State Department Urges Foreign Embassies Against Targeting Dissidents 'In The U.S. Or Elsewhere'

The State Department on Friday sent out a diplomatic note to foreign embassies in Washington, D.C., warning them against targeting for repression their citizens "in the United States or elsewhere beyond their territories", TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

The note was posted on the Department’s website.

While the authors don’t refer to any specific case of transnational repression, the U.S. administration has said in the past that it opposes such actions by foreign governments.

“The Department calls the attention of all Missions to its heightened concern and condemnation of transnational repression activities occurring in the United States and elsewhere. Such activities include attempts by a government to target individuals located outside of its territory for peacefully exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms, through various forms of harassment, intimidation, and coercion,” reads the note.

While the embassy staffers may have diplomatic immunity, they’re still supposed to abide by U.S. laws, the Department reminds the embassies.

Early this spring, Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya and Under Secretary of Homeland Security Robert Silvers co-hosted a roundtable discussion in Washington with members of U.S. and other diaspora communities who have been targeted by transnational repression efforts by foreign governments and other foreign actors.

Participants shared their often harrowing experiences and described the far-reaching, negative consequences of transnational repression on their lives and those of their family members. They also provided insights into how authoritarian regimes in particular seek to intimidate into silence perceived dissidents, activists, journalists, or vulnerable groups located abroad, and exact reprisals against them.

Azerbaijan has long been famous for its actions against dissidents abroad - most famously with the kidnapping of journalist Afgan Muxtarli from Georgia in 2017, as well as most recently with alleged attacks against blogger Mahammad Mirzali in France.

In its 2019 Human Rights Report on Azerbaijan, the State Department for the first time added a section on transnational repression under “Politically Motivated Reprisal against Individuals Located Outside the Country”, highlighting how Azeri government was claiming human rights activist Avtandil Mammadov, who fled the country to Georgia due to political persecution, was guilty of fraud and issued an Interpol Red Notice for his arrest.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.