UNITED NATIONS (REUTERS) - Human Rights Watch on Thursday (Jan 13) criticised US President Joe Biden and other Western leaders for a weak defence of democracy and for failing to meet challenges from the climate crisis and Covid-19 pandemic to poverty, inequality and racial injustice.

In contrast to what Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth described as former US President Donald Trump's "embrace of friendly autocrats", Mr Biden took office in January 2021 with a pledge to put human rights at the centre of his foreign policy.

"But he continued to sell arms to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel despite their persistent repression," Mr Roth wrote in Human Rights Watch's annual World Report, released on Thursday.

"Other Western leaders displayed similar weakness in their defence of democracy," he wrote, naming French President Emmanuel Macron and former German chancellor Angela Merkel.

He also said that during key summits Mr Biden "seemed to lose his voice when it came to public denunciation of serious human rights violations".

"The US State Department has issued occasional protests about repression in certain countries, and in extreme cases the Biden administration introduced targeted sanctions on some officials responsible, but the influential voice of the president was often missing," he wrote.

US officials have defended the Biden administration's record saying diplomats have frequently raised human rights concerns with foreign leaders, including in difficult talks with adversaries like China and Russia.

"If democracies are to prevail in the global contest with autocracy, their leaders must do more than spotlight the autocrats' inevitable shortcomings. They need to make a stronger, positive case for democratic rule," Mr Roth said.