LONDON: “Governments are shamelessly turning the clock back on decades of hard-won protections,” says the annual report for human rights in 2017 published by Amnesty International on Thursday.
The report paints a dark portrait on the state of human rights in 159 countries across the world, detailing how governments are increasingly clamping down on human rights. The State of the World’s Human Rights, released each year, offers a thorough overview of human rights-related issues.
“As we enter the year in which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 70,” says Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty, “it is abundantly clear that none of us can take our human rights for granted.”
The report argues that accounts of national security threats, including terrorism, are increasingly being used by governments around the world to suppress individual freedom in favour of expansive government powers. The report blames rich countries, including in Europe, for adopting a security-centric outlook and hesitating from enforcing safer regulatory procedures regarding migrants and refugees. This has led to atrocious violations of the human rights of refugees in regions such as the Mediterranean sea.
“Abusive policies and practices that deny human rights to certain groups enjoyed popular support in many countries,” the report claims.
Refugees and Migrants under threat:
“Donald Trump’s policies may have marked a new era of human rights regression but they are not unique. If you look across from Australia to Hungary, leaders have long treated refugees and migrants as problems to be deflected, not as human beings with rights who deserve our compassion,” said Mr Shetty.
An International Organisation for Migration (IOM) study in 2017 detailed a total of 2,839 deaths in the region, almost 60% of the total migrant related fatalities for the year.
The report alleges that European leaders “have decided that practically nothing is off limits in their efforts to keep refugees away from the continent’s shores.”
Declining focus on Human rights by world leaders:
Amnesty International’s annual report also highlighted a decline in human rights leadership, detailing how “the trend of leaders and politicians demonizing whole groups of people based on their identity reverberated across the globe.”
“The spectres of hatred and fear now loom large in world affairs, and we have few governments standing up for human rights in these disturbing times. Instead, leaders such as (Egyptian president) al-Sisi, (Philippines president) Duterte, (Venezuelan president) Maduro, Putin, Trump, and (Chinese president) Xi are callously undermining the rights of millions.”
Conflict hotspots:
The report severely criticises the shockingly limited response by world leaders to the Rohingya crisis calling it a “Catastrophic failure.”
“Throughout 2017, millions across the world experienced the bitter fruits of a rising politics of demonization. Its ultimate consequences were laid bare in the horrific military campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people in Myanmar. This caused an exodus of some 655,000 people into neighbouring Bangladesh in a matter of weeks, the fastest-growing refugee crisis of 2017,” it added.
“The warning signs in Myanmar had long been visible: massive discrimination and segregation had become normalised within a regime that amounted to apartheid, and for long years the Rohingya people were routinely demonised and stripped of the basic conditions needed to live in dignity. The transformation of discrimination and demonisation into mass violence is tragically familiar, and its ruinous consequences cannot be easily undone.”
A report by Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in December 2017 claimed that at least 10,000 Rohingya had died, including 1000 children below the age of five.
Syrian Civil War:
Amnesty International’s report into the Syrian Civil War describes the atrocious conditions in Syria, placing the blame on all involved parties.
“The Syrian government and allied forces continued to commit war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law, including indiscriminate attacks and direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects including homes, hospitals and medical facilities,” it alleges.
“IS forces carried out direct attacks on civilians as well as indiscriminate attacks, killing and injuring civilians. During the operation launched mid-year by the Syrian Democratic Forces and the US-led coalition to recapture Raqqa city, IS forces prevented residents from fleeing the city and used civilians as human shields. ”
The US-led coalition has also been roundly criticised for ignoring concerns of civilian casualties, terming some military strikes as “violation of the international humanitarian law.”
Some of the attacks that resulted in civilian casualties include an attack in June 2017 when “coalition forces unlawfully used white phosphorous munitions on civilian neighbourhoods in the outskirts of Raqqa; and a series of US-coalition strikes on a farm northwest of Raqqa killing 14 members of a family – eight women, one man and five children – and severely wounding two other children. Also in May, an air strike that targeted houses in the northern outskirts of Raqqa killed 31 people and a coalition attack on a residential building in July, 100m from an IS target killed a family including three children. The coalition forces also struck boats crossing the Euphrates River, south of Raqqa, killing dozens of civilians attempting to flee the intense fighting in the city.”
“The coalition failed to adequately investigate reports of civilian casualties and allegations of violations of international humanitarian law,” alleged the organisation.
Extra-Judicial executions, torture, enforced disappearances and a blatant disregard for internally displaced refugees continued in 2017.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported in early 2017 that approximately 465,000 have died since 2011 because of the fighting. The UN’s Refugee Agency currently estimates that around 5.5 million Syrians are living as refugees in other countries.
Despite the appaling violations of human rights, Amnesty International’s Salil Shetty said that activists and journalists have also responded to these violations. “New and severe threats gave fresh oxygen to the spirit of protest,” he added.
The secretary-general urged that “We must refuse to accept narratives of demonization and build instead a culture of solidarity. We must hone our capacity for generosity towards others. We must assert the right of all people to participate in building the societies to which they belong. And we must seek constructive answers – rooted in human rights – to the frustrations, anger and alienation that provide a ready context for toxic political narratives of blame.’
