"It’s not just the economy, it’s a human rights crisis: the world is sitting on a social, political and economic time bomb," said Irene Kahn, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
There is a stark warning in the report: that rising poverty could lead to instability and mass violence. Human rights around the world had been trampled on in the name of security and the response to global terror. They were now being relegated to the back seat in pursuit of economic recovery after the meltdown, according to the report. The response from increasingly authoritarian governments has been repressive.
The report concludes that sustained economic recovery will not happen unless governments tackle human rights and bring an end to armed conflicts.
Hehe you have to credit Amnesty for trying to argue that the Economic Crisis will not be cured until human rights abuses end. Kinda like Christians and sin.
ReplyDeleteI have just finished a couple of hours study with my brother for his essay on Burma. So purely theoretically (I have no actual facts or figures to back this). The Junta is Burma is using the fact that the evil western countries have so evilly destroyed Burma's economy that they must repress harshly lest the country fall to bits.
I would have thought it was the other way around, that the economic state would have to improve for people to be able to afford food and poverty levels decrease.
ReplyDeleteIn one of my other lectures recently the lecturer was stating some views on globalization. Some scholars believe that that the gap between the rich and the poor is not increasing, but because of globalization and the information rich age, we are more aware of it. The more aware of something you become, the more it can seem to increase because of the more you find out about it Although over the past year the situations is definitely getting worse.
This article makes me think of George Soros on his 'Capitalism's last chance'. At the moment I am buying into what he is saying that capitalism will ruin the world and people should or will look for a new type of system. It is quite an interesting read I would recommend a read of it for anyone who has got the time.
Eh? Who are you disagreeing with Nicole? I'm not quite sure I catch you when you say that the Economic State would have to improve for people to afford turkey and caviar (food). This article is about human rights no?
ReplyDeletehmmm...I'm quite cynical about this report. It seems rather melodramatic to state the world is sitting on a social, political and economic time bomb. They also haven't mentioned any specific examples of countries suffering increased human rights abuses due to this recession. So unless you count millions of people losing their jobs due to economic recession as human rights abuse, I'm failing to see a great connection.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't some of the things we have studied this term help you figure this out? Economic recession might, for instance, diminish the resources elites control, and make the poor more dissatisfied with their current governments. To avoid losing power, elites might therefore invest more on repression. Is there evidence of this?
ReplyDelete