At the 56th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, experts emphasized the crucial need for equality and the elimination of double standards in addressing human rights issues worldwide.
Speaking at a side event titled \"Global Inequality and Its Adverse Impacts on Human Rights,\" Zhang Yonghe, head of the Chongqing Centre for Equal Social Development, shed light on the pervasive inequality driven by discrimination and hostility. Zhang highlighted how certain politicians, media outlets, and scholars often stigmatize other nations, with China being notably affected. \"There are supply chains, from content production to rule exporting, that perpetuate an order of inequality,\" Zhang explained. He called for the establishment of fairer rules and the abandonment of double standards to foster a more equitable global society.
Hernando Calvo Ospina, a journalist for Le Monde Diplomatique, voiced concerns over the monopolization and manipulation of information by mainstream media in the United States and Western countries. He accused these media entities of serving as mouthpieces for their governments, selectively ignoring human rights issues within their own regions while exaggerating those in others to justify sanctions and aggression. \"A grain of sand can be rendered into a beach of lies,\" Calvo Ospina remarked.
Adding to the discussion, David Lopez, the permanent representative of the International Association for Human Rights and Social Development to the UN, criticized NATO's military interventions in countries like Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. Lopez argued that these actions violated the UN Charter and led to regional turmoil and humanitarian disasters. He accused the U.S. and the European Union of using NATO to maintain global hegemony, highlighting their double standards. Lopez advocated for a new international order based on mutual respect and equality, emphasizing the fair application of international law to achieve genuine peace and justice.
Collectively, the discussions at the side event underscored a pressing need to address global inequalities and ensure that human rights are upheld without bias or favoritism, paving the way for a more just and harmonious world.
Reference(s):
Equality and no double standards urged on human rights issues
cgtn.com
