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https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/jan/17/2024-witnessed-absolute-failure-of-west-to-lead-fight-for-human-rights-says-watchdog>
"The past year has marked the “absolute failure” of western democracies as
champions of human rights around the world, the head of Human Rights Watch
(HRW) has said.
Tirana Hassan lambasted western capitals for their double standards over the
course of 2024 and what she said was the abdication of their claim to
leadership on global human rights.
Speaking to the
Guardian ahead of the launch of HRW’s annual
country-by-country World Report on Friday, the HRW executive director said the
failures of the US and its western European allies were particularly marked
over Gaza, where arming of Israel continued unaffected by widespread evidence
of war crimes; and in Sudan, where international institutions largely stood by
while atrocities were committed and a western ally, the United Arab Emirates
(UAE), armed the principal perpetrator, the Rapid Support Forces.
“What we saw in 2024 is that there has been an absolute failure of powerful
states that have tried to build a reputation as being defenders of human rights
around the world, like the US, the UK, the EU. They were tested and they
failed,” Hassan said.
“Essentially they failed on Gaza to use their power as allies and their
political leverage to stop ongoing abuses,” she added. “Sudan is also where
these failures were lit up. We have the largest humanitarian crisis in the
world, and there has been no meaningful action taken by the institutions like
the security council or governments to curtail not just the warring parties,
but also those states who are supporting them, like the UAE.”
The HRW annual report raises concerns over whether the return of Donald Trump
to power in Washington would lead to the repeat or possible magnification of
“serious rights violations” in his first term. That could lead not just to
democratic backsliding in the US, but could also signal to the rest of the
world that human rights no longer counted in foreign policy.
The Biden administration had already set a low bar, Hassan argued, not just in
its military support for Israel during the Gaza war but also in what she said
was hypocrisy over international justice. Biden had supported the international
criminal court (ICC) when it indicted Vladimir Putin and his officials over war
crimes in Ukraine, but “attacked the court’s legitimacy” when it charged
Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minster Yoav Gallant over war crimes
in Gaza."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
