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Original URL: World leaders abandoning human rights: Amnesty
World leaders are undermining human rights for millions of people with regressive policies and hate-filled rhetoric, but their actions have ignited global protest movements in response, a rights group said.
US President Donald Trump, Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and China's President Xi Jinping were among a number of politicians who rolled out regressive policies in 2017, according to Amnesty International's annual human rights report published on Thursday.
The human rights body also mentioned the leaders of Egypt, the Philippines and Venezuela.
"The spectres of hatred and fear now loom large in world affairs, and we have few governments standing up for human rights in these disturbing times," Salil Shetty, Amnesty's secretary-general, said.
"Instead, leaders such as el-Sisi, Duterte, Maduro, Putin, Trump and Xi are callously undermining the rights of millions."
[...] The regressive approach to human rights adopted by a number of world leaders has, however, inspired new waves of social activism and protest, Amnesty said, highlighting the example of the Women's March in January last year, which began in the US before becoming a global protest.
(Score: 2) by pvanhoof on Saturday February 24 2018, @11:54PM (2 children)
Yes well, the US has a variety of xenophobia-like concepts in their population and politics, too. I don't think Chinese people, or politics, are very much different than people in the US when it comes to that. Nor are Europeans very much different. Nor is that the point.
The point is that China is the next empire, and the US is not. The EU will need to have a deal with the next empire no matter what.
It's pragmatic realism or sometimes also called realpolitik.
The EU got gas from Russia during the Cold War, too. That, that was also realpolitik. The EU will still get Russian gas, by the way. That is also realpolitik.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Sunday February 25 2018, @12:55AM (1 child)
Even on a realpolitik level China has a very long way to go. China doesn't have much in the way of real friends. North Korea is about it, but they're more an albatross.
Nobody speaks Chinese, so that quite limits how far they can project power through cultural hegemony. China has always practiced a China-first foreign policy, so that limits how many people want to emulate them or their values.
China has been building its military and tech, sure, but that means a repeat of the Cold War, not Chinese supremacy.
Also, let it not be forgotten or glossed over how fractious Chinese society is. It is riven by around a dozen deep social fissures to America's one. It doesn't take much going wrong for those to rise to the surface.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2018, @03:10AM
. ...fractious Chinese society is...
Also:
How corrupt is it at all levels, everything happens with bribes.
Lack of rule of law (the local strongman often makes the local rules).