(London) The world order built after 1945 is “on the brink of collapse,” warned the secretary-general of Amnesty International, which released its annual report on human rights on Wednesday, criticizing Israel and the United States in particular, while Russia and China on the other.
From the Middle East to Ukraine, including Burma, Sudan and Ethiopia, where conflicts are taking place with massive human rights abuses, he said, “Everything we have seen in the last 12 months shows that the international system is on the verge of collapse.” Agnes Callamard for AFP.
“Especially in the last six months, the United States has shielded Israeli officials from investigating many of the violations committed in Gaza,” he says.
“By using their veto against a mandatory ceasefire, they have rendered the Security Council meaningless [des Nations unies] ยป, accuses the general secretary of the London-based NGO.
In particular, at the same time, “powerful actors” such as Russia and China are “expressing their willingness to completely jeopardize the 1948 rules,” a key year in the construction of the current international system, he warns in this report.
Documenting “gross violations, torture and ill-treatment of prisoners of war by Russian forces during the large-scale invasion of Ukraine.”
Photo Agence France-Presse
Russian bombing of Dnipro, Ukraine
The NGO pointed out that China has also acted against international law by “protecting the Burmese military” while turning a blind eye to attacks against civilians amid the civil war.
The war in Gaza began on October 7 with an unprecedented attack by Hamas commandos against Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,170 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data.
In response, Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, and according to the Hamas Health Ministry, 34,183 people have been killed so far, most of them civilians. Famine now threatens the north of the territory, and Israel is still preparing an attack on Rafah, causing concern in many foreign capitals and humanitarian organizations.
The Amnesty report condemned the “heinous crimes committed by Hamas on October 7” after which “Israel launched a campaign of revenge that turned into a punitive campaign against an entire people”.
“Reforming the Security Council”
200 days after this conflict with global repercussions, Mme Callamard questions the role of international institutions, “which must act but let us down”, and the current validity of post-1945 policies.
Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth, Associated Press
Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International
For millions of people around the world, Gaza now represents the complete moral failure of many of the architects of the system established after World War II.
Agnes Callamard in the foreword to the report
Therefore, “revitalization and renewal of international institutions” is necessary, especially “by urgently reforming the UN Security Council and its right of veto, which cannot be used in situations of massive human rights violations,” he appealed to AFP.
For NGOs, on another note, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is also worrisome, as the technology could accelerate the spread of misinformation or perpetuate racist biases.
Amnesty accuses big tech companies of ignoring or downplaying these threats “even in contexts of armed conflict”.
“Technology “criminals” and their malicious tools will be free to use 2024, a year of major elections around the world from the United States to the United Kingdom and the European Union to India, to commit egregious human rights violations,” she asserted.
The proliferation and unregulated deployment of technologies such as “generative AI, facial recognition and spyware” represent a “major threat” that governments must take “stronger legislative and regulatory action” to address.
