Human rights last year came under the most sustained attack for 50 years, according to the annual report of Amnesty International published yesterday.
Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty, blamed a combination of groups such as al-Qaeda and the response of US and other governments as part of the war on terror. ”The global security agenda promoted by the US administration is bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle,” she said.
”Violating rights at home, turning a blind eye to abuses abroad, and using pre-emptive military force where and when it chooses has damaged justice and freedom, and made the world a more dangerous place.”
A host of countries, following the lead of the US, had introduced legislation post-September 11 that seriously undermines human rights, especially the right to a fair trial. Others had used the war on terror as an excuse to crack down on legitimate political and religious dissent.
Challenged at a press conference in London over the claim that human rights abuses were running at the highest level for 50 years, an Amnesty spokesperson said that while there might no longer be abuses in a single country on the scale of Cambodia under Pol Pot, the abuses were more spread out.
The 339-page report says the war on terror and the war in Iraq have produced a new wave of human rights violations, and diverted attention from old ones, such as as Chechnya, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Nepal. China is cracking down on the Muslim Uighurs and Egypt on alleged Islamist militants.
Amnesty has been refused access to Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and to Guantánamo Bay. Amnesty said that while the Red Cross had access, its reports were not made public.
Amnesty questioned what, if anything, would have happened if the photographs of the abuses of Iraqis prisoners at Abu Ghraib had not been made public.
Khan said the photographs were ”the logical consequence of the pursuit of the war on terror by the United States since 9/11. It is the natural outcome of the policy, openly followed by the US administration, to pick and choose which bits of international law it will apply and when.”
She said Amnesty had written to the British and US governments a year ago, expressing concern over reports of abuses in Iraq. ”We have some form of response from the British and none to this date from the Americans,” she added.
Britain was criticised in the report for holding 14 foreign nationals under anti-terrorism legislation that allows indefinite detention without charge or trial. Amnesty also rounded on Israeli forces who had killed more than 600 Palestinians last year, including 100 children.
The report, coming the week after the Israeli incursion at Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, condemned Israel for destruction of Palestinian homes, describing this as ”collective punishment”, which is illegal. – Guardian Unlimited Â