Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Consider Amnesty’s message, don’t shoot the messenger

Consider Amnesty’s message, don’t shoot the messenger

It’s wrong to fault the human rights group for criticizing Ukraine.

Amnesty International, the global human rights group, is no stranger to controversy.

In its 60 years of shining a light on the darkest corners of man’s inhumanity toward man, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization has often offended the powerful and made it more awkward for liberal democracies to ignore their own values when conducting foreign policy.

Today, Amnesty stands accused of “blaming the victims” and acting as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “useful idiots” because it issued a statement critical of the conduct of Ukraine’s armed forces at a time when the Western-backed democracy is resisting a Russian invasion. But it’s wrong to fault the group for criticizing Ukraine.

Let’s be clear: Amnesty has relentlessly criticized Moscow’s war of aggression on its neighbor, documenting assaults on civilian neighborhoods; gathering evidence of war crimes, torture and disappearances; and denouncing the blocking of humanitarian assistance to civilians in the war zone. Their evaluations prompted the Russian authorities to close the group’s Moscow office in April, along with those of other international NGOs — all dubbed “foreign agents.”

Yet, a single report criticizing the Ukrainian armed forces for endangering civilians’ lives through the way they’ve operated in some residential areas has drawn a firestorm of Ukrainian and Western indignation, prompting the head of Amnesty’s Kyiv office, Oksana Pokalchuk, as well as the co-founder of the Swedish Division of Amnesty International to resign.

Pokalchuk said her local team hadn’t been properly consulted over the report, which unwittingly “sounded like support for Russian narratives” and failed to take the full context of a country being torn apart by invaders into account. “Seeking to protect civilians, this research instead became a tool of Russian propaganda,” she added.

Western critics also recalled that Amnesty had withdrawn its “prisoner of conscience” label from Putin’s most outspoken domestic political opponent Alexei Navalny last year, over xenophobic comments he’d made more than a decade earlier, only to subsequently restore the status after protests.

Some see a pattern here of pro-Russian or anti-Western bias.

As even a cursory glance at Amnesty’s publications on Russia demonstrates, however, this is nonsense. Any reputable human rights organization must apply consistent standards to all the parties in a conflict, without turning a blind eye to the behavior of “our side.”

Western citizens are happy enough to light an Amnesty candle in support of prisoners of conscience in Myanmar, Iran or Cuba. However, the group has been lambasted for criticizing the United States for its use of indefinite detention without trial at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for terrorism suspects after the 9/11 attacks, and likewise for comparing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to apartheid.

In seeking to use an objective ethical yardstick, Amnesty is facing the same moral dilemmas as reputable international news media.

When I was bureau chief for Reuters in Jerusalem in the 1980s, for example, I endured frequent pressure from supporters of both Israel and the Palestinians over our real-time coverage of the first Palestinian Intifada, a mostly unarmed uprising in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, which erupted in 1987.

Palestinian demonstrator throws rock during violent protests against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1987, in East Jerusalem


Some accused us of double standards because we were unable to provide similar coverage of repression in tightly sealed Syria or Algeria. We were also accused of creating a false equivalence between the occupiers and the occupied — or between “security forces” and “terrorists” — and of under-reporting on higher casualty tolls in other parts of the world.

Sometimes we were faulted for not letting local staff determine the angle of a story, or for failing to give the authorities enough time to respond before publication — even if that mainly denied them the opportunity to use censorship to silence us, or to denounce us preemptively.

I remember being greeted with denial and accusations of anti-Semitism when I briefed a Jewish delegation visiting from Canada on the situation in Gaza. I invited the group’s members to come to Gaza the following morning to see for themselves. There were no takers.

Amnesty’s report may be politically inconvenient for the Ukrainian government and its allies in the West, but that doesn’t make it wrong or inaccurate. No country, even when under brutal assault from a bullying neighbor, is above reproach.

The organization says its researchers documented multiple cases of Ukrainian forces basing themselves in schools and hospitals and launching attacks from populated neighborhoods, drawing Russian fire that endangered civilian lives. Of course, since Moscow’s forces took the war to the cities from the outset, Ukrainian defenders had little choice but to operate in these urban areas. But Amnesty says they should have done more to evacuate non-combatants.

A mature response to such criticism would be to take the findings seriously and work to improve army practices and the protection of civilians — not shoot the messenger.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would have done better to acknowledge that even his heroic defenders are capable of error and take the report to heart, instead of accusing Amnesty of giving “amnesty to the terrorist state and shifting responsibility from the aggressor to the victim.”

Encouragingly, there are signs that Kyiv is now trying harder to persuade civilians to leave combat zones before launching military operations — notably in the Kherson region, where it has issued repeated public appeals to citizens to leave ahead of a likely Ukrainian counteroffensive.

It’s also important to remember that Amnesty International isn’t above criticism either. A 2019 report commissioned after two employees committed suicide found a toxic work culture of bullying, public humiliation, and discrimination at the organization. And in response to the findings, Amnesty introduced a series of internal reforms and decentralized its organization, reducing the power of its London-based international secretariat.

Ukraine should respond to Amnesty’s criticism in a similar spirit. And its Western supporters should want to ensure that the billions in taxpayer money being poured into Ukraine to support its self-defense and keep it financially afloat are being properly spent.

Maintaining public support for Ukraine’s struggle requires a constructive response to criticism from reputable human rights organizations, not trying to muzzle them or discredit their findings.

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
Poland Shoots Down Russian Drones in Airspace Violation During Ukraine Attack
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Macron Appoints Sébastien Lecornu as Prime Minister Amid Budget Crisis and Political Turmoil
Vatican hosts first Catholic LGBTQ pilgrimage
Apple Unveils iPhone 17 Series, iPhone Air, Apple Watch 11 and More at 'Awe Dropping' Event
France joins Eurozone’s ‘periphery’ as turmoil deepens, say investors
France Faces New Political Crisis, again, as Prime Minister Bayrou Pushed Out
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
The Country That Got Too Rich? Public Spending Dominates Norway Election
EU Proposes Phasing Out Russian Oil and Gas by End of 2027 to End Energy Dependence
More Than 150,000 Followers for a Fictional Character: The New Influencers Are AI Creations
EU Prepares for War
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Big Tech Executives Laud Trump at White House Dinner, Unveil Massive U.S. Investments
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
‘Looks Like a Wig’: Online Users Express Concern Over Kate Middleton
Florida’s Vaccine Revolution: DeSantis Declares War on Mandates
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
"The Situation Has Never Been This Bad": The Fall of PepsiCo
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
The Fashion Designer Who Became an Italian Symbol: Giorgio Armani Has Died at 91
Putin Celebrates ‘Unprecedentedly High’ Ties with China as Gazprom Seals Power of Siberia-2 Deal
China Unveils New Weapons in Grand Military Parade as Xi Hosts Putin and Kim
Rapper Cardi B Cleared of Liability in Los Angeles Civil Assault Trial
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
×