prop­erty oc­curred throughout the coun­try. Armed troops and ci­vil­ian mi­li­tias killed both armed and un­armed eth­nic rivals, in­clud­ing wo­men, chil­dren, and the eld­erly. They also killed ex­pat­ri­ates.

Between Oc­to­ber 1993 and Decem­ber 1995 more than 100,000 people were killed in eth­nic vi­ol­ence. The army was more re­spons­ible than any oth­er group for these deaths. The United Na­tions Hu­man Rights Rap­por­teur for Bur­undi es­tim­ated in June that 800 people per month were be­ing killed; the ma­jor­ity of deaths con­tin­ue to be at­trib­uted to gov­ern­ment se­cur­ity forces.

Or­gan­iz­a­tion for Afric­an Unity (OAU) mil­it­ary ob­serv­ers es­tim­ated that an av­er­age of 500 people per month were killed dur­ing the first 6 months of the year. West­ern non­gov­ern­ment­al or­gan­iz­a­tions (NGO’s) be­lieve that about 10,000 people died in con­flict dur­ing the year, al­though these sources ac­know­ledge that their fig­ures lack any de­gree of pre­ci­sion.

In Au­gust the U.N. Cen­ter for Hu­man Rights in Geneva is­sued a re­port that said that the Tut­si-led army killed 2,100 to 3,000 ci­vil­ians in a series of in­cid­ents that took place between April and Ju­ly. Between Oc­to­ber and Decem­ber, mas­sacres of ci­vil­ians by the mil­it­ary forces and the killing of in­no­cent ci­vil­ians by Hutu rebels oc­curred reg­u­larly. Ac­cord­ing to hu­man rights mon­it­ors, there were more than 20 in­cid­ents in which ci­vil­ians were killed, mainly by the army, but also by Hutu rebels. The num­ber of ci­vil­ians killed, es­tim­ated at 2,000 dur­ing the months of Oc­to­ber through Decem­ber, was the heav­iest of the year.

The U.N. In­ter­na­tion­al Com­mis­sion of In­quiry con­cluded in 1996 that much but not all of the eth­nic vi­ol­ence since the 1993 as­sas­sin­a­tion of Bur­undi’s pres­id­ent has con­sti­tuted gen­o­cide.

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Colom­bia (Am­nesty In­ter­na­tion­al 2001): Colom­bia’s in­tern­al con­flict con­tin­ued to es­cal­ate. Sys­tem­at­ic and gross ab­uses of hu­man rights and in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­it­ari­an law per­sisted. Para­mil­it­ary groups act­ing with the act­ive or ta­cit sup­port of the se­cur­ity forces were re­spons­ible for the vast ma­jor­ity of ex­traju­di­cial ex­e­cu­tions and ‘‘dis­ap­pear­ances’’; many of their vic­tims were tor­tured be­fore be­ing killed. Armed op­pos­i­tion groups were re­spons­ible for vi­ol­a­tions of in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­it­ari­an law, in­clud­ing ar­bit­rary or de­lib­er­ate killings. More than 300 people ‘‘dis­ap­peared’’ and more than 4,000 ci­vil­ians were killed out­side of com­bat for polit­ic­al motives by the armed groups. Over 1,700 people were kid­napped by armed op­pos­i­tion groups and para­mil­it­ary forces. All parties to the con­flict were re­spons­ible for the forced dis­place­ment of large num­bers of ci­vil­ians. The se­cur­ity situ­ation of those liv­ing in con­flict zones, par­tic­u­larly hu­man rights de­fend­ers, trade uni­on­ists, ju­di­cial of­fi­cials, journ­al­ists, mem­bers of Afro-Colom­bi­an and in­di­gen­ous com­munit­ies and peas­ant farm­ers, con­tin­ued to worsen. Evid­ence emerged of the strong links between the se­cur­ity forces and the para­mil­it­ar­ies. Ju­di­cial and dis­cip­lin­ary in­vest­ig­a­tions ad­vanced in sev­er­al high-pro­file cases, im­plic­at­ing high-rank­ing of­fi­cials in hu­man rights vi­ol­a­tions, but im­pun­ity re­mained wide­spread.

Level 4

Chad (U.S. State De­part­ment 1999): The Gov­ern­ment’s hu­man rights re­cord re­mained poor, and there con­tin­ued to be ser­i­ous prob­lems in many areas. The Gov­ern­ment lim­ited cit­izens’ right to change the gov­ern­ment. State se­cur­ity forces con­tin­ue to com­mit ex­traju­di­cial killings, and they tor­ture, beat, ab­use, and rape per­sons. Pris­on con­di­tions re­main harsh and life threat­en­ing. Se­cur­ity forces con­tin­ued to use ar­bit­rary ar­rest and de­ten­tion. Al­though the Gov­ern­ment de­tains and im­pris­ons mem­bers of the se­cur­ity forces im­plic­ated or ac­cused of crim­in­al acts, it rarely pro­sec­utes or sanc­tions mem­bers of the se­cur­ity forces who com­mit­ted hu­man rights ab­uses.

