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Category: Human Rights

  • Sudan in ‘world’s largest humanitarian crisis’ after two years of civil war

    NGOs and UN say country is ‘worse off than ever before’ with wide-scale displacement, hunger and attacks on refugee camps

    Sudan is suffering from the largest humanitarian crisis globally and its civilians are continuing to pay the price for inaction by the international community, NGOs and the UN have said, as the country’s civil war enters its third year.

    Two years to the day since fighting erupted in Khartoum between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, hundreds of people were feared to have died in RSF attacks on refugee camps in the western Darfur region in the latest apparent atrocity of a war marked by its brutality and wide-scale humanitarian impact.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Israeli military reservists court Australian universities amid ‘hypocrisy’ over anti-war protests

    Hundreds of university staff and students in Melbourne and Sydney called on their vice-chancellors to cancel pro-Israel events earlier this month, write Michael West Media’s Wendy Bacon and Yaakov Aharon.

    SPECIAL REPORT: By Wendy Bacon and Yaakov Aharon

    While Australia’s universities continue to repress pro-Palestine peace protests, they gave the green light to pro-Israel events earlier this month, sparking outrage from anti-war protesters over the hypocrisy.

    Israeli lobby groups StandWithUs Australia (SWU) and Israel-IS organised a series of university events this week which featured Israel Defense Force (IDF) reservists who have served during the war in Gaza, two of whom lost family members in the Hamas resistance attack on October 7, 2023.

    The events were promoted as “an immersive VR experience with an inspiring interfaith panel” discussing the importance of social cohesion, on and off campus.”

    Hundreds of staff and students at Monash, Sydney Uni, UNSW and UTS signed letters calling on their universities to “act swiftly to cancel the SWU event and make clear that organisations and individuals who worked with the Israel Defense Forces did not have a place on UNSW campuses.”

    SWU is a global charity organisation which supports Israel and fights all conduct it perceives to be “antisemitic”. It campaigns against the United Nations and international NGOs’ findings against Israel and is currently supporting actions to suspend United States students supporting Palestine.

    It established an office in Sydney in 2022 and Michael Gencher, who previously worked at the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, was appointed as CEO.

    The event’s co-sponsor, Israel-IS, is a similar propaganda outfit whose mission is to “connect with people before they connect with ideas” particularly through “cutting edge technologies like VR and AI.”

    Among their 18 staff, one employee’s role is “IDF coordinator’” while two employees serve as “heads of Influencer Academy”.

    The events were a test for management at Monash, UTS, UNSW and USyd to see how far each would go in cooperating with the Israel lobby.

    Some events cancelled
    At Monash, an open letter criticising the event was circulated by staff and students. The event was then cancelled without explanation.

    At UNSW, 51 staff and postgraduate students signed an open letter to vice-chancellor Atilla Brungs, calling for the event’s cancellation. It was signed on their behalf by Jessica Whyte, an associate professor of philosophy in arts and law and Noam Peleg, associate professor in the Faculty of Law and Justice.

    Prior to the scheduled event, Michael West Media sent questions to UNSW. After the event was scheduled to occur, the university responded to MWM, informing us that it had not taken place.

    As of today, two days after the event was scheduled, vice-chancellor Brungs has not responded to the letter.

    UTS warning to students
    The UTS branch of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students partnered with Israel-IS in organising the UTS event, in alignment with their core “pillars” of Zionism and activism. The student group seeks to “promote a positive image of Israel on campus” to achieve its vision of a world where Jewish students are committed to Israel.

    UTS Students’ Association, Palestinian Youth Society and UTS Muslim Student Society wrote to management but deputy vice-chancellor Kylie Readman rejected pleas. She replied that the event’s organisers had guaranteed it would be “a small private event focused on minority Israeli perspectives” and that speakers would only speak in a personal capacity.

    While acknowledging the conflict in the Middle East was stressful for many at UTS, she then warned students, “UTS has not received formal notification of any intent to protest, as is required under the campus policy. As such, I must advise that any protest activity planned for 2nd April will be unauthorised. I would urge you to encourage students not to participate in an unauthorised protest.”

    Students who allegedly breach campus policies can face disciplinary proceedings that can lead to suspension.

    UTS Student Association president Mia Campbell told MWM, “The warning given by UTS about protesting definitely felt intimidating and frightening to a number of students, including myself.

    “Especially as a law student, misconduct allegations can affect your admission to the profession . . .  but with all other avenues of communication exhausted between us and the university, it felt like we didn’t have a choice.

    I don’t want to look back on what I was doing during this genocide and have done any less than what was possible at the time.

    The reading of Gaza child victim's names
    A UTS student reads the names of Gaza children killed in Israel’s War on Gaza. Image: Wendy Bacon/MWM

    Sombre, but quietly angry protest
    The UTS protest was sombre but quietly angry. Speakers read from lists naming dead Palestinian children.

    One speaker, who has lost 120 members of his extended family in Gaza, explained why he protested: “We have to be backed into a corner, told we can’t protest, told we can’t do anything. We’ve exhausted every single policy . . . Add to all that we are threatened with misconduct.”

    Do you think we can stay silent while there are people on campus who may have played a part in the killings in Gaza?

    SWU at University of Sydney
    University of Sydney staff and students who signed an open letter received no reply before the event.

    Activists from USyd staff in support of Palestine, Students Against War and Jews Against the Occupation ‘48 began protesting outside the Michael Spence building that houses the university’s senior executives on the Wednesday evening, April 2.

    Escorted by UTS security, three SWU representatives arrived. A small group was admitted. Soon afterwards, the participants could be seen from below in the building’s meeting room.

    A few protesters remained and booed the attendees as they left. These included Mark Leach, a far right Christian Zionist and founder of pro-Israeli group Never Again is Now. Later on X, he condemned the protesters and described Israel as a “multi-ethnic enclave of civilisation.”

    Warning letters for students
    Several student activists have received letters recently warning them about breaching the new USyd code of conduct regulating protests. USyd has also adopted a definition of anti-semitism which critics say could restrict criticism of Israel.

    It has been slammed by the Jewish Council of Australia as “dangerous” and “unworkable”.

    A Jews against Occupation ’48 speaker, Judith Treanor, said, “Welcoming this organisation makes a mockery of this university’s stated values of respect, non-harassment, and anti-racism.

    “In the context of this university’s adoption of draconian measures to stifle freedom of expression in relation to Palestine, the decision to host this event promoting Israel reveals a shocking level of hypocrisy and a huge abuse of power.”

    Jews against occupation '48
    Jews Against the Occupation ‘48: L-R Suzie Gold, Laurie Izaks MacSween and Judith Treanor at the protest. Image: Vivienne Moore/MWM

    No stranger to USyd
    Michael Gencher is no stranger to USyd. Since October 2023, he has opposed student encampments and street protests.

    On one occasion, he visited the USyd protest student encampment in support of Palestine with Richard Kemp, a retired British army commander who tirelessly promotes the IDF. Kemp’s most recent X post congratulates Hungary for withdrawing from “the International Criminal Kangaroo Court. Other countries should reject this political court and follow suit.”

    Kemp and Gencher filmed themselves attempting to interrogate students about their knowledge of conflict in the Middle East on May 21, 2024, but the students refused to be provoked and declined to engage.

    In May 2024, Gercher helped organise a joint rally at USyd with Zionist Group Together with Israel, a partner of far-right group Australian Jewish Association. Extreme Zionist Ofir Birenbaum, who was recently exposed as covertly filming staff at an inner city cafe, Cairo Takeaway, helped organise the rally.

    Students at the USyd encampment told MWM  that they experienced provocative behaviour towards them during the May rally.

    Opposition to StandWithUs
    Those who oppose the SWU campus events draw on international findings condemning Israel and its IDF, explained in similar letters to university leaders.

    After the USyd event, those who signed a letter received a response from vice-chancellor Mark Scott.

    He explained, “We host a broad range of activities that reflect different perspectives — we recognise our role as a place for debate and disagreeing well, which includes tolerance of varied opinions.”

    His response ignored the concerns raised, which leaves this question: Why are organisations that reject all international and humanitarian legal findings, including ones of genocide and ethnic cleansing,

    being made to feel ‘safe and welcome’ when their critics risk misconduct proceedings?

    SWU CEO Michael Gencher went on the attack in the Jewish press:

    “We’re seeing a coordinated attempt to intimidate universities into silencing Israeli voices simply because they don’t conform to a radical political narrative.” He accused the academics of spreading “provable lies, dangerous rhetoric, and blatant hypocrisy.”

    SWU regards United Nations and other findings against Israel as false.

    Wendy Bacon is an investigative journalist who was professor of journalism at UTS. She worked for Fairfax, Channel Nine and SBS and has published in The Guardian, New Matilda, City Hub and Overland. She has a long history in promoting independent and alternative journalism. She is a long-term supporter of a peaceful BDS and the Greens.

    Yaakov Aharon is a Jewish-Australian living in Wollongong. He enjoys long walks on Wollongong Beach, unimpeded by Port Kembla smoke fumes and AUKUS submarines. This article was first published by Michael West Media and is republished with permission of the authors.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Autistic Inclusive Meets: the grassroots group fighting Autistic abuse while uplifting the community

    At a fundraising gala, a charity peddled so-called ‘therapies’ forcing compliance, denying autonomy, and “grooming” children to suppress their behaviours and inner selves. Adults have been bullying children, and even violently restraining them in schools. Parents have forced dangerous bleach-based ‘cures’ on kids. This isn’t the far-removed reality of some distant, disgraceful UK times past. No, this is the shameful situation for Autistic adults and children in the UK today. Enter: Autistic Inclusive Meets (AIM) – a grassroots community group that’s been taking on the obscenely persisting ‘cure culture’ that still disgustingly pervades every nook and cranny of the nation’s consciousness around neurodivergence.

    For over a decade, the non-profit has exposed and battled the unconscionable abuse meted out against Autistic people countrywide.

    The Canary spoke to AIM CEO Emma Dalmayne about its work, and the ongoing menagerie of indefensible issues still affecting Autistic people today.

    Autistic Inclusive Meets: a grassroots group by Autistic people, for Autistic people

    Autistic Inclusive Meets (AIM) is a grassroots group that Emma co-founded in 2016. Officially, Emma and then co-director Paul Wady registered it in 2017. Its website describes how it’s staffed by:

    a team of passionate and dedicated volunteers, committed to creating a supportive and inclusive environment for autistic individuals and their families. Our team consists of a diverse group of autistic individuals who are devoted to helping autistic people to live fulfilling lives. We provide a range of services and support, including information, advice, and practical assistance to help autistic people navigate the challenges of everyday life.

    Emma is Autistic herself and her six children are all neurodivergent. She explained to the Canary that she’d started AIM in response to her Autistic youngest son, who’s now 17, getting bullied at school. The school had also been highly non-accommodating, to the point she’d decided to pull him out from mainstream education.

