US human rights report slams key allies Turkey, Egypt

In his preface to the report, Secretary of State John Kerry said attacks on democratic values point to a "global governance crisis".

"In every part of the world, we see an accelerating trend by both state and non-state actors to close the space for civil society, to stifle media and internet freedom, to marginalize opposition voices, and in the most extreme cases, to kill people or drive them from their homes," he said.

The report is unsurprisingly critical of US rivals such as Russia and China - where it says civil rights groups face increasing repression - and of foes like Iran and North Korea, where citizens face extrajudicial killings and torture.

But it also paints a grim picture of the state of play in some of the United States' closest allies, including NATO member Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has cracked down on opposition media and arrested several leading journalists.

"The government has used anti-terror laws as well as a law against insulting the president to stifle legitimate political discourse and investigative journalism," the report says.

It accuses Turkish authorities of "prosecuting journalists and ordinary citizens and driving opposition media outlets out of business or bringing them under state control".

The report, compiled on a country-by-country basis by US diplomats, has no legal implications for US policy and a critical write up does not compel Washington to cut ties or military aid to rights abusers or to impose sanctions upon them

And, while denouncing the violence of the "PKK terrorist group" the report accuses Turkish security forces of excesses of its own, citing "credible allegations that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings".

Egypt, which receives $1.5 billion dollars in US military aid despite President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's authoritarian rule, also faced stern criticism.

"There were instances of persons tortured to death and other allegations of killings in prisons and detention centers," the report says, citing NGO and UN reports of hundreds of Egyptians having gone missing since the 2011 revolution.

The report also mentioned the Egyptian military's use of "indiscriminate force during military operations that targeted widespread terrorist activity in the northern Sinai Peninsula, resulting in killings of civilians and destruction of property".

It said the Egyptian government "continued to exhibit an uncooperative and suspicious approach to international and local human rights" organisations.

Another US ally mentioned in the report was Bahrain, which John Kerry visited last week for the first time since heading the State Department.

The most significant human right violations in Bahrain include the "lack of due process in the legal system, including arrests without warrants or charges and lengthy pretrial detentions".

It said that such arrests were directed against members of the opposition and human rights activists.

The report, compiled on a country-by-country basis by US diplomats, has no legal implications for US policy and a critical write up does not compel Washington to cut ties or military aid to rights abusers or to impose sanctions upon them.

But Kerry argued that the detailed report would strengthen US determination to promote what he called "fundamental freedoms" and to support those groups Washington sees as human rights defenders.