'Fraying' rights system faces new Trump threat

HRW criticizes global inaction on human rights, warns Trump's return could worsen violations.

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UNITED NATIONS:

Human Rights Watch on Thursday blasted the "craven unwillingness" of governments to defend international norms and institutions last year, while warning that Donald Trump's return to power will compound pressure on the world's "fraying" rights system.

From Gaza to Sudan, Haiti and Ukraine -- 2024 saw rights violations "at the most extreme," HRW chief Tirana Hassan told AFP in an interview ahead of the Thursday release of the organization's annual report.

Worldwide elections and deadly conflicts over the past year challenged the "integrity of democratic institutions and the principles of human rights and humanitarian law" -- but many governments "have failed the test," the 500-page document said.

It noted mounting repression in Russia, India and Venezuela as well as continuing devastation from the wars in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine.

These conflicts and other humanitarian crises, marked by the "craven unwillingness of many governments to stand up to suffering and abuse," exposed the "fraying of international norms meant to protect civilians and the devastating human cost when they are flouted," according to the report.

It called out authoritarian governments -- including in Russia and Mali -- for violating democratic norms, while also slamming liberal democracies, saying they were "not always reliable champions of human rights at home or abroad."

Hassan pointed to US President Joe Biden continuing to provide Israel with weapons, despite mounting evidence they have "been used in the commission of war crimes and the killing of civilians" in Gaza.

She said 2024 showed "how inconsistent the commitment to human rights" has been. "That is very dangerous, because it sends a message that certain rights apply to some people and they don't to others," the Singapore-born lawyer said.

With Trump's return to the US presidency, HRW expressed concern that his administration would "repeat and even magnify the serious rights violations of his first term."

Renewed attacks by Trump on minority rights, international law and multilateral institutions risk "emboldening illiberal leaders worldwide to follow suit," it warned.