    She’d begun by taking him to various home education groups instead. However, she had found that she hadn’t been able to:

    find one that was as accepting of autistic children as they should be. The kids are still just as cruel.

    That’s where AIM came in:

    So I started AIM along with another home educator who’s not on board anymore. And we started off with one group, which was a sensory based group. It’s probably one of our most popular. We still run it.

    AIM now runs numerous social, play, and activity groups for neurodivergent adults and children alike. There’s a Saturday term-time football session, boxing, sensory groups, alongside special educational needs (SEN) advice drop-ins throughout the week:

    Children in a line across a goal, with a football each at their feet.

    Child and adult boxing.

    Moreover, Emma emphasised that the groups accept children without diagnosis – acknowledging the enormous barriers that persist to getting them. By contrast, she highlighted that:

    a lot of places don’t, like the National Autistic Society don’t, for instance.

    Autistic Inclusive Meets groups: a safe place for Autistic people to flourish

    This affirming, supportive environment for connection has served as a safe space for neurodivergent children to flourish in ways they often find hard elsewhere. Emma described how Autistic Inclusive Meets (AIM) has welcomed:

    parents bringing kids that they’re not sure about. But as soon as they get them there and their kid goes, they’re like, ‘oh, they go and play away from me’. And I’m like, ‘yeah, because they’re with other Autistic kids and they feel comfortable’.

    She told the Canary that:

    I think it’s important that we do exist for that, because there’s a lot of home ed groups who are still mainstream kids. So they’re still going to be as judgmental of anyone who they judge as different to them.

    So we’ve got children that are non-speaking. We’ve got children that communicate with AAC devices or they use signing, or they’re highly verbal, and they all just accept each other. They all just play alongside each other or with each other.

    But there’s never any judgment or bullying. We don’t tolerate any of that. And the parents, once they start coming, they all realise that they’re Autistic as well.

    Children play with animal figurines.

    Overall, for Emma, the groups are central to AIM’s work. Largely, this is because Autistic abuse is alarmingly prolific across the board. Only on 9 April did the BBC break a horrific account – with harrowing video evidence – of staff at a specialist school tackling and pinning a 12 year-old Autistic boy to the ground.

    But this disgusting overreach of restraint in education settings – abuse by any other name – is hardly uncommon. In 2023 for instance, the International Coalition Against Restraint and Seclusion surveyed the experiences of 560 children across England’s schools. Disturbingly, 87% of them had been subjected to restrictive practices – and 81% of those were Autistic.

    Emma detailed how she has had many parents phone up seeking help for their neurodivergent children experiencing abuse in schools:

    We had one child who’d been kicked twice between the legs so badly that he needed two operations. And the school defended the bullies by saying he shouldn’t have been in that part of the school. You get a lot of gaslighting from schools. You know, the child will say ‘he bullied me’ and they’ll be told, ‘oh, no, forget it, it’s fine’.

    Fighting Autistic abuse on all fronts, including from the National Autistic Society

    Some of these atrocious abuse incidents have even been at schools and residencies that a prominent UK autism organisation runs.

    In 2022, the National Autistic Society (NAS) was embroiled in a number of damning allegations surrounding serious safeguarding issues at its independent and academy-run schools. As Third Sector reported at the time:

    The government is investigating safety at schools run by the National Autistic Society after claims that a child was found eating a dead rat and a teacher brought in a sword…Other alleged incidents included staff being threatened with bottles and scissors.

    Moreover, the disgraceful abuse and severe neglect in this case chimed with previous incidents at NAS-run sites. Only in 2018, the infamous bullying and physical violence situation at the NAS’s Mendip House in Somerset came to light in a scathing report. As the Guardian reported, the Somerset Safeguarding Adults Board (SSAB) had detailed how:

    A whistleblower claimed one resident of Mendip House was slapped, forced to eat chillies and repeatedly thrown into a swimming pool.

    In another incident highlighted in the report, a staff member is said to have put a ribbon around a resident’s neck and ridden him “like a horse”. Concerns about a “laddish” culture were raised.

    When the home was investigated, inspectors found residents had been funding staff meals during outings and almost £10,000 had to be reimbursed.

    However, watchdog and regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) all but let the multi-million pound charity completely off the hook for it. Instead of prosecution, the CQC issued the NAS a mere £4,000 fixed penalty notice – and did nothing further. Of course, this is the epitome of the dismissive, dehumanising, and ableist attitude towards Autistic people that Emma was highlighting. There’s a sense in this that Autistic people’s lives are somehow lesser. Their word on events is consistently invalidated because they’re Autistic, and their lived experiences so frequently discounted.

    Unsurprisingly, it was Emma and Autistic Inclusive Meets (AIM) on the scene spearheading calls for justice in the wake of the scandal.

    Undercover investigations expose dangerous ‘cure’ culture in UK parent circles

    Emma has been at the forefront of fighting Autistic abuse since 2015. Before Autistic Inclusive Meets (AIM) came into being, appalled at the sorts of mistreatment she was witnessing in parent circles, Emma was already taking action.

    She explained to the Canary how she would “go undercover in Facebook groups” to expose parents mistreating their Autistic children. Emma reeled off a list of horrific ‘cures’ that she had found parents were forcing on them.

    There was the abhorrent ‘Miracle Mineral Solution’ – chlorine dioxide – essentially bleach, that parents would inject into their children’s rectum to remove supposed parasites ‘causing’ Autism. This highly dangerous practice causes children to eject their stomach and bowel lining – the ‘parasites’ as parents would claim to Emma on Facebook groups which they’d sickeningly “brag” they had “caught that day”.

    Emma recounted how she would:

    talk to parents who are using chlorine dioxide bleach in enemas and oral solutions on their autistic kids. And then I’d be talking to them arranging a coffee date and saying, ‘oh, yeah, my child has this reaction’, while getting their address and phone number and calling the police and social services at the same time. And the newspapers, when I first started contacting them, didn’t even believe it was happening.

    You know, they thought I was lying. But I’ve reported 12 sets of parents here in the UK for using chlorine dioxide.

    Emma often found parents completely unfazed at the disturbing array of symptoms they were bringing on in their children:

    The side effects that these kids were having, where I’d speak to parents and they’d say, ‘oh yeah, they’ve had nosebleeds, seizures, green stools, pink urine, sores, rashes, ulcers in the mouth, headaches’, just everything you can expect from being poisoned basically. They’d lose bowel lining when they were passing stools after the enemas. They’d put them in a sieve and they’d put them on a paper plate and they’d take pictures of them. They’d use a penny to show how thick they were and a ruler to show how long they were.

    This was just the tip of the iceberg however. Emma has encountered parents using turpentine on their Autistic children. In other cases, she found them turning to homeopathy, claiming any number of ‘cures’, or more baseless causes of autism:

    there was a woman who is a homeopathist and she was saying that chicken nuggets were causing autism. That was a good one.

    Others have been more sinister and alarming. Stem cell intravenous ‘treatments’ that send fluid straight into the brain, exploitative marine parks offering ‘dolphin therapy’ claiming the marine mammals sonar signals “activate brain cells”, painful Tui Na massages, these were just a few Emma highlighted she’d come across in her undercover infiltrations of parent groups online.

    In 2016, Emma had worked with the BBC to expose a Hungarian man in London – Josef Kanta – who claimed he could “kill” autism with mind training. Emma explained how his approach in her view, seemed to take influence from Scientology-type bull-baiting techniques. She explained how Kanta would:

    tell you, you have to sit still, look at him, and make no facial expression whatsoever. And then he’ll try and break you down.

    Emma had approached him feigning that she “didn’t want to be Autistic anymore”, so he would reveal his cruel ‘treatment’ to the undercover BBC team. She told the Canary how he had:

    threatened to hit the undercover journo in the BBC. He offered to punch him in the end because he wasn’t reacting the way you needed him to.

    Concerningly, Emma noted how he is “still active” today.

    Still no legislation to make cure claims illegal

    All her concerted work exposing abusive autism ‘cures’ culminated in Emma feeding into an important report that the cross-party Westminster Commission on Autism published in 2018. Parliamentarians, led by Labour MP Barry Sheerman put together A Spectrum of Harmful Interventions for Autism. This set out to expose the dodgy and abusive practices that persist for Autistic people in the UK. Notably, it found that:

    autistic people had been offered treatments such as crystal therapy, ear candles, vitamins, spiritual intervention, aromatherapy, chelation, juice plus diet, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, exorcism, stem-cell transplants, exposure therapy (including slapping), rerum, acupuncture, DAN (defeat autism now) therapy, MMS (bleach), turpentine and many more.

    Since this report, as Emma highlighted to the Canary, parents and quack clinicians have continued to promulgate some of these bunk, cruel, and dangerous ‘cures’ regardless.

    The problem, as Emma sees it, is that authorities continue to let the perpetrators off because:

    There’s this rhetoric of: Autism is a tragedy.

    She gave the example from her undercover investigations on parents using bleach:

    These poor, desperate parents, they’ve got these horrible Autistic children. What else are they meant to do but give them bleach? They’ll literally let them off and they’ll be back in the group the next day asking where they can buy more chlorine dioxide bleach.

    So ultimately, there’s little accountability for the abusers of Autistic individuals.

    Therefore, this has made Emma’s concerted, committed efforts to expose and bring them to justice all the more vital for the community.

    Autistic Inclusive Meets (AIM) has campaigned for years for a new law to make claiming a treatment or intervention as an autism ‘cure’, illegal. Emma explained how this would operate similar to the Cancer Act 1939 which does precisely this for cancer diseases. But, Emma laboured over a critical point here. And it’s one that shouldn’t need saying: “autism isn’t a disease”. Obviously, this underscored the fact that the Autistic community even require legislation to protect them from exploitative snake-oil salespeople, all the more appalling.

    Parliament has so far failed to bring any legislation on this. This has not been helped by the fact that the NAS as a leading autism charity has hedged on support for it.

    Ambitious About Autism’s love affair with abusive Applied Behaviour Analysis

    While on the surface, charities like the NAS purport to advocate for the Autistic community, some of the highest profile autism organisations actually peddle a particular set of these controversial therapies. Although these happen to be widely promoted therapies due to these big charities promoting them – the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) actually advises against them.

    Autistic Inclusive Meets (AIM’s) campaigning has highlighted that these nonprofits therefore haven’t only a record of bullying and neglect at their facilities, but a deeply entrenched ideological culture of abuse.

    In March, AIM picketed outside a ticketed event held by PlatformX Communications (PXC) – the trading name of TalkTalk Group – to raise funds for controversial non-profit Ambitious About Autism.

    The Canary’s Steve Topple was on the ground reporting from the protest at Raffles hotel in Westminster:

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by Canary (@thecanaryuk)

    There, behind closed doors, actor Christopher Eccleston hosted more than 350 attendees for a night of auctions, guest donations, and technology company sponsorship. Tickets went from £650 a pop – raising hundreds of thousands of pounds to purportedly:

    go towards improving the quality of life for autistic young people while in education by providing additional assistive technology resources to learning environments across the UK.

