5 January 2025

The Collapse of Human Rights: Witnessing a Global Failure

Words feel useless now. When every instrument designed to safeguard human rights fails, to whom do we appeal? The Geneva Conventions, written in the shadow of the Holocaust, were a promise to the world that such atrocities would never be repeated. Yet today, the institutions entrusted with upholding these rights—the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice—are powerless against the greatest military force on earth. A force that has become one of the greatest terrorisers of this planet.

For the past 15 months, we have watched unspeakable brutality live-streamed daily. This is likely just a glimpse of what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan—wars whose horrors we never saw this clearly. Over decades, power has consistently fallen into the hands of those devoid of empathy, those who believe they have the right to decide who should live and who should die. “Human rights” has been exposed as little more than a badge of respectability, worn by the powerful while millions are slaughtered. Today, the brutality is visible, undeniable, and unrelenting. The façade of respectability, art, or humanity has been stripped away entirely.

There is no longer even a pretence of decency. War crimes, once hidden, are now broadcast for the world to see. And yet, no matter the words we use, no matter the appeals we make, one question lingers: what is the point of appealing to the aggressor or those who fund genocide? There is no point. They hear nothing. They see nothing. They care for nothing but their own agenda—land grabs, resources, beachfront properties, gas, and oil.

And so, we are left with silence. Yet even as words fail us, even as our appeals are ignored, we must continue to speak. Words remain our tools of resistance. They preserve memory. They connect people across borders and beyond barriers of censorship. They expose the lies of oppressors and nurture the seeds of unity, solidarity, and truth.

Palestine forever. It is more than a chant or a political slogan. It is an act of defiance against those who seek to erase an entire people, their culture, and their history. It is a refusal to accept the oppressor’s narrative, a rejection of the silence they would impose on us.

We are witnessing the collapse of the global system of human rights. But those who resist oppression, who refuse to look away, are keeping hope alive. They are not just fighting for Palestine; they are fighting for a world where dignity and justice prevail, for all people, everywhere.

The struggle continues because even when words seem to fail, they are the only weapons we have left. And so, we must wield them.