Amnesty International today challenged world leaders to apologise for six decades of human rights failure and to re-commit themselves to deliver concrete improvements.

Launching Amnesty International Report 2008: State of the World’s Human Rights, Secretary General of Amnesty International, Irene Khan said:

“The human rights flashpoints in Darfur, Zimbabwe, Gaza, Iraq and Burma demand immediate action.

“Injustice, inequality and impunity are the hallmarks of our world today. Governments must act now to close the yawning gap between promise and performance.”

Amnesty International’s Report 2008, shows that sixty years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations, people are still tortured or ill-treated in at least 81 countries, face unfair trials in at least 54 countries and are not allowed to speak freely in at least 77 countries.

Irene Khan continued:

“2007 was characterised by the impotence of Western governments and the ambivalence or reluctance of emerging powers to tackle some of the world’s worst human rights crises, ranging from entrenched conflicts to growing inequalities which are leaving millions of people behind.”

Amnesty International cautioned that the biggest threat to the future of human rights is the absence of a shared vision and collective leadership.

Irene Khan said:
“2008 presents an unprecedented opportunity for new leaders coming to power and countries emerging on the world stage to set a new direction and reject the myopic policies and practices that in recent years have made the world a more dangerous and divided place.

Amnesty International challenged governments to set a new paradigm for collective leadership based on the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The organisation called on:

· China to adhere to the human rights promises it made around the Olympic Games and allow free speech and freedom of the press and end “re-education through labour”.

· The USA to close Guantánamo Bay detention camp and secret detention centres, prosecute the detainees under fair trial standards or release them, and unequivocally reject the use of torture and ill-treatment.

· Russia to show greater tolerance for political dissent, and to show no tolerance for impunity on human rights abuses in Chechnya.

· The EU to investigate the complicity of its member states in ‘renditions’ of terrorist suspects and set the same bar on human rights for its own members as it does for other countries.

“The most powerful must lead by example,” said Ms Khan. She warned:

“World leaders are in a state of denial but their failure to act has a high cost. As Iraq and Afghanistan show, human rights problems are not isolated tragedies, but are like viruses that can infect and spread rapidly, endangering all of us.

“Governments today must show the same degree of vision, courage and commitment that led the United Nations to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights sixty years ago.

“There is a growing demand from people for justice, freedom and equality.”

Some of the most striking images of 2007 were of monks in Burma, lawyers in Pakistan, and Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights activists in Iran.

Irene Khan said:

“Restless and angry, people will not be silenced, and leaders ignore them at their own peril.”

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