    However, it was this “education” work that AIM was there to challenge. Notably, AIM demonstrated outside the event because Ambitious promotes a notoriously abusive ‘therapy’ for autism.

    ABA: a therapy that sounds a lot like grooming

    Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is a coercive compliance-based ‘therapy’. It relies on reinforcement techniques and punitive withholding of interests and acknowledgement. Ultimately, it’s all for ‘corrective’ goals to force Autistic patients to mask their Autistic behaviours. In effect, it abuses Autistic people into silence, and out of being themselves, forcing conformity with neurotypical conventions. Put simply: forcing compliance with societally-accepted behaviours.

    Emma expressed how in practice, ABA:

    literally is just made to break the child or adult. It really is…if you’re uncomfortable, if you’re flapping and you’re happy, and you don’t need to make eye contact, you’re made to. And it takes the autonomy away from the person.

    What’s more, Emma highlighted an alarming detail about how ABA therapists operate:

    did you know that they’re brought into the home for one week before the therapy starts? And they befriend the child. They find out what the child likes so that they can use it to motivate them and use it as a reinforcer to take away and give back.

    So, Emma pointed out what this is in essence:

    And when you’ve brought someone into your house to make friends with your child, to then make them comply with treats, doesn’t that sound like grooming?

    So, what it has meant in reality has been the outright denial of Autistic people’s autonomy. Autistic patients have come away with significant trauma, and it has heightened suicide risk, endangered patients with other sometimes co-occurring conditions, all while exposing them to potential further abuse.

    The charity has long run schools and colleges that implement ABA, alongside a similarly abusive therapy, known as Positive Behaviour Support (PBS). PBS is de facto an ABA rebrand, couched in fuzzy platitudes to a ‘person-centred’ approach. In actuality, it’s clearly anything but.

    In this way, charities like the NAS and Ambitious are not simply periphery promulgators of these abusive practices. They’re instrumental to its continued prominence – effectively mainstreaming them as therapeutic tools for Autistic people.

    If Autistic Inclusive Meets had the money the big autism organisations have…

    None of this is perhaps surprising, when you consider the fact the major autism charities are disgracefully dire on Autistic representation. And where they bother at all, it has been largely down to repeated criticism from the Autistic community – not the charities themselves taking the initiative.

    From the start, by contrast, Autistic Inclusive Meets (AIM) was Autistic-led, and entirely centred in the celebration, platforming, and uplifting of the Autistic community. Its directors are all Autistic.Its work is all about giving Autistic people a voice and opportunities to thrive as themselves.

    Yet, as Emma lamented, it’s these big charities making, at best, performative and tokenistic moves at Autistic inclusion, that are:

    making hundreds of thousands.

    In fact, it’s actually significantly worse than this. These nonprofits are raking in vast incomes in the millions. Ambitious About Autism was sitting on £21m in 2023 with a near £28m expenditure that year. Meanwhile the NAS had close to £30m by the close of 2024, after spending more than £96m.

    Emma mused to the Canary that the CEOs of some of the biggest autism organisations are also taking home staggering salaries. She pointed to the CEO of Ambitious About Autism – Jolanta Lasota – on her lavish £119k pay packet.

    Crucially, as Emma put it: “they’re profiting from abuse”. Nonetheless, the funds keep flowing. Moreover, she noted that:

    If AIM had that money, the things we’d do. We’d love to have a building. We do get to use a youth club and we also use a children’s centre. But if we had our own building, we could have a sensory room and a kitchen to teach life skills, and an outdoor area. Oh, the amount of stuff we do with that money.

    However, what Emma and the AIM team do for the community on substantially less funds is already inordinately more valuable.

    AIM in Autistic people’s corner on mental health amid Labour PIP cuts

    Autistic Inclusive Meets (AIM) has campaigned relentlessly, tirelessly for Autistic and neurodivergent people’s rights.

    In the past year, AIM put together a petition calling out Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for “turning away autistic kids”. Emma’s son Damien bravely spoke out about his appalling exclusion from child mental health services to Sky News in March. Specifically, she explained how:

    During lockdown, his mental health deteriorated because I’ve done I’ve literally built this little world for him. So he’s got, you know, we run a football session of Chartwell Athletic Community Trust. We do boxing sessions. Anything that he wanted, I made.

    Then, when his mental health deteriorated further in 2024, his doctors referred him again. However, CAMHS still wouldn’t accept him as a patient. After suggesting he access safeguarding and children’s disability services – who obviously couldn’t help him with his mental health – Damien was forced to pay out of pocket for private therapy using his Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

    But as Emma highlighted, he shouldn’t have to. NHS services should be open and accessible to him, period.

    Evidently, this also throws up considerable irony amid the Labour Party government’s ‘reforms’ to PIP. Specifically, it’s doubling down on making the benefit entitlement harder to claim for certain disabled demographics – of which young people and those with mental health are particular targets.

    With so many parents coming to AIM with similar stories, Emma’s petition demanded that:

    CAMHS stop discriminating against mentally ill autistic children and teens. We are demanding they offer treatment and help instead of leaving vulnerable kids to suffer long term trauma.

    That petition now has nearly 215,000 signatures.

    Autistic Inclusive Meets ready to stand up for individuals where others aren’t

    These multitude of ways Autistic Inclusive Meets (AIM) is fighting abuse, and for Autistic people’s rights, is astonishing. However, it’s not even all that the grassroots group is doing either.

    AIM doesn’t only work on broader issues impacting Autistic people to embed change longer-term either. It also responds proactively to injustices in the here and now, and notably, in individual cases to boot.

    As with other major patient organisations, such as those for myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), the mainstream Autism charities also regularly fail to deploy their immense resources to aid individuals in crisis. Not AIM: Emma and her bold, unwavering brainchild deeply committed to the community, have intervened in numerous instances.

    AIM was founded and is grounded in genuine love for the Autistic community and that has meant meeting Autistic people experiencing abuse wherever they’re at.

    The Canary’s Nicola Jeffery previously reported on a number of Autistic young women that the NHS had sectioned. Clinicians had weaponised the Mental Health Act against Saffron, Holly, and Megan. Each lives with Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) and doctors subjected all of them to traumatic forced treatments that failed to respect their autonomy, or accommodate their specific needs as Autistic patients. In some instances, they were even actively abusive towards them. So, naturally, Emma and AIM stepped up to support them and their families.

    Now, Emma reports how Saffron and Holly are out of hospital and both “doing well”. Holly has even since become an ambassador for AIM. Unfortunately, Megan’s case has been more complicated, so AIM is currently unaware of her situation. If the need arises however, it’s patently obvious the group will spring into action once again.

    These are hardly the only times Emma and AIM have done so either. There are so many examples, they are almost too numerous to list.

    Naturally, it was Emma who set up the petition for Osime Brown when the UK government despicably threatened to deport him to Jamaica.

    In February, AIM supported a family of an Autistic child with extreme sensory needs stuck in appropriate and dangerous temporary accommodation. The group applied pressure on Greenwich Council in London – who quickly rehoused them after their intervention.

    Currently, the group is running a campaign to make body cameras mandatory for care staff responsible for Autistic individuals. AIM launched it in direct response to night staff at a residential school in Kent violently abusing learning disabled and non-verbal Autistic teenager Jack.

    Unapologetically there for Autistic people: ‘because why shouldn’t it be like that?’

    Ultimately, Autistic Inclusive Meets (AIM’s) campaigning has underscored that the major autism charities flourish precisely because of the existence of persisting forms of abuse, not in spite of them. The narrative that Emma described positioning autism as a tragedy, is the basis through which these organisations solicit their gargantuan donations. In other words, tragedy pays: embedding genuine community, support, and dismantling discriminatory barriers, not so much.

    Emma expressed how the very basis of these organisations’ multi-million turnover rests on exploiting the Autistic community. It’s indisputably apparent that AIM could not be more different in that.

    AIM and Emma’s fervent love and dedication to the community shines through in everything they do. In July, AIM is hosting its annual Autistic Pride and Craft Fair in Woolwich, London. The group is also holding its first ever fair in Brighton that same month. The origins behind this event sum up AIM’s whole ethos in a nutshell:

    It was Autism Awareness Month, which I hate – it should be Autistic Acceptance Month – about four or five years ago, and I thought, ‘these bastards are raking in all this money’ – like the NAS. Loads of money, and they’re making it off Autistic people. And I thought what we need is a hall and let Autistic people make money for themselves. It’s £10 a table. Platform them and let them make their own money. And that’s what we did. That’s what they should be doing.

    AIM puts the Autistic community front and centre. They’re at the heart of the organisation – they’re at the heart of why it exists. For Emma, it’s a tale of two utterly different worlds when it comes to AIM and the prominent autism charities:

    There’s this thing at the moment, Walk for Autism, and people send a certain amount, they get a T-shirt and then they get sponsored, and then that money goes to the charity as well. And I always ask people who are sponsoring the NAS and all that, what has this charity done for you and your family?

    Can you phone them at midnight crying and someone actually talk to you and say, ‘you know what? We’ve got a group in two days. Come and have a cup of tea. Bring your child who you’ve been told is uncontrollable and you can’t take anywhere. And let’s see what happens’.

    With AIM, the answer is yes – you can. The group is there for the Autistic community in every way its small and under-resourced team can possibly be. It punches above its weight and then some.

    Emma put it poignantly, plainly:

    Because why shouldn’t it be like that?

    This is Emma’s unbending belief that speaking up, and speaking out, not speaking for or over, and simply being there for the Autistic community, is what Autistic advocacy should be all about. AIM’s work, from its groups to its campaigning, its activism to its platforming events, is all a testament to that.

    It’s AIM who will be there in the middle of the night in a crisis, the morning when you wake up concerned, at every moment that calls for people to stand up for Autistic community’s rights. AIM is unflinchingly there in the face of this ongoing abuse – so everyone who cares for the Autistic community should throw their full trust and support behind AIM too. There’s no disputing, it has more than earned it.

    Feature image and in-text images supplied/the Canary

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Leaked ‘working paper’ on New Caledonia’s political future sparks new concerns

    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

    A leaked “working paper” on New Caledonia’s future political status is causing concern on the local stage and has prompted a “clarification” from the French government’s Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls.

    Details of the document, which was supposed to remain confidential, have been widely circulated online over the past few days.

    Valls said earlier the confidentiality of the document was supposed to ensure expected results of ongoing talks would not be jeopardised.

    However, following the leak, Valls said in a release on Friday that, for the time being, it was nothing more than a “working paper”.

    The document results from earlier rounds of talks when Valls was in Nouméa during his previous trips in February and March 2025.

    Valls is due to return to New Caledonia on April 29 for another round of talks and possibly “negotiations” and more political talks are ongoing behind closed doors.

