“The United Nations Security Council was created to protect civilians to provide peace and security and they have dismally failed. We are saying therefore one of the instruments through which this failure has ended up happening is the abuse of the veto by the permanent five members of the Security Council time and again,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General, Amnesty International.
The 424-page 2014/2015 annual report by Amnesty International, “The State of the World’s Human Rights,” stated that 2014 had led to one of the worst refugee crises in history, “with four million Syrians displaced by war and thousands of migrants dying in the Mediterranean.” The numbers of displaced Syrians was over 50 million, the first time since WWII that a worldwide refugee crisis was caused by catastrophic violence.
Cases where the UN Security Council is charged with abusing their vetoes
The findings in the 2014 annual report pointed fingers at the United Nations, citing that countries typically placed their own national interests first. Examples provided by Amnesty showed five permanent members of the UN Security Council abusing their vetoes in specific cases:
** Placing their self-interest first within the crises at Gaza, Iraq, Israel, Syria and Ukraine.
** Citing 2,000 Palestinians were killed when Israel assaulted Gaza
** The Palestinian killings were due to Palestine militants firing rockets intro Israel.
** Allegations of war crimes by both sides were met with “UN callous indifference.”
** Abuses occurred in 35 of the 160 countries listed in the Amnesty Report
** Kyiv authorities have not brought to trial the police who killed protesters in the Maidan street violence that ended in civil war, an act of violence that had Russia’s full participation.
** Over 4,000 Ukrainians (mostly civilians) were killed in 2014 in eastern Ukraine with both sides using explosive weapons in residential areas.
** When the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was downed over rebel-controlled territory, the rebels (1) claimed they had destroyed a Ukrainian military aircraft, only to (2) retract the statement when the aircraft was found to be a commercial plane with 300 dead civilians in it.
** Amnesty focused on European Union’s collective response to refugees, citing the fact they only accepted 150,000 Syrian refugees
** Amnesty cited the European Union’s inattention toward adequate legal immigration paths while 3,400 migrants died crossing the Mediterranean Sea.
** Spain was accused of using excessive force against the refugees, as “Fifteen migrants attempting to reach the North African Spanish enclave of Ceuta by swimming drowned as security forces held them off.
** The United States was cited for arresting tens of thousands of children who were fleeing poverty and gang warfare in central America.
The Ukraine Conflict
The Amnesty report focused on the Ukraine conflict, stating that government forces and pro-Russian separatists used indiscriminate use of force. The report also stated that western countries did not enough to provide humanitarian aid to those who have lost everything. “The response to the Mideast refugee crisis, it says has been, “abhorrent.” Amnesty International examined 160 countries for their report, finding that armed groups such as the militant Islamic State, Boko Haram and al-Shabaab, operated in 35 of these countries.
According to Amnesty International, “2014 was a catastrophic year for millions caught up in violence.” They accused the United Nations of being hypocrites, saying those who were caught up in violence deserved protection — yet simultaneously not providing that protection. .
The Amnesty International
Amnesty International is a global movement with over seven million members,
Amnesty International’s mission is to conduct research and take action to prevent and end grave abuses of all human rights – civil, political, social, cultural and economic. From freedom of expression and association to physical and mental integrity, from protection from discrimination to the right to housing – these rights are indivisible.
With meetings every two years, major policy decisions are taken by the organization’s representatives from “all national sections at International Council.” One such major decision involves the Islamic state (ISIS), holding the territory from the city of Aleppo to the outskirts of Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. It has now replaced al-qaeda as the leader of global jihadism.
Global Jihadist Movement
Today’s global Jihadist movement is led by the newcomer, Islamic State (ISIS). who is viciously exposing the core doctrine and strategy of their current global Jihadist movement. Many experts feel that “conventional forces and strategic forces are barely applicable to any of these problems” that are developing.
According to Newsmax,
The U.S. is facing an “unprecedented” array of threats around the world — from growing Islamic jihadism to increased aggression by Russian President Vladimir Putin to sophisticated technological advances that once were the domain of this country, according to a top Pentagon intelligence official.
