The response to the Russian invasion of the Ukraine showed that the international system is not prepared to deal with global crises, the world’s “double standards” in terms of human rights and an international community unable to unite around universal values, Amnesty International (AI) stressed on Tuesday.
In its annual report on the global situation of human rights, presented this year from Paris, the organization highlighted that “the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022 triggered numerous war crimes, generated a global energy and food crisis and sought to further disrupt a weak multilateral system.”
But it also “exposed the hypocrisy of Western states, who reacted forcefully to the Kremlin’s aggression but acquiesced in or were complicit in gross violations committed elsewhere,” AI said of the report.
Among those “silences,” the organization highlighted Saudi Arabia’s record on human rights or “the refusal to confront Israel’s ‘apartheid’ system against the Palestinians.”
“The deadliest conflict of 2022 was that of Ethiopia” but it remained far from “world attention”, recalled the AI secretary general, Agnès Callamard, from the Chaillot Palace in Paris, the place chosen to launch this report because it was the scene where 75 years ago the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted.
Likewise, there was little response to other conflicts that are worsening year by year, such as the situation in the Sahel, as highlighted in the presentation by Ousmane Diallo, an AI researcher specialized in this African region.
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For AI, the “shameful double standards” of the international community, evident in the case of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, pave the way for more abuses in the future.
“Had the system held Russia accountable for its documented crimes in Chechnya and Syria, thousands of lives could have been saved then and now, in the Ukraine and elsewhere. Instead, what we have is more suffering and devastation,” Callamard argued. .
Amnesty International therefore stressed the importance of consistency in applying international law. Thus, he denounced cases such as that of the United States, which at the same time that it admitted thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the war, expelled 25,000 Haitians between September 2021 and May 2022.
Similarly, members of the European Union “opened their borders” to Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion, while keeping them closed to those fleeing Syria, Afghanistan and Libya.
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Double standards are not only a matter of the West, but their example “emboldened”, according to AI, countries like China, Egypt or Saudi Arabia when it comes to dodging or deflecting criticism even more in their human rights record.
“The situation is certainly getting worse in objective human rights terms, be it freedom of expression, the right to protest and for certain women’s rights, but there is little hope that, with political will, there can be an effective response to mass violations. (of these rights). Unfortunately, we have not yet seen that response in other contexts,” Callamard told Efe in Paris.
Increased repression worldwide
AI’s annual report also denounces a “ruthless increase in repression” in places like Sri Lanka, Iran, Peru and Russia itself. When states have failed or ignored their duty to safeguard human rights, women have often suffered the worst, AI also denounces. It is not only the case of the notable repression against women in Iran or Afghanistan, but this phenomenon has also occurred in countries such as Pakistan or India.
“States’ eagerness to control women’s and girls’ bodies, their sexuality and their lives leaves a terrible legacy of violence, oppression and stunted potential,” said Agnès Callamard.
It is essential that the institutions in charge of protecting human rights be strengthened
The international system also failed to respond to other crises, such as global warming. and the effects of increasing extreme weather events, while big oil companies made record profits.
For all these reasons, AI considers it “vital” to reform and strengthen international institutions, especially the United Nations Security Council. This must be adapted to “give a voice to countries and situations that have traditionally been ignored”, especially the global south.
“It is essential that the institutions in charge of protecting human rights be strengthened, instead of weakened,” Callamard stressed.
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The case of Latin America
In the case of Latin America, Amnesty International (AI) reported in its annual report on human rights that, three years after the covid-19 pandemic began, the region continues to suffer the “devastating” consequences: a great economic recession, governments that do not guarantee basic rights and the intensification of repressive tactics to silence the protests.
“Authorities were failing (by 2022) to guarantee access to basic rights to food, water and health for millions of people, and health care systems remained severely underfunded. In a context of economic recession, in many countries the authorities intensified the use of repressive tactics to silence dissent and numerous forms of protest”, reads the document, which analyzed the situation of 2022 in the regions and countries of the world.
“Governments must take immediate measures to ensure the allocation of the maximum possible resources available to guarantee compliance with their minimum basic obligations in terms of economic, social and cultural rights,” the organization considered.
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Several governments declared states of emergency that led to serious human rights violations, including arrests, unfair trials and unlawful killings, AI added.
In addition, the repression was carried out using excessive force against those who exercised their right to protest, subjecting activists to unlawful surveillance and monitoring, and attacking journalists.
In several countries, the document reports, activists and social movements took to the streets to demand basic economic and social rights, an end to gender violence and the release of people unjustly detained, and to defend the environment.
Likewise, the organization added, sectors of the population discriminated against such as black people or indigenous peoples were “disproportionately” victims of human rights violations, such as police abuse and torture and other ill-treatment in migrant detention centers.
On the other hand, AI assured that “in the region there were significant setbacks in relation to sexual and reproductive rights” and, in several countries, the authorities approved measures that undermined access to abortion and prohibited comprehensive sexual education.
Violence against women and girls remained widespread, and LGBTI people continued to be at risk. In some countries, there was an unprecedented level of murders of transgender people. Authorities failed to protect women and girls from entrenched gender-based violence or address impunity for these crimes.
“Governments across the region must take urgent measures to prevent femicides and femicides and the killings of LGBTI people, bring those responsible for these crimes to justice and ensure that guarantees of non-repetition are established,” AI opined.
Impunity, a huge problem in many Latin American countries, remains entrenched. On climate change, AI considered that governments did not meet their commitments regarding climate change.
Finally, migration and “historic levels” of people seeking refuge continued to increase and the authorities applied “regressive policies that undermine the rights of refugees and migrants and contravene international law,” AI said.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
TIME
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