The United States has denounced what it says is the growing use of security forces by repressive regimes to crack down on pro-democracy protests worldwide.
Releasing its 2013 Human Rights report on Thursday, the State Department said "around the world authoritarian governments used security forces to consolidate power and suppress dissent to the detriment of their country's long-term stability, security and economic development."
From Sudan in the Horn of Africa, to the streets of Ukraine, the bombed-out neighbourhoods of Syria and remote areas of Myanmar, security forces must be held to account for human rights abuses if democratic transitions are to succeed, the report insisted.
In 2013, "transitioning democracies dealt with predictable setbacks in their quest for political change, and new democracies struggled to deliver effective governance and uphold rule of law," the report said.
"Counteracting impunity for security forces will require these countries to invest in independent and effective judiciaries, civilian-controlled and responsible security forces, and transparent and accountable democratic government institutions.
"Accountability is crucial to their future stability and economic development."
The State Department's annual country-by-country index was released as the world marks the 65th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
But six decades later "more than one third of the world's population still lives under authoritarian rule," the report found.
"A widening gap persists between the rights conferred by law and the daily realities for many around the globe."
The report also highlighted how new and fragile democracies, emerging out of the Arab Spring, are cracking down on civil society.
And it threw a spotlight on a lack of labour rights in countries such as Bangladesh, where more than 1000 garment workers were killed in a factory building collapse in April.
"Dangerous and exploitative" working conditions in other nations such as the gold mines in Nigeria and the treatment of migrant workers in the Gulf also came in for criticism.
"Governments that protect human rights and are accountable to their citizens are more secure, bolster international peace and security, and enjoy shared prosperity with stable democratic countries around the world," writes US Secretary of State John Kerry in the preface.
"Countries that fail to uphold human rights can face economic deprivation and international isolation."
