Underlying The Economic Crisis Is A human rights time bomb

From Amnesty International USA's press release on the 2009 annual report on the state of human rights worldwide:

(London) The world is sitting on a social, political and economic time bomb fuelled by an unfolding human rights crisis, said Amnesty International’s Secretary General Irene Khan today as she launched Amnesty International Report 2009: State of the World’s Human Rights.

“Underlying the economic crisis is an explosive human rights crisis,” said Irene Khan. “The economic downturn has aggravated abuses, distracted attention from them and created new problems. In the name of security, human rights were trampled on. Now, in the name of economic recovery, they are being relegated to the back seat.”

“The world needs a new global deal on human rights – not paper promises but commitment and concrete action from governments to defuse the human rights time bomb. World leaders must invest in human rights as purposefully as they are investing in the economy.”

We cannot afford to ignore human rights abuses and we can't just oppose human rights abuses committed by or in other countries. Not surprisingly violence against women is one of the human rights abuses highlighted, but it is not the only human rights abuse which needs to be eliminated.

Here's the link to the 2009 Amnesty International report released today and here's a direct link to the section on violence against women.