Hillary Clinton
25 May 2012. The US state department has highlighted “Widespread impunity at all levels of government remained a serious problem,” said the department’s annual report on human rights released by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton here Thursday.
“Investigations into individual cases and legal punishment for perpetrators occurred, but in many cases a lack of accountability due to weak law enforcement, a lack of trained police, and an overburdened court system created an atmosphere of impunity,” the report noted.
Other highlighted problems included police and security force abuses, including extrajudicial killings, torture and rape.
The law in some states restricted religious conversion, and there were reports of arrests, but no reports of convictions under these laws, it said.
Separatist insurgents and terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, the north-eastern states, and the Naxalite belt committed numerous serious abuses, including killing armed forces personnel, police, government officials, and civilians, the report said.
