Conflicts, climate crisis… The year 2023 has been “terrifying” for human rights around the world, denounces Human Rights Watch

The NGO also points to several trends marking the “erosion of human rights”, such as “the selective anger of governments” in the face of crises around the world.

The year 2023 was “terrifying” for human rights which have further deteriorated around the world, deplores Human Rights Watch in its annual report published Thursday January 11. In this document of more than 700 pages reviewing nearly 100 countries, the organization catalogs the “immense suffering” caused by the war between Israel and Hamas, by that between the two rival generals in Sudan, or by the continuation of conflicts in Ukraine, Burma, Ethiopia and the Sahel.

“In 2023, civilians have been targeted, attacked and killed on a scale unprecedented in the recent history of Israel and Palestine”, notes the report. He accuses of “war crimes” both Hamas, for the terrorist attacks which left around 1,140 dead on October 7, and the Israeli army for its offensive which killed 23,500 people in the Gaza Strip. Concerning this Palestinian territory, “one of the most important crimes committed is collective punishment” of all civilians, just as the fact of“starve” the population, underlines HRW boss Tirana Hassan in an interview with AFP.

Human Rights Watch also denounces “massive violations” of civil rights in Sudan by the two rival generals Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and Mohamed Hamdane Daglo. She castigates the“impunity”which led to “repeated cycles of violence” in the country for twenty years. Aside from armed conflicts, the NGO notes the catastrophic impacts of climate change during this year 2023, the hottest since temperature records began.

HRW denounces “erosion of human rights”

It also highlights several trends marking the“erosion of human rights”. So, “it has been a terrifying year not only for human rights repression and wartime atrocities, but also for selective government anger and transactional diplomacy”, insists the report. These behaviors send “the message that the dignity of some deserves to be protected, but not that of all, that some lives are worth more than others”, says HRW. The report particularly criticizes the European Union, whose “the foreign policy priority with its southern neighbors remains to contain the departure of migrants to Europe at all costs.”

Also target of this “Two weights, two measures” : the difference between “quick and justified conviction” by many countries of the Hamas attacks on October 7, in the face of responses “much more contained”, notably from the United States and the EU, in the face of the Israeli bombing of Gaza. Or the absence of convictions of “the intensification of repression” in China, particularly in Xinjiang and Tibet.

In this context, Human Rights Watch describes an international human rights system “threat”but who remains capable of acting. “We have also seen that institutions can mobilize to resist and fight”, assures Tirana Hassan. She cites as an example the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Russian President Vladimir Putin, for his responsibility in the war in Ukraine.