By Nora Boustany Washington Post Foreign Service 5/24/07

Powerful governments and armed groups are spreading fear to divert attention from human rights abuses, exacerbating polarization in an increasingly dangerous world, Amnesty International said yesterday in its annual assessment of rights worldwide.

“The politics of fear is fueling a downward spiral of human rights abuse in which no right is sacrosanct and no person is safe,” said Irene Khan, secretary general of the human rights watchdog. Governments are undermining the rule of law and human rights with “short-sighted fear-mongering and divisive policies.”

The United States is “the leading country using fear to justify the unjustifiable,” said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA.

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