197. Telegram From the Department of State to All Diplomatic and Consular Posts1
4020. Inform Consuls. Subject: Annual Human Rights Reports. Ref: 79 State 203431.2
1. Entire text Limited Official Use.
2. The Department is in the process of completing the preparation of the annual human rights reports. The contributions submitted by posts abroad have been, as expected, of high quality and are appreciated. They have helped the Department in developing accurate, bal[Page 615]anced, meaningful and useful reports. The internal Department procedures related to the publication have progressed well thus far.
3. It has come to my attention that there have been at least two cases, and possibly others, of our personnel showing draft human rights reports to, or discussing their contents with, representatives of foreign Embassies in Washington or foreign officials abroad. I was concerned to hear this, and hope that it has not happened widely.
4. Draft reports are not to be shown to, or discussed with foreign governments or their representatives. This applies both to the report on that country, and to reports on any other countries in which a government might be interested. This is absolutely essential to the integrity of the reports. We do not, of course, “negotiate” the contents of the reports with foreign governments, and we must avoid any activity that could even suggest that we are doing so.
5. We will, as usual, inform Embassies of the reports’ publication date3 and when posts may discuss the completed reports with host governments.
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D800011–0576. Limited Official Use; Priority. Drafted by Kenneth Rogers; cleared by Tim Dunn (ARA/PPC), Irons, Calvin Konner (S/S–O), Clapp, Rizik, Vogelgesang, Jennone Walker, Derian, and Sieverts; approved by Christopher.↩
- See Document 190.↩
- In the NSC Global Issues Cluster’s February 1 evening report to Aaron, Bloomfield commented: “The 150 or so country reports have all been transmitted to the Congress. When published it will constitute a very specialized kind of Statesman’s Yearbook with some authoritative descriptions, plus a set of 3-Excedrin headaches for the U.S. diplomatic machine.” (Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Staff Material, Global Issues—Oplinger/Bloomfield Subject File, Box 37, Evening Reports: 1–3/80) The Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee released Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1979 on February 4. (Department of State Bulletin, March 1980, p. 59)↩