Amnesty International accuses Russia of committing 'war crimes' in Ukraine in its annual report, adding Covid-19 pandemic served as a pretext for some governments to attack human rights
UNSC"would be more aptly named the UN Insecurity Council," says Agnes Callamard of the rights watchdog, adding it has repeatedly failed to act in such places as Myanmar, Afghanistan and Syria.
"What is happening in Ukraine is a repetition of what we have seen in Syria," Agnes Callamard, secretary general of the global rights watchdog, told the AFP news agency on Tuesday. Comparing the besieged city of Mariupol, to the Syrian city of Aleppo, bludgeoned by the regime leader Bashar al Assad, with the help of Russian airpower, Callamard said the rights lobby group's "observation at this point, is a rise in war crimes," she said.Callamard blamed Russia's "insolence" in the face of a "paralysed international system" and the "shameful inaction" of institutions including the UN Security Council.
"Africa has a role to play," in the rebuilding of the global multilateral institutions and systems as it has also been hard hit by the impact of the conflict and the spike in wheat and fuel prices.After more than two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, Amnesty reported worrying attacks on human rights as 67 of 154 countries worldwide introduced new legislation to further restrict freedoms "often using the pandemic as justification".