Global Breakdown of International Law Amid Flagrant War Crimes in Gaza & Beyond, Says Amnesty Chief

this is democracy Now democracynow.org the Warren peace report I'm Amy Goodman with Nur SCH the world is reaping a harvest of terrifying consequences from escalating conflict and the near breakdown of international law Amnesty International said yesterday as it launched its annual report on human rights in 155 countries the report highlights Israel's assault on Gaza with evidence of war crimes continuing to mount as well as us failures to denounce rights violations committed by Israel it also called out Russia's ongoing aggression against Ukraine and pointed to the rise of authoritarianism and massive rights violations in Sudan Ethiopia and Myanmar amnesty International's Secretary General anes kayar said quote Israel's flagrant disregard for international law is compounded by the failures of its allies to stop the Indescribable civilian Bloodshed Meed out in Gaza many of those allies were the very architects of that postor War II system of law end quote well anes kalar joins us now from London welcome to democracy now we so appreciate you being on with us um if you can start off by talking about the situation um in Gaza right now you just heard in our previous segment the Gaza based journalist describing uh the discovery of the hundreds of bodies in a mass grave at the Nasser medical complex following Israel's Siege of the hospital what are you calling for right now thank you very much for uh welcoming me on your program ah you know I I've listened to the journalist and um what what can we what can I add uh more um since uh October 7 we have been documented a plethora of V viations committed first by Hamas and then by the Israeli authorities but in particular um the Israel authorities have been um you know have committed an extraordinary amount of violations of international law the indiscriminate and targeted bombing of uh civilians we know now that there is at least 30,000 of them that have been killed 70% of the infrastructure of Gaza have been destroyed I'm talking civilian infrastructure schools hospitals cemeteries cultural institutions um we know that um there has been the highest number of journalists killed in any conflict the highest number of humanitarian workers killed in any conflict we know that famine is being used as a weapon of War we know that Collective punishment has been waged against the the Palestinian people and we also now know um of you know clear evidence of extrajudicial killings as highlighted by the discovery of those Mass Graves that are coming on top of all the um detentions and uh use of torture and and ill treatment so the the scale of the violations committed over the last 6 months is unprecedented and I want to insist on that it is unprecedented the harm to civilians is unprecedented and what is making matters worth is that this is all broadcasted every day in front of our very eyes and yet nothing nothing is being done to prevent that Bloodshed the United States has been using its right of veto at the security Council to prevent any kind of meaningful intervention it has shielded um Israel from the denunciation that that was required it has protected them it has pretended for the longest period of time that no violations were committed this is why Amnesty International is concluding that the the the the International System is on the brink of collapse right now international law is not just violated people who are violating international law are justifying their violations and that means they are pretending that international law either has no meaning or does not apply to them but whatever intention they have the outcome is the empting out of international law the empting out of the Geneva Convention uh that were supposed to regulate War the empting out of the genocide convention the empting out of the universal Declaration of Human right and the completely uselessness of the security Council we have an international court of justice that could play a role and yet its rulings are being ignored so all in all coming on the on the hills of Russia's aggression of Ukraine the only conclusion that we can reach is that the International System is collapsing and that the world is being plunged back to where we were promised will happen never again Dr anas kalar we want to go to uh US National Security adviser Jake Sullivan who on Wednesday called for an investigation into the mass Graves at Nasser hospital we have been in touch at multiple levels with the Israeli government we want answers we want to understand exactly what happened you've seen some public commentary from the IDF on that but we want to know the specifics of what the circumstances of this were and we want to see this thoroughly and transparently invest at so that the whole world can have a comprehensive answer and we the United States can as well so uh that's Jake Sullivan speaking Wednesday if you could respond to that and what kind of Investigation you believe needs to happen and who should conduct this investigation well first and foremost um Amnesty International and others have been calling on for those investigation for a very long time the journalist that was speaking before me pointed out that those inv investigation have been called on since 2014 and nothing has ever happened you cannot rely on the Israeli authorities to deliver any kind of meaningful uh investigation right now no one can enter Gaza no one can provide uh the expertise required for this investigation we have mass Graves people are looking and that's absolutely uh human are looking for their for their loved one which means that the crime scene itself is going to be less within a few hours or a few days there are absolutely nobody there who can protect the crime scene who can provide the necessary expertise uh so that at least we have a sense of how people died when did they die and and the kind of um violation that have been perpetrated against them so yes we want an investigation but I don't think this is a