Amnesty International’s (AI) annual report castigates governments around the world and the United Nations for failing to protect people during 2014 – a “devastating” year for human rights.  Australia came under fire for the government’s degrading treatment of asylum seekers and the detention of children.

“Particularly we’re very concerned about the detention of children as highlighted in the Forgotten Children report and that echoes Amnesty International’s research when we've been to both Manus and Nauru in the past,” Amnesty’s Australian national director Claire Mallinson told ABC’s The World Today.

The report titled “The State of the World’s Human Rights” (.pdf link) also faults Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s “regressive” counter-terrorism scheme, and the high number of Indigenous people in Australian prisons.  Europe and America were also lambasted for their treatment of refugees.

Overall, Amnesty International urged governments to “stop pretending the protection of civilians is beyond their power” and embrace a fundamental change in the way they respond to crises. 

More than 5,600 people have been killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine.  Both the Moscow-backed rebels and the Ukrainian military “showed scant regard for civilians caught in the crossfire”. 

The report says, “As law and order progressively broke down along the lines of conflict and in rebel-held areas, abductions, executions, and reports of torture and ill-treatment proliferated, both by rebel forces and pro-Kyiv volunteer battalions.”  It continued, “Neither side showed any inclination to hold those responsible for atrocities to account.”

Amnesty condemned terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the “draconian” responses of each government.

The maniacs of Islamic State are accused of widescale war crimes.  These include mass summary executions, and abductions that targeted minority groups such as the Yazidis, Christians, and Shiites.  Hundreds of women and girls were subjected to sexual abuse by IS fighters.  Iraq’s government troops and pro-government Shiite militias committed war crimes and rights violations against Sunnis.