General

Amnesty: Toxic fear mongering pushing back human rights

February 22, 2017

‘Grave violations’ of civil liberties in 159 countries from Myanmar to France opens door to dark times, group warns.

Ex-UKIP leader Nigel Farage poses during a launch for an EU referendum poster [File: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters]

Toxic fear mongering by anti-establishment politicians, among them US President Donald Trump and the leaders of Turkey, Hungary and the Philippines, is contributing to a global pushback against human rights, Amnesty International said.

Releasing its 408-page annual report on rights abuses around the world on Wednesday, the watchdog group described 2016 as “the year when the cynical use of ‘us versus them’ narratives of blame, hate and fear took on a global prominence to a level not seen since the 1930s”, when Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany.

Salil Shetty, the group’s secretary-general, said: “A new world order where human rights are portrayed as a barrier to national interests makes the ability to tackle mass atrocities dangerously low, leaving the door open to abuses reminiscent of the darkest times of humanity.”

File: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was named as one of the leaders that scapegoats refugees [Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP]

Amnesty named Trump, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte among leaders it said are “wielding a toxic agenda that hounds, scapegoats and dehumanises entire groups of people”.

“Poisonous” rhetoric employed by Trump in his election campaign exemplified “the global trend of angrier and more divisive politics”, Amnesty said.