Amnesty International has released its detailing a year in which both inaction and repression by governments caused the untold suffering of millions.
The annual assessment of human rights analyses global human rights trends over the past year in 160 countries, including New Zealand.
It finds that international protections of human rights are unravelling, as people flee spiralling conflict and repression, only to find wealthy countries shutting their doors. Short-term national self-interest and draconian security crackdowns have led to a wholesale assault on basic freedoms and rights.
“Human rights are in jeopardy: they are being treated with utter contempt by many governments around the world."
Grant Bayldon, Executive Director at Amnesty International in New Zealand
“Human rights are in jeopardy: they are being treated with utter contempt by many governments around the world,” said Grant Bayldon, Executive Director at Amnesty International in New Zealand.
“Millions of people are suffering enormously at the hands of states and armed groups, while governments are shamelessly painting the protection of human rights as a threat to security, law and order or national ‘values’.”
Human rights under attack
Amnesty International has documented how many governments have brazenly broken international law in 2015 in their national contexts: more than 122 states tortured or otherwise ill-treated people and 30 or more illegally forced refugees to return to countries where they would be in danger. In at least 19 countries, war crimes or other violations of the “laws of war” were committed by governments or armed groups.
Mosque damaged by barrel bombs in Aleppo, Syria, April 2015. © Amnesty International (Photo: Mujahid Abu al-Joud)
In Syria, the torture and killing of thousands of civilians and the displacement of millions more, sieges of civilian areas, and the blocking of international aid needed by starving civilians violated the most basic provisions of international law.
Amnesty International is also reporting on a worrying trend among governments increasingly targeting and attacking activists, lawyers and others who work to defend human rights.
Amnesty International says this has partly been down to the misguided reaction of many governments to evolving security threats in 2015.
In China, under the pretext of enhancing national security, the government drafted or enacted an unprecedented series of laws and regulations to restrict human rights. In July 2015, the authorities launched a nationwide crackdown against human rights lawyers and activists, with at least 248 people targeted.
“The misguided reaction of many governments to national security threats has seen the crushing of civil society, the right to privacy and the right to free speech."
Grant Bayldon.
“The misguided reaction of many governments to national security threats has seen the crushing of civil society, the right to privacy and the right to free speech,” said Grant Bayldon.
“Outright attempts have been made to make human rights dirty words, packaging them in opposition to national security, law and order and ‘national values’. Governments have even broken their own laws in this way.”
For example, the UK unlawfully spied on the communications of human rights organisations, including Amnesty International.
Global call to protect refugees and civilians in conflict
The past year severely tested the international system’s willingness to respond to crises and mass forced displacements of people - and found it woefully inadequate.
Not only are world leaders doing too little too late, many governments have brazenly flouted international law. Refugees are suffering in their millions, conflict is proliferating and warring parties are continuing to commit abuses against civilians.
This is a trend that is set to continue in 2016 unless governments stop playing politics with people’s lives and end their assault on human rights.
"Human rights are a necessity, not an accessory; the stakes for humankind have never been higher.”
Grant Bayldon
“Governments must halt their assault on our rights and strengthen the defences the world has put in place to protect them. Human rights are a necessity, not an accessory; the stakes for humankind have never been higher,” said Grant Bayldon.
The gut-wrenching image of the drowned body of Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi, lying on a Turkish beach defined the year - forcing governments to react to public outcry and calls to welcome refugees and end the crisis.
Either side of his tragic death in September, 3700 refugees and migrants lost their lives trying to reach Europe’s shores.
With conflicts raging from Syria to Yemen, Iraq to South Sudan the numbers of those fleeing for their lives only increased.
In all cases it was civilians; ordinary women, children and men who bore the brunt of conflict, with human rights abuses committed not only by armed groups such as the group calling itself Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, or Boko Haram in Nigeria and Cameroon, but by the very governments who were supposed to protect them.
The most severe of these armed conflicts was Syria where by the end of 2015 250,000 people had been killed; 7.6 million had become internally displaced and 4.6 million had sought safety abroad.
Refugeees in Hungary. © Tomas Rafa
In Europe, Hungary led the way in refusing to engage with pan-European solutions to the refugee crisis, instead attempting to seal itself off. Balkan countries alternated between closing their borders and simply ushering refugees and migrants through. Border guards used tear gas and batons to beat back crowds as Macedonia briefly closed its border in August.