    French Minister of Overseas Manuel Valls (front left) greets the New Caledonian territorial President Alcide Ponga (right)
    French Minister of Overseas Manuel Valls (front left) greets the New Caledonian territorial President Alcide Ponga (right) as Senator Georges Naturel looks on during his arrival for a military honours ceremony in Nouméa in February. Image: AFP/RNZ Pacific

    He has denied that it can be regarded as a “unilateral proposal” from Paris.

    The latest roundtable session was on Friday, April 11, held remotely via a video conference between Valls in Paris and all political stakeholders (both pro-France and pro-independence parties) in Nouméa.

    All tendencies across the political spectrum have reaffirmed their strong and sometimes “non-negotiable” respective stances.

    Parties opposed to independence, who regard New Caledonia as being part of France, have consistently maintained that the results of the latest three referendums on self-determination — held in 2018, 2020 and 2021 — should be respected. They reject the notion of independence.

    The last referendum in December 2021 was, however, largely boycotted by the pro-independence movement and indigenous Kanak voters.

    On the pro-independence side, the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS, dominated by the Union Calédonienne) is announcing a “convention” on April 26 — just three days before Valls’s return — to decide on whether it should now fully engage in negotiations proper.

    In a news conference last week, the FLNKS was critical of the French-suggested approach, saying it would only commit if they “see the benefits” and that the document was “patronising”.

    Two other pro-independence parties — the PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and the UPM (Union Progressiste en Mélanésie) — have distanced themselves from the FLNKS, which they see as too radical under Union Calédonienne’s influence and dominance) and hold a more moderate view.

    PALIKA held a general meeting late last week to reaffirm that, while they too were regarding the path to sovereignty as their paramount goal, they were already committed to participating in future “negotiations” since “all topics have been taken into account” (in the working document).

    They are favour an “independence association” pathway.

    Carefully chosen words
    In his release on Friday, Valls said the main pillars of future negotiations were articulated around the themes of:

    • “democracy and the rule of law”, a “decolonisation process”, the right to self-determination, a future “fundamental law” that would seal New Caledonia’s future status (and would then, if locally approved, be ratified by French Parliament and later included in the French Constitution);
    • the powers of New Caledonia’s three provinces (including on tax and revenue collection matters); and
    • a future New Caledonia citizenship (and its conditions of eligibility) with the associated definition of who meets the requirements to vote at local elections.

    Citizenship
    On acquiring New Caledonia citizenship, a consensus seems to emerge on the minimum time of residence: it would be “10 to 15” years with other criteria such as an “exam” to ascertain the candidate’s knowledge and respect of cultural “values and specificities”.

    Every person born in New Caledonia, children and spouses of qualified citizens, would also automatically qualify for New Caledonia’s citizenship.

    Power-sharing
    On power-sharing, the draft also touches on the “sovereign” powers (international relations, defence, law and order, justice, currency) which would remain within the French realm, but in a stronger association for New Caledonia.

    All other powers, regarded as “non-sovereign”, would remain under direct control of New Caledonia as they have already been transferred, gradually, to New Caledonia, over the past 27 years, under the Nouméa Accord.

    New Caledonia would also be consulted on all negotiations related to the Pacific islands region and would get representation at European Union level.

    Local diplomats would also be trained under France’s Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs.

    Under the Nouméa Accord, the training process was already initiated more than 10 years ago with New Caledonian representatives appointed and hosted at French embassies in the region — Fiji, New Zealand, Australia.

    A local “strategic committee” would also be set up on defence matters.

    However, despite long-time FLNKS demands, this would not allow for a seat at the United Nations.

    In terms of currency, the present French Pacific Francs (CFP, XPF) would be abolished for a new currency that would remain pegged to the Euro, provided France’s other two Pacific territories (French Polynesia, Wallis-and-Futuna — which are also using the CFP) agree.

    Reinforced provincial powers
    A new proposal, in terms of reinforced provincial powers, would be to grant each of New Caledonia’s three provinces (North, South and Loyalty Islands) the capacity — currently held by New Caledonia’s government — to generate and collect its own taxes.

    Each province would then re-distribute their collected tax revenues to the central government and municipalities.

    This is also reported to be a sensitive point during the talks, since about 80 percent of New Caledonia’s wealth is located in the Southern Province, which also generates more than 90 percent of all of New Caledonia’s tax revenues.

    This is perceived as a concession to pro-France parties, which are calling for an “internal federation” model for New Caledonia, a prospect strongly opposed by pro-independence parties who are denouncing what they liken to some kind of “partition” for the French Pacific dependency.

    In the currently discussed project, the representation at the Congress (Parliament) of New Caledonia would be revised among the three provinces to better reflect their respective weight according to demographic changes.

    The representation would be re-assessed and possibly modified after each population census.

    Under the proposed text, New Caledonia’s government would remain based on the notion of “collegiality”.

    Future referendum — no more just ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to independence
    The current working paper, on the right to self-determination, suggests that any future referendum on self-determination no longer has a specified deadline, but should take place after a “stabilisation and reconstruction” phase.

    It would no longer ask the binary question of “yes” or “no” to independence and full sovereignty, but rather seek the approval of a “comprehensive project”.

    To activate a referendum, the approval of at least three fifths of New Caledonia’s 54-seat Congress would be needed.

    The Congress’s current makeup, almost equally split in two between pro-France and pro-independence parties, this 3/5th threshold could only be found if there is a consensual vote beyond party lines.

    Some of the FLNKS’s earlier demands, like having its president Christian Téin (elected in absentia in August 2024 ) part of the talks, now seem to have been dropped.

    Téin was arrested in June 2024 for alleged involvement in the May 2024 insurrectional riots that caused 14 dead (including two French gendarmes), hundreds of injured, thousands of jobless and the destruction of several hundred businesses for a total estimated damage of 2.2 billion euros (NZ$4.3 billion).

    Four days after his arrest, Téin was transferred from New Caledonia to mainland France.

    Although he is still remanded in custody pending his trial (for alleged involvement in organised criminal-related acts), his case was recently transferred from the jurisdiction of judges in Nouméa to mainland France magistrates.

    Union Calédonienne president and pro-independence front man Emmanuel Tjibaou told public broadcaster NC la 1ère yesterday he was in regular contact with Téin from his jail in Mulhouse (northeastern France).

    Another recent development that could also be perceived as a concession to the FLNKS is that last week, France announced the replacement of French High commissioner Louis Le Franc, France’s representative and man in charge in Nouméa during last year’s riots.

    ‘We are facing a decisive moment’, says Valls
    Valls said he remained hopeful that despite “all positions remaining at present still far from each other . . . evolutions are still possible”.

    “I reaffirm the (French) State’s full commitment to pursue this approach, in the spirit of the Matignon and Nouméa Accords (signed respectively in 1988 and 1998) to build together a united, appeased and prosperous New Caledonia,” Valls concluded.

    “We are facing a decisive moment for the future of New Caledonia, which is confronted with a particularly grave economic and social situation. Civil peace remains fragile.”

    The much sought-after agreement, which has been at the centre of political talks since they resumed in early 2025 after a three-year hiatus, is supposed to replace the Nouméa Accord from 1998.

    The 1998 pact, which outlines the notion of gradual transfer of sovereign powers from France to new Caledonia, but also the notion of “common destiny”, stipulates that after three referendums on self-determination resulting in a majority of “no”, then the political partners are to meet and “discuss the situation thus created”.

    Determination, anxiety and hope
    On all sides of the political landscape, ahead of any outcome for the crucial talks, the current atmosphere is a mix of determination, anxiety and hope, with a touch of disillusionment.

    The pro-independence movement’s Emmanuel Tjibaou has to manage a sometimes radical base.

    He told NC la 1ère that the main objective remained “the path to sovereignty”.

    Within the pro-France camp, there is also defiance towards Vall’s approach and expected results.

    Among their ranks, one lingering angst, founded or not, is to see an agreement being concluded that would not respond to their expectations of New Caledonia remaining part of France.

    This worst-case scenario, in their view, would bring back sad memories of Algeria’s pre-independence process decades ago.

    On 4 June 1958, in the midst of its war against Algeria’s National Liberation Front (FLN), French President General De Gaulle, while on a visit to Algiers, shouted a resounding “Je vous ai compris!” (“I have understood you”) to a crowd of cheering pro-France and French Algerians who were convinced at the time that their voice had been heard in favour of French Algeria.

    On 19 March 1962, after years of a bloody war, the Evian Accords were signed, paving the way for Algeria’s independence on July 3.

    “I had to take precautions, I had to proceed progressively and this is how we made it”, De Gaulle explained to the French daily Le Monde in 1966.

    In the meantime, in an atmosphere of fear and violence, an estimated 700,000 French citizens from Algeria were “repatriated” by boat to mainland France.

    As an alternative posed to French nationals at the time, FLN’s slogan was “la valise ou le cercueil” (“the suitcase or the coffin”).

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

  • New Zealand’s humanity – does it include all of us, or only for some?

    COMMENTARY: By Katrina Mitchell-Kouttab

    “Wherever Palestinians have control is barbaric.” These were the words from New Zealand’s Chief Human Rights Commissioner Stephen Rainbow.

    During a meeting with Philippa Yasbek from Jewish Voices for Peace, Dr Rainbow allegedly told her that information from the NZ Security Intelligence Services (NZSIS) threat assessment asserted that Muslims were the biggest threat to the Jewish community. More so than white supremacists.

    But the NZSIS has not identified Muslims as the greatest threat to national security.

    In the 2023 threat environment report, NZSIS stated that it: “Does not single out any community as a threat to our country, and to do so would be a misinterpretation of the analysis.

    “White Identity-Motivated Violent Extremism (W-IMVE) continues to be the dominant IMVE ideology in New Zealand. Young people becoming involved in W-IMVE is a growing trend.”

    Religiously motivated violent extremism (RMVE) did not come from the Muslim community, as Dr Rainbow has also misrepresented.

    The more recent 2024 NZSIS report stated: “White identity-motivated violent extremism (W-IMVE) remains the dominant IMVE ideology in New Zealand. Terrorist attack-related material and propaganda, including the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto and livestream footage, continue to be shared among IMVE adherents in New Zealand and abroad.”

    To implicate Muslims as being the greatest threat may highlight Dr Rainbow’s own biases, racist beliefs, and political agenda. These false narratives, that have recently been strongly pushed by the US and Israel, undermine social cohesion and lead to a rise in Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism.

    It is also deeply troubling that he has framed Muslim and Arab communities as potential sources of violent extremism while failing to acknowledge the very real and documented threats they have faced in Aotearoa.

    The Christchurch Mosque attacks — the most horrific act of mass violence in New Zealand’s modern history — were perpetrated not by Muslims, but against them, by an individual radicalised by white supremacist ideology.

    Chief Human Rights Commissioner Dr Stephen Rainbow
    Chief Human Rights Commissioner Dr Stephen Rainbow . . . “It is also deeply troubling that he has framed Muslim and Arab communities as potential sources of violent extremism while failing to acknowledge the very real and documented threats they have faced in Aotearoa.” Image: HRC

    Since that tragedy, there have been multiple threats made against mosques, Arab New Zealanders, and Palestinian communities, many of which have received insufficient public attention or institutional response.

