RIGHTS: Violations Never So Bad since Cold War, says Amnesty

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, May 28 2003 (IPS) - Human rights violations were greater last year than in any period since the Cold War ended, Amnesty International says in its annual report released Wednesday.

Rights are being violated in the name of security "but we do not see security and human rights as two different issues," Amnesty Secretary-General Irene Khan told media representatives in London. "People are secure when their rights are secure."

The very countries that defended rights during the Cold War are violating them now, Khan said. "These countries are now upholding human rights a la carte; you just pick and choose as you go, while the real sources of insecurity remain unaddressed. We have not seen this kind of thing for decades."

Violations all over the world are getting a new lease of life because the most powerful countries "are deliberately choosing to turn their backs on them." Khan’s comments and the annual Amnesty report point clearly to the U.S. for violating human rights.

"There is a two-tier justice system now," she said. "One for the most powerful countries, one for the rest. The U.S. is now choosing which bits of its obligations to international law it will respect, and how."

That kind of sanction is being extended to U.S. allies, she said. "So you have no pressure on governments in Saudi Arabia and Egypt to change their behaviour, the U.S. is not willing to hold these governments to account. Governments in countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are seen as important allies, and that encourages them to commit violations."

Amnesty, she said, will fight to see that human rights do not get "privatised and paralysed."

Khan pointed particularly to the violations of rights within Iraq "where oil wells are protected and people are not." Iraq, she said, is going the way of Afghanistan where there is "widespread insecurity, lawlessness and violation of human rights outside of Kabul."

Afghanistan, she said, has become a "litany of broken promises."

The situation in Iraq could become more serious when "it slips off the front pages, or even the second and third pages of newspapers," she said. "It may begin to suffer from the same kind of compassion fatigue that you see in Afghanistan."

Away from Iraq, conflicts have also taken a heavy toll of human lives and rights in places as diverse as Cote d’Ivoire, Colombia, Burundi, Chechnya and Nepal, the Amnesty annual report says.

"Iraq and Israel and the Occupied Territories are in the news, Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo is not, despite the imminent threat of genocide," said Khan.

"Drawing attention to the ‘hidden’ crises, protecting the rights of the ‘forgotten victims’ is the biggest challenge we face today."

The Amnesty report says that in the Democratic Republic of Congo the human rights situation remains bleak, with continuing fighting and attacks on civilians, particularly in the east. "In the Great Lakes region too, those perpetuating human rights abuses continue to enjoy impunity."

In Burundi, the report says, government forces carried out extrajudicial killings, ‘disappearances’, torture and other serious violations, while armed groups unlawfully killed, maimed, abducted and tortured civilians in pursuit of their political aims.

"Armed belligerents in Burundi continued to recruit, at times forcefully, child combatants," the report says.

"In Colombia, the security measures enacted by the new government exacerbated the spiralling cycle of political violence," the report says. "The breakdown of peace talks in February between the government and the main armed opposition group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) deepened the human rights crisis."

The Amnesty report pointed to serious violations in China where it says at least 1,921 death sentences were passed, many after unfair trials, and 1,060 were executed. People were arbitrarily detained or imprisoned for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression. Increasing numbers were detained in China and Vietnam for expressing their views on the Internet.

Human rights violations worsened in many Asia-Pacific countries, particularly in the context of armed conflict, the ‘war against terrorism’ and the ‘crackdowns on crime’, the report says. Governments stepped up repression of political opponents, detained people arbitrarily, and introduced sweeping and often discriminatory laws.

In the Americas, Amnesty expressed particular concern over the detention of more than 600 people at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Anti-terrorism legislation threatens human rights protection in Guyana and Paraguay, while legislation in Peru denies people fair trial.

Amnesty said torture and ill-treatment by security forces was recorded in 20 countries including the Bahamas, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Jamaica, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia and Bolivia.

Amnesty pointed to discriminatory practices in several countries of the Europe and Central Asia region. The rights of asylum seekers were threatened in many parts of Europe, the report says.

The report noted a "major improvement" in the human rights situation in Sri Lanka. It took note also of the release of many prisoners of conscience, commutations of death sentences and improvements in the situation of many other victims of human rights abuse.