Secretary of State John Kerry will release the 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices on Thursday, February 27, 2014, at 11:30 a.m. in the Press Briefing Room at the U.S. Department of State.  The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, commonly known as the Human Rights Reports, cover the status of human rights in countries around the world.

Secretary Kerry will introduce the reports, and the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Uzra Zeya, will make additional remarks and take questions.  

Remarks will be open to the press.

Attending journalists should be seated in the State Department’s press briefing room no later than 11:15 a.m.  The press briefing room is accessible from the 23rd Street Entrance of the Department.

Media representatives may attend this event upon presentation of one of the following:  (1) A U.S. Government-issued identification card (Department of State, White House, Congress, Department of Defense, or Foreign Press Center); (2) a media-issued photo identification card; or (3) a letter from their employer on letterhead verifying their employment as a journalist, accompanied by a government-issued photo identification card (driver's license, passport).  

Instructions for embargoed access of the reports will be available, to members of the press only, on Thursday, February 27, at 10:00 a.m. in the State Department’s Press Office (Room 2109).  The entire report is EMBARGOED until the end of the press briefing, approximately 1:00 p.m.  After the briefing, the reports will be available to the public on www.HumanRights.gov and on www.State.gov.

PRESS CONTACTS:

Office of Press Relations 

U.S. Department of State

Phone (202) 647-2492

For updates, follow Acting Assistant Secretary Uzra Zeya on Facebook (Facebook.com/StateDRL) and Twitter @State_DRL, or join the conversation on Twitter at #HumanRights