Mimi Abdulla (centre), 20, who is half-Palestinian, joins dozens of protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza to rally near the University of Illinois Chicago's campus, where First Lady Jill Biden was participating in a round table, on Thursday, Jan.11, 2024. File/AP

Human Rights Watch praised South Africa for seeking a ruling from the International Court of Justice on whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza in a landmark case that began on Thursday. Hassan said other countries including the United States should support South Africa’s action "and ensure that Israel complies with the court’s decision.”

People’s rights are being suppressed and threatened everywhere in the world, from wars to selective government outrage about some abuses and silence about others because of "political expediency,” a leading human rights group said on Thursday.

"We only have to look at the human rights challenges of 2023 to tell us what we need to do differently in 2024,” Human Rights Watch said in its annual global report.

Armed conflicts have mushroomed, leading with the Gaza war, and the issue is how governments respond to them, Tirana Hassan, the New York-based watchdog's executive director, told a news conference. "It needs to be an end to double standards.”

As an example, she said many governments quickly and justifiably condemned the "unlawful” killings and atrocities by the Palestinian Hamas group when it attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing hundreds and taking hostages. After the attacks, Israel "unlawfully blocked” aid to Gaza residents and its ongoing offensive in the territory has killed more than 23,000 people, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, while reducing entire neighbourhoods to rubble.

"Yet many of the governments that condemned Hamas’ war crimes have been muted in responding to the war crimes committed by the Israeli government,” Hassan said.

She said such selective outrage sends a dangerous message that some people’s lives matter more than others and shakes the legitimacy of the international rules that protect everyone’s human rights, she said.

Tradeoffs on human rights

The report described the United States and European Union as ignoring their human rights obligations in favour of politically expedient solutions.

"US President Joe Biden has shown little appetite to hold responsible human rights abusers who are key to his domestic agenda or are seen as bulwarks to China,” it said.

"US allies violate the rights of their people on a massive scale yet have not had to overcome hurdles to deepen their ties with the US,” the report said. "Nations the US wants as counters to China have been feted at the White House without regard for their human rights abuses at home.”

Also, HRW said the EU circumvents its human rights obligations to asylum seekers and migrants, "especially those from Africa and the Middle East, striking deals... to keep migrants outside of the European bloc.”

Hassan also pointed to the movement toward marriage equality in places like Nepal but especially to the determination of Afghan girls and women who took to the streets to oppose the Taliban bans on work and education and have found alternative ways to learn.

"If the people at the centre whose human rights are being abused are still prepared to fight then human rights matter,” she said.

Associated Press