Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday hailed the international response to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, urging governments to show the same concern for civilians caught up in other conflicts.
\n\u201cAmongst the fog of war and the darkness that we have seen in this war in Ukraine, there has been a shining light,\u201d the US-based NGO\u2019s acting executive director, Tirana Hassan, told AFP in London.
\n\u201cThat has been the international response and the commitment to international justice,\u201d she said as HRW released its annual report on rights worldwide. \u201cIt actually is a moment of hope,\u201d she added.
\nIn the report, HRW urged governments to \u201creplicate the best of the international response in Ukraine\u201d and \u201cscale up the political will to address other crises\u201d.
\nMillions of Ukrainian civilians fled across the borders to take refuge in European countries after the war broke out in February last year.
\nBy September, \u201cmore than 4 million refugees from Ukraine \u2014 approximately 90 per cent of them women and children\u201d \u2014 had moved to European Union countries, the report said.
\n\u2018Double standards\u2019
\n\u201cThe European states came together to actually welcome refugees,\u201d Hassan said. Britain, however, kept visa restrictions for Ukrainians.
\nThe United Nations human rights office and the International Criminal Court at The Hague are both probing alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
\n\u201cNever in the history of responding to conflicts have we seen a coordinated international response where we have all the arsenal of the international community to protect human rights and ensure accountability,\u201d HRW said.
\nYet it also wrote that the response \u201cexposed the double standards\u201d of most EU countries \u201cin their ongoing treatment of countless Syrians, Afghans, Palestinians, Somalis and others seeking asylum\u201d.
\nThe report also said that the brutal two-year conflict in Tigray in Ethiopia \u2014 Africa\u2019s second-largest country \u2014 has received a \u201ctiny fraction of the global attention\u201d.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s very important that the international community continues to push for accountability in places like Ethiopia,\u201d said Hassan, describing the situation there as \u201cone of the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crises\u201d, affecting over 22m people.
\n\u2018War crimes\u2019
\nHRW warned that international support for Ukraine did not amount to a \u201cquick fix\u201d for the conflict.
\nIt urged governments to \u201creflect\u201d on what would have happened if they had made a \u201cconcerted effort\u201d to call Russian President Vladimir Putin to account earlier over military intervention in Syria and Ukraine and his crackdown on human rights in Russia.
\nDuring the current hostilities, \u201cRussian forces committed a litany of violations of international humanitarian law, including indiscriminate and disproportionate bombing\u201d, the report said.
\nIn occupied areas, \u201cRussian or Russian-affiliated forces committed apparent war crimes, including torture, summary executions, sexual violence, and enforced disappearances\u201d, it added.
\nThe report said some violations were committed by both Ukrainian and Russian forces.
\nBoth sides \u201cat times used schools for military purposes, leading to their coming under attack by the opposing force\u201d and \u201cused cluster munitions\u201d, HRW said.
\n\u201cPrisoners of war (POWs) on both sides have been ill-treated, tortured, and in some cases apparently summarily executed,\u201d the NGO added.
\nBoth sides \u201calso broadcast images and details of captured prisoners of war, thereby exposing them to public curiosity, in violation of the Geneva Conventions,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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