US State Department Human Rights Reports
ETI Resources: Country Information
On this page:
- Overview
- About US Department of State
- How information is collected
- Key strengths
- Less strong on…
- Countries covered
- How to access the reports
Overview
The US Department of State Human Rights Reports cover 196 countries, and are updated annually. Each country report includes a section on “workers’ rights”, which provides a brief overview of relevant law and labour practices in relation to freedom of association and collective bargaining, forced labour, child labour, wages/living wage, health and safety and working hours.
About the US Department of State
See www.state.gov.
How information is collected
US embassies in the countries in question prepare initial drafts of the reports, based on information gathered from local government officials, jurists, labour activists, journalists, human rights monitors, academics and armed forces sources. The draft reports are then reviewed and supplemented by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, drawing on additional sources of information including reports provided by US human rights groups and representatives from the UN and other international and regional organisations, and consultations with workers’ rights and legal experts.
Key strengths
- Extensive country coverage – the latest (2003) reports cover 196 countries
- Provides a good overview of law and practice relevant to 6 of the 9 ETI Base Code principles – freedom of association and collective bargaining, forced labour, child labour, wages, health and safety and working hours
- Concise and easy to read – about two pages on worker rights per country
- Also provides information on other human rights issues.
Less strong on…
- The reports do not systematically cover all aspects of the Base Code, in particular discrimination in the workplace, regular employment and harsh and inhumane treatment
- They provide a summary only, not a comprehensive overview of the issues (especially with respect to labour law)
- They are not specifically written with code implementation in mind.
Countries covered
The countries covered by the US Department of State Human Rights Reports series is shown on our generic table of availability by country/provider. If you have already consulted this, please proceed to the next section (below)...
How to access the reports
The reports can be accessed for free from the US Department of State website at www.state.gov. From the home page, select “International Issues” from the menu along the top of the page, then select “Human Rights”. From the menu on the left hand side of this page, choose “Country Reports”.
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