    For a Human Rights Commissioner to overlook this context and effectively invert the victim-aggressor dynamic is not only factually inaccurate, but it also risks reinforcing harmful stereotypes and undermining the safety and dignity of communities who are already vulnerable.

    Such narratives are inconsistent with the Human Rights Commission’s mandate to protect all people in New Zealand from discrimination and hate.

    The dehumanisation of Muslims and Palestinians
    As part of Israel’s propaganda, anti-Muslim and Palestinian tropes are used to justify violence against Palestinians by framing us as barbaric, aggressive, and as a threat. We are dehumanised in order to normalise the harm they inflict on our communities which includes genocide, land theft, ethnic cleansing, apartheid policies, dispossession, and occupation.

    In October 2023, Dan Gillerman, a former Israeli Ambassador to the UN, described Palestinians as “horrible, inhuman animals” and was perplexed with the growing global concern for us.

    That same month Yoav Gallant, then Israeli Defence Minister, referred to Palestinians as “human animals” when he announced Israel’s illegal and horrific siege on Gaza that included blocking water, food, medicine, and shelter to an entire population, the majority of which are children.

    In making his own remarks about the Muslim community being a “threat” in New Zealand as a collective group, and labelling Palestinians being “barbaric”, Dr Stephen Rainbow has shattered the credibility of the Human Rights Commission. He has made it very clear that he is not impartial nor is he representing and protecting all communities.

    Instead, Dr Rainbow is exacerbating divisions within society. This is a worrying trend that we are witnessing around the world; the de-humanising of groups to serve political agendas, retain power, or seek public support for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

    Dr Rainbow’s appointment also points a spotlight onto this government’s commitment to neutrality and inclusiveness in its human rights policies. Allowing a high-ranking official to make discriminatory remarks undermines New Zealand’s commitment to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

    A high-ranking official should not be allowed to engage in Islamic and Palestinian racist rhetoric without consequence. The public should be questioning the morals, principles, and inclusivity of those currently in power. Our trust is being eroded.

    Dr Stephen Rainbow’s comments can also be seen as a breach of human rights principles, as he is supposed to uphold equality and non-discrimination. Yet his beliefs seem to be peppered with racism, often falsely based on religion, ethnicity, and race.

    Foreign influence in New Zealand
    This incident also shines accountability and concerns for foreign influence and propaganda seeping into New Zealand. The Israel Institute of New Zealand (IINZ) has published articles that some perceive as dehumanising toward Palestinians.

    In one article written by Dr Rainbow titled “With every chant Israel’s case grows stronger”, he says:

    “The Left has found a new underdog to replace the Jews — the Palestinians — in spite of the fact that the treatment of gay people, women, and political opponents wherever Palestinians have control is barbaric.”

    By publicising these comments, The Israel Institute of New Zealand signalled its support of these offensive and racist serotypes. Such statements risk reinforcing a narrative that portrays Palestinians as inherently violent, uncivilised, and unworthy of basic rights and dignity.

    This kind of rhetoric contributes to what many describe as anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism, and it warrants public scrutiny, especially when shared by organisations involved in shaping public discourse.

    Importantly, the NZSIS 2024 threat report stated that “Inflammatory and violent language online can target anyone, although most appears directed towards those from already marginalised minority communities, or those affected by globally significant conflicts or events, such as the Israel-Gaza conflict.”

    Other statements and reposts published online by the IINZ on their X account include:

    “Muslims are getting killed, is Israel involved? No. How many casualties? Under 100,00, who cares? Why is this even on the news? Over 100,000. Oh, that’s too bad, what’s for dinner?” (12 February 2024)

    “Fact. Gaza isn’t ‘ancestral Palestinian land’. We’ve been here long before them, and we’ll still be here long after the latest propaganda campaign.” (12 February 2024)

    Palestinian society was also described as being “a violent, terror-supporting, Jew-hating society with genocidal aspirations.” (16 February 2025)

    The “estimate of Hamas casualties, the civilian-to-combat death ratio could be as low as 1:1. This could be historically low for urban warfare.” (21 February 2025)

    “There has never been a country called Palestine.” (25 February 2025)

    Even showing a picture of Gaza before Israel’s bombing campaign with a caption saying, “Open air prison”. Next to it a picture of a completely destroyed Gaza with a caption that says “Victory.” (23 February 2025)

    “Palestinian society in Gaza is in my eyes little more than a death loving cult of murderers and criminals of the lowest kind.” (28 February 2025)

    Anti-Palestinian bias and racism
    Portraying Muslims and Palestinians as a threat and extremist reflects both Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian bias and potential racism. These statements risk dehumanising Palestinians and are typical of the settler colonial narrative used to erase indigenous populations by denying our history, identity and legal claim.

    The IINZ has published content that many see as mocking the deaths of Palestinian Muslims and Christians, which is not only ethically questionable but can be seen as a complete lack of empathy.

    And posting the horrific images of a completely destroyed Gaza, appears to revel in the suffering of others and contradicts basic ethical norms, such as decency and compassion.

    There also appears to be a common theme among pro-Israeli organisations, not just the IINZ, that cast negative connotations on our national symbols including our Palestinian flag and keffiyeh.

    In an article on the IINZ webpage, titled “A justified war”, they write “chorus of protesters wearing keffiyehs, waving their Palestinian and terrorist flags, and shouting about Israel’s alleged war crimes.”

    It seemingly places the Palestinian flag — an internationally recognised national symbol– alongside so-called “terrorist flags,” suggesting an equivalence between Palestinian identity and terrorism. Many view this language as dehumanising and inflammatory, erasing the legitimate national and cultural characteristics of Palestinians and feeding into harmful stereotypes.

    The Palestinian flag represents a people, their identity, and national aspirations.

    There is nothing wrong with our keffiyeh, it is part of our national dress. The negative connotations of Palestinian cultural symbols have to stop, including vilifying other MPs or supporters who wear it in solidarity.

    This is happening all too often in New Zealand and must be called out and addressed. Our keffiyeh is not just a scarf — it is a symbol of our Palestinian identity, our resistance, and our rich, historic and deeply rooted cultural heritage.

    Pro-Israeli groups attack it because they aim to delegitimise Palestinian identity and resistance by associating it with violence, terrorism, or extremism.

    In 2024, ISESCO and UNESCO both recognised the keffiyeh as an essential part of their Intangible Cultural Heritage lists as a way of safeguarding Palestinian cultural heritage and reinforcing its historical and symbolic importance.

    As a safeguarded cultural artifact, much like indigenous dress and other traditional attire, attempts to ban or demonize it are acts of cultural erasure and need to be called out as such and dealt with accordingly.

    In the same IINZ article titled “A Justified War”, the authors present arguments that appear to defend Israel’s military actions in Gaza, including the targeting of civilians.

    Many within the community (most of us have been affected), including survivors and those with direct ties to the region, have found the article deeply distressing and feel that it lacks compassion for the victims of the ongoing violence, and the framing and tone of the piece have raised serious ethical concerns, especially as some statements are factually incorrect.

    The New Zealand Palestinian communities affected by this unimaginable genocide are suffering. Our family members are being killed and are at threat daily from Israel’s aggression and illegal war.

    Unfortunately, much rhetoric from this organisation aligns with Israeli state narratives and includes statements that some view as racist or immoral, warranting further scrutiny from the government.

    There is growing public concern over the association of Human Rights Commissioner Dr Stephen Rainbow with the IINZ, which promotes itself as a research and advocacy body.

    A Human Rights Commissioner requires neutrality and a commitment to protecting all communities from discrimination; aligning with Israel and publishing harmful rhetoric may lead to bias in policy decisions and discrimination.

    It is also important to remember that we are not a monolithic group. Christian Palestinians exist (I am one) as well as Muslim and historically Jewish Palestinians. Christian communities have lived in Palestine for two thousand years.

    This is also not a religious conflict, as many pro-Israeli groups wish the world to believe, and it is not complex. It is one of colonialism, dispossession, and human rights. A history that New Zealand is all too familiar with.

    "A Human Rights Commissioner requires neutrality and a commitment to protecting all communities from discrimination"
    “A Human Rights Commissioner requires neutrality and a commitment to protecting all communities from discrimination; aligning with Israel and publishing harmful rhetoric may lead to bias in policy decisions and discrimination.” Image: HRC screenshot APR

    The need for accountability
    Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith’s inaction and disrespectful response, claiming that a staunchly pro-Israeli supporter can be impartial and will be “very careful” from now on, hints that he may also support some forms of racism, in this case against Muslims and Palestinians.

    Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith
    Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith . . . “There needs to be accountability for Goldsmith. Why has he not removed Dr Rainbow from office and acted appropriately?” Image: NZ Parliament

    You cannot address only some groups who are discriminated against but then ignore others, or accept excuses for racist, intolerable actions or statements. This is not justice.

    This is the application of selective principles, enforced and underpinned by political agendas, foreign influence, and racism. Does Goldsmith understand that justice is as much about human rights, fairness and accountability as it is about laws?

    Without accountability, there is no justice at all, or perhaps he too is confused or uncertain about his role, as much as Dr Rainbow seems oblivious to his?

    There needs to be accountability for Goldsmith. Why has he not removed Dr Rainbow from office and acted appropriately? If Dr Rainbow had said that Jews were the biggest threat to Muslims or that Israelis were the biggest threat to Palestinians, would this government and Goldsmith have sat back and said, “he didn’t mean it, it was a mistake, and he has apologised”?

    Questions New Zealanders should be asking are, what kind of Human Rights Commissioner speaks of entire peoples this way? What kind of minister, like Paul Goldsmith, looks at that and does very little?

    What kind of Government claims to champion justice, while turning a blind eye to genocide? This is betraying the very idea of human rights itself.

    Although we are a small country here in New Zealand, we have remained strong by upholding and standing by our principles. We said no to apartheid in South Africa. We said no to nuclear weapons in the Pacific. We said no to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

    And we must now say no to dehumanisation — anywhere. Are we a nation that upholds justice or do we sit on the sidelines while the darkest times in modern history envelopes us all?

    The attacks against Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims must stop. We have already faced horrific acts of violence against us here in New Zealand and currently in Palestine. We need support and humanity, not dehumanisation, demonisation and cruelty. This is not what New Zealand is about, we must do better together.

    There needs to be a formal enquiry and policy review to see if structural biases exist in New Zealand’s Human Rights institutions. This should also be done across some government bodies, including the Ministry of Education and Immigration NZ, to determine if there has been discrimination or inequality in the handling of humanitarian visas and how the Education Ministry has handled the complaints of anti-Palestinian discrimination at schools.

    Communities have particular concern at how the curriculum in many schools deals with the creation of the state of Israel but is silent on Palestinian history.

    Public figures should be held to a higher standard, with consequences for spreading racially charged rhetoric.

