Amnesty International: Powerful nations failing to stop rights abuses - latimes

Shameful milestones in human rights abuses were reached in 2014 as tens of thousands of civilians were killed amid armed conflicts from Syria to Ukraine and the world's wealthiest countries did little to halt the violence, Amnesty International reported Wednesday.

The number of refugees from the world's battle zones topped 50 million last year, the greatest human displacement since World War II, the London-based rights group reported. It accused Western nations of an "abhorrent" response to the plight of those driven out of their countries, noting that of the 4 million Syrian refugees only 150,000 have been taken in by European Union countries.

As thousands took to rickety boats to escape the horrors of war in their Middle Eastern and African homelands, at least 3,400 lost their lives in Mediterranean Sea crossings in 2014, the report noted. It appealed to European states to do more to help desperate asylum-seekers.

The United States also came in for harsh criticism in the annual report on the state of human rights in the world. Amnesty lauded the Obama administration's disclosure of CIA torture of terrorism suspects in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks but faulted the U.S. government for failing to provide "accountability and remedy for the crimes under international law."

The report also cited the police killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., as a case spotlighting racial tensions and gun violence in the United States.

Amnesty reserved its harshest criticism for the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council for abuse of their veto power to block action that could alleviate civilian suffering in Syria, Iraq, the Gaza Strip, Israel and Ukraine. Russia and China have cast four vetoes since 2011 to derail international intervention in Syria, where 210,000 people -- mostly civilians -- have been killed since the conflict began nearly four years ago, the report said.

Security Council veto-wielding countries, which also include the United States, Britain and France, have consistently used that authority to "promote their political self-interest or geopolitical interest above the interest of protecting civilians," Amnesty International Secretary-General Salil Shetty said in releasing the report.

In its 424-page chronicle, Amnesty International called on the permanent members to renounce their veto power in circumstances where genocide or mass atrocities have been reported. While there is an initiative afoot in the General Assembly to restrict the use of vetoes on proposed actions to protect civilians, there seemed virtually no chance of it gaining unanimous support or of the five big powers voluntarily giving up their trump cards.  Read More at Powerful nations failing to stop rights abuses

Amnesty International: Powerful nations failing to stop rights abuses