U.S. Sec. of State Antony Blinken launched the 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices at a press briefing this week, calling it "a factual, objective, and rigorous accounting of human rights conditions around the world."

Blinken said he releases the annual human-rights report "because the report embodies the importance of human rights for American diplomacy and for our vision of an open, free, prosperous, and secure world," according to the transcript of his remarks.

"Human rights are universal," Blinken said. "They aren’t defined by any one country, philosophy, or region. They apply to everyone, everywhere."

Blinken said the report examines nearly 200 countries and territories, using the same standard for all: "our allies and partners, and countries with which we have differences."

"The goal of this report is not to lecture or to shame," Blinken said at the press briefing. "Rather, it is to provide a resource for those individuals working around the world to safeguard and uphold human dignity when it’s under threat in so many ways."

Blinken said that although the report scrutinized countries worldwide, the U.S. acknowledges the nation also faces human-rights challenges.  

"Our willingness to confront our challenges openly, to acknowledge our own shortcomings – not to sweep them under the rug or pretend they don’t exist – that is what distinguishes us and other democracies," Blinken said.

Human rights conditions in 2022 continued to lose ground around the world according to the report's findings, Blinken said, leading to "the closing of civic space, disrespect for fundamental human dignity."

Among the highlights of this year’s report are the documentation of human rights violations and abuses in various countries around the world; Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine resulting in massive destruction and death as well as reported war crimes committed by Russian forces; 

“The fundamental element of any plan for ending the war in Ukraine and producing a just and durable peace must be upholding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, in accordance with the United Nations Charter,” Blinken said during the briefing.

The report also focuses on the violent crackdown of peaceful protests in Iran; China’s persecution and genocide of Muslim Uyghurs; and continued violence in Burma by a military regime, among other abuses.

Afghanistan's Taliban regime's discriminatory measures against women and girls have been relentless, Blinken said, with hundreds of peaceful protesters, including children, killed by authorities and thousands more have been unlawfully detained. He said the report found Iranian forces routinely torture and assault against protesters, harass and detain journalists and lawyers, and use "sham trials and hasty executions" to intimidate Iranians.

"The international community has come together to condemn and confront Iran’s brutal crackdown, and we’ll continue to act in support of the right of the Iranian people to speak out for their fundamental freedoms," Blinken said.

The Secretary remarked also on additional human-rights transgressions committed in nations including Burma, China, Cuba, Nicaragua and others, the transcript records. 

The actions of human-rights defenders were also a highlight of the report, according to Blinken.

"The 2022 Human Rights Report is also a reminder of the extraordinary courage of so many – activists, journalists, lawyers, government officials, regular citizens – who stand up to these abuses," Blinken said at the briefing. "Many do so at great personal risk of retaliation, harassment, detention, torture, even death."

Blinken said the report also honors the the year's Global Human Rights Defenders award-winners. He said the 10 individuals "are promoting and defending fundamental freedoms, from combatting slavery, to advocating for families of those forcibly disappeared, to demanding better wages and working conditions for low-income laborers, to representing political prisoners on death row."  

"I’m also proud of my colleagues here at the State Department," Blinken said at the briefing, "in Washington and at every post around the world – for not only reporting and documenting human rights abuses but also drawing on the power and purpose of American diplomacy to advance human dignity."

Since their first publication in 1977, the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices have gained worldwide recognition and respect as a credible source of information on human rights issues. The reports, produced annually by the U.S. Department of State, are extensively used by governments, international organizations, and human rights advocates to assess the human rights situation in various countries.