Beeko urged an end to "double standards" in this regard for Germany as well: "The unbureaucratic help for people from Ukraine should be a blueprint for dealing with people seeking protection from all parts of the world."
Increasing refugee movements and mass protests are the two most striking developments in human rights over the past year, said Beeko: "People around the world are fleeing and protesting because their lives are threatened, because they are being oppressed, persecuted and disenfranchised, in short: because their human rights are being violated ." As an example, he cited the ongoing protests in Iran.
The past year was not only marked by peaceful demonstrations in many places, but also "more and more often by extreme violence and government repression of these peacefully demonstrating people". For example, governments in 85 of the countries surveyed used unlawful violence against protesters, Beeko said. "That's well over half of the countries surveyed."
Deadly weapons were used in crackdowns on peaceful demonstrators in 35 countries. Protesters were arbitrarily arrested in 79 countries. 29 countries restricted the right to peaceful protest through new laws, according to the organization's report.
Governments and societies must stand by the demonstrators and protect their human rights, for example through publicity and political pressure, Beeko demanded. At the same time, Germany and Europe would have to "ban the development, sale and export of biometric surveillance technologies". Such technologies are "used in countries like Iran or Russia to identify and track protesters".
With regard to the human rights situation in Germany, the report criticizes, among other things, the increase in hate crimes, for example with an anti-Semitic background. The report also refers to a decision by the European Court of Human Rights, according to which Germany failed to adequately investigate allegations of racial profiling by the police and thus violated the ban on discrimination. Racial profiling means that dark-skinned people are checked more frequently or more strictly than other citizens.
In its country reports, the organization also gives figures on war crimes and crimes against humanity: According to Amnesty, it has documented relevant evidence in 20 of the countries examined, for example in Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Ukraine.
The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine acts like an "accelerator," said Beeko: It amplifies the negative human rights trends of recent years. The war also shows the importance of consistent application of internationally valid rules, emphasized the Secretary General.
At the same time, governments like the US and the EU disregard human rights violations in countries like China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia when it serves their own benefit, he continued: "Such double standards damage human rights and weaken the international order."
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