The UN Security Council has
failed to match the courage shown by protesters around the world and is
increasingly "unfit for purpose," Amnesty International said in its
annual report Thursday.
The rights group called for
the signing of a strong treaty on the global arms trade when the United Nations
meets on the issue in July, saying it would be an acid test for world leaders
to place rights over profits.
Amnesty highlighted the
failure to end the bloodshed in Syria and said repeated vetoes by major arms
exporters Russia and China had left the UN's top security body "looking
redundant as a guardian of global peace.”
The report also singled out
emerging powers India, Brazil and South Africa, saying they were
"complicit through their silence" on key rights issues.
"You've had people standing up, putting their lives on the line," Amnesty's Secretary General Salil Shetty told AFP.
"You've had people standing up, putting their lives on the line," Amnesty's Secretary General Salil Shetty told AFP.
"Unfortunately that
has been met by a complete failed leadership both at the national and global
level," he added.
Shetty said that in the
21st century the UN Security Council was "simply not fit for purpose. If
they do not change the way in which they behave, I think there are going to be
increasing questions about the relevance of the body."
In its 50th annual report,
Amnesty said the vocal support by many global powers in the early months of the
Arab Spring in 2011 had not translated into action, with many international
leaders now looking the other way.
In Syria the group said
there was a "clear and compelling case" for alleged crimes against
humanity by Bashar Al-Assad's regime to be referred to the International
Criminal Court.
"The determination of
some UN Security Council members to shield Syria at any cost leaves
accountability for these crimes elusive and is a betrayal of the Syrian
people," said Shetty.
Russia and China have
vetoed two Council resolutions which condemned Assad, and they fiercely oppose
UN sanctions.
"Two countries that
are among the top six arms dealers in the world, who are permanent members of
the Security Council, may have been voting much more with their pocket in
mind," said Widney Brown, senior director of international law and policy
at Amnesty.
Amnesty said it was the
conference on a global treaty limiting the arms trade in July that would really
show whether UN member states were willing to take on serious challenges.
The conference is set for
July 2-27 in New York. It follows an agreement in 2009 by most of the world's
major weapons exporters, including the United States, to seek a treaty that
strengthens controls on the trade.
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