Amnesty International publishes annual human rights report News
Amnesty International publishes annual human rights report
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[JURIST] Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] on Wednesday published its annual report entitled State of the World’s Human Rights [materials], which details the human rights landscape across the world in 2011. Much of the report focuses on the pro-democracy protests and civil unrest that swept the Middle East and Northern Africa in the last year. The report indicates that governmental responses to the protests were repressive, and that arbitrary arrest and detention and the suppression of freedom of expression are ongoing problems. AI Secretary General Salil Shetty contends that many human rights abuses are a result of poor leadership [press release]:

Failed leadership has gone global in the last year, with politicians responding to protests with brutality or indifference. Governments must show legitimate leadership and reject injustice by protecting the powerless and restraining the powerful. It is time to put people before corporations and rights before profits.

The report also highlights areas of progress, including a worldwide trend toward the abolition of the death penalty, as well as the arrests and criminal prosecutions of former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladic [ICTY case materials; JURIST news archive] and Goran Hadzic [ICTY backgrounder].

AI regularly reports on human rights violations around the world. Earlier this month, AI urged [press release] the Sudanese government to stop its alleged press censorship [JURIST report]. In January, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] released [press release] its annual World Report [materials], which also provides a comprehensive catalog of the world’s major human rights violations [JURIST report] and gives HRW’s outlook on trends and remedies to ongoing situations.