Authoritarian rulers are violating human rights around the world and getting away with it largely because the United States, Europe and other established democracies accept their claims that merely holding elections makes them democratic, Human Rights Watch said Thursday in an annual review.
The report said elections were manipulated in a number of ways, including:
Fraud: Chad, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Uzbekistan
Control of electoral machinery: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Malaysia, Thailand, Zimbabwe
Interfering with opposition: Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Israel in occupied Palestinian territories, Libya, Turkmenistan, Uganda
Political violence: Cambodia, Congo, Ethiopia, Lebanon
Stifling media, civil society: Russia, Tunisia
Undermining law: China, Pakistan
“It seems Washington and European governments will accept even the most dubious election so long as the ‘victor’ is a strategic or commercial ally,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
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Page compiled from Tribune news services
