Amnesty: West’s ‘double standards’ fuel Mideast repression

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — A leading international rights group has decried what it said were double standards by Western countries that have rallied behind a “robust response” to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but remain “lukewarm” on issues of human rights violations in the Middle East. According to Amnesty International, such double standards only fuel further repression for millions in the region. The sharp rebuke came as the London-based watchdog launched its annual report at a news conference on Tuesday at its office in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital. Amnesty urged the international community to hold perpetrators of human rights abuses in the Middle East and North Africa to account, and to address the issue of migration without discrimination.