    The Human Rights Commission needs to rebuild trust in our multicultural New Zealand society. The only way this can be done is through fair and just measures that include enforcement of anti-discrimination laws, true inclusivity and action when there is an absence of these.

    We are living in a moment where silence is complicity. Where apathy is betrayal.

    This is a test of whether New Zealand, Minister Goldsmith and this government truly uphold human rights for all, or only for some.

    Katrina Mitchell-Kouttab is a New Zealand Palestinian advocate and writer.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • UK MP refused entry to Hong Kong accuses China of ‘hidden blacklist’

    Wera Hobhouse says her apparent presence on secret list of critics of country’s human rights record made her a target

    A Liberal Democrat MP refused entry to Hong Kong to see her young grandson has said her experience should be “a wake-up call for any parliamentarian”, given that it seems to show China holds a secret list of banned politicians.

    Wera Hobhouse, who was turned back by officials on Thursday, said she was given no explanation as to why this happened, and could only assume that it was because she had spoken out about rights abuses by China.

    Continue reading…

  • ‘I became like a slave’: why 43 women are suing the secretive Opus Dei Catholic group in Argentina

    Lured by promises of an education but allegedly trapped in servitude and self-mortification, the former members are suing the ultra-conservative organisation over their ‘exploitation and abuse’

    The first item Opus Dei gave 12-year-old Andrea Martínez was a pink dress. The second was a schedule that detailed every task for every minute of her day. Then, when she was 16, she was given a cilice – a spiked metal chain to wear around her thigh – and a whip.

    In the late 1980s, Opus Dei, a secretive and ultra-conservative Catholic organisation, promised Martínez an escape from a life of poverty in rural Argentina. By attending one of their schools, they said, she would receive an education and opportunities.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Andrew Feinstein just slammed Hertfordshire Council’s £95m investments in Israel’s genocide

    Anti-apartheid campaigner Andrew Feinstein delivered a rousing call for justice and freedom for Palestine to a packed room in Hertfordshire. Notably, he joined the local community to hold Hertfordshire County Council’s feet to the fire over its gargantuan investments in companies complicit in Israel’s brutal genocide.

    Andrew Feinstein: calling out Israel in Hertfordshire talk

    At Jubilee Centre in St Albans on Wednesday 9 April, Andrew Feinstein spoke at the invitation of local group St Albans Friends of Palestine.

    He told some 120 attendees about a career that began as a teenage activist against apartheid in the 1980s. In the 1990s, Feinstein served as a member of the South African parliament under Nelson Mandela. Today, he continues his work speaking out against apartheid and injustice. Significantly, he detailed how this has led to his concerted campaigning on the arms trade. Notably, Feinstein has become a leading voice in the international movement for Palestinian rights.

    In last year’s general election, he ran as an independent candidate against Keir Starmer in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency. Impressively, he came second with nearly a fifth of the vote.

    The title of Andrew Feinstein’s talk was ‘South Africa and Israel: Apartheid Then and Now’. During this, he noted that it is a “legal fact” that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians amounts to apartheid as defined in international law. It’s a finding judges at the International Court of Justice recently confirmed. Consequently, he reflected on similarities and differences between the two cases.

    On top of this, he also condemned crackdowns on the movement for Palestinian rights. He expressed his horror, as the Jewish son of a Holocaust survivor, at recently being threatened by Austrian police during a protest in Vienna. Harrowingly, he recounted how this was very close to where his own mother had spent years hiding in a coal cellar in the 1940s.

    Hertfordshire County Councils complicity in Israel’s genocide

    Andrew Feinstein praised the Herts Palestine Support Coalition, which gathered signatures from audience members for its petition calling for Hertfordshire County Council to end its £95m investments in companies linked to grave human rights violations against Palestinians.

    In the coming days, HPSC will launch a page on its website where voters in the upcoming County Council election. There, constituents will be able to check which candidates in their area have pledged to advocate for divesting from these companies.

    Member of the St Albans Friends of Palestine committee Peter Segal said:

    It was truly inspiring to hear from such a seasoned campaigner. In the current situation, it’s all too easy to feel dispirited. But Andrew reminded us that there are always meaningful things that all of us can do to work towards a better future, in Israel and Palestine and in our own society.

    Featured image supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Baptist Church condemns ‘appalling’ Israeli Palm Sunday attack on hospital

    Asia Pacific Report

    The Baptist Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East has condemned Israeli’s Palm Sunday attack on al-Ahli Arab Hospital, the last functioning hospital in Gaza City.

    It said in a statement the Israeli forces had destroyed the two-storey Genetic Laboratory, damaged the pharmacy and emergency department buildings, and caused damage to surrounding structures, including St Philip the Evangelist Chapel.

    The hospital can no longer function with staff and patients being forced to flee in the dead of night after a military warning at 2am to evacuate the hospital.

    The bombing of the hospital began minutes later. It was hit by at least two missiles, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

    At least three people were reported killed.

    “The Diocese of Jerusalem is appalled,” the church statement said, adding that the Baptist hospital had been bombed “for the fifth time since the beginning of the war in 2023 — and this time was on the morning of Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week.”

    It added: “We call upon all governments and people of goodwill to intervene to stop all kinds of attacks on medical and humanitarian institutions.”

    Qatar says attack a ‘horrific massacre’
    The Qatar government described the Israeli attack as a “horrific massacre and a heinous crime against civilians” that constituted a grave violation of international humanitarian law.

    Qatar’s Foreign Ministry warned about the collapse of the health system in Gaza and the expansion of the cycle of violence across the region.

    It said the international community must assume its responsibilities in protecting civilians.

    It reaffirmed Qatar’s backing of the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with occupied East Jerusalem as its capital.

    Israel has repeatedly attacked hospitals in the Palestinian enclave with impunity throughout its devastating war, said the Gaza Government Media Office.

    Attacks on 36 hospitals
    According to Al Jazeera, Israeli attacks on 36 hospitals since October 2023 include:

    • In November 2023, Israeli tanks surrounded the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya and fired artillery at the complex, killing at least 12 Palestinians.
    • Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City was subjected to a prolonged Israeli siege starting in March 2024. By early April last year, the World Health Organisation reported that the facility, Gaza’s largest medical complex, was “in ruins” and no longer functional. Dozens of bodies were later recovered from the hospital grounds and surrounding areas, indicating that patients and medical staff had been killed and placed in mass graves.
    • In March 2024, an Israeli nighttime attack on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis killed two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy who had undergone surgery two days earlier.
    • At least 50 people were injured in the same month in an Israeli drone attack next to the entrance of the al-Helal al-Emirati Maternity Hospital in the Tal as-Sultan area of Rafah city.
    • In May, Rafah’s Kuwaiti Speciality Hospital was forced to shut down after an Israeli attack just outside the gates of the hospital killed two of its medical staff.
    • In December, Israeli soldiers stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, torching large sections, ordering hundreds of people to leave and kidnapping its director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya — who is still detained by the Israeli military without charge — and other medical staff.
    • In March 2025, Israel blew up the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, destroying Gaza’s specialised cancer treatment facility as well as an adjacent medical school.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fresh details emerge on Australia’s new climate migration visa for Tuvalu residents

    ANALYSIS: By Jane McAdam, UNSW Sydney

    The details of a new visa enabling Tuvaluan citizens to permanently migrate to Australia were released this week.

    The visa was created as part of a bilateral treaty Australia and Tuvalu signed in late 2023, which aims to protect the two countries’ shared interests in security, prosperity and stability, especially given the “existential threat posed by climate change”.

    The Australia–Tuvalu Falepili Union, as it is known, is the world’s first bilateral agreement to create a special visa like this in the context of climate change.

    Here’s what we know so far about why this special visa exists and how it will work.

    Why is this migration avenue important?
    The impacts of climate change are already contributing to displacement and migration around the world.

    As a low-lying atoll nation, Tuvalu is particularly exposed to rising sea levels, storm surges and coastal erosion.

    As Pacific leaders declared in a world-first regional framework on climate mobility in 2023, rights-based migration can “help people to move safely and on their own terms in the context of climate change.”

    And enhanced migration opportunities have clearly made a huge difference to development challenges in the Pacific, allowing people to access education and work and send money back home.

    As international development expert Professor Stephen Howes put it,

    Countries with greater migration opportunities in the Pacific generally do better.

    While Australia has a history of labour mobility schemes for Pacific peoples, this will not provide opportunities for everyone.

    Despite perennial calls for migration or relocation opportunities in the face of climate change, this is the first Australian visa to respond.

    How does the new visa work?
    The visa will enable up to 280 people from Tuvalu to move to Australia each year.

    On arrival in Australia, visa holders will receive, among other things, immediate access to:

    • education (at the same subsidisation as Australian citizens)
    • Medicare
    • the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
    • family tax benefit
    • childcare subsidy
    • youth allowance.

    They will also have “freedom for unlimited travel” to and from Australia.

    This is rare. Normally, unlimited travel is capped at five years.

    According to some experts, these arrangements now mean Tuvalu has the “second closest migration relationship with Australia after New Zealand”.

    Reading the fine print
    The technical name of the visa is Subclass 192 (Pacific Engagement).

    The details of the visa, released this week, reveal some curiosities.

    First, it has been incorporated into the existing Pacific Engagement Visa category (subclass 192) rather than designed as a standalone visa.

    Presumably, this was a pragmatic decision to expedite its creation and overcome the significant costs of establishing a wholly new visa category.

    But unlike the Pacific Engagement Visa — a different, earlier visa, which is contingent on applicants having a job offer in Australia — this new visa is not employment-dependent.

    Secondly, the new visa does not specifically mention Tuvalu.

    This would make it simpler to extend it to other Pacific countries in the future.

    Who can apply, and how?

    To apply, eligible people must first register their interest for the visa online. Then, they must be selected through a random computer ballot to apply.

    The primary applicant must:

    • be at least 18 years of age
    • hold a Tuvaluan passport, and
    • have been born in Tuvalu — or had a parent or a grandparent born there.

    People with New Zealand citizenship cannot apply. Nor can anyone whose Tuvaluan citizenship was obtained through investment in the country.

    This indicates the underlying humanitarian nature of the visa; people with comparable opportunities in New Zealand or elsewhere are ineligible to apply for it.

    Applicants must also satisfy certain health and character requirements.

    Strikingly, the visa is open to those “with disabilities, special needs and chronic health conditions”. This is often a bar to acquiring an Australian visa.

    And the new visa isn’t contingent on people showing they face risks from the adverse impacts of climate change and disasters, even though climate change formed the backdrop to the scheme’s creation.

    Settlement support is crucial
    With the first visa holders expected to arrive later this year, questions remain about how well supported they will be.

    The Explanatory Memorandum to the treaty says:

    Australia would provide support for applicants to find work and to the growing Tuvaluan diaspora in Australia to maintain connection to culture and improve settlement outcomes.

    That’s promising, but it’s not yet clear how this will be done.

    A heavy burden often falls on diaspora communities to assist newcomers.

