103 million people flee the world – Amnesty criticizes “Western double standards”.
What: pa/abaca/Ait Adjedjou Karim/Avenir Pictures/ABACA
According to Amnesty International, 2022 will be a year of increasing refugee movements, but also a year of mass protests worldwide. The human rights organization demands that Europe treat everyone equally – and repeatedly accuses Israel of being “apartheid”.
AAfter Russia’s war in Ukraine, Amnesty International condemned the double standard. “The West’s assertive response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine stands in stark contrast to the lack of meaningful action to address serious violations by some of its allies, including Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt,” the human rights organization said in its annual report. On Monday.
The West’s use of a double standard has helped China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia avoid criticism of their human rights records, Amnesty stressed. Double standards and inadequate responses to human rights abuses have led to impunity and instability around the world. In particular, Amnesty called it “a deafening silence on Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and inaction against Egypt”.
In addition, the organization spoke of its refusal to “confront the Israeli apartheid system against the Palestinians.” Amnesty again draws comparisons with the apartheid injustice regime that ruled South Africa until the 1990s. The apology has been criticized by Western governments, politicians and well-known advertisers over the past year for its many false and biased portrayals of Israel.
Amnesty International Secretary-General Marcus Pieko said Russia’s war in Ukraine is acting as an accelerator of negative human rights developments. “Anyone who complains and demands that other countries respect human rights should put their own house in order,” he demanded of Germany and the European Union (EU).
Pieko praised Germany’s welcome of more than a million people from Ukraine. But providing people with security means providing resources to ensure they are well accommodated and able to participate in community life. The central government should support the municipalities permanently,” he demanded. There should also be “no double standards”. “De-bureaucratic assistance to people from Ukraine should be a blueprint for dealing with people seeking protection from all parts of the world,” Pico demanded.
Resistance and flight are key developments in 2022, Bego said. For example, security authorities have used unlawful force against protesters in 85 of the 156 countries considered by Amnesty International. In 35 countries they used deadly weapons and in 33 countries there were murders.
Criticism of the traffic light government’s Iran policy
The right to peaceful protest is restricted in 29 countries. Last year, 103 million people were displaced worldwide. That’s 20 million more than in 2021, Beego said, more than ever before.
In a context of increasing state violence against protest movements around the world, Pico warned that freedom of assembly in Germany remains a valuable asset. That is why Amnesty “watches with concern that more and more federal states are passing repressive parliamentary laws that limit the right to peaceful protest and expand police powers, for example in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and most recently in Hesse”.
Amnesty also criticized insufficient investigations into allegations of discriminatory identity tests (racial profiling) in Germany as a violation of the right to non-discrimination.
Activist Mariam Klaren, daughter of Iranian-German women’s rights activist Nahid Taghawi, who was arrested in Iran in October 2020, expressed her displeasure at the German reaction to the Iranian leadership’s violent handling of the current protests in the country. You can see “clear reactions”. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbach (Greens) opened a special session of the UN Human Rights Council with Iceland, after which a resolution was passed.
Yet many sanctions against Iran have not worked, Klaren criticized. Repeat individuals are allowed. “But I don’t think there’s a clear line from the federal government on the new Iran policy, which I think is needed.” Compared to other countries, she said, “There is a bit more reaction from Germany. But there is no room for complacency.”
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