While the United States has historically been an advocate for human rights issues, it has also been a perpetrator of human rights violations. As evidenced by a State Department report presented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday, history continues to repeat itself.

The report includes some troubling conclusions about the state of global human rights. Perhaps most troublingly, the report concluded that the new democracies of Iraq and Afghanistan are not doing enough to stop human rights violations in those countries.

We can't help but balk at this accusation.

While the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq assuredly curtailed the persecution of some groups, particularly women, the resulting instability — which must be blamed primarily on the United States — has brought forth new opportunities for human rights violations.

To blame the horrific scenes that have played out in Baghdad solely on the Iraqi government, for example, overlooks the inescapable effect of U.S. military presence in that city — a presence which has served as the catalyst for much of the violence.

Interestingly, the report also concluded that genocide in Darfur was currently "the most sobering reality of all."

If the State Department truly believes this, one must wonder why resource expenditure in Iraq continues to increase so rapidly, while genocide in Darfur is allowed to continue with so little opposition or outcry.

The answer may lie in a related story. The Associated Press reported that the United States has declined to pursue a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2007 — the world's primary governmental human rights organization. Although the U.N. is a body that can be criticized for its bureaucracy, lack of cohesiveness, international squabbling and not being able to make changes where they are direly needed in the world concerning human rights, for the United States to simply stay out of this council compounds an existing problem and does not contribute to any real solutions.

One has to wonder how seriously the government takes global human rights since it's saying it has concern, but refuses to engage with an international body dedicated to the subject.