Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
My Profile
Top News
Reuters top ten news stories delivered to your inbox each day.
Subscribe
You are here:
Home
>
News
>
International
>
Article
Home
Business & Finance
News
U.S.
Politics
International
Technology
Entertainment
Sports
Lifestyle
Oddly Enough
Health
Science
Special Coverage
Video
Pictures
Your View
The Great Debate
Blogs
Weather
Reader Feedback
Do More With Reuters
RSS
Widgets
Mobile
Podcasts
Newsletters
Your View
Make Reuters My Homepage
Partner Services
CareerBuilder
Affiliate Network
Professional Products
Support (Customer Zone)
Reuters Media
Financial Products
About Thomson Reuters
Amnesty: Economic crisis fuels rights "time bomb"
Thu May 28, 2009 12:17am EDT
Email | Print |
Share
| Reprints | Single Page
[-]
Text
[+]
By Adrian Croft
LONDON (Reuters) - The global economic downturn has aggravated human rights violations and distracted attention from abuses, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
The world faced a grave danger that "rising poverty and desperate economic and social conditions could lead to political instability and mass violence," the rights group's secretary-general, Irene Khan, wrote in its annual report.
As governments struggled to resuscitate their economies, human rights were being "relegated to the back seat," she said, calling for a "new global deal on human rights ... to defuse the human rights time bomb".
This new deal was about governments living up to their obligations on human rights, rather than creating new treaties, she told Reuters in an interview.
"We are sitting on a powder keg of inequality, injustice and insecurity, and it is about to explode," she wrote in the report on "The state of the world's human rights".
The worst downturn in decades has plunged large parts of the world into recession, slashing industrial output and trade and throwing many people out of work.
Protests against rising food prices and economic hardships last year were met with tough responses in many countries, and protesters were killed in Tunisia and Cameroon, Khan said.
XENOPHOBIA
Xenophobia was on the rise, she said, citing attacks on African immigrants in South Africa a year ago that killed at least 56 people.
World leaders were concentrating on attempts to revive the global economy but neglecting conflicts that spawned widespread human rights abuses, she said, citing Gaza, Sudan's Darfur region, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan.
Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers had been laid off as export-driven economies slowed down, leaving more "disillusioned, angry, young men idle in their home villages and an easy prey to extremist politics and violence," she said.
One bright spot in the human rights picture was a change in the U.S. position on the war on terror, she told Reuters.
Soon after taking office in January, U.S. President Barack Obama ordered the closure of the Guantanamo prison camp for terrorism suspects.
Noting that nearly one billion people suffered from hunger or malnutrition, Khan said food shortages had been aggravated by discrimination and political manipulation of food distribution.
In Zimbabwe, where five million people needed food aid by the end of 2008, the government used food as a weapon against its political opponents, she said, while in North Korea, the authorities deliberately restricted food aid to oppress people. Continued...
View article on single page
Share:
Del.icio.us
Digg
Mixx
Yahoo!
Facebook
LinkedIn
Next Article:
Amnesty - economic crisis fuels rights "time bomb"
Afghanistan and Pakistan
Fighting the Taliban
A growing insurgency in Afghanistan is also spreading deep into Pakistan, making both countries crucial to U.S. war efforts in the region. Full Coverage
More International News
North Korea faces U.N. sanctions
| Video
Pakistani Taliban claim responsibility for Lahore attack
| Video
Obama to hear Abbas plea on Israeli settlements
Photos show rape and sex abuse in Iraq jails: report
NATO and Afghan troops kill 34 Taliban
More International News...
Editor's Choice
Slideshow
A selection of our best photos from the past 24 hours. Slideshow
Most Popular on Reuters
Articles
Video
North Korea faces U.N. sanctions | Video
Greenland ice could fuel severe U.S. sea level rise
Photos show rape and sex abuse in Iraq jails: report
GM bankruptcy near as bond swap fails, no Opel deal | Video
U.S. plan to buy banks' bad loans stalls: report
TOPWRAP 3-Obama says worst over, but debt fears roil markets
Short Stocks: Bets build against transportation, Motorola
FACTBOX-Biggest changes in Nasdaq short interest
Man pushes would-be suicide off bridge
GM issues paychecks early amid bankruptcy fears
Most Popular Articles RSS Feed
Video
Talk of the Town
Harsh talk, open hand for N. Korea
Passer-by pushes suicide jumper
GM bankruptcy seen near
Geithner's China agenda
US commitment to Japan, South Korea
N. Korea threatens South
Pelosi talks climate change in China
Huge blast rocks Lahore
Driverless cars on the horizon
Most Popular Videos RSS Feed
The Great Debate
The wrong side of history
Bernd Debusmann
President Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, lean towards pragmatism over ideology and principle, closer in foreign policy outlook to Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger than to George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice. Commentary
Follow Bernd Debusmann on Twitter
We want to hear from you
Join the Reuters Consumer Insight Panel and help us get to know you better
Please take a moment to complete our survey
Reuters.com:
Help and Contact Us |
Advertise With Us |
Mobile |
Newsletters |
RSS |
Labs |
Archive |
Site Index |
Video Index
Thomson Reuters Corporate:
Copyright |
Disclaimer |
Privacy |
Professional Products |
Professional Products Support |
About Thomson Reuters |
Careers
International Editions:
Africa |
Arabic |
Argentina |
Brazil |
Canada |
China |
France |
Germany |
India |
Italy |
Japan |
Latin America |
Mexico |
Russia |
Spain |
United Kingdom |
United States
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.