PRIME Minister John Howard finds himself alongside Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe in an Amnesty International report that says they are among "short-sighted fear-mongers" dividing the world.
The human rights pressure group has accused Mr Howard of portraying asylum-seekers as a threat to national security.
The report also criticises Australia's role in the war on terror and its treatment of female victims of violence.
Amnesty secretary-general Irene Khan said the fear generated by leaders such as Mr Howard "thrives on myopic and cowardly leadership".
Ms Khan included Mr Howard with Mr Mugabe, US President George W Bush and Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir in the same scathing paragraph in her foreword to the group's annual report published today.
"The Howard government portrayed desperate asylum-seekers in leaky boats as a threat to Australia's national security and raised a false alarm of a refugee invasion," Ms Khan wrote in the group's annual report published today.
"After the attacks of 11 September 2001, US President George W Bush invoked the fear of terrorism to enhance his executive power, without Congressional oversight or judicial scrutiny.
"President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan whipped up fear among his supporters and in the Arab world that the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur would be a pretext for an Iraq-style, US-led invasion.
"President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe played on racial fears to push his own political agenda of grabbing land for his supporters."
Ms Khan said fear and division were eroding human rights around the world, including Australia.
"Through short-sighted, fear-mongering and divisive policies, governments are undermining the rule of law and human rights, feeding racism and xenophobia, dividing communities, intensifying inequalities and sowing the seeds for more violence and conflict," Ms Khan said.
"The politics of fear is fuelling a downward spiral of human rights abuse in which no right is sacrosanct and no person safe.
"The 'war on terror' and the war in Iraq, with their catalogue of human rights abuses, have created deep divisions that cast a shadow on international relations, making it more difficult to resolve conflicts and protect civilians."
Amnesty, which includes Attorney-General Philip Ruddock among its 2.2 million members worldwide, said Australia's new counter-terrorism measures threatened human rights.
"Ill-conceived counter-terrorism strategies have done little to reduce the threat of violence or ensure justice for victims of terrorism but much to damage human rights and the rule of law globally," it said.
The group also questioned the Federal Government's complicit treatment of convicted terrorism supporter David Hicks, who spent five years detained by the US without charge.
It criticised Australia's Temporary Protection Visas system under which "hundreds of refugees remained in limbo".
Amnesty also had serious concerns about low rates of prosecution in cases of violence against women in Australia and the lack of support services for Aboriginal women in remote communities.
But the report had some good words for Australia, describing the country as "one of the driving forces for change" in supporting the UN's global treaty on arms control.
Ms Khan said fear had one positive outcome, with public opinion forcing politicians belatedly into action on global warming.
Amnesty said Darfur, where 200,000 people have died in the conflict, "is a bleeding wound on world conscience".
The report also highlighted the prosecutions of writers in Turkey, the killing of left-wing activists in the Philippines and soaring violence in Brazil.
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