!['2020 is the history of who had less, gave the most and received the least,' says Amnesty's secretary general [Joel Saget/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/000_97G7NF.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Al Jazeera speaks to Amnesty’s new secretary general about the state of human rights amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Crimes Against Humanity
![Laurent Gbagbo appears before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, in January 2019 [File: Peter Dejong/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/d06f246742d84637b476d6cf3ab65c3d_18.jpeg?resize=570%2C380)
Judges acquitted Gbagbo on charges of crimes against humanity for alleged role in post-election violence in Ivory Coast.
![Ethiopian soldiers watch as a pick-up truck with militiamen passes by at the Mai Aini refugee camp in Ethiopia [File: Eduardo Soteras/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/000_8ZY3FF.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, UN say investigation is part of the ‘much-needed accountability process’.
![Syrian campaigner Wafa Mustafa sits between pictures of victims of the Syrian government, holding a picture of her father, outside the trial of two former Syrian intelligence officers accused of crimes against humanity, in Germany, in June 2020 [File: Thomas Lohnes/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/000_1SU2PH.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Effort by Canada and Netherlands under UN Convention Against Torture will be slow but sends strong message, experts say.
![Syrian campaigner Wafa Mustafa sits between pictures of victims of the Syrian regime as she holds a picture of her father, during a protest outside the trial against two alleged Syrian former intelligence officers accused of crimes against humanity, in the first trial of its kind to emerge from the Syrian conflict, on June 4, 2020, in Koblenz, western Germany [File: Thomas Lohnes/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/000_1SU2PH.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Syrians are marking 10 years since peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s government erupted in 2011.
![People attend a funeral of Chit Min Thu who died in anti-coup protests in North Dagon township in Yangon, Myanmar [Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-03-11T124323Z_459052724_RC209M95MUF0_RTRMADP_3_MYANMAR-POLITICS.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
UN special rapporteur suggests ‘crimes against humanity’ being committed; calls for sanctions on military-owned firms.
Thousands are fleeing violence in the Central African Republic as two men fight to be president.
![ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda was sanctioned by former US President Donald Trump [File: Eva Plevier/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-02-05T231733Z_668816460_RC2NML91RWKV_RTRMADP_3_ICC-PALESTINIANS-ISRAEL.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Biden administration has yet to lift Trump-era sanctions, raising questions over its approach to the world tribunal.
![The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights office is lamenting what it said were continuing abuses including sexual violence and extrajudicial killings in Tigray [File: Eduardo Soteras/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/000_93Y66X.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
UN chief Antonio Guterres leads call for Eritrean troops to leave but Security Council fails to reach consensus.
![The call, the first between the two since Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden took office in January, came a day after the ICC prosecutor said she would launch the probe, prompting swift rejections by Washington and the Israeli government [File: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-03-03T021743Z_631006391_RC2E3M9XFEKH_RTRMADP_3_USA-BIDEN.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
US vice president, Israeli PM say The Hague court has no jurisdiction over the issue as prosecutor pledges impartial probe.
The Hague-based tribunal opens an investigation into alleged war crimes in the Israeli occupied territories.
![People mourn the victims of a massacre allegedly perpetrated by Eritrean soldiers in the village of Dengolat, north of Mekelle [Eduardo Soteras/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/000_93Y6E4-1.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Survivors and witnesses accuse forces from neighbouring country of committing abuses in Ethiopia’s embattled region.
![Guatemalan survivors and relatives of victims of civil war-era crimes against humanity gather on February 25 to commemorate the dead and to demand justice [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Cuffe-6.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Survivors and families of victims of a 36-year civil war call on court to reverse closure of peace institutions.
![Lawyer Patrick Kroker, centre, and co-plaintiffs Wassim Mukdad, left, and Hussein Ghrer, right, answer questions outside the German courtroom during a break in the trial against two Syrian defendants accused of state-sponsored torture [File: Thomas Lohnes/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/64733ef7ec1c44c8a77e438be64ebd7c_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Court ruling is the first in the world related to the brutal repression of protesters by the Syrian government.