The intense international mobilization to defend fundamental rights in Ukraine since the Russian invasion should be duplicated in other countries where these rights are violated, argues Human Rights Watch. The NGO published its annual report of more than 700 pages on Thursday.
She documents the “litany of abuses” in terms of fundamental rights committed in 2022 in the world, from China to Afghanistan, via Iran, Ethiopia and of course Ukraine.
“In the fog of war and the darkness into which this war has plunged Ukraine, there is a light that has been lit: it is the international response and the commitment to international justice,” Tirana said. Hassan, its acting executive director in an interview with AFP.
If the NGO noted “abuses by all parties”, the Russian forces are at the origin of a “plethora” of violations, in particular on the civilian population. And HRW welcomes the speed with which the International Criminal Court (ICC) was seized and with which the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and other governments imposed unprecedented sanctions on the against Moscow.
“Keep Pushing”
“We have never seen in the history of conflict responses such a coordinated international response” and “what we need to do now is ensure that states are held accountable at the same level as what has been observed in Ukraine, in all other situations” of violations of fundamental rights, she added.
In particular, it calls on the international community to “continue to push” for those responsible for the abuses committed in the Tigray region of Ethiopia to be held accountable in the wake of the peace agreement concluded last November, while Russia and China are blocking the inclusion of this conflict on the agenda of the UN Security Council.
Likewise in China, where Beijing has still not had to answer for its policy towards the Uyghur Muslim minority, despite a report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights which concluded that some acts of the regime could constitute crimes against humanity.
Or in Iran, where the regime is stepping up its massive repression of demonstrations. “We cannot wait for the Iranian people alone to change” the human rights situation in the country, insisted Ms. Hassan.
Two weights, two measures
“Meaningful change against such a powerful regime requires the mobilization of the international community, not just to express solidarity, but to effectively put pressure on the regime,” she added. She raises the risk that international attention will shift away from Iran as the movement lasts.
In its report, the NGO thus accuses the “double standards” often at work in the face of human rights violations committed in the world.
HRW cites, for example, US President Joe Biden, who reconnected with Saudi Arabia in the midst of an energy crisis after promising to make it a “pariah” state, or even Europe, which opens its arms to Ukrainian refugees, but where many many countries cast doubt on the future of the Afghan or Syrian refugees they have taken in.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / afp