HRW Accuses Biden of Double Standard on Rights, Cites US Arms to Israel Amid Gaza War Crimes
A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses US President Joe Biden of applying a double standard on human rights, particularly in his approach to the conflicts in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.
The report, released Thursday as part of HRW’s 2025 world assessment, highlights the Biden administration’s unrestricted arms provision to Israel despite alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The HRW report criticizes the US for providing Israel with a staggering $17.9 billion in security aid and approving over 100 arms sales, even as it withheld funding from UNRWA, the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, amid a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza. This, the report contends, contradicts US condemnation of Russia’s alleged actions in Ukraine.
The organization’s annual report emphasizes that liberal democracies, including the US, are “not always reliable champions of human rights,” both domestically and internationally. It argues that these nations often defend human rights standards “weakly or inconsistently,” fueling a global perception that human rights themselves lack legitimacy.
The report notes that many of the 70 national elections held last year were marred by “racism, hate, and discrimination,” with polls in the US and European Union being no exception. The upcoming second term for Donald Trump is also a major concern for HRW, which suggests it could embolden “illiberal leaders worldwide” and cause further damage to human rights.
Furthermore, the report highlights the rise of far-right parties in Europe, attributing it to the exploitation of anti-immigrant sentiment and nationalist rhetoric that threaten minority communities and undermine democratic norms.
While the report painted a grim picture of human rights abuses across the globe, referencing “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Gaza, “mass killings” in Sudan, it also offered some signs of progress.
The report cited the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham as an example of “the limits of autocratic power,” though it also acknowledged that armed groups within the offensive were themselves accused of abuses and war crimes.
In a more positive development, the report highlighted “meaningful democratic resilience” in Bangladesh, where student protests against corruption led to the ousting of the government of Sheikh Hasina. This forced the creation of an interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus.
