Resistance growing against shocking rise in human rights abuses globally

Amnesty International, the prestigious global human rights body, has this week released its annual audit of human rights around the world.

Throughout 2017, millions across the world experienced the bitter fruits of a rising politics of demonization. Its ultimate consequences were laid bare in the horrific military campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people in Myanmar.Salil Shetty, Secretary-General of Amnesty International

In his Foreword to the 409-page report, Shetty also drew attention to the  “transparently hateful move” by US President Donald Trump to ban entry to the USA of citizens from several Muslim-majority countries based on their nationality, while the chapter on the USA highlighted “major attacks on the rights of women and girls”, and a continuation of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

To provide context and analysis, Aljazeera English hosted a superb discussion of key trends illuminated by the Amnesty International Report, beginning with the role that Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim policies and hate-filled rhetoric have played in fanning the flames of bigotry and persecution around the world.

Watch here: What is behind the rise in global rights violations? (Inside Story, Aljazeera.com, 23 February 2018).

The three discussants are:

But it is not all bad news. The Amnesty International Report also highlights growing protest movements in support of human rights around the world:

While the findings remain shocking, it is the events such as those highlighted in the report that galvanised people across the world to stand up in the face of adversity and make their voices heard. – Amnesty.org

For the full report, click here: Amnesty International Human Rights Report for 2017-18 (22 February 2018).

Watch the Inside Story discussion here: What is behind the rise in global rights violations? (Inside Story, Aljazeera.com, 23 February 2018).

Photo credit: Wikimedia images.

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