People’s rights are threatened everywhere, from wars to silence about abuses, rights group says

UNITED NATIONS — People’s rights are being oppressed and threatened around the world, from wars to selective government outrage over some abuses and silence about others for “political expediency,” a leading human rights organization said Thursday.

“We only need to look at the human rights challenges of 2023 to tell us what we need to do differently in 2024,” Human Rights Watch said in its annual global report.

Armed conflicts have mushroomed, culminating in the Israel-Hamas war, and the question is how governments respond, Tirana Hassan, executive director of the rights group, told a news conference. “The double standards must end.”

For example, she said, many governments have been quick and right to condemn the “unlawful” killings and atrocities committed by Hamas when it attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing hundreds of people and taking hostages. Following the attacks, Israel unlawfully blocked aid to Gaza residents and the ongoing offensive in the area has killed more than 23,000 people and left entire neighborhoods in ruins, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

“Yet many of the governments that have condemned Hamas’s war crimes have been reluctant to respond to the war crimes committed by the Israeli government,” Hassan said.

She said such selective outrage sends a dangerous message that some people’s lives are more important than others, and undermines the legitimacy of international rules that protect the human rights of all, she said.

Human Rights Watch praised South Africa for seeking a ruling from the International Court of Justice on whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, in a landmark case that began on Thursday. Hassan said other countries, including the United States, should support South Africa’s action “and ensure Israel complies with the court’s decision.”

The report states that human rights trade-offs in the name of politics are also clear. It cited the inability of many governments to speak out about the Chinese government’s repression and control over civil society, the internet and the media.

“Chinese authorities’ cultural persecution and arbitrary detention of a million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims amount to crimes against humanity,” the report said. “Yet many governments remain silent, even in predominantly Muslim countries.”

The report describes the US and European Union as ignoring their human rights obligations in favor of politically expedient solutions.

“US President Joe Biden has shown little willingness to hold accountable human rights abusers who are key to his domestic agenda or seen as strongholds for China,” the report said.

“American allies such as Saudi Arabia, India and Egypt are widely violating the rights of their people, but have not had to overcome obstacles to deepen their ties with the US,” the report said. “Vietnam, the Philippines, India and other countries that the US wants as counterparts to China have been spotlighted in the White House without regard to their human rights abuses at home.”

Human Rights Watch said the European Union is circumventing its human rights obligations to asylum seekers and migrants, “especially those from Africa and the Middle East, and striking deals with abusive governments like Libya, Turkey and Tunisia to keep migrants out of the European bloc.”

Several national leaders were cited as examples of troubling trends. India’s “democracy has descended into autocracy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Tunisian President Kais Saied has weakened the judiciary and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has used mass incarceration as an apparent solution to fighting crime, the report said.

The group cited as a bright spot for the year the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner for war crimes related to the forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to Russian-occupied territories and their deportation to Russia.

Hassan also pointed to the movement toward marriage equality in places like Nepal, but especially the determination of Afghan girls and women who took to the streets to resist Taliban bans on work and education and have found alternative ways to to learn.

“If the people in the center whose human rights are being violated are still willing to fight, then human rights matter,” she said.