News from March 2023
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Bolivia
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
Release: Bolivia is a constitutional, multiparty republic with an elected president and a bicameral legislature. In 2020 Luis Alberto Arce Catacora, candidate for the Movement Towards Socialism party, won the presidential election with 55 percent of the vote. International electoral observation missions and domestic electoral observation organizations characterized the national elections as free, fair, and transparent.
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: The Bahamas
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
Release: The Commonwealth of The Bahamas is a constitutional parliamentary democracy. Prime Minister Philip “Brave" Davis’ Progressive Liberal Party won control of the government in September 2021. International observers found the electoral process to be free and fair.
Release of U.S. Citizen Held Hostage in West Africa
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
News Release: We welcome the release of U.S. citizen Jeffery Woodke, who was held hostage in West Africa for more than six years. I spoke with Jeffery’s family today and am pleased they will be reunited soon. We are grateful for the extraordinary cooperation of the Government of Niger, as well as the sustained efforts ...
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Saint Lucia
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
Release: Saint Lucia is a constitutional monarchy with a multiparty parliamentary system. The prime minister is head of government. King Charles III is the head of state, represented by a governor general. In July 2021, in elections considered free and fair by outside observers, the Saint Lucia Labour Party won 13 of the 17 seats in the House of Assembly, defeating the previously ruling United Workers Party. Philip J. Pierre was named the new prime minister.
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Dominica
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
Release: Dominica is a multiparty parliamentary democracy. The prime minister is the head of government. The House of Assembly elects the president, who serves as the head of state. In the 2019 election, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit’s Dominica Labor Party prevailed over the opposition United Workers Party by a margin of 18 seats to three. Election observers from the Organization of American States, United Nations, and Caribbean Community found the election generally free and fair.
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Suriname
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
Release: Suriname is a constitutional democracy with a president elected by the unicameral National Assembly. Elections for the National Assembly took place in 2020. International observers considered these elections to be free and fair. In July 2020, the National Assembly elected Chandrikapersad Santokhi as president.
Secretary Blinken’s Meeting with Moroccan Foreign Minister Bourita
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
News Release: The below is attributable to Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Guatemala
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
Release: Guatemala is a multiparty constitutional republic. The country last held national and local elections in 2019. Voters elected Alejandro Eduardo Giammattei Falla as president for a four-year term beginning January 2020. International observers considered the presidential election as generally free and fair.
Secretary Blinken’s Meeting with Moroccan Foreign Minister Bourita
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
Release: The below is attributable to Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel.
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Dominican Republic
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
Release: The Dominican Republic is a representative constitutional democracy. In 2020, Luis Abinader of the Modern Revolutionary Party was elected president for a four-year term, the first transfer of power from one party to another in 16 years. Impartial outside observers assessed the election as generally free, fair, and orderly.
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nicaragua
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
Release: Nicaragua has a highly centralized, authoritarian political system dominated by President Daniel Ortega Saavedra and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo Zambrana. Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front party exercises total control over the country’s executive, legislative, judicial, and...
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Barbados
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
Release: Barbados is a parliamentary democracy led by Prime Minister Mia Mottley of the Barbados Labour Party. The Barbados Labour Party won all 30 parliamentary seats in the January general election. Observers considered the election free and fair. Until Nov. 30, 2021, Queen Elizabeth II was the head of...
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Peru
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
Release: Peru is a constitutional, multiparty republic. Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra assumed the presidency on December 7, following an attempt by then President José Pedro Castillo Terrones, elected in July 2021, to unilaterally dissolve congress and his subsequent impeachment and arrest. President Boluarte previously served as Castillo’s vice president from July 2021, until December 7. The 130 members of congress, elected in 2021 alongside the executive, continued with their terms.
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Costa Rica
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
Release: Costa Rica is a constitutional republic governed by a president and a unicameral legislative assembly directly elected in multiparty elections every four years. On April 3, voters elected Rodrigo Chaves of the new Democratic Social Progress Party as president during a second round of elections. All elections were considered free and fair.
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Canada
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
Release: Canada is a constitutional monarchy with a federal parliamentary government. In a free and fair multiparty federal election held in September 2021, the Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, who was the sitting prime minister, won a plurality of seats in the federal parliament and formed a minority government, with Justin Trudeau continuing as prime minister.
War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, and Ethnic Cleansing in Ethiopia
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
News Release: Ethiopia is now emerging from two years of a brutal conflict in the north, during which all parties committed atrocities. With the Nov. 2, 2022 cessation of hostilities agreement (COHA) in place, the fighting has stopped, human rights abuses in northern Ethiopia are significantly down, Eritrean forces ...
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Ukraine - Russia-Occupied Areas
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
Release: Ukraine. In February 2014, Russia’s forces entered and occupied Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. In March 2014, Russia claimed that the peninsula had become part of the Russian Federation following a sham referendum that violated Ukraine’s constitution and international law. The same year Russia’s proxies ...
UN Announces Major Prisoner Swap Among Parties to Yemeni Conflict
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
Release: The United States welcomes the major agreement, facilitated by the UN and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to release 887 detainees from the Yemen conflict. This agreement is an important step forward, building on the momentum of the UN-mediated truce and a period of de-escalation that has lasted almost one year. The United States remains unwavering in its commitment to advancing a durable resolution to the conflict.
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Mexico
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
Release: Mexico is a multiparty federal republic with an elected president and bicameral legislature. Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the MORENA party won the presidential election in generally free and fair multiparty elections in 2018. In the June 2021 midterm elections, citizens voted for all members of the Chamber of Deputies, 15 governors, state legislators, and mayors across the country. The elections were generally free and fair.
Aruba National Day
By State Newswire | Mar 21, 2023
News Release: On behalf of the United States of America, I send best wishes to the people of Aruba on your celebration of the 37th anniversary of your National Anthem and Flag Day.