111. Telegram From the Department of State to All African Diplomatic Posts1
31692. Inform Consuls, for principal officers from Moose. Subject: Human Rights Reporting.
1. With the completion of the annual human rights reports for Congress, we in AF want to express our appreciation for the patience and responsiveness of posts in providing the detailed inputs to make this process meaningful and useful. On the basis of your contribution, we hope that the reporting cycle for next year’s reports will consist essentially of collecting new data, up-dating and strengthening this year’s reports, and identifying any new human rights trends.
2. This is also a good time to reflect on the reporting and information gathering process itself and to draw some tentative conclusions which might contribute to improving our end performance in fulfilling this major legal requirement.
3. The first and most obvious lesson we have learned is that the principal prerequisite for an objective report defensible to both the host government and to Congress is better information on the objective human rights situation in each African country. This calls for conscious [Page 387] targeting on those principal areas in which official human rights attitudes, policies and practices manifest themselves: Demonstrable efforts to meet the basic needs of the poorest sectors of the population for food, shelter, education and health care; respect for the sanctity of the person; and promotion of basic civil and political liberties. We simply must know more and, in our reporting to Congress, we must refer to specific illustrative examples, including the positive as well as the negative, to support our necessarily more general reporting and analysis of the situation.
4. A corollary to better reporting is the need for comprehensive and systematic data collection on the human rights situation and issues in your country of responsibility. We must be prepared to document carefully and comprehensively each African government’s record on human rights, even in countries which do not presently receive bilateral economic or security assistance. It is no less important in cases where the government has a good record of observing human rights. The time to begin building a reporting record is now. Do not wait for us to task you with specific reporting requirements on the human rights situation in your country of responsibility.
5. We will need to expand our contacts with those individuals who are best placed to know about human rights conditions. In some cases it will be an expatriate lawyer; in others local police or attorney general, etc. Above all, these contacts can help us gain a deeper knowledge of the local judicial system which makes decisions about people’s lives.
6. Given our experience with the development of this year’s papers, we cannot rule out the possibility that there will be formal changes in the guidelines for our CY–78 papers. However, we do not anticipate any essential change in the three basic categories of human rights contained in the Secretary’s April 1977 Law Day speech in Georgia. Although difficult to identify, some thought should be given to quantifiable measures which help objectively judge human rights issues in these areas. For example: percentage changes in government funds aimed at poorest segment of population; numbers of rural health workers trained; rate of scholarization; infant mortality and other health initiatives, central budget breakdown by sector; countrywide breakdown of court cases, broken down along lines of number of acquittals, length of sentences in relation to law under which sentenced, etc.
7. We will try to give you additional grist for your side of the exchange by providing from time to time selected private organization and press reporting on specific human rights issues in Africa. This will include copies of periodic reports and occasional papers from Amnesty International, P.E.N., Freedom House, the International Commission of Jurists and other non-governmental organizations whose reporting is [Page 388] widely read and influential among human rights advocates. Keep in mind that, though such reporting is often fragmentary, it is a benchmark against which our reports to Congress and public statements on human rights are measured.
8. Finally, you should, we believe, continue to bring out in your reporting the differences in the local African conceptions of human rights which focus on collective social and economic rights as compared to our emphasis on political freedoms. Your analysis of these and other normative issues is very valuable to us in Washington. We also need your judgments as to trends evolving in official attitudes toward human rights over a period of time, i.e., over periods of six to 18 months.
9. Your reactions to these general observations and suggestions, and your own ideas on human rights reporting and analysis would be much appreciated.
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D780056–0946. Confidential. Drafted by William Swing (AF/C) and Shurtleff; cleared by Lewis, Derian, Lannon Walker, Lewis Junior (AF/C), Thomas Smith (AF/W), Richard St. F. Post (AF/E), and Donald Petterson (AF/S); approved by Moose. On February 6, Moose sent a version of the cable, dated February 4, to Christopher and Derian, commenting that it “represents what I think is a very commendable initiative on the part of two of our officers to build on our recent experience with human rights reporting.” (National Archives, RG 59, Office of the Deputy Secretary: Records of Warren Christopher, 1977–1980, Lot 81D113, Box 15, Human Rights—Country Evaluation Papers)↩