The year 2023 has thrown the world “into a downward spiral to a hell whose gates were locked in 1948”, the year the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted, said Agnès Callamard in the annual report on the State of the World's Human Rights, published today by the non-governmental organization (NGO). For the official, and in view of the events that occurred in the last six months in the Palestinian enclave, the moral and legal lessons of “never again” – an expression that refers to the extermination of more than six million Jews during the Second World War, known as the Holocaust – were “torn into a million pieces”. Following the “horrific crimes perpetrated by the [Palestinian Islamist movement] Hamas on 7 October 2023 – when more than 1,000 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed, thousands wounded and about 245 people taken hostage or captive – Israel instigated a retaliation campaign that became a campaign of collective punishment”, accused the Secretary-General of Amnesty International. “It is a campaign of deliberate and indiscriminate bombing of civilians and civilian infrastructure, denial of humanitarian assistance and planned starvation”, classified the representative, recalling that “by the end of 2023, 21,600 Palestinians, mostly civilians, had been killed in the incessant bombing of Gaza” and thousands disappeared. In addition, she added, “much of Gaza's civilian infrastructure was destroyed and nearly 1.9 million Palestinians were internally displaced and deprived of access to adequate food, water, shelter, sanitation and medical care”. According to the leader of the human rights NGO, millions of people around the world today look to Gaza as a symbol of the “total moral failure” of the “never again” commitment. The principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter, the Geneva Conventions, the Genocide Convention and international human rights law “have been dishonoured”, criticised Agnès Callamard, stressing that “this is clear in relation to the Israeli authorities”. However, the representative stressed that this is not an exclusive role of Tel Aviv. “The United States also played a leading role, as did some of the leaders of Europe and the European Union (EU). The same is true of those who continue to send weapons to Israel, all who fail to denounce Israel's relentless violations and those who reject calls for a ceasefire”, she denounced. A conduct that “exemplifies the double standards that Amnesty International has denounced for many years”, but which has now gone further, “putting the entire rules-based order of 1948 at risk”, she said. According to Agnès Callamard, the scenario emerged “shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine [in February 2022], a violation of the United Nations Charter and an undermining of the rule of international law”. “China too – another permanent member of the UN Security Council – has acted against international law, shielding Myanmar's [former Burma] military and its unlawful airstrikes and practices of detention and torture, and shielding itself from international scrutiny for the crimes against humanity it has committed and continues to commit, including against the Uyghur minority”, she stressed. About the future, the NGO's Secretary-General admitted having a gloomy vision, considering that the prospects “are really frightening”. Also Read: UNRWA leader wants investigation into Israel's attacks on the UN (Portuguese version)