1vegan
05-23-2007, 07:55 AM
Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/23/AR2007052300389.html)
LONDON (Reuters) - The politics of fear have provoked a "human rights meltdown" and created a dangerously divided world, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
"Our world is as polarized as it was at the height of the Cold War and in many ways far more dangerous," Irene Khan, secretary-general of the human rights pressure group said in its latest annual report.
But she said fear had been a positive motivator for change over global warming, with politicians being forced into action by public pressure. The same tactic could work with human rights.
Pointing an accusing finger around the globe from Washington to Harare, Amnesty blamed governments for undermining human rights and feeding racism with short-sighted, fear-mongering and divisive policies.
"Human rights meltdown today needs to be tackled through global solidarity and respect for global values," she told a news conference launching the report.
Khan said fear was being used to erode the rights of people -- all in the name of greater security.
"The politics of fear are fuelling a downward spiral of human rights abuses in which no right is sacrosanct," Khan said in the 2007 dossier from the pressure group which boasts 2.2 million members in more than 150 countries.
Amnesty accused U.S. President George W. Bush of invoking the fear of terrorism to enhance his executive power. "The U.S. administration's double speak has been breathtakingly shameless," it said.
"The 'war on terror' and the war in Iraq, with their catalogue of human rights abuses, have created deep divisions that cast a shadow on international relations," said Khan.
Bemoaning the loss of U.S. moral authority around the globe, Khan told reporters at the report's launch "The U.S. administration is treating the world as one giant battlefield for its war on terror."
*more one the next page of the link*
News.com (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21783401-2,00.html)
PRIME Minister John Howard finds himself alongside Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe in an Amnesty International report that says they are among "short-sighted fear-mongers" dividing the world.
The human rights pressure group has accused Mr Howard of portraying asylum-seekers as a threat to national security.
The report also criticises Australia's role in the war on terror and its treatment of female victims of violence.
Amnesty secretary-general Irene Khan said the fear generated by leaders such as Mr Howard "thrives on myopic and cowardly leadership".
Ms Khan included Mr Howard with Mr Mugabe, US President George W Bush and Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir in the same scathing paragraph in her foreword to the group's annual report published today.
"The Howard government portrayed desperate asylum-seekers in leaky boats as a threat to Australia's national security and raised a false alarm of a refugee invasion," Ms Khan wrote in the group's annual report published today.
"After the attacks of 11 September 2001, US President George W Bush invoked the fear of terrorism to enhance his executive power, without Congressional oversight or judicial scrutiny.
What a world we live in huh?
(my country supports the iraq war, and we've got people in afghanistan too)
*softly humms "we're on a road to nowhere" -talking heads
LONDON (Reuters) - The politics of fear have provoked a "human rights meltdown" and created a dangerously divided world, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
"Our world is as polarized as it was at the height of the Cold War and in many ways far more dangerous," Irene Khan, secretary-general of the human rights pressure group said in its latest annual report.
But she said fear had been a positive motivator for change over global warming, with politicians being forced into action by public pressure. The same tactic could work with human rights.
Pointing an accusing finger around the globe from Washington to Harare, Amnesty blamed governments for undermining human rights and feeding racism with short-sighted, fear-mongering and divisive policies.
"Human rights meltdown today needs to be tackled through global solidarity and respect for global values," she told a news conference launching the report.
Khan said fear was being used to erode the rights of people -- all in the name of greater security.
"The politics of fear are fuelling a downward spiral of human rights abuses in which no right is sacrosanct," Khan said in the 2007 dossier from the pressure group which boasts 2.2 million members in more than 150 countries.
Amnesty accused U.S. President George W. Bush of invoking the fear of terrorism to enhance his executive power. "The U.S. administration's double speak has been breathtakingly shameless," it said.
"The 'war on terror' and the war in Iraq, with their catalogue of human rights abuses, have created deep divisions that cast a shadow on international relations," said Khan.
Bemoaning the loss of U.S. moral authority around the globe, Khan told reporters at the report's launch "The U.S. administration is treating the world as one giant battlefield for its war on terror."
*more one the next page of the link*
News.com (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21783401-2,00.html)
PRIME Minister John Howard finds himself alongside Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe in an Amnesty International report that says they are among "short-sighted fear-mongers" dividing the world.
The human rights pressure group has accused Mr Howard of portraying asylum-seekers as a threat to national security.
The report also criticises Australia's role in the war on terror and its treatment of female victims of violence.
Amnesty secretary-general Irene Khan said the fear generated by leaders such as Mr Howard "thrives on myopic and cowardly leadership".
Ms Khan included Mr Howard with Mr Mugabe, US President George W Bush and Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir in the same scathing paragraph in her foreword to the group's annual report published today.
"The Howard government portrayed desperate asylum-seekers in leaky boats as a threat to Australia's national security and raised a false alarm of a refugee invasion," Ms Khan wrote in the group's annual report published today.
"After the attacks of 11 September 2001, US President George W Bush invoked the fear of terrorism to enhance his executive power, without Congressional oversight or judicial scrutiny.
What a world we live in huh?
(my country supports the iraq war, and we've got people in afghanistan too)
*softly humms "we're on a road to nowhere" -talking heads