The most significant human rights problems during the year were abuses by police, including reports of unlawful killings, torture, and beatings; political violence; restrictions on freedom of the press, assembly, association, and speech; and gender-based violence (GBV). Other serious human rights problems included life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest; prolonged pretrial detention; arbitrary interference with privacy; displacement of landowners; government corruption; child abuse; trafficking in persons; discrimination against persons with disabilities and members of the...

The main human rights problem was discrimination against racial and religious minorities in employment, housing, and societal attitudes. Muslim women faced discriminatory dress restrictions in public and private sector employment, schools, and public spaces. Anti-Semitism remained a similar problem, although less acute than during the previous year. Other human rights problems included continued prison overcrowding; violence against women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons; and trafficking in persons. Authorities actively prosecuted and punished officials...

There were no reports of egregious human rights abuses. Human rights problems reported during the year included allegations that police at times used excessive force when arresting suspects, poor conditions in some detention centers, and a large number of noncitizen residents whose rate of naturalization remained low. Other problems included domestic violence; inequality of women's and men's salaries; incidents of child abuse; trafficking, primarily of women for sexual exploitation and men and women for forced labor elsewhere in the EU; inadequate access to public services by persons with...

The most significant human rights problems were arbitrary killings by the government or its agents; allegations of government corruption, including among police officials; and laws that discriminate against women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex persons. Other human rights problems included lengthy pretrial detention. There was a lack of independent and transparent procedures for handling allegations of abuses by security force members. Prosecutions when pursued were extremely lengthy, and convictions rare, leading to a widespread perception that security force members...

Major trends in global terrorism in 2014 included the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL's) unprecedented seizure of territory in Iraq and Syria, the continued flow of foreign terrorist fighters worldwide to join ISIL, and the rise of lone offender violent extremists in the West. Despite the fragmentation of al-Qa'ida and its affiliates, weak or failed governance continued to provide an enabling environment for the emergence of extremist radicalism and violence, notably in Yemen, Syria, Libya, Nigeria, and Iraq. Continuing a trend noted in last year's report, terrorist groups...

This Proposed Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2017: Report to the Congress is submitted in compliance with Sections 207(d)(1) and (e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The Act requires that before the start of the fiscal year and, to the extent possible, at least two weeks prior to consultations on refugee admissions, members of the Committees on the Judiciary of the Senate and the House of Representatives be provided with the following information: (1) A description of the nature of the refugee situation; (2) A description of the number and allocation of the refugees to be...

The global terrorist threat continued to evolve rapidly in 2015, becoming increasingly decentralized and diffuse. Terrorist groups continued to exploit an absence of credible and effective state institutions, where avenues for free and peaceful expression of opinion were blocked, justice systems lacked credibility, and where security force abuses and government corruption went unchecked. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) remained the greatest threat globally, maintaining a formidable force in Iraq and Syria, including a large number of foreign terrorist fighters. ISIL's capacity...