'The rule of law is under attack': Amnesty director

The international rules-based order, established after World War II, is “on its way out” and may not recover, warns Amnesty International’s Secretary General Dr Agnès Callamard.

Speaking at a packed-out public lecture at the University of Auckland on 21 October, Callamard said the erosion of international law was not a sudden collapse but the result of a long decline, accelerated by wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the climate crisis, and failures in global governance.

“The rule of law is under attack, battered and ignored, with governments and elites turning their backs on it,” she said.

“Its architects are destroying what they established, and there may be no turning back. And let us be clear: it was not thrust off the cliff edge just by Trump.”

We’re witnessing the end of a system “in which we placed a lot of hope,” she said, despite organisations like the United Nations being imperfect.

“But there is no Plan B. What is emerging is rule by force, not by law.”

Callamard listed multiple crises where global leadership has faltered: climate change negotiations that stalled after the Paris Agreement, inadequate climate financing, and the failure to regulate big tech companies accused of rights violations and inciting conflict.

She also noted the legacy of the post-9/11 ‘War on Terror’, which has significantly undermined international law and left prisoners from a range of countries languishing in indefinite detention, in blatant breach of human rights.

She said Amnesty had been documenting the “creeping spread” of authoritarianism everywhere, and that there was “a new energy” to it in recent years, with Aotearoa not immune.

Erosion of Māori constitutional rights, the securitisation of the state in the form of increased surveillance, attacks on gender pay equity and climate mitigation focused on offsetting carbon emissions, rather than reducing then, were all part of a worrying global trend, she said.

Callamard described the situation in Gaza as "a genocide" and the most severe humanitarian crisis Amnesty had documented.

She said it was rooted in the 1948 Nakba (the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war), marked by “engineered destruction” of infrastructure and knowledge centres, and had been a graveyard for Palestinians, especially children.

“There have been 65,000 people killed before our eyes, a third of them children … generations of families have disappeared, 50 or 80 people killed from the same family."

She said the war had also seen the largest numbers of journalists (between 245 and 270) and humanitarian aid workers killed (333) ever documented in a single conflict, as well the acceleration of unlawful Israeli occupation, with the complicity of the United States.

Fresh from a visit to Tuvalu, Callamard stressed the urgency of climate justice for Pacific nations that contribute least to emissions but face existential threats from issues like rising sea levels.

She said most of Tuvalu “could be under water” by the end of the century and called for greater support from New Zealand, including humanitarian visas and fair migration pathways for Tuvaluans.

“Many want to stay, but adaptation requires financing that is not happening,” she said, noting repeated failures at annual environmental COP summits.
 

Callamard also criticised governments for claiming poverty to justify “austerity” policies while corporate profits soar and vast amounts are being spent in areas like defence.

Based on reliable sources, she predicted automation and AI could eliminate something like 30 percent of white-collar jobs in G8 countries within a decade and called for retraining plans and fossil fuel phase-outs to avoid deepening inequality.

She said Amnesty supports the reform of global taxation and a universal basic income.

But despite seemingly insurmountable challenges, Callamard stressed the power of collective action.

“Rights – use them or lose them!” she said. “Civil disobedience in these times is a moral and legal imperative.”

She mentioned global protests that have already attracted huge numbers of people onto the streets and university campusues; in support of Palestine, climate action and against authoritarian policies.

Callamard reaffirmed Amnesty’s commitment to rebuilding institutions with a transformative agenda, reforming the UN Security Council veto power and continuing to demand accountability through the International Court of Justice and international criminal courts generally; as well as working with well-intentioned corporates “who are willing to do the right thing.”

Callamard’s lecture was facilitated by Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand and the Centre for Asia Pacific Refugee Studies (CAPRS),  which is hosted in the University’s Faculty of Arts and Education.

CAPRS co-director, Dr Ritesh Shah, says Callamard's talk highlights the importance of using this moment, not to return to the ways things were, but to seek "radical, visionary transformation to protect the rights and dignity of all".

“In the case of CAPRS, for example, over the past five years, we have worked alongside civil society organisations, communities affected by forced displacement and policymakers to ensure the systems related to refugee movement and rights, set up in the aftermath of World War II, address the  challenges we face today.”

 Ending on an urgent call to action, Callamard said the greatest challenge was hopelessness.

“But history shows courageous action can change its course, even when victory seems unlikely. There’s a West African proverb: ‘If you think you are too small to make a difference, try spending the night in a tent with a mosquito!”

The event was MCed by TV3 journalist Samantha Hayes and included introductory remarks by Deputy Dean (Faculty of Arts and Education) Associate Professor Kathy Smits, and Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand’s executive director Jacqui Dillon.

Agnès Callamard
Dr Agnès Callamard was appointed Amnesty International’s Secretary General in 2021 and is the organisation’s chief spokesperson and leader of its global human rights work. She holds a doctorate degree in law and an LLM from Harvard Law School and is a prominent human rights expert.

She is known for her role as the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and for leading investigations such as the one into the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.