Across the Asia Pacific millions of refugees and asylum seekers faced harsh conditions and countries as disparate as Australia and China violated international law by forcibly returning people to countries where they would face a real risk of serious violations.
In New Zealand a Government review of the country’s annual refugee quota dragged on despite urgent calls for the Government to respond with integrity to the global crisis by increasing the quota, which remained at just 750 per year.
Human rights institutions under threat - UN in desperate need of reinvigoration
In 2015 human rights were pushed to breaking point by governments employing repressive measures at home and also deliberately attacking, underfunding or neglecting institutions that have been set up to help protect our rights.
This includes the UN, The International Criminal Court, the UN Refugee Agency and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Amnesty International is calling on governments to politically support and fully fund systems that exist to uphold international law and to protect peoples’ rights.
Salil Shetty, Amnesty International Secretary General, addresses the United Nations General Assembly, September 2015. © United Nations
“Not only are our rights under threat, so are the laws and the international systems that protect them,” said Grant Bayldon.For example the UN Refugee Agency’s income in 2015 was around 10% less than in 2014 despite the massive increase in the number of refugees fleeing danger.
The United Nations and its offices for protecting human rights and refugees have suffered severely from the hostility and neglect of recalcitrant governments in 2015.
“The UN was set up to ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’ and to ‘reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights’ but it is more vulnerable than it ever has been in the face of enormous challenges,” said Grant Bayldon.
Many governments have wilfully thwarted UN action to prevent mass atrocities or hold to account their perpetrators, and rejected or poured scorn on its recommendations to improve human rights nationally.
One example of this is Saudi Arabia, committing war crimes in the bombing campaign it is leading in Yemen while obstructing the establishment of a UN-led inquiry into violations by all sides in the conflict.
The incoming UN Secretary General, who will be elected later this year and who will take up the post in January 2017, will inherit an organisation that has achieved much but is in desperate need of reinvigoration.
New Zealand’s human rights record
New Zealand showed glimpses of human rights leadership in 2015 in its role on the UN Security Council in pushing for veto restraint and humanitarian access into Syria, yet its credibility to create meaningful change was dampened by its failure to increase its own tiny refugee quota.
“2015 was the year little Alan Kurdi drowned on a Turkish beach, because governments sat on their hands instead of protecting people in Syria and giving them safe routes to flee,” said Grant Bayldon.
“New Zealand’s own announcement to take an emergency intake of 600 Syrian refugees over three years was a welcome and life-saving response but didn’t come anywhere close to doing its fair share in the global refugee crisis."
Grant Bayldon
“New Zealand’s own announcement to take an emergency intake of 600 Syrian refugees over three years was a welcome and life-saving response but didn’t come anywhere close to doing its fair share in the global refugee crisis. The time has passed for token gestures, New Zealand must take its global responsibilities seriously.”
New Zealanders show mass support for an increased refugee quota at a vigil in September 2015. © Matt Grace
New Zealand is also criticised in the report for its questionable practices when it comes to the right to privacy and the “full-take” collection of data in the Pacific region.
The report also notes concerns over the practice of detaining some asylum seekers alongside remand detainees and the disproportionate representation of Māori in the criminal justice system.
As New Zealand starts 2016, Amnesty International is strongly urging the Government to show true global leadership not only on the world stage in ending the slaughter of civilians in conflict but also by doing their part in sharing the responsibility to resettle some of the world’s most vulnerable people.
Prime Minister John Key’s visit to Sri Lanka
The release of the Annual Report also coincides with Prime Minister John Key’s visit to Sri Lanka and Amnesty International is calling on the Prime Minister to represent more than just New Zealand’s trading interests while in the country.
“New Zealand should be leading the way in speaking out on human rights abuses, we cannot allow our economic self interest to overshadow the grim reality of the human rights situation in countries we’re trading with, such as Sri Lanka or Saudi Arabia.”
Grant Bayldon
“Despite the Prime Minister’s overly positive comments about Sri Lanka’s reconciliation process, Amnesty International continues to have grave concern about Sri Lanka’s human rights record,” said Grant Bayldon.
“Yes there have been some marked improvements on human rights in Sri Lanka during the year, but our report highlights ongoing abuses, including the persistent use of arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and other ill treatment, enforced disappearances and deaths in custody, and a long-standing climate of impunity for these and other grave violations.
“New Zealand should be leading the way in speaking out on human rights abuses, we cannot allow our economic self interest to overshadow the grim reality of the human rights situation in countries we’re trading with, such as Sri Lanka or Saudi Arabia.”