Amnesty brands world leaders ‘miserable failures’

Human rights group, Amnesty International (AI) says world leaders are “miserable failures” for paying lip service to the protection of civilians.

AI’s annual report for 2014/2015, described the past years as “devastating and catastrophic” for the protection of human rights around the world.

“This has been a devastating year for those seeking to stand up for human rights and for those caught up in the suffering of war zones,” the group said in a statement.

“Governments pay lip service to the importance of protecting civilians. And yet the world’s politicians have miserably failed to protect those in greatest need. Amnesty International believes that this can and must finally change.”

The global movement went on to say that the response of the United Nations (UN) to Islamic Sate-driven insurgency in Syria has been “shameful and ineffective”.

“The UN Security Council (UNSC) had repeatedly failed to address the crisis in Syria in earlier years, when countless lives could still have been saved. That failure continued in 2014.

“In the past four years, more than 200,000 people have died – overwhelmingly civilians c and mostly in attacks by government forces. Around 4 million people from Syria are now refugees in other countries. More than 7.6 million are displaced inside Syria.

“The global response to conflict and abuses by states and armed groups has been shameful and ineffective.”

The group further criticised the five permanent UNSC members – Britain, China, France, Russia and the US – for consistently abusing their veto right.

The five nations were asked to give up their veto power as they were seen as using it to “promote their political self-interest or geopolitical interest above the interest of protecting civilians”.

In the 415-page report, the group lamented the “horrors of war” in South Sudan, Central African Republic (CAR) and the “countless crimes committed” by the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria.

“In the Central African Republic, more than 5,000 died in sectarian violence despite the presence of international forces.

“And in South Sudan – the world’s newest state – tens of thousands of civilians were killed and 2 million fled their homes in the armed conflict between government and opposition forces.”

The report said the number of displaced people around the world exceeded 50 million in 2014, for the first time since the end of World War II.