US Mission Geneva

Celebrating the International Year for People of African Descent is especially important for Americans, as you might imagine. African Americans make up the single largest racial minority in the United States, at nearly 40 million of our citizens, and the contributions of this segment of our society are notable and many– of course we see some here today in art and literature.

We commend Timor Leste for its strong voice promoting human rights and democracy around the world and its further development of domestic institutions, including draft legislation on the creation of a Memory Institute and the award of compensation to victims of past human rights violations.

We commend Zimbabwe for creation of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission; however, we note with disappointment that it is not operational and is not set up to be an independent constitutional body able to effectively execute its mandate.

The United States notes positive steps that Lithuania has taken over the last year on human rights and encourages continued efforts in this regard. In 2010 Lithuania co-founded with the United States a new working group on gender equality and women’s rights, operating under the auspices of the Community of Democracies, which was chaired by Lithuania in 2009-11. The Lithuanian chairmanship was energetic and productive, and gave new momentum to promote human rights and democracy within Lithuania as well as globally.

We encourage the government to continue its positive momentum by prosecuting trafficking cases when victims have been identified. In addition, we welcome the Government’s announcement to construct a new reception and custody prison.

We remain concerned about specific actions taken by the Venezuelan government to limit freedom of expression and criminalize dissent, including using administrative pretexts to close media outlets and harassing media owners and members of the political opposition through judicial action.

The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the Syrian government’s gross violations of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of its people and its continued violent and deadly repression of peaceful protests.

The United States was pleased to participate in the seventeenth round of the Geneva Discussions. Participants continued their discussion of proposals to enhance security and transparency along the administrative boundary lines, as well as to improve the humanitarian situation for those living in and near the conflict areas.

The United States welcomes the Antigua and Barbuda delegation to the UPR working group and congratulates Antigua and Barbuda on its completion of its national report and presentation today. After carefully reviewing the content of the report and following the presentation today, we would like to make the following comments and recommendations.