Human Rights Conditions Made Worse By The Crisis

Human rights has long been a concern. Recent years have seen increasing acknowledgment that human rights and economic issues such as development go hand in hand.

Long before the global financial crisis took hold, human rights concerns were high the world over, as annual reports from Amnesty International and other human rights organizations repeatedly warned about.

The global financial crisis has led to an economic crisis which in turn has led to a human rights crisis, says Amnesty in their 2009 report.

They find that as millions more slide into poverty as a result of the current crisis, social unrest increases resulting in more protests. These protests are sometimes met with a lot of suppression. Other times, people are exploited further.

The World Bank agrees. According to the BBC, the World Bank has warned of a “human catastrophe” in the world’s poorest countries unless more is done to tackle the global economic crisis and fears massive social upheaval if more is not done to address the crisis.

Image: G20 Protests in the City.(© Amnesty International)

When the G20 held a summit in UK in April 2009, much was made by local media about the apparent use of excessive force by police against protesters, and even led to the death of a passer by mistaken as a protester (a small minority of whom were also violent). (George Monbiot also raises concerns about how campaigners andprotesters are being rebranding as “domestic extremists”.)

But as a news article accompanying the report from Amnesty summarizes, many nations have seen protests against economic decline and social conditions which have been met by violence, arrests and detentions without charge:

Across Africa, people demonstrated against desperate social and economic situations and sharp rises in living costs. … Some demonstrations turned violent; the authorities often repressed protests with excessive force.

Social tensions and economic disparities led to thousands of protests throughout China. In the Americas, social protest at economic conditions increased in Peru; in Chile there were demonstrations throughout 2008 on Indigenous People’s rights and rising living costs.

In the Middle East and North Africa, the economic and social insecurity was highlighted by strikes and protests in several countries, including Egypt. In Tunisia, strikes and protests were put down with force, causing two deaths, many injuries and more than 2,000 prosecutions of alleged organizers, some culminating in long prison sentences.