Despite some improvements, the world's human rights record in 2005 was marked by the undermining of international standards by powerful governments, said Amnesty International (AI) with the publication of its annual report.
Though the report reviews 150 countries' human rights records, AI Secretary General Irene Khan focused her presentation at a press conference in London on Tuesday on the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC): the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia and France.
"Those who bear the greatest responsibility for safeguarding global security in the UN Security Council proved in 2005 to be the most willing to paralyze the council and prevent it from taking effective action on human rights," said Khan. "Powerful governments are playing a dangerous game with human rights."
'War on Terror' Not a Blank Check
Calling it a "powder keg waiting to explode," one of Khan's first points was to urge U.S. President George W. Bush to close the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and put its detainees on trial. According to Khan, Guantanamo is only one of many U.S. controlled detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, where torture and ill-treatment of prisoners have been reported.
Citing that under international law nothing justifies torture, Khan also questioned its effectiveness in fighting terrorism.
"We must resist claims by governments that terror can be fought with torture," she said. "Such claims are misleading, dangerous and wrong—you cannot extinguish a fire with petrol."
According to Khan, a new development in 2005 was European governments' implication as "partners in crime" in transferring people for interrogation to countries where they were likely to be tortured. She cited evidence that at least seven European countries were involved in rendition and expressed hope that governments would cooperate with investigations initiated by the European Parliament and Council of Europe.
Khan acknowledged government responsibility to protect citizens from attack, but argued that this could be done within the framework of international human rights mechanisms. She cited limitations on hate speech and derogations from human rights conventions during a state of emergency as options.
Silence on Russia and China
Among the countries highlighted by Khan were also Russia and China. "In a year in which the U.N. spent much time discussing reform … it failed to give attention to the performance of two key members—China and Russia—who have consistently allowed their narrow political and economic interests to prevail over human rights concerns domestically and internationally," she said.
According to Khan, these two countries were in large part responsible for the UNSC's feeble attention to ongoing atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan, where millions have been displaced and an estimated 285,000 people have lost their lives.
"The Chinese government opposed the strengthening of the U.N. Security Council arms embargo on Sudan," says the AI annual report. "Uncontrolled arms exports from China continued to fuel massive human rights violations in Sudan."
The rest of the report's entry on China touches on a variety of domestic abuses, including the harassment of journalists and human rights defenders, the death penalty, violations in Tibet, as well as the prevalence of torture, arbitrary detention and unfair trials.
"Gao Rongrong, a Falun Gong practitioner, died in custody in June," reads one sample case in the report. "Officials had reportedly beaten her in 2004, including by using electro-shock batons on her face and neck, which caused severe blistering and eyesight problems, after she was discovered reading Falun Gong materials."
Demands for Change Amidst Signs of Hope
Taking into consideration the above abuses, AI lists four key demands to the international community for 2006: to end human rights abuses in Darfur; to negotiate a treaty governing trade of small arms; for the U.S. Administration to close the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay; and for the new U.N. Human Rights Council to insist on equal standards of respect for human rights from all governments.
Accompanying descriptions of abuse and demands for change, the AI report also cites instances of international mobilization in defense of human rights.
The International Criminal Court issued its first indictments for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Uganda during 2005. Justice against former Latin American dictators was also pursued as Chile's Augusto Pinochet was placed under house arrest and an international arrest warrant was enforced against Peru's Alberto Fujimori.
On the domestic level, ordinary people took to the streets to demand rights and seek political change in Lebanon, Ukraine, Bolivia and elsewhere.
"There will be those who will challenge my sense of optimism," writes Irene Khan in the introduction to the annual report. "But I take strength from these developments and, most importantly, from the extraordinary display of global activism and human solidarity across borders."
"The events of 2005 showed that the human rights idea —together with the worldwide movement of people that drives it forward—is more powerful and stronger than ever."
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