    For this scheme to work, there must be government investment over the immediate and longer-term to give people the best prospects of thriving.

    Drawing on experiences from refugee settlement, and from comparative experiences in New Zealand with respect to Pacific communities, will be instructive.

    Extensive and ongoing community consultation is also needed with Tuvalu and with the Tuvalu diaspora in Australia. This includes involving these communities in reviewing the scheme over time.The Conversation

    Dr Jane McAdam is Scientia professor and ARC laureate fellow, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

  • Journalist Ahmed Alnaouq: ‘It’s our duty to make Gaza’s stories immortal’

    The Gaza-born, UK-based journalist, who has lost more than 20 family members in Israeli airstrikes, has taken pieces from an online platform he co-created for young Palestinians and collated them in a new book

    On 22 October 2023, an Israeli airstrike hit Ahmed Alnaouq’s home in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, killing 21 members of his family, including his 75-year-old father, two brothers, three sisters and all of their children.

    At the time, Alnaouq was living in London, where he works as a journalist and human rights activist. “It crushed me,” he says of the attack. Unable to return home, he could only watch helplessly from afar and grieve alone. Later, he tells me that it’s not anger or hate that consumes him now, but survivor’s guilt. “All the time I think: ‘Why? Why am I alive? Why wasn’t I killed with my family?’”

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Israel destroys only a quarter of Gaza tunnels in 18 months of deadly war

    The New Arab

    The Israeli military has reportedly only destroyed 25 percent of tunnels used by Hamas in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, say security sources.

    According to Israel’s Channel 12, the sources said that a vast network of tunnels remain in the Gaza Star despite 18 months of a ferocious Israeli onslaught, with many extending from Egypt — which shares a 12-kilometre border with the besieged Palestinian enclave.

    The Israeli military claimed it has been focused on tunnels used for attacks rather than those used to store weapons or as command centres.

    The security officials, cited by Channel 12, also said that face-to-face fighting with Hamas members had reduced, with groups fleeing into tunnels.

    The Israeli military has been waging a war against the Palestinian group for more than 18 months, while also attacking civilian areas and facilities, with Israel often boasting over how many fighters they have killed and how much of their infrastructure has been destroyed.

    The military claim to have killed thousands of Hamas fighters. However, at least 80 percent of casualties have been civilians, according to experts.

    This also comes as Israeli forces remain stationed at the Philadelphi crossing between Egypt and Gaza — a narrow strip of land occupied by the military since May of last year.

    Corridor to remain buffer zone
    Last month, Defence Minister Israel Katz said the corridor would remain a buffer zone despite Egyptian demands for the Israeli army to withdraw.

    Katz said the Israeli military would remain there to “counter ammunition and weapons smuggling” taking place through tunnels which connect the two pieces of land.

    Katz even said that he had seen a number of functioning tunnels in the area. The minister was quoted as saying: “I saw with my own eyes quite a few tunnels crossing into Egypt; some were closed, and several were open.”

    Tunnels have connected Gaza with Egypt as far back as the 1980s, but grew significantly in size and quantity following the Israeli economic blockade imposed on the territory in 2007.

    The tunnels serve as a means to smuggle goods such as food, medicine and fuel supplies due to the siege. Weapons and cash have also been smuggled through the tunnels since.

    Israel has repeatedly sought to dismantle such tunnels, destroying dozens every year. Israel also restricts the importation of construction material to prevent Hamas from building any more tunnels.

    Israel continues to wage its war on the Gaza Strip, killing over 5,900 Palestinians since 7, October 2023. It has stepped up its attacks on the Palestinian enclave since March 18 following the collapse of a truce killing well over 1500 people since, according to the Health Ministry.

    Republished from The New Arab under Creative Commons.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Israel destroys only a quarter of Gaza tunnels in 18 months of deadly war

    The New Arab

    The Israeli military has reportedly only destroyed 25 percent of tunnels used by Hamas in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, say security sources.

    According to Israel’s Channel 12, the sources said that a vast network of tunnels remain in the Gaza Star despite 18 months of a ferocious Israeli onslaught, with many extending from Egypt — which shares a 12-kilometre border with the besieged Palestinian enclave.

    The Israeli military claimed it has been focused on tunnels used for attacks rather than those used to store weapons or as command centres.

    The security officials, cited by Channel 12, also said that face-to-face fighting with Hamas members had reduced, with groups fleeing into tunnels.

    The Israeli military has been waging a war against the Palestinian group for more than 18 months, while also attacking civilian areas and facilities, with Israel often boasting over how many fighters they have killed and how much of their infrastructure has been destroyed.

    The military claim to have killed thousands of Hamas fighters. However, at least 80 percent of casualties have been civilians, according to experts.

    This also comes as Israeli forces remain stationed at the Philadelphi crossing between Egypt and Gaza — a narrow strip of land occupied by the military since May of last year.

    Corridor to remain buffer zone
    Last month, Defence Minister Israel Katz said the corridor would remain a buffer zone despite Egyptian demands for the Israeli army to withdraw.

    Katz said the Israeli military would remain there to “counter ammunition and weapons smuggling” taking place through tunnels which connect the two pieces of land.

    Katz even said that he had seen a number of functioning tunnels in the area. The minister was quoted as saying: “I saw with my own eyes quite a few tunnels crossing into Egypt; some were closed, and several were open.”

    Tunnels have connected Gaza with Egypt as far back as the 1980s, but grew significantly in size and quantity following the Israeli economic blockade imposed on the territory in 2007.

    The tunnels serve as a means to smuggle goods such as food, medicine and fuel supplies due to the siege. Weapons and cash have also been smuggled through the tunnels since.

    Israel has repeatedly sought to dismantle such tunnels, destroying dozens every year. Israel also restricts the importation of construction material to prevent Hamas from building any more tunnels.

    Israel continues to wage its war on the Gaza Strip, killing over 5,900 Palestinians since 7, October 2023. It has stepped up its attacks on the Palestinian enclave since March 18 following the collapse of a truce killing well over 1500 people since, according to the Health Ministry.

    Republished from The New Arab under Creative Commons.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Global summit on climate change and human rights announced for June 2025

    “Right Here, Right Now” a global dialogue on climate change and human rights are held at Oxford University and universities around the world 4-7 June 2025

    In June 2025 UN Human Rights is co-hosting a global summit on climate change and human rights in partnership with the University of Oxford, the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, the International Universities Climate Alliance, and co-host universities across the world.

    The 2025 Summit aims to advance human rights-based solutions to the climate crisis, amplify environmental human rights defenders’ voices, reinforce the global climate justice movement, and inspire people, particularly students, as advocates and leaders for human rights-based climate action.

    Other university partners include the University of the South Pacific, the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Cape Town, UNSW Sydney, Monash University, the University of Nairobi, the African Climate and Development Initiative, and the University of São Paulo.

    The cornerstone of the summit is a hybrid global event on World Environment Day, 5 June 2005. The Summit will bring together leading thinkers and practitioners at the intersection of climate change and human rights for a 24-hour global plenary, which will be broadcast live across time zones. Co-created and co-delivered by universities across the world, the plenary will follow the sun as we pass the baton between different regions.

    The High Commissioner will open the Summit at the University of Oxford on 4 June 2025.  Meanwhile, partner universities worldwide will host local activities on climate justice.

    More information and registrationhttps://www.ohchr.org/en/events/events/2025/right-here-right-now-global-climate-summit

    https://www.ohchr.org/en/events/events/2025/right-here-right-now-global-climate-summit

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • Human Rights Defenders Sue Trump Administration Over Sanctions on ICC Prosecutor

    In a federal court in Maine on Friday, two human rights advocates argued that U.S. President Donald Trump’s economic and travel sanctions against International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan violates their First Amendment rights, because of Trump’s stipulation that U.S. citizens cannot provide Khan with any services or material support as long as the sanctions are in place.

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Health workers call for NZ government to join global demands for ambulance massacre inquiry

    Asia Pacific Report

    Health workers spoke out at a rally condemning Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the latest atrocity against Palestinian aid workers today, calling on the New Zealand government to join global demands for an independent investigation.

    They were protesting over last month’s massacre of 15 Palestinian rescue workers and the destruction of their ambulances in Gaza’s Rafah district under heavy fire.

    The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has called for an independent international inquiry into the “deliberate killing” of 8 ambulance medics, 6 civil defence workers and 1 UN worker reportedly executed by the Israeli forces on March 23.

    Their ambulances were destroyed and buried together with the bodies of the victims in a shallow grave a week after the crews went missing.

    One PRCS paramedic, Assaad al-Nassasra, was reported to be still missing.

    Among the speakers in the rally in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s Te Komititanga Square, Amnesty International’s Audrey Van Ryn said: “These killings must be independently and impartially investigated and the perpetrators held to account.

    “Medical personnel carrying out their humanitarian duties most be respected and protected in all circumstances.”

    Health worker Jason Brooke read out a message from the secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Jagan Chapagain, in response to the killing of the Palestinian first-responders.

    ‘Their ambulances were clearly marked’
    “I am heartbroken. These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to wounded people. They were humanitarians. They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked,” said Chapagain.

    “They should have returned to their families; they did not.”

    Fourteen of the Palestinian aid workers killed by Israel in March 2025
    Fourteen of the Palestinian aid workers killed by Israel last month. The 15th is still missing. Graphic: Al Jazeera/Creative Commons

    Their bodies were discovered a week later by fellow workers. A video from one of the slain Palestinian Red Crescent medics contradicting the lies propagated by Israel’s military that the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals”

    These first responders were not mistakenly misidentified. They were travelling, clearly visible in red crescent marked ambulances with their lights on. They posed no threat.

    According to the United Nations, at least 1060 healthcare workers have been killed in the 18 months since Israel launched its genocidal offensive in Gaza.

    “Whether it’s first-responders and medics, health workers or reporters, not only are these workers being targeted with impunity by the IOF, but their deaths seem to barely cause a ripple,” said Brooke, who was greeted with cries of shame.

    “Where is the condemnation of our politicians? Our media?”

    ‘Dehumanisation of Palestinian life’
    “As the Palestinian poet and author Mohammed El-Kurd suggests, what we are witnessing is the dehumanisation of Palestinian life.

    “Israel only has to mention the word ‘Hamas’ and the indoctrinated look-away. As if resistance to genocide itself were a crime — the punishment a life predetermined for death.

    “Genocide does not distinguish between civilian, aid worker, health worker, reporter and militant. All are condemned.”

    Medical personnel, medical transport, hospitals and other medical facilities, the injured and sick are all specifically protected under international humanitarian law.

    The devastating Gaza massacre represents the single most deadly attack on Red Cross or Red Crescent workers anywhere in the world since 2017.

    Secretary-general Chapagain said: “The number of Palestine Red Crescent volunteers and staff killed since the start of this conflict is now 30.

    “We stand with Palestine Red Crescent and the loved ones of those killed on this darkest of days.”

