Highlights from last year's annual State Department report on human rights conditions around the world:
North Korea -- ``The government prohibits freedom of speech, the press, assembly and association and all forms of cultural and media activities are under the tight control of the party.''
Iraq -- The government of President Saddam Hussein is ``one of the world's most repressive.'' Executions, torture and rape of his opponents are routine.
Sudan -- Security forces ``regularly beat, harassed, arbitrarily arrested and detained and detained incommunicado opponents or suspected opponents of the government with impunity.''
Congo -- Security forces were responsible for ``numerous extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture, beatings, rape and other abuses'' -- committed with impunity.
Russia -- ``Its record was poor in Chechnya, where the Russian security forces demonstrated little respect for basic human rights.'' Numerous reports were filed of extrajudicial killings by both the government and Chechen separatists.
Mexico -- ``The police regularly obtain information through torture, prosecutors use this evidence in courts, and the courts continue to admit as evidence confessions extracted under torture.''
Cuba -- Security forces and prison officials beat and otherwise abuse detainees and prisoners. In addition, the government fail to prosecute or sanction adequately members of the security forces and prison guards who commit abuses.
Saudi Arabia -- The government prohibits or restricts freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, religion and movement, though last year it ``tolerated a wider range of debate and criticism'' in the press about domestic issues.
Israel -- Security forces ``committed numerous serious human rights abuses during the year'' in the occupied territories, killing 307 Palestinians and injuring an additional 11,300 during the year.
The Palestinian Authority -- ``Members of Palestinian security services and Fatah's Tanzim participated in violent attacks. Armed Palestinians, some of them members of Palestinian security forces, fired at Israeli civilians or soldiers from within or close to the homes of Palestinian civilians.'' Fatah is the dominant faction of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization.
Colombia -- High-ranking government security forces committed serious abuses, including extrajudicial killings, but were rarely brought to justice. Armed groups of the left and right also were guilty of widespread abuses.
Afghanistan -- The Taliban rulers continued to be major violators of human rights, severely restricting women's and girls' access to education, medical facilities and employment.