The US State Department [official website] on Friday released its annual report [text] on the current human rights situation across the world. This report has been published annually since the mid-1970s and has usually been accompanied by a press conference, though current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson chose to write a short foreword to the report in lieu of an actual press conference. Tillerson, in his short preface to the report, said “standing up for human rights and democracy is not just a moral imperative but is in the best interest of the United States” in maintaining security and stability in the global community. The report, which harshly criticized the current extra-judicial killings in the Philippines’ war-on-drugs and Turkey’s “inconsistent access to due process” and “governmental inference with freedom of expression,” was derided by many as sending “an unmistakable signal to human rights defenders that the United States may no longer have their back.” Others, including former State Department Spokesman PJ Crowley said the failure to have a press conference was more likely a matter of Tillerson adapting to the new position than anything else.

Ongoing conflict and social unrest continue to create a need for international organizations to promote human rights. In December the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein expressed concern [JURIST report] for global human rights. A UN human rights expert provided a report [JURIST report] to an international conference in Thailand that same month regarding discrimination of the lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender and intersex community. A spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern [JURIST report] in November about possible crimes against humanity committed against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority. US Central Command concluded [JURIST report] that month that airstrikes carried out by the US-led coalition near Dayr az Zawr, Syria, in September did not violate international law