Encircled by hunger, poverty, disease and war, millions of people are also witnessing their fundamental human rights coming under increasing attacks from governments worldwide. This dark portent is vividly reinforced by the newly released ‘Amnesty International Report 2022/23: The State of the World’s Human Rights.’ The report is a wake-up call to all lovers of freedom to intensify efforts against oppression and the erosion of human dignity perpetrated by oppressive governments.
The AI epistle is an explosive double-edged insight. One is the restriction of liberty by authoritarian regimes from Africa to the Middle East, and Europe to Asia. The second is the double standards of the West, which poses as the citadel of freedoms. Though the West is quick to condemn the atrocities of some renegade countries, it demurs when it comes to calling its allies to account for the repression of their people. This has major implications for global liberty.
Instructively, arising from the embers of World War II, 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose core is the recognition that all people have rights and fundamental freedoms. It is lamentable that those noble ideals are currently under threat despite the progress in human knowledge and technology.
The result is that authorities in 20 of the 156 countries assessed by AI committed war crimes against their own citizens. Governments also deployed unlawful force against peaceful protesters in 85 of the 156 countries (54 per cent). “Until activists in the West demand the end of double standards on human rights, politicians will always put expediency before principle,” AI lamented.
Notable instances were cited; from Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Philippines. Long before it invaded Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin had been ruling Russia with an iron fist. Human rights observance has deteriorated there sharply since February 2022 with media houses summarily shut down, and activists forced to flee the country. In Israel, protests have been raging over judicial ‘reforms’ that will curtail the power of the Supreme Court. Amnesty accuses Israel of massive human rights violations against Palestinians in the disputed territories.
For most of 2022, unusual protests defined Iran, where women are subjugated socially. Defiance was met with brutal attacks by state agents. As of December, an NGO, Iran Human Rights, counted at least 476 deaths from lethal assaults by security agents; 400 protesters were sentenced to 10-year prison terms. In December, security agents in Peru clamped down viciously on indigenous people and campesinos (peasant farmers).
Castigating the overarching influence of the UN Security Council and its inability to enforce its writ, the AI report accused China of perpetrating wanton “human rights violations amounting to crimes against humanity against Uyghur and other Muslim minorities; (yet) Beijing escaped international condemnation by the UN General Assembly.”
Repression also reigns in Saudi Arabia, where women’s rights activists are routinely locked up. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia’s military operations in Yemen have cost thousands of lives. Journalists have been imprisoned in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Russia, Belarus, and dozens of other countries experiencing conflict.
The authorities in Australia, India, and Indonesia have minted new legislations banning demonstrations. In the period under review, Sri Lanka authored emergency powers to suppress demonstrations against spiralling economic turmoil.
Education advocates are under brutal assault in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has arrested, jailed or silenced many activists. Recently, the Taliban arrested girls’ education activist, Matiullah Wesa, 30, who had often received threats for his advocacy.
Some states in the United States are moving against freedoms previously enjoyed by Americans, while authorities in the United Kingdom have a new law that gives police officers wide-ranging powers, including the ability to ban “noisy protests,” perceived as a threat to the freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly.
Women are bearing a serious brunt. In Pakistan, several high-profile murders of women by family members were reported, yet parliament failed to adopt legislation on domestic violence that had been pending since 2021. “In India, violence against Dalit and Adivasi women, among other caste-based hate crimes, was committed with impunity,” AI averred.
Closer home, journalists have been locked up serially in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Threats to freedoms have been detailed in Libya, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Eswatini, Guinea, Mali and Senegal. Military coups are back in Africa, causing the suspension of basic rights.
At home, rights violations are rampant. The police brutality that instigated 2020 #EndSARS protest and its brutal suppression by the Nigerian military define the regime of the President, Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). Under the former military dictator, Nigerians are experiencing pervasive human rights violations all over again. In 2015, the Army massacred hundreds of the adherents of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria after a clash with the Army in Zaria, Kaduna State. Despite the unconditional release of the IMN leader, Ibrahim el-Zakzaky, ordered by the courts, the government continues to place him and his wife under a travel ban.
Journalists practising in Nigeria are sometimes tormented by the State Security Service and police. Under Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, the National Broadcasting Commission imposes huge fines on media houses. Agba Jalingo, a publisher, was locked up for months on spurious accusations of treason. At least 28 journalists were harassed and attacked during the 2023 general elections, reported the Committee to Protect Journalists. Buhari’s trenchant disobedience of court orders has led to the prolonged incarceration of several citizens.
As democratic institutions break down, activists need to wake up to the challenges of the contemporary world. Unlike the past when civil society organisations confronted military dictatorship head-on, their silence these days fuels the excesses of the dictators in the corridors of power masquerading as democrats.
This ought to change. The once vibrant Nigerian Bar Association, Nigerian Medical Association, Nigeria Labour Congress, the oil industry unions, National Association of Nigerian Students, and Academic Staff Union of Universities should re-ignite the doggedness of the past that dissuaded government from suppressive acts. The Nigerian judiciary should deepen democracy by giving fearless judgements when governments break the law, while citizens should imbibe the culture of peaceful agitation.
