Human rights are a concern to all

Hardly had the presses cooled than several of our neighbors were again in full cry against the annual U.S. report on human rights.

The cries of outrage from such countries have become predictable in the 20-plus years that the U.S. State Department has been compiling them.

It is tempting, in fact, to say that a country's human rights problem is in direct proportion to its pretended paroxysm against the report.

If the truth be known, most academics and journalists have come to value the U.S. human rights reports. The annual book has flaws, to be certain. The point is that the report is consistent, and uses the same standards for every nation.

This year's report on Thailand is tough, and fair.

It begins by summarizing the worst human rights problems in the country last year. Nit-pickers can have their fill in places.

The country is implicitly criticized for not having juries decide criminal trials, for example, an obvious American bias.

But the lengthy report contains deep insight without a single conspicuous blunder.

One must wonder, again, about the noise from Rangoon, Hanoi and elsewhere. The dry, factual reports on the way things are done in each country contain no rhetoric, no direct criticism. The reader is left to draw his own conclusions.

Burma's leaders claim they are moving toward democracy. If so, a comparison of human rights during each of the past few years will help gauge the progress.

The annual U.S. human rights reports are a good measure of rights around the world and here at home.

-- The Bangkok Post