MFA Press Statement: Singapore's Response to the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012

         The Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued the following response to the US Department of State in relation to the latter’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012:

·        We have carefully reviewed the US Department of State’s 2012 country report on human rights practices in Singapore, and note with disappointment that it once again includes the same gross inaccuracies and misrepresentations of the Singapore Government’s laws and policies that we have rebutted in detail year after year.

·        As we made clear including in Singapore’s presentation at the 2011 United Nations Universal Periodic Review in Geneva, human rights cannot be considered in isolation from the circumstances of the society in which they are embedded.  We continue to be disturbed, therefore, by the double standard applied by the US’ criticism of our Internal Security Act, which is meant to address grave and serious threats to internal security, including threats to public order, communal and religious harmony, and subversive and terrorist activities.  The US, in its own fight against terrorism, has at the highest level publicly articulated that certain trade-offs between rights and security are necessary and worthy.

·        By repeating the same misrepresentations and inaccuracies year after year and ignoring even factual clarifications, it is apparent the US Department of State is more interested in imposing its own ideology, rather than making a genuine attempt to understand human rights practices as they actually exist, whether in Singapore or elsewhere.  This calls into question the overall objectivity of the report, and raises questions about the US’ own commitment to the right to freedom of speech, including a genuine dialogue on the different approaches to promote and protect fundamental human rights. 

·        The US itself has been the subject of both domestic and international criticism regarding various allegations of egregious human rights violations.  As such, the moralistic tone of its annual human rights report is hypocritical and Pecksniffian.

·        Singapore takes the promotion and protection of human rights seriously.  We do not claim that our system is perfect, or that our system would necessarily work in other countries.  However, our government is built on the rule of law and held accountable to our people through regular democratic elections.  We will adapt our policies in the interests of our people and as the balance of rights and obligations evolve in our society.  We have and will continually work towards improving the lives of our people and advance their rights, with or without the US Department of State’s human rights report.

 
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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

SINGAPORE

20 JUNE 2013