HUMAN RIGHTS PERFORMANCE: JANUARY 1977-JULY 1978 - 1978/09/01

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Argentina Declassification Project - The "Dirty War" (1976-83)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06627969
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 17
• Document Creation Date: April 3, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 12, 2019
• Publication Date: September 1, 1978

National
Foreign
Assessment
Center
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Human Rights Performance:
January 1977-July 1978
A Research Paper
RP 78-10346
September 1978
Copy 232
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3.5(c)
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c.i(2.y,F7KC� 3.5(C)
FOREWORD
This assessment of the human rights performance of foreign countries over
the past year and a half, requested by the DCI, is in two parts. The. first is an
overview of worldwide trends, which emphasizes thc degree to which there
has been change in the practices of foreign countries since 1976. This is
followed by regional sections, which attempt to place foreign practices and
indications of change into the context both of the countries' history and
political culture and of their relations with the United States.
For the purposes of this paper we have identified "human rights" as
including governmental unwillingness to condone (1) torture; (2) cruel,
inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; (3) arbitrary arrest or
imprisonment; (4) denial of fair public trial; (5) invasion of the home. They
also connote governmental respect for freedom of (6) thought, speech, press,
religion, and assembly; (7) movement within the country, foreign travel, and
emigration; and (8) participation in the political process. Finally (9) they
imply a government's willingness to tolerate international and nongovern-
mental investigation of alleged violations of human rights. We have not
included evaluations of economic performances within the scope of this paper,
although we recognize that there is an economic dimension to the term
human rights as it is commonly used. Only independent foreign countries with
more than 175,000 inhabitants have been evaluated; Turkish-controlled
Cyprus and Israeli-occupied territories have been counted as separate coun-
tries. Excluding the United States, our evaluation covers all but 0.2 percent of
the world's population; that is, about 9 million people. Population data for all
countries are estimates as of 1 January 1978, a point between the beginning
and end dates�January 1977 and July 1978�of our assessments of human
rights performance. Thus our data do not show the increase of the world's
population between those two dates.
Regarding ratings, we judge generally good those countries with endemic
problems in no more than one or two areas of human rights; as spotty those
with problems in several areas; and as poor those with problems in all or
nearly all areas.
The views expressed in this paper represent the best judgments of ORPA
analysts as of 31 July 1978 and have not been coordinated with other
components of the Agency. We are aware that, for many countries, assessing
the state of human rights practices, and even the direction they are taking, is
both complex and controversial. It is extremely difficult to place 100 or so
countries into a few categories to the satisfaction of ORPA analysts, let alone
observers elsewhere. Some changes for the better that we describe may not be
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CQWIENTlAL
Human Rights Performance: January 1977-July 1978
Central Intelligence Agency
National Foreign Assessment Center
September 1978
Overview
Over the last year and a half, we believe, the human rights situation
worldwide has, on balance, improved, but in several countries has deterior-
ated. We see this improvement reflected in two ways: first according to the
rating (either generally good, spotty, or poor) the various countries occupied
in July 1978 compared to January 1977; secondly according to the direction
(improvement, no change, regression) they have taken during this period
regardless of rating.
As to rating, we find 47 countries in the generally good category as of
July1978 compared to 44 in January 1977. India, Spain, and Thailand moved
up from the spotty category; that is, we judged that these countries had
endemic problems in only one or two areas of human rights as of July 1978,
but in several areas 18 months previously. In terms of population, the
improvement was much more dramatic than the numbers of countries
involved would suggest: from less than 700 million people in January 1977 to
more than 1.4 billion�nearly a third of the world's population in July 1978.
The decline in the spotty category during the same period was from 78
countries with about 1.8 billion people in January 1977 to 74 countries with
about a billion people in July 1978. The change in the spotty category reflects
not only the movement up to generally good by India, Spain, and Thailand
but Afghanistan's movement down from spotty to poor.
The countries in the poor category, that is, with problems in all or nearly
all areas of human rights, numbered 25 with a population of about 1.56
billion in January 1977 and 26 containing about 1.58 billion in July 1978.
Table 1 ' below summarizes the comparative ratings for July 1978 and
January 1977. See also figure 1 for the rating of each country as of July 1978.
In terms of the direction countries have taken since January 1977 we see
more significant patterns of change, both upward and downward, than the
' See the appendix for a more detailed listing of the information contained in the figures and tables in
this paper.
111
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3.5(c)
On the other hand, countries in the spotty-and-unchanged category, for
example in Latin America and the Middle East, usually at least offer
explanations for their resistance to change. They plead parlous security
conditions, and emphasize, among other things, the increasing tendency of
indigenous terrorist groups to use human rights rhetoric to serve terrorist
goals. Economic and social circumstances are invoked in a variety of ways to
excuse inattention to political and civil rights. For example, countries with
low standards of living maintain that political freedoms are simply not of
urgent priority. Recipients of economic aid express pointed resentment
against attempts to link human rights to the loan policies of international
financial institutions. Newly acquired economic prosperity, notably in some
Moslem oil-producing countries, has reinforced an already strong cultural
bias against Western human rights concepts. Other countries frankly fear the
social turmoil they perceive to be an inherent part of Western liberal
democracies.
The table below summarizes the direction (improvement, regression, no
change) taken by foreign countries since January 1977, and the ratings
(generally good, spotty, poor) occupied by those countries by July 1978. In all
but four cases�India, Spain, Thailand, and Afghanistan�the ratings were
the same as in January 1977. See also figure 2.
As the regional sections that follow indicate, the causes both of the
prevailing climate of human rights practices in individual countries and of the
changes that have occurred recently are often exceedingly complex, especially
in regard to the relative importance of the internal and the external factors.
By and large, increased US attention to human rights practices has contrib-
Table 2
Human Rights Performance Since January 1977
Improvement
Rating as of
July 1978
Countries
Population
(Million
Persons)
Generally Good
3
731
Spotty
35
715
Poor
3
987
Total
41
2,433
Regression
Generally Good
0
Spotty
2
2
Poor
8
382
Total
10
384
No Change
Generally Good
42
660
Spotty
37
329
Poor
17
217
Total
96
1,206
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CONTENTS
3.5(c)
Foreword
Overview
i
iii
Latin America
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Appendix
Human Rights in Foreign Countries 21
vii
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-eettrtumrar
In Argentina the human rights issue continues
to cause strains with the United States. Senior
Argentine officials view human rights abuses as
an unfortunate but inevitable consequence of
intense efforts to eradicate leftist terrorism, and
under these circumstances resent efforts by for-
eign critics to portray the Argentine Government
as an oppressive dictatorship. Now that the
terrorist threat seems to be abating, the govern-
ment is attemptini to wind down its massive
security operations and to exercise tighter con-
trols over police and military units. It has or-
dered release of many prisoners to their relatives
during daylight hours. The Interior Minister
recently warned police chiefs to stop bullying the
public and to restore normal procedures, and the
government has strengthened requirements for
proper police identification. In an effort to ap-
pease its critics, the government has published
several lists of those arrested and under detention
and is making a more concerted effort to locate
missing persons. Nevertheless, thousands of pris-
oners are still being held under state of siege
provisions which deny them benefits of trial and
due process. The fact that there are still occa-
sional reports of disappearances, torture, and
death indicates that the government is either
unable or unwilling to bring all elements of the
security forces under full control.
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