International
Amnesty International warns that the world is on the verge of the collapse of international law
Amnesty International (AI) warned that the world is on the verge of the collapse of international law, due to repeated human rights abuses and frequent attacks on armed conflicts by States and armed groups, such as in the current crisis in the Middle East.
The non-governmental organization, based in London, released its report ‘The state of human rights in the world’ of 2023. It lists a series of abuses in different countries, such as the repression of dissent, the illegitimate use of force against protesters or arbitrary arrests.
This NGO also warned that the collapse of the rule of law is likely to accelerate with the rapid advance of artificial intelligence (AI) that, together with the mastery of large technologies, runs the risk of a greater violation of people’s rights if the regulation is still lagging behind.
At a press conference in the British capital to present the document, the secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnés Callamard, recalled that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948 designed for “all of us, without exception,” but that now the world is attending an “erosion of the rule of law due to massive violations in the name of terrorism and security.”
Many powerful countries, he said, are abandoning “humanity and universality” enshrined in that declaration, signed under the slogan of “never again” due to the atrocities of World War II.
“The Amnesty International report presents a bleak panorama of alarming repression of human rights and prolific violations of international norms, all in the midst of an ever-deepening global inequality, superpowers competing for supremacy and a growing climate crisis,” he said.
The Amnesty International report makes special mention of armed conflicts. It indicates that the violation of international humanitarian law, also known as “laws of war”, has had devastating consequences for the civilian population.
In many armed conflicts, government forces have launched ground and air attacks against populated areas. Using weapons with a wide range of action, while racism occupies a central place in some of these conflicts.
Specifically, the crisis in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories is linked to an extreme form of racial discrimination, Amnesty points out.
For the organization, the Israeli system of separation from the Palestinian people is based on the fact that Israel oppresses and dominates the Palestinian population through territorial fragmentation, segregation and control, the set-aside of land and property and the denial of economic and social rights.
In a conflict that shows no signs of diminishing, the evidence of war crimes continues to accumulate while the Israeli government mocks, in its opinion, international law in Gaza.
After the attacks perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, Israeli authorities responded with relentless air strikes against populated civilian areas that often annihilated entire families. Almost 1.9 million Palestinians were forcibly displaced. They restricted access to humanitarian aid that was desperately needed despite the growing famine in Gaza, he adds.
“Israel’s flagrant contempt for international law is aggravated by the failure of its allies to stop the indescribable shedding of civilian blood inflicted in Gaza.”
Many of those allies were the architects of that legal system after World War II,” said the secretary general.
Racial discrimination has also manifested itself in the responses to these conflicts, according to the report.
Many governments have imposed illegitimate restrictions on solidarity protests with the Palestinian population, he added.
The governments of Germany, Austria, France, Hungary, Poland and Switzerland – the document indicates – preventively banned this type of protest in 2023. Alleging risks to public order or national security that, in some cases, were based on racist stereotypes.
Dissidence was repressed through the adoption of strong measures against freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. While arbitrary detentions and imprisonments of human rights defenders, members of the political opposition and activists were documented. And his sometimes subjected to torture and other mistreatment.
According to the text, many States neglected economic injustices and the climate crisis. Governments often treated refugees and migrants in an abusive and racist way.
Among other things, AI denounces deeply rooted discrimination against women, LGBTI people and indigenous peoples. It emphasizes that multinational companies were part of abuses.
Amnesty focuses its report on several global trends: the treatment of the civilian population in armed conflicts, the growing offensive against gender justice, the disproportionate impact of economic crises, climate change and environmental degradation, and the threats of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence.
In his opinion, these issues represent critical challenges for human rights around the world. They demand a concerted response from the States to face them and avoid new conflicts or that existing ones are aggravated.
International
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump criticized what he described as unfair fees imposed on American ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand that Washington take back control of the strategic waterway.
“Our Navy and commerce have been threatened in a very unjust and reckless way. The rates that Panama charges are ridiculous,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The president-elect also denounced the growing influence of China in the canal, a situation he called concerning as U.S. businesses depend on the waterway to transport goods between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
“This complete scam against our country will end immediately,” he stated.
The Panama Canal, completed by the United States in 1914, was handed over to Panama under the 1977 treaty signed by Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Panama took full control of the commercial passage in 1999.
“It was exclusively for Panama to manage, not China or anyone else,” Trump said. “We would never allow it to fall into the wrong hands!”
“If Panama cannot guarantee a ‘safe, efficient, and reliable’ operation of the canal, we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in its entirety, without a doubt,” the Republican added.
Panamanian authorities did not immediately respond to Trump’s statements. While he will assume office on January 20, Trump has been exerting his political influence in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Five percent of global maritime trade passes through the Panama Canal, which allows vessels traveling from Asia to the U.S. East Coast to avoid the long and dangerous route around the southern tip of South America.
The countries that use the Panama Canal the most are the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea.
In October, the Panama Canal Authority reported earnings of nearly $5 billion in the last fiscal year.
International
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised more “destruction” in Ukraine on Sunday, in response to a drone strike that hit a residential building in the city of Kazan, located in central Russia, on Saturday.
Russia accused Ukraine of launching a “massive” drone attack, which struck a luxury apartment block in Kazan, about 1,000 kilometers from the border.
Videos shared on Russian social media show drones hitting a high-rise glass building. No casualties have been reported as a result of the attack.
In his statements, Putin addressed the local leader of Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is located, during a virtual ceremony marking the opening of a road.
The attack in Kazan is the latest in a series of increasingly frequent bombings in this nearly three-year-old conflict. Ukraine has not commented on the attack.
Putin had previously threatened to strike the center of Kyiv with a hypersonic ballistic missile in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the recent Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities were retaliation for Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied missiles to target Russian territory.
International
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
At least nine people were killed on Sunday after a small aircraft crashed in a commercial area of the tourist city of Gramado, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities confirmed.
“There are nine confirmed deaths according to Civil Defense services, and there are no survivors from the plane,” said Cléber dos Santos Lima, director of the Interior Police Department of the Civil Police of the state, in a statement to AFP.
Authorities have not yet confirmed the exact number of passengers and crew aboard the aircraft, a turbo-prop Piper Cheyenne 400. However, Civil Defense had previously stated that “preliminarily, the plane was carrying ten people.”
The plane crashed on Sunday morning “into the chimney of a building, then onto the second floor of a house, and finally fell onto a furniture store,” according to a statement from the Rio Grande do Sul Public Security Secretariat.
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
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