Amnesty: The West’s double standards in dealing with Ukraine any many other abuses
Amnesty International said, on Tuesday, that the global condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year highlighted the double standards adopted by the West with regard to human rights violations in the entire world.
In its annual global report for the year 2022, the organization referred to what it described as the West’s silence regarding the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s record in terms of rights and oppression in Egypt, as well as Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
“The West’s strong response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine stands in sharp contrast to its disgraceful failure to meaningfully address egregious abuses by some of the West’s allies such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt,” Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard said.
She added that the responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, “provided us with some evidence of what can be done if there is the political will; We have seen global condemnation, investigations of crimes, opening of borders to refugees; Such a response should be a model for how we address all gross violations of human rights”.
Many countries imposed sanctions on Moscow and opened their borders to Ukrainian refugees after the invasion, while the International Criminal Court launched an investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine.
But Amnesty said the conflict highlighted a failure to respond to abuses in other parts of the world.
In particular, she referred to “the West’s silence regarding Saudi Arabia’s record in the field of rights, its inaction on the level of Egypt, and its refusal to confront the apartheid regime in Israel towards the Palestinians”.
Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Special Rapporteur concluded that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians amounted to apartheid policies similar to what was happening in South Africa of separation and discrimination between whites and blacks, a charge rejected by the Jewish state.