genuine demand for an investigation people know that masg graes are extremely fragile and right now they are probably no crime scene left to be investigated effectively but we don't need that investigation to conclude that um Israel has been committing war crimes after war crimes after war crimes we have plenty of evidence since October 7 of many of those violations we at Amnesty International have documented with good evidence um indiscriminate shelling of civilians we know from people on the ground that almost all civilians in frr rors have been destroyed and this cannot be justified just by the the the notion of military objective of military necessity we have the the evidence required to conclude that Israel has you know repeatedly repeatedly to an extent unprecedented unprecedented extent violated international law it is now time for the United States more than time it's too late in fact for the United to take a stand to denounce Israel's violations to stop arming Israel because that's what they are still doing and to do everything in their power to put an end to this Bloodshed to the killings of the Palestinians that we are all witnessing that we are all made to witness can you talk Dr kalamar about the US disconnect of the Biden Administration on the one hand uh con calling vaguely for ceasefire and saying from blinkin to President Biden their hearts are broken uh when it comes to Palestinian casualties but on the other hand continuing to supply the weapons it's not a disconnect I think it's very well organized and very well scripted you know that they are making some sound that they feel they have to make but that has absolutely no impact on on their actions uh we are now middle of April uh a month ago finally the United States agreed to a ceasefire uh adding though that it was nonbinding so you know that that that also shows uh that their heart was not really into um the the ceasefire last one the US abstained yes um insisting that the um that the that the ceasefire was uh was actually not not that the resolution was non-binding um they have had plenty of of opportunities since October 7 to demand a ceasefire but they use their right of veto to to stop it and let let me add and as well as the the release of all hostages um so you know it's not a disconnect I think it's a very well planned very well scripted commitment uh to support uh Israel all way including to a possible genocide because let's recall that the international court of justice has concluded that the risk of genocide were extremely high and we have every evidence in front of us of that of those risk indeed some eminent legal Scholars have concluded that genocide was already occurring so the United States is providing support to a country that is VI ating international law repeatedly that is justifying those violations in the name of going after uh ramas without due respect for the um the proportionality and the Discrimination that should accompany uh their actions um by so doing the United States is making itself complicit to some of the worst possible crimes being committed right now and uh Dr anas uh kalar if you could put this in the wider context of what your rep report uh uh finds you've said that the world is facing the demise of the 1948 International order created after the second World War uh amid both the conflict in Gaza and in Ukraine if you could elaborate uh on your conclusions sure um so I've already highlighted uh what's happening in Gaza and H how Israel is violating international law and is justifying those violations this is coming hot on the hills of Russia's aggression in Ukraine itself a violation of the UN Charter Russia too is justifying its violation of international law it's justifying its violation of the UN Charter in the name of some kind of um vision of its own uh security Russia too has been justifying its repeated violations of international uh Geneva Convention through its bombardment of um of of Ukrainian through the the forced transfer of populations so over the last 14 24 months we have seen some of the main um superpowers in this world uh claiming that the international legal system that was established after World War II does not apply to them we have seen Russia doing that we have seen Israel doing that and we have seen the United States doing that by proxy uh through its support to um to Israel those institution that were established after World War II including the security Council and later on the international criminal court the international court of justice these are the backbone of preventing the very worst happening to the world and those in institution have been rendered you know useless really um the security Council cannot do anything for peace and security because of the abuse of the veto power the international court of justice is delivering very strong rulings that everyone is ignoring the international criminal court is delivering warrant including against President Putin that must people are ignoring so those institution that are supposed to protect us all are not protecting us anymore and the international legal framework the international normative framework is being progressively emptied out through those actions and through the justification of those violations when Israel is saying international law does not apply to us because we have a well-founded military objective and Military necessity they are pretending that this military necessity takes precedence of over everything that is not the case that is not the case when Russia is saying uh International un shter does not apply to us because of whatever NATO may be doing uh they are also empting out the UN Charter that is not the purpose of the UN Charter that is not there to um to be violated by Russia in that way so the the entire legal normative framework right now is is at risk of completely collapsing and what do we have instead nothing we have the power of the arms the weapons um and we you know we are basically going back to our pre9 uh 1940 uh situation we are back to where we were supposed