Amnesty Calls Guantanamo A 'Gulag'

Rights Group Says The Human Rights Failure Invites Abuses By Others

(CBS/AP)  Still, the group said, governments forgot many victims in the fight against terrorism.

Khan singled out Sudan as one of the worst human rights violations of last year, saying that not only had the Sudanese government turned its back on its own people, but that the United Nations also acted too late, and the African Union didn't chime in. She also said that the AU needed to do more about speaking out against human rights abuses in Africa, giving the example of Zimbabwe. She talked about human rights failures being compounded by big business's complicity.

Amnesty's report also pointed to Haiti, where human rights violators were allowed to regain positions of power after armed rebels and former soldiers ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide last year.

Amnesty said in the Democratic Republic of Congo, there was no effective response to the systematic rape of tens of thousands of women and children, and in Afghanistan, a downward spiral of lawlessness and instability had shaken the country once again.

While criticizing the U.S. detention mission at Guantanamo, Amnesty said one sign of hope was the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June that allowed prisoners to challenge the basis of their detention. It also said it was encouraging that Britain's high court lords ruled on the indefinite detention without charge or trial of "terrorist suspects."

"The challenge for the human rights movement is to harness the power of civil society and push governments to deliver on their human rights promises," said Khan.