Human rights, “It is no longer possible to rely on a small group of governments in the North of the world to defend them”

LONDON The litany of human rights crises that unfolded in 2022 – from Ukraine to China to Afghanistan – have left behind a sea of ​​human suffering, but have also opened new opportunities for human rights leadership by countries all over the world, said today Tirana Hassan, interim executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) publishing the World Report 2023, the World Report which examines the state of human rights in nearly 100 countries where the NGO operates. As power shifts around the globe, protecting and strengthening the global human rights system in the face of the foreseeable efforts of abusive leaders to overthrow it requires renewed commitments from all governments that transcend current political alliances. “Last year demonstrated that all governments have a responsibility to protect human rights around the world,” Hassan said. “In a changing power environment, there is more room, not less, for states to stand up for human rights as new coalitions and new leadership voices emerge.”

A thirty-third edition of 712 pages. In the World Report 2023 of 712 pages, Human Rights Watch examines human rights practices in many parts of the world. In his introductory essay, Hassan argues that in a world where power has shifted, it is no longer possible to rely on a small group of governments mostly from the global north to defend human rights. The mobilization of the world around Russia’s war in Ukraine reminds us of the extraordinary potential when governments implement their human rights obligations on a global scale. It is up to individual countries, large and small, to apply a human rights framework to their policies, and thus work together to protect and promote human rights.

The question opened by the conflict in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which targeted civilian infrastructure and resulted in thousands of civilian casualties, captured the world’s attention and triggered the entire arsenal of the human rights system . The United Nations Human Rights Council opened an investigation into the abuses and appointed an expert to monitor the human rights situation in Russia. The International Criminal Court has opened another investigation following a referral from a record number of member countries of the Court. The European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and other governments have also imposed unprecedented international sanctions against Russian individuals, companies and other entities linked to the Russian government.

Global action needed. Governments that are providing unprecedented consolidated support to Ukraine should ask themselves what the situation would be if they held Putin to account in 2014, at the start of the war in eastern Ukraine; or in 2015, for abuses in Syria; or even earlier, due to the escalation of human rights violations in Russia over the past decade. This kind of global action is needed in Ethiopia, where two years of atrocities by all sides to the conflict have received only a fraction of the attention focused on Ukraine, contributing to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, Hassan said .

The war in Ethiopia off the agenda. The United Nations Security Council, which is tasked with ensuring international peace and security, has been unwilling to put Ethiopia on its formal agenda due to blockades by African members, as well as Russia and China. The recently concluded African Union-led peace process has led to a fragile truce, but for it to hold, supporters of the agreement, including the African Union, the United Nations and the United States, would have to signal and maintain the pressure to ensure that those who committed serious crimes during wartime are held to account to break the deadly cycles of violence and impunity. Accountability is crucial for victims to obtain a measure of justice and reparations that has hitherto been elusive.

China’s responsibilities. The Chinese government’s lack of accountability for the mass detention, torture and forced labor of as many as one million Uyghurs and other Turkish Muslims in the Xinjiang region persists. The United Nations Human Rights Council he lost two votes before passing a resolution to debate the report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights which concluded that abuses in Xinjiang may amount to crimes against humanity. The closeness of that vote shows growing support among governments for holding the Chinese government accountable and highlights the potential for cross-regional alliances and new coalitions to challenge Beijing’s expectation of impunity. Governments, such as Australia, Japan, Canada, the UK, the EU and the US, which are reconsidering their relationship with China, are looking to expand trade and security deals with India. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has mimicked many of the same abuses that enabled the Chinese state’s crackdown, and deepening ties with India without pressuring Modi to respect rights wastes valuable leverage to protect India’s civic space is increasingly under threat.

Authoritarianism in the service of government stability. “The autocrats are under the delusion that their strong-arm tactics are necessary for stability, but as brave protesters around the world show time and time again, repression is no shortcut to stability,” Hassan said . “Protests in cities across China against the Chinese government’s stringent ‘zero Covid’ lockdown measures demonstrate that people’s wishes for human rights cannot be canceled despite Beijing’s efforts to crack them down.”

Protest movements and civil society. Governments that respect rights have both an opportunity and a responsibility to lend their political attention and resistance to protest movements and civil society groups that are challenging abusive governments in countries such as Sudan and Myanmar. In Sudan, US, UN, EU and regional partner policymakers who engage with Sudan’s military leadership should prioritize protest and victims’ groups calls for justice and an end to impunity for those who occupy leadership positions. And the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is expected to step up pressure on the Myanmar junta by aligning with international efforts to cut off military sources of foreign currency.

The heavy cost of inaction. The international community should also apply a human rights lens to the existential threat of climate change. From Pakistan to Nigeria to Australia, every corner of the world faces an unbroken cycle of man-made catastrophic floods, massive fires and droughts. These disasters illustrate the cost of inaction, with the most vulnerable paying the ultimate price. Government officials have a legal and moral obligation to regulate industries, such as fossil fuels and logging, whose business models are incompatible with the protection of fundamental rights.

The case of Lula in Brazil. “Assisting frontline communities and environmental advocates is one of the most powerful ways to fend off corporate and government activities that harm the environment and protect critical ecosystems needed to address the climate crisis,” Hassan said. “In Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has pledged to zero deforestation in the Amazon and uphold indigenous rights, and his ability to deliver on his climate and human rights commitments is critical for Brazil and the world”.

With respect to the scale and frequency of crises, a new model. The scale, scope and frequency of human rights crises around the world demonstrate the urgency of a new framework and model of action. Centering our greatest challenges and threats to the modern world around human rights reveals not only the root causes of the disruption but also offers guidance for addressing them. Every government has an obligation to protect and defend human rights. “The worldwide mobilization around Ukraine has shown what is possible when governments work together,” Hassan said. “The challenge for all governments is to bring that same spirit of solidarity to reimagine what it takes to achieve success in protecting and promoting human rights around the world.”