Save the human, save the economy
Defendants from trial of Mahalla protestors in Egypt (Hossam el-Hamalawy)
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Thursday, 28, May 2009 05:18
World leaders have been told attempts to heal the broken economy are doomed unless they base a recovery on rebuilding human rights.
A major new report on Thursday warned that the world was sitting on a social, political and economic time bomb, putting it on the brink of an "explosive human rights crisis".
Presenting its annual report for 2009, Amnesty International called for a new global deal on human rights, framing its findings from 157 countries in light of the emergence of the G20 as the world's conduit for economic recovery.
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The organisation's secretary general Irene Khan, unveiling the report in London this week, warned that economic recovery depended on economic stability.
"World leaders scrambling to put together stimulus packages to revive the global economy continue to ignore the deadly conflicts around the world that are spawning massive human rights abuses, entrenching poverty and endangering regional stability," she said.
She equated the only solution to the world's unfolding human rights crisis to the international, regulation-driven approach championed for the economy.
"If there is one lesson to be learned from the financial crisis it is that international borders do not insulate us from harm," Ms Khan continued.
"Finding solutions to the world's worst conflicts and to the increasing threat of extremist violence through greater respect for human rights is part and parcel of the bigger picture of getting the global economy on its feet."
Speaking to inthenews.co.uk she explained that economic recovery was neither sustainable nor equitable if it did not include a strong focus on human rights.
"Unless world leaders improve the human rights of those who suffered during the time of economic growth they will not be able to bring people out of poverty," she explained.
"We have already seen growing unrest, instability and insecurity as a result: Human rights are the real stimulus for the economy."
Amnesty International is calling on countries, particularly the European Union and United States to use their trade agreements with China as leverage to change, noting that open markets had not led to open societies in China and Russia.
The group is also launching a new campaign, Demand Dignity, where it hopes to have as much as success at helping and raising awareness of prisoners of poverty as it did with prisoners of conscience.