WHY IS IT IMPORTANT

In April 2021, Amnesty International released its annual report on the progress of global human rights. The 400-page report surveys 149 different countries, analysing them at both a regional and global level.

Amnesty International is a charitable organisation that seeks to investigate, report, and campaign on human rights issues across the world. They are one of the biggest organisations defending human rights in the world with over seven million members. Their annual report acts as a call-to-action for governments by documenting the ways in which individual countries abuse human rights.

THIS YEAR’S AMNESTY REPORT IN A SNAPSHOT

Health care is a key theme in this year’s report as communities across the globe continue to struggle to control the Coronavirus pandemic. Amnesty expressed concern over the disproportionate effect the pandemic is having on already marginalised communities and noted an increase in gender-based and domestic violence across the globe, linked to national lockdowns and stay at home orders. Police violence has increased, often affecting marginalised minority communities in a number of different countries.

The pandemic has changed the global political dynamic with governments being trusted to protect their citizens and in doing so exercising increased powers. This has brought with it global security concerns “as governments continue to use Covid as a cover to push authoritarian agendas”.

Amnesty expressed concern in their report over freedom of expression crack downs and interrogation and torture policies that were being used to silence critics of governmental approaches to COVID-19. Morocco, the Philippines, and Singapore are just a few of the countries criticised for their crack down on protestors.

Western nations are not immune from criticism either. Donald Trump is accused of exacerbating pre-existing human rights concerns in the United States, with Amnesty highlighting fifteen areas including excessive use of force, inadequate healthcare, and arbitrary detention.

Similar concerns exist across the Atlantic. Europe’s treatment of migrants has been criticised by the report, in particular the abuse migrants suffer and the unbearable living conditions that threaten their lives.

Economically developed countries have also been lambasted by Amnesty for exacerbating trenchant inequalities between nations. “The richest countries have effected a near-monopoly of the world’s supply of vaccines, leaving countries with the fewest resources to face the worst health and human rights outcomes'' said Agnes Callamard, the Secretary General of Amnesty. Vaccine nationalism has been at the centre of the conversation on stopping the spread of COVID-19. A limited supply of vaccines is being held by the richest countries in the world at the expense of less economically developed countries where the virus continues to spread. Callamard attributes much of this inequality to the “weakness of international cooperation”.

THE CONCLUSION

While the report does paint an upsetting picture on the state of global human rights, there is hope that in rebuilding the world post-pandemic, the state of affairs can be improved. Sustainable recovery “requires a reset that addresses the root causes of the crisis by protecting and respecting rights”, says Callamard in the Preface to the report.