Human rights climate 'worst in 50 years'

Amnesty International today claimed that governments and armed groups such as al-Qaida were putting human rights and international humanitarian law under the greatest pressure for more than 50 years.
From long-running conflicts in countries such as Chechnya and Sudan to the Madrid train bombings, it said global insecurity was combining with increasing human rights violations by powerful governments to create a world of "mistrust, fear and division".

The 2004 annual report documents human rights abuses in 155 countries including execution, detention without judicial process, hostage taking and "disappearances" by state agents.

It condemns attacks by al-Qaida and others as "sometimes amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity" but says principles of international law that could prevent such attacks were being undermined and marginalised by powerful countries such as the US.

"Governments are losing their moral compass, sacrificing the global values of human rights in a blind pursuit of security. This failure of leadership is a dangerous concession to armed groups," said Irene Khan, the secretary general of Amnesty International.

"The global security agenda promoted by the US administration is bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle. Violating human rights at home, turning a blind eye to abuses abroad and using pre-emptive military force where and when it chooses has damaged justice and freedom, and made the world a more dangerous place."

Amnesty reports that allegations of torture were made against the security forces and police of 132 countries, and that 58 countries - including Britain - arrested and detained people without charge or trial.

It says armed groups committed violent acts and killings in 34 countries and took hostages in 16, including Nepal, Peru and Algeria.

Ms Khan said the war in Iraq had led to a new wave of abuses but diverted attention from many "old" problem areas of the world. She said: "While governments have been obsessed with Iraq they have allowed the real weapons of mass destruction - injustice and impunity, poverty, discrimination and racism, the uncontrolled trade in small arms, violence against women and children - to go unaddressed."

Continuing violence in Northern Ireland, one of the "old" troublespots, accounts for the UK's ignominious inclusion among the 47 countries where Amnesty says extrajudicial executions were carried out last year.

Eight such killings were attributed to loyalist paramilitaries and two to Republican dissident paramilitaries.

Inevitably, Iraq also features in the Amnesty report. It repeats some of the content of Amnesty's recent critical reports about the behaviour of British troops in Iraq.

The Ministry of Defence has said it is investigating 33 cases of the death or injury of Iraqi civilians; six Iraqis have died in British military custody over the past year.

Among those deaths in custody cited in the report is that of Baha Mousa, 27, a hotel receptionist and father of two, who died after being arrested by members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment in Basra last September. A number of other Iraqis were also allegedly assaulted during a raid by troops.

The annual report also lists conflicts in Chechnya, Colombia, Sudan and Nepal as breeding grounds of some of the worst atrocities. It said that violence in Israel and the occupied territories had deepened while many other government were pursuing repressive agendas.

Amnesty said reports of the torture and ill-treatment of US detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and at jails in Iraq had further underlined the vulnerability of prisoners. "By failing to protect the rights of those who may be guilty, governments endanger the rights of those who are innocent, and put us all at risk," the report says.