2014 is a “catastrophic” year for civilians – Expression

2014 is a "catastrophic" year for civilians – Expression

The report of the organization, which reviews the state of human rights in 160 countries, identifies abuses in 35 of them by armed groups such as the Islamic State Group (EI) or Boko Haram.

The year 2014 was “catastrophic” for civilian victims of conflict, said Amnesty International in calling it “outrageous and inoperative” the response of the international community to the violence In its annual report released yesterday. During this year’s “exceptionally” loaded in conflict (Syria, Ukraine, Gaza, Nigeria, etc.), “millions of civilians” were killed and “15 millions” of people were displaced, which is “probably the largest number of refugees since the Second World War “, pointed Salil Shetty, Secretary General of the Organization for the Defence of Human Rights, at a press conference in London. “2014 has been catastrophic for millions of people affected by violence,” he accused. The report of the organization, which reviews the state of human rights in 160 countries, identifies abuses in 35 of them by armed groups such as the Islamic State Group (EI) or Boko Haram.  220;This can and must change,” insisted M.Shetty, finding that the response of the international community to violations of human rights was “outrageous and ineffective.” “World leaders have failed miserably to protect the poor,” he acknowledges in the foreword of the report. Amnesty is particularly severe with the United Nations (UN). “UN Security Council, an organization that was created to protect civilians and ensure peace and security, has failed miserably,” accused M.Shetty. According to him, “the five permanent members (the United States, Britain, France, China,

Russia) have, in our opinion, consistently abused power and the veto privileges to promote their own political or geopolitical interests the expense of protecting civilians. ” For this reason Amnesty promotes the adoption of a “code of conduct by which the members of the Security Council decide to voluntarily give up to use their veto to block the act ion of the Security Council in the event of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity. ” This proposal is not new – particularly France defends a similar, which has so far received the support of 70 countries – but Amnesty hopes to advance the idea, high weight of its 7 million members worldwide . “By giving up their right of veto, the five permanent members of the Security Council would extend the UN flexibility and would clear to
responsible for mass atrocities that the world will not stand idly by” estimated M.Shetty. Philip Luther, director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty, such a waiver would have allowed, for example, the International Criminal Court to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria. Apart from this proposal, the organization asks to stop the flood of weapons in the country where they fall into the hands of armed groups, including urging all states to ratify the treaty on the arms tra de took effect in 2014. Finally Amnesty is not optimistic about the prospects for human rights in 2015, providing more and more civilians are forced to live under the control of armed groups and a brutal worsening humanitarian refugee crisis.