Politics of demonization’ breeding division and fear : Amnesty International

Divisive politicians who promote a toxic and dehumanizing “us vs them” narrative are creating a more dangerous world, warned the AI today as it launched its annual assessment of human rights around the world.
The report said “2016 was the year when the cynical use of ‘us vs them’ narratives of blame, hate and fear took on a global prominence to a level not seen since the 1930s,” said Salil Shetty, AI Secretary General.
“In Southeast Asia and the Pacific, we have seen governments target human rights activists and civil society, choking dissent,” said Champa Patel, Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
“Across Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, people have been relentlessly threatened, arrested and prosecuted for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
 “In Myanmar, where the year began with the historic release of prisoners of conscience and reform of draconian laws, we have seen a similarly disappointing trend of human rights activists being harassed while some repressive laws still linger and new ones restricting freedom of expression are being proposed. And in the Philippines, human rights activists were threatened with death by the President himself.”
Politics of demonization drives global pushback on human rights.
Seismic political shifts in 2016 exposed the potential of hateful rhetoric to unleash the dark side of human nature. The global trend of angrier and more divisive politics was exemplified by Donald Trump’s poisonous campaign rhetoric, but political leaders in various parts of the world also wagered their future power on narratives of fear, blame and division.
In 2016, governments also turned on refugees and migrants; often an easy target for scapegoating. The Annual Report documents how 36 countries violated international law by unlawfully sending refugees back to a country where their rights were at risk.
In Myanmar, tens of thousands from the systematically discriminated against Rohingya community were yet again forced to flee their homes after enduring human rights violations that may amount to crimes against humanity.
Indonesian authorities, whom had earned praise in 2015 for letting Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers into the country, tried to prevent a boat of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees and asylum seekers from coming ashore. Security forces in Aceh even fired warning shots in the air, terrifying the group of more than 44 people that included a heavily pregnant woman.
Malaysian authorities released a group of Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers from detention, where they had been kept in appalling conditions, but there has been no accountability for the mass graves that were discovered off its coast in 2015.

World turns its back on mass atrocities
 
Amnesty International is warning that 2017 will see ongoing crises exacerbated by a debilitating absence of human rights leadership on a chaotic world stage. The politics of “us vs them” is also taking shape at the international level, replacing multilateralism with a more aggressive, confrontational world order.
 
The world faces a long list of crises with little political will to address them: including Myanmar, Philippines, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan, Central America, Central African Republic, Burundi, Iraq, South Sudan and Sudan. Amnesty International’s Annual Report documented war crimes committed in at least 23 countries in 2016.
 
Despite these challenges, international indifference to war crimes has become an entrenched normality as the UN Security Council remains paralyzed by rivalries between permanent member states.
 
Human rights violations in two of the region’s states involved attacks against civilian populations that may amount to crimes against humanity.
 “The beginning of 2017 finds many of the world’s most powerful states pursuing narrower national interests at the expense of international cooperation. This risks taking us towards a more chaotic, dangerous world,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
 
“A new world order where human rights are portrayed as a barrier to national interests makes the ability to tackle mass atrocities dangerously low, leaving the door open to abuses reminiscent of the darkest times of human history.
 
“The international community has already responded with deafening silence after countless atrocities in 2016: a live stream of horror from Aleppo, possible crimes against humanity in Myanmar and the Philippines, use of chemical weapons and hundreds of villages burned in Darfur. The big question in 2017 will be how far the world lets atrocities go before doing something about them.”