People’s rights are being suppressed and threatened everywhere in the world, from wars to selective government outrage about some abuses and silence about others because of “political expediency,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday.
“We only have to look at the human rights challenges of 2023 to tell us what we need to do differently in 2024,” Human Rights Watch said in its annual global report.
Armed conflicts have mushroomed, leading with the Israel-Hamas war, and the issue is how governments respond to them, Tirana Hassan, the New York-based watchdog’s acting executive director, told a news conference. “It needs to be an end to double standards.”
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As an example, Hassan said that many governments quickly and justifiably condemned the “unlawful” killings and atrocities by the Palestinian militant Hamas group when it attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year, killing hundreds and taking hostages.
“Yet many of the governments that condemned Hamas’ war crimes have been muted in responding to the war crimes committed by the Israeli government,” she said.
Such selective outrage sends a dangerous message that some people’s lives matter more than others and shakes the legitimacy of the international rules that protect everyone’s human rights, she said.
Human Rights Watch praised South Africa for seeking a ruling from the International Court of Justice on whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza in a case that began on Thursday.
Hassan said that other countries including the US should support South Africa’s action “and ensure that Israel complies with the court’s decision.”
The report said that tradeoffs on human rights in the name of politics are also clear.
It cited the failure of many governments to speak out about the Chinese government’s repression and control over civil society, the Internet and media.
“Chinese authorities’ cultural persecution and arbitrary detention of a million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims amount to crimes against humanity,” it said. “Yet many governments, including in predominantly Muslim countries, stay silent.”
The report described the US and the EU as ignoring their human rights obligations in favor of politically expedient solutions.
“US President Joe Biden has shown little appetite to hold responsible human rights abusers who are key to his domestic agenda or are seen as bulwarks to China,” it said. “US allies like Saudi Arabia, India and Egypt violate the rights of their people on a massive scale, yet have not had to overcome hurdles to deepen their ties with the US.”
“Vietnam, the Philippines, India and other nations the US wants as counters to China have been feted at the White House without regard for their human rights abuses at home,” it said.
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