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Egypt (Am­nesty In­ter­na­tion­al 2001): Thou­sands of sus­pec­ted sup­port­ers of banned Is­lam­ist groups, in­clud­ing pos­sible pris­on­ers of con­science, re­mained in de­ten­tion without charge or tri­al; some had been held for years. Oth­ers were serving sen­tences im­posed after grossly un­fair tri­als be­fore mil­it­ary courts. Tor­ture and ill-treat­ment of de­tain­ees was wide­spread. Pris­on con­di­tions amount to cruel, in­hu­man or de­grad­ing treat­ment were re­por­ted. At least 67 people were sen­tenced to death and at least four were ex­ecuted.

Level 3

Cam­bod­ia (U.S. State De­part­ment 2001): The Gov­ern­ment gen­er­ally re­spec­ted the hu­man rights of its cit­izens in a few areas; however, its re­cord was poor in many oth­er areas, and ser­i­ous prob­lems re­mained. The mil­it­ary forces and po­lice were re­spons­ible for both polit­ic­al and non­polit­ic­al killings, and the Gov­ern­ment rarely pro­sec­uted any­one in such cases. There were oth­er ap­par­ently polit­ic­ally mo­tiv­ated killings by non-se­cur­ity force per­sons as well. The Gov­ern­ment ar­res­ted sus­pects in some of these cases and con­victed sus­pects in two such cases. Po­lice ac­qui­esced in or failed to stop leth­al vi­ol­ence by cit­izens against crim­in­al sus­pects; the Gov­ern­ment rarely in­vest­ig­ated such killings, and im­pun­ity re­mained a prob­lem. There were cred­ible re­ports that mem­bers of the se­cur­ity forces tor­tured, beat, and oth­er­wise ab­used per­sons in cus­tody, of­ten to ex­tract con­fes­sions. Pris­on con­di­tions re­mained harsh, and the Gov­ern­ment con­tin­ued to use ar­bit­rary ar­rest and pro­longed pre­tri­al de­ten­tion. Im­pun­ity for many who com­mit hu­man rights ab­uses re­mained a ser­i­ous prob­lem.

Level 2

Cam­bod­ia (Am­nesty In­ter­na­tion­al 2001): Hun­dreds of refugees from Viet Nam crossed the bor­der in­to Cam­bod­ia after un­rest in their home provinces in Feb­ru­ary. Cam­bod­ia’s abil­ity and will­ing­ness to pro­tect them was lim­ited, and scores were forced back across the bor­der.

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Jordan (U.S. State De­part­ment 1997): Since the re­voc­a­tion of mar­tial law in 1991, there has been no­tice­able im­prove­ment in the hu­man rights situ­ation, however, prob­lems re­main, in­clud­ing: ab­use and mis­treat­ment of de­tain­ees; ar­bit­rary ar­rest and de­ten­tion; lack of ac­count­ab­il­ity with­in the se­cur­ity ser­vices; pro­longed de­ten­tion without charge; lack of due pro­cess; in­fringe­ments on cit­izens’ pri­vacy rights; har­ass­ment of op­pos­i­tion polit­ic­al parties; and re­stric­tions on the free­dom of speech, press, as­sembly, and as­so­ci­ation. Cit­izens do not have the right to change their form of gov­ern­ment, al­though they can par­ti­cip­ate in the polit­ic­al sys­tem through polit­ic­al parties and mu­ni­cip­al and par­lia­ment­ary elec­tions. New re­stric­tions on the press de­creed by the King in May shut­down many smal­ler pub­lic­a­tions and led the oth­ers to prac­tice in­creased self-cen­sor­ship. In re­ac­tion to these lim­it­a­tions and to the “one-man, one-vote” change in the elec­tion pro­cess, the Is­lam­ist and oth­er parties boy­cot­ted the Oc­to­ber par­lia­ment­ary elec­tions. Ab­use of for­eign ser­vants is a prob­lem. Re­stric­tions on wo­men’s rights, vi­ol­ence against wo­men, and ab­use of chil­dren are also prob­lems. The Gov­ern­ment im­poses some lim­its on free­dom of re­li­gion, and there is of­fi­cial dis­crim­in­a­tion against ad­her­ents of the Baha’i faith.

Level 1

Bahrain (Am­nesty In­ter­na­tion­al 2001): Sig­ni­fic­ant steps were taken in 2001 to pro­mote and pro­tect hu­man rights. All polit­ic­al pris­on­ers and de­tain­ees were re­leased and the State Se­cur­ity Court and state se­cur­ity le­gis­la­tion were ab­ol­ished. Bahraini na­tion­als who had been for­cibly ex­iled or pre­ven­ted from en­ter­ing the coun­try were al­lowed to re­turn without con­di­tions. An Ethiopi­an wo­man re­mained un­der sen­tence of death. In Decem­ber, two people . . . were said to have been sub­jec­ted to beat­ings by po­lice of­ficers. . . . They were de­tained for two days be­fore they were re­leased on bail.

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Ivory Coast (Am­nesty In­ter­na­tion­al 1988): Twenty trade uni­on­ists who had been for­cibly con­scrip­ted in­to the army for polit­ic­al reas­ons were re­leased in Ju­ly.