The US has come under criticism from Human Rights Watch for its support of autocratic regimes. In its annual report, Human Rights Watch also criticizes the US for running a network of secret jails and holding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay — practices it says resemble some of the world’s most openly repressive governments. Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said the Bush administration’s avowed commitment to democracy is undermined by its actions.

Kenneth Roth: “The Bush administration very deliberately doesn’t promote human rights. It promotes this soft, fuzzy concept of democracy, and the reason it does that is because it’s too embarrassing to talk about human rights when it’s been responsible for so many human rights abuses in the name of fighting terrorism. So, it falls back on this feel-good concept.”

On the domestic front, Human Rights Watch also criticizes the US for having the highest incarceration rate in the world, with African American males jailed at more than six times the rate of whites.