not to ever ever again go back to and if you could also talk about you know a number of uh places that the report highlights that receive very little media attention uh me ymar and and Sudan if you could talk about the massive rights violations going on there yes absolutely and that too um I should have mentioned these are the so-called forgotten crisis um a they are characterized by Massive violations by parties to to that conflict uh Sudan in particular I've seen thousands of people dead over the last uh 12 months the largest number of people um refugees uh abroad in in a very short period of time the massive use of sexual violence ethnic violence um and finally when the security Council took action it took them almost a year um their their resolution has been completely ignored so the the suffering in Sudan is falling off the international agenda and yet it is extremely uh extremely heartbreaking in Myanmar uh there the uh the military um government has been protected by China we finally saw the security Council a year a year and a half ago uh taking a res a resolution that was quite timid but a first step but meanwhile the militaries have been uh uh armed uh by uh by China they have continued their indiscriminate or even targeted um attack on on civilians throughout the territory hundreds of people have been arrested uh tortured even political prisoners have been condemned to death sentenced to death and killed um that's the situation in Myanmar I'm not mentioning the Democratic Republic of Congo that has completely Fallen the agenda for the last 20 30 years and yet it is probably the longest ever crisis again where no one is taking action or the the kind of action that is that is being required so the Forgotten crisis around the world are multiplying they are increasing in fact according to the expert we are witnessing an increase in the number of armed conflict uh around the world a reflection of a very unstable International System a reflection of the conflict between the three superpower vying for emony the United States Russia and and China and the multiplication of those Conflict by proxy I will say between them is uh costed uh in in human lives in hundred and thousands millions of human lives around the world finally anes kalamar if you can talk about the alarm that you're sounding in this report on artificial intelligence and its role in furthering racism discrimination division during public election you note the dominance of big Tech risks a supercharging of human rights violations talk about what you see as the dangers absolutely so we know that over the last 12 months we have seen generative uh artificial intelligence um coming into our almost um daily daily reality um it is a technology that no one really fully understand certainly not politicians and policy makers it is one that is completely unregulated as of now and if what has happened with artificial intelligence non-generative One Is to Be The Benchmark by which to assess what is going to happen in the future then we need to be very worried over the last few years Amnesty International has been monitoring how artificial intelligence um you know in in uh through through for instance uh platform social media platform platform uh in the the in facial recognitions through the Spy Wes all of those technologies have had disastrous impact on human rights over the last 12 months in uh Facebook for instance platforms have been used to um to to you know to uh to Launch to spread ethnic violence in in Ethiopia uh in Serbia we have documented that semi automated uh algorithm have been used uh particularly in the context of the provision of public social assistance in ways that has discriminated against Roma people and people with uh disability spywares that were denounced um that have been denounced since 2020 2021 with the Pegasus project well guess what in 2023 we found more evidence of Pegasus being used uh in many countries around the world including India where we're going to have a elections coming up so um the the control of the spyware is not happening in addition to Pegasus that continue to be used around the world we have monitored this year the use of the pr data uh files which is EU European based and that too has been used and sold around the world including against journalist activist human rights um Defenders so abusive facial recognition um abusive Mass surveillance abusive uh use of spyware all of those things are extremely dangerous for human rights including in a context where there is a multiplication of arm conflict and they should be the object of moratorium we are calling as well on those big tech company whose business model is feeding um the the multiplication of data of certain kind of data we are calling on them as well to a to be much better regulated than they are now but also to take action to regulate their own content but it's it's a wild west it's the Wild West in a context of um the collapse of the International System this is why we are sounding the alarm I mean you know the as of today we have the International System on the brink of collapse we have a an an industrial revolution uh revolution of Information Technology that no one is regulating effectively and that has the potential to to run a you know a major disaster for for societies it is is more than time more than time to wake up to the reality that we are confronting if we want if we want to you know to to deliver um to our children and grandchildren a safer Planet I haven't even mentioned the climate crisis in the midst of it all so I'm sorry if I'm being very um apocalyptic here but I think people need to wake up to that to the reality that we are really really facing a a an incredibly serious dangerous situation for all of us analar we want to thank you so much for being with us Amnesty International Secretary General speaking to us from London

Channel: Democracy Now!

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Id: 9C2vPzWhm7Y

Length: 23min 22sec (1402 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2024