The leader of global rights group Amnesty International urged European countries Monday to stop "appeasing" US President Donald Trump and resist him and other "bullies" who she said were intent on destroying the rules-based order in place since World War II.
"We need much more resistance," Amnesty secretary general Agnes Callamard told AFP in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"Europe's credibility is at stake."
Her comments came as Trump doubled down on his threats to take over Greenland "one way or the other", insisting such a move is necessary for world security, prompting European countries to close ranks against his designs on the vast Danish territory.
German and French leaders denounced as "blackmail" Trump's weekend threats to wield new tariffs against countries which oppose his plans for the Arctic island, suggesting Europe was preparing trade countermeasures.
But German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who was due to meet Trump in Davos on Wednesday, also stressed that Europe was eager to "avoid any escalation" in the dispute.
- 'Say no' -
Callamard urged governments to show more "courage" and to "say no".
"Stop thinking you can make deals with bullies, stop thinking you can agree to the rules of the predators and not become yourself a victim of them."
The Amnesty chief highlighted that the US bid to seize Greenland was only the latest indication that the world is facing the "destruction of the rules-based order".
She lamented that global and regional "superpowers" seemed "intent on destroying what has been established after World War II, dedicated to finding common rules to our common problems".
Since Trump's return to the White House a year ago, he has taken "a range of decisions that have led to the demise of many rules around the world", while Russia was destroying the system "through its aggression in Ukraine", she said.
European powers have been treading a thin line over Ukraine in recent months, relying on Washington to try to help settle the conflict but resisting terms too favourable to Moscow.
The post-WWII order "is also being destroyed by Israel that has completely ignored international law in its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza," she added.
Amnesty and other rights groups have repeatedly accused Israel of carrying out a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a term vehemently rejected by the Israeli government.
Callamard stressed that the rules-based order was established in response to "a global war that had killed millions of people, as a response to extermination camps that had killed six million Jews, as a response to authoritarianism that had led to the most daunting global repression the world over".
- 'Abyss' -
"The fact that it is now being destroyed without any plan B, just for the sake of destroying the rules, should send shivers to all of us," she said, warning that the only alternative to the rules-based system was "falling down into an abyss".
"That's what we need to prevent."
The Davos gathering this year is taking place under the tagline "A Spirit of Dialogue", but Callamard warned "there is no evidence of dialogue" currently among the world's decision-makers.
"There is evidence of bullying. There is evidence of destruction. There is evidence of countries using their military power, their economic power, to force others into agreeing to their one-sided deals."
Such tactics had for the past 12 months been met with European "appeasement".
"We have sought to appease the bully, the predator living in Washington," she said.
"Where has this led us? To more and more attacks, to more and more threats."
Callamard, who is French, recalled that the European project was not just about economics, but also about values, humanity and the rule of law.
"I'm hoping that our leaders will recall that... history and see in the current challenges a way of re-insisting on the European project and demanding human rights protection for the sake of humanity," she said.
"That demands stopping the appeasement politics, (which) simply is not working".
"Please stop it. Resist. Resist."
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