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News > Latin America

Human Rights Day: Do NGOs Really Defend Human Rights?

  • Executive director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth

    Executive director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth | Photo: AFP

Published 10 December 2015
Opinion

Journalist Keane Bhatt spoke to teleSUR’s Imaginary Lines to discuss the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the hypocrisy in human rights rhetoric used by many powerful NGOs.

United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Dec. 10, 1948, and every year since, Human Rights Day has been observed by the international community.

However, some believe the Human Rights Act does little to protect the basic rights of many people across the world.

teleSUR English spoke with journalist and media analyst Keane Bhatt, who expressed his frustration at the declaration which he says is riddled with hypocrisy.

Speaking to Imaginary Lines, Bhatt said that the U.S. and its allies lack respect for some of the "fundamental basic norms of international laws."

Bhatt, citing recent wars waged by U.S. in the Middle East, condemned non-governmental organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which he says do not recognize the safeguards in the U.N. Charter.

"The U.N. Charter aims to prevent the rule of the jungle where big powerful countries can dominate, oppress, overthrow, undermine and destabilize smaller countries. Organizations like the Human Rights Watch which are based in cities like New York are very closely aligned to U.S. foreign policy."

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A contributor for Fair Media Watch, Bhatt also outlined his disappointment at the Human Rights Watch’s descriptions of Venezuela’s freedom of the press.

He said that the nongovernmental organization describes a fantasy world when talking about Venezuela in which there is "no freedom of the press and dissent is completely quashed (by the government)."

"When you look at what is happening on the ground, at what is taking place in Venezuela, there is such a robust opposition media. The largest television networks routinely have extremely sympathetic half an hour interviews with some of the leading opposition activists, some of whom have openly and overtly talk about advocating regime change," he said.

Watch the full interview with Keane Bhatt above.

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