Global Rights Crises Deepen as World Leaders Shy Away

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

From renewed hostilities between Israel and Hamas to the tremendous suffering of civilians in Sudan.

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

Ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Myanmar, Ethiopia and the Sahel.

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

And that 2023 was the hottest year on record.

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

Wildfires, drought and storms affected the lives of millions of people globally.

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

These, and many other human rights crises and their consequences are not solvable by governments acting alone.

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

But the international human rights framework the collection of rules states have agreed upon provides the roadmap to protect everyone’s dignity.

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

We have seen what’s possible when people’s human rights are respected and protected.

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

In June, following years of civil society pressure, the Japanese Parliament passed its first law to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from “unfair discrimination.”

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

Brazil’s Supreme Court upheld all Indigenous peoples’ rights to their traditional lands.

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

The ruling was a huge boost for Indigenous people in their fight to preserve their way of life.

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

Despite the power of human rights to protect everyone’s dignity, the system of rules we rely on to deliver on that promise is under threat. 

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

Many countries quickly and justifiably condemned the attacks on October 7 by Hamas, but many others have been reserved in responding to the actions by the Israeli government in the collective punishment of civilians in Gaza.

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

Meanwhile, armed conflict in Sudan has led to widespread abuses, but has attracted little international attention, while the people of Sudan continue to pay the highest price.

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

This selective outrage leaves the impression that some lives matter more than others, which undermines faith in the idea that everyone’s human rights deserve protection.

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

And when governments ignore their human rights commitments altogether, in the name of security or trade, when dealing with autocratic leaders, it can embolden those leaders to extend the reach of their repression.

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

Civil society, courts, and human rights commissions are also increasingly under threat by governments that want to exercise power without constraints. 

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

And governments are increasingly using technology platforms to silence and censor critics.

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

These threats underline that governments should urgently respect, protect and defend human rights to build thriving and inclusive societies.

SOUNDBITE: Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 2024-01-03, New York (USA):

Upholding human rights consistently, across the board, no matter who the victims are or where the rights violations are being committed, is the only way to build the world we want to live in, where everyone’s dignity is respected and protected.