As NATO leaders increase defense spending, they must also commit to upholding and international humanitarian law, Secretary General Agnes Callamard told DW.
“What counts is the safety and the security of the people, and that cannot just be done through an increase in defense budgets. It must be done by recentering NATO, the UN, and the international community on what matters: the protection of international law,” Callamard said during an interview with DW in The Hague.
Member states are expected to agree on a target of spending 5% of gross domestic product on defense, with 3.5% allocated to core military expenditures and another 1.5% directed toward areas such as infrastructure and cybersecurity.
Callamard emphasized that the financial burden should not fall solely on ordinary citizens.
“The brunt of this 5% increase must be carried by the corporate actors who are going to benefit from the increase in defense spending,” she told DW correspondent Jack Parrock.
Amnesty International is participating in the NATO Public Forum, which runs parallel to the summit and brings together leaders, officials, security experts, academics, journalists, and NGOs.
“So far, here at the NATO summit, I have not heard one reference to the suffering of the people. Yet Ukrainians are suffering, Palestinians are suffering, Israelis are suffering, Iranians are suffering. We’re counting deaths by the thousands and thousands,” Callamard said.
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