.png)
5 hours ago
1
The past year has marked the “absolute failure” of western democracies as champions of human rights around the world, the head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.
Tirana Hassan lambasted western capitals for their double standards over the course of 2024 and what she said was the abdication of their claim to leadership on global human rights.
Speaking to the Guardian ahead of the launch of HRW’s annual country-by-country World Report on Friday, the HRW executive director said the failures of the US and its western European allies were particularly marked over Gaza, where arming of Israel continued unaffected by widespread evidence of war crimes; and in Sudan, where international institutions largely stood by while atrocities were committed and a western ally, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), armed the principal perpetrator, the Rapid Support Forces.
“What we saw in 2024 is that there has been an absolute failure of powerful states that have tried to build a reputation as being defenders of human rights around the world, like the US, the UK, the EU. They were tested and they failed,” Hassan said.
“Essentially they failed on Gaza to use their power as allies and their political leverage to stop ongoing abuses,” she added. “Sudan is also where these failures were lit up. We have the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, and there has been no meaningful action taken by the institutions like the security council or governments to curtail not just the warring parties, but also those states who are supporting them, like the UAE.”
The HRW annual report raises concerns over whether the return of Donald Trump to power in Washington would lead to the repeat or possible magnification of “serious rights violations” in his first term. That could lead not just to democratic backsliding in the US, but could also signal to the rest of the world that human rights no longer counted in foreign policy.
The Biden administration had already set a low bar, Hassan argued, not just in its military support for Israel during the Gaza war but also in what she said was hypocrisy over international justice. Biden had supported the international criminal court (ICC) when it indicted Vladimir Putin and his officials over war crimes in Ukraine, but “attacked the court’s legitimacy” when it charged Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minster Yoav Gallant over war crimes in Gaza.
Given such abdication of western leadership, Hassan argued, the world had to look elsewhere for inspiration on human rights, pointing to South Africa’s role in bringing a genocide case over Gaza to the international court of justice; the student-led protests that ended the authoritarian rule of Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh; and the mass protests that defeated Yoon Suk Yeol’s attempt to impose martial law in South Korea.
“It’s not a doom and gloom situation,” the HRW leader said. “When the traditional actors fail, we have seen places where non-traditional actors will step in and lead the defence of human rights for those who most need it.”