    PSNA advocate Janfrie Wakim
    PSNA advocate Janfrie Wakim . . . “We mourn those thousands of innocent people . . . who made the ultimate sacrifice with their lives.” Image: Asia Pacific Report

    ‘Palestine wants freedom to live’
    Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) advocate Janfrie Wakim called on the crowd to give each other “high fives” in recognition of their solidarity in turning up for the protest in the 79th week since the war began.

    “I like the sign in front of me: ‘Palestine wants the freedom to live while Israel has the freedom to kill!’ she said.

    “We mourn those thousands of innocent people  — some with families here and in Gaza and the West Bank — who made the ultimate sacrifice with their lives, and the thousands unaccounted for in rubble and over 100,000 injured.

    "Palestine wants the freedom to live"
    “Palestine wants the freedom to live while Israel has the freedom to kill!” . . . a placard at today’s Auckland solidarity rally. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    “Mostly women and children.

    “The humanitarian workers who have been murdered serving humanity.”

    Wakim said the genocide had been enabled by the wealthiest countries in the world and Western media — “including our own with few exceptions”.

    “Without its lies, its deflections, its failure to report the agonising reality of Palestinians suffering, Israel would not have been able to commit its atrocities.”

    All fatalities women and children
    Meanwhile, the United Nations reports Palestinian women and children were the only fatalities in at least three dozen Israeli air strikes on Gaza since mid-March, as it warned that Israel’s military offensive threatened Palestinians’ “continued existence as a group”.

    Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Friday that the office had documented 224 Israeli strikes on residential buildings and tents for displaced people in the Gaza Strip between March 18 and April 9.

    “In some 36 strikes about which the UN Human Rights Office corroborated information, the fatalities recorded so far were only women and children,” she said.

    The findings come as Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed more than 1500 Palestinians since the Israeli military broke a ceasefire in March, according to figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, reports Al Jazeera.

    A German official was the latest to call for an independent probe over Israel’s killing of the 15 medical aid workers.

    An investigation into Israel’s killing of paramedics must be carried out independently, said German Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Assistance Luise Amtsberg.

    “This alleged violation of international law must not go unpunished,” Amtsberg said in a message on social media platform Bluesky.

    Israel’s ‘distortion’ straining ties
    “The investigation must be carried out quickly and independently, and the perpetrators must be brought to justice as soon as possible. The Israeli government and judiciary have a duty here,” she said.

    Israel’s distortion of the event was “once again” straining ties between Germany and Israel, she added.

    Myriam Laaroussi, an emergency coordinator with Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, told Al Jazeera from al-Mawasi, an area west of Khan Younis that houses thousands of displaced Gaza families, that the health system had been destroyed.

    Due to the Israeli blockade, the supplies needed to treat patients were lacking and had left children in Gaza vulnerable to disease, she said.

    The desalination unit was not functioning any more due to Israel’s decision to cut electricity, which had decreased the capacity to retain good hygiene and was leading to outbreaks of polio and scabies.

    “We see that it’s a ‘slow death’ for many Palestinians, with shortages of food and water leading to a loss of weight and medical issues,” she said.

    The ceasefire had been an opportunity to scale up the capacity of the different health facilities, but it had been too short to have enough effect, and now health facilities were being attacked again.

    A "Free free Palestine" placard
    A “Free free Palestine” placard at today’s Auckland solidarity rally. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific climate activists join 180+ groups calling on COP30 hosts Brazil to end fossil fuel dependence

    RNZ Pacific

    Pacific climate activists this week handed a letter from civil society to this year’s United Nations climate conference hosts, Brazil, emphasising their demands for the end of fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy.

    More than 180 indigenous, youth, and environmental organisations from across the world have signed the letter, coordinated by the campaign organisation, 350.org.

    A declaration of alliance between Indigenous peoples from the Amazon, the Pacific, and Australia ahead of COP30 has also been announced.

    The “strongly worded letter” was handed to COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago and Brazil’s Environment and Climate Change Minister Marina Silva who attended the Acampamento Terra Livre (ATL), or Free Land Camp, in Brasília.

    “We, climate and social justice organisations from around the world, urgently demand that COP30 renews the global commitment and supports implementation for the just, orderly, and equitable transition away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy,” the letter states.

    “This must ensure that solutions progressively meet the needs of Indigenous, Black, marginalised and vulnerable populations and accelerate the expansion of renewables in a way that ensures the world’s wealthiest and most polluting nations pay their fair share, does not harm nature, increase deforestation by burning biomass, while upholding economic, social, and gender justice.”

    ‘No room for new coal mines’
    It adds: “The science is unequivocal: there is no room for new coal mines or oil and gas fields if the world is to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius — especially in critical ecosystems like the Amazon, where COP30 will be hosted.

    “Tripling renewables by 2030 is essential, but without a managed and rapid phaseout of fossil fuels, it won’t be enough.”

    350.org’s Fiji community organiser, George Nacewa, said it was now up to the Brazil COP Presidency if they would act “or lock us into climate catastrophe”.

    “This is a critical time for our people — the age of deliberation is long past,” Nacewa said on behalf of the group that call themselves “Pacific Climate Warriors”.

    “We need this COP to be the one that spearheads the Just Energy Transition from words to action.”

    COP30 will take place in Belém, Brazil, from November 10-21.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • ‘Thousands like us’: couples to take UK government to court over humanist marriages

    Exclusive: Action comes five years after lack of legal recognition for humanist marriage in England and Wales was ruled discriminatory

    Two couples are taking the government to court over its failure to legalise humanist marriage in England and Wales five years after a ruling that the lack of recognition was discriminatory.

    Engaged couples Terri O’Sullivan and Edd Berrill, from Coventry, and Nicole Shasha and Rory Booth, from Leicester, are preparing to go to court in their fight to be married in line with their humanist beliefs.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • USA nominates Rosa María Payá to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

    The U.S. government announced on 27 March the nomination of the Cuban human rights defender Rosa María Payá Acevedo as a candidate to join the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS).

    “Rosa María Payá is a democracy advocate, human rights leader, and internationally renowned expert in Latin American politics,” stated the Department of State in an official statement. [see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2016/06/08/rosa-maria-paya-carries-on-the-work-of-her-father-in-cuba/]

    The nomination underscores Washington’s support for the work that the Cuban activist has done in promoting human rights, freedom, and democratic governance in the Western Hemisphere.

    Daughter of the deceased opposition leader Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, who was awarded the Sakharov Prize and died under circumstances that have never been officially clarified, Rosa María has continued his legacy with “unmatched determination,” the State Department highlighted. [see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/2522D108-8BCB-46A7-BEBD-144BC99B5926]

    Payá is the founder of the Cuba Decide movement, which promotes a binding plebiscite for Cubans to freely and democratically choose their political future. She also leads the Pan-American Democracy Foundation, through which she collaborates with legislators from various countries to support regional stability and security. Among the recognitions he has received are the Morris Abram Award for Human Rights (2019) and the Valor Award from the Society of Common Sense (2022).

    “I am deeply honored by the United States nomination to serve on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a vital and independent institution dedicated to protecting the rights and dignity of all people across the Americas,” she wrote.

    The elections to renew the members of the CIDH will be held on June 27, during the General Assembly of the OAS taking place in Antigua and Barbuda.

    https://en.cibercuba.com/noticias/2025-03-27-u1-e43231-s27061-nid299711-eeuu-nomina-rosa-maria-paya-comision-interamericana

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • ‘Delusional’ Treaty Principles Bill scrapped but fight for Te Tiriti just beginning, say lawyers and advocates

    By Layla Bailey-McDowell, RNZ Māori news journalist

    Legal experts and Māori advocates say the fight to protect Te Tiriti is only just beginning — as the controversial Treaty Principles Bill is officially killed in Parliament.

    The bill — which seeks to redefine the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi — sparked a nationwide hīkoi and received more than 300,000 written submissions — with 90 percent of submitters opposing it.

    Parliament confirmed the voting down of the bill yesterday, with only ACT supporting it proceeding further.

    The ayes were 11, and the noes 112.

    Riana Te Ngahue (Ngāti Porou), a young Māori lawyer, has gone viral on social media breaking down complex kaupapa and educating people on Treaty Principles Bill.
    Social media posts by lawyer Riana Te Ngahue (Ngāti Porou), explaining some of the complexities involved in issues such as the Treaty Principles Bill, have been popular. Image: RNZ/Layla Bailey-McDowell

    Riana Te Ngahue, a young Māori lawyer whose bite-sized breakdowns of complex issues — like the Treaty Principles Bill — went viral on social media, said she was glad the bill was finally gone.

    “It’s just frustrating that we’ve had to put so much time and energy into something that’s such a huge waste of time and money. I’m glad it’s over, but also disappointed because there are so many other harmful bills coming through — in the environment space, Oranga Tamariki, and others.”

    Most New Zealanders not divided
    Te Ngahue said the Justice Committee’s report — which showed 90 percent of submitters opposed the bill, 8 percent supported it, and 2 percent were unstated in their position — proved that most New Zealanders did not feel divided about Te Tiriti.

    “If David Seymour was right in saying that New Zealanders feel divided about this issue, then we would’ve seen significantly more submissions supporting his bill.

    “He seemed pretty delusional to keep pushing the idea that New Zealanders were behind him, because if that was true, he would’ve got a lot more support.”

    However, Te Ngahue said it was “wicked” to see such overwhelming opposition.

    “Especially because I know for a lot of people, this was their first time ever submitting on a bill. That’s what I think is really exciting.”

    She said it was humbling to know her content helped people feel confident enough to participate in the process.

    “I really didn’t expect that many people to watch my video, let alone actually find it helpful. I’m still blown away by people who say they only submitted because of it — that it showed them how.”

    Te Ngahue said while the bill was made to be divisive there had been “a huge silver lining”.

    “Because a lot of people have actually made the effort to get clued up on the Treaty of Waitangi, whereas before they might not have bothered because, you know, nothing was really that in your face about it.”

    “There’s a big wave of people going ‘I actually wanna get clued up on [Te Tiriti],’ which is really cool.”

    ‘Fight isn’t over’
    Māori lawyer Tania Waikato, whose own journey into social media advocacy empowered many first-time submitters, said she was in an “excited and celebratory” mood.

    “We all had a bit of a crappy summer holiday because of the Treaty Principles Bill and the Regulatory Standards Bill both being released for consultation at the same time. A lot of us were trying to fit advocacy around summer holidays and looking after our tamariki, so this feels like a nice payoff for all the hard mahi that went in.”

    Tania Waikato, who has more than 20 years of legal experience, launched the petition calling for the government to cancel Compass Group’s school lunch contract and reinstate its contract with local providers.
    Tania Waikato, who has more than 20 years of legal experience, launched a petition calling for the government to cancel Compass Group’s school lunch contract and reinstate its contract with local providers. Image: Tania Waikato/RNZ

    She said the “overwhelming opposition” sent a powerful message.

    “I think it’s a clear message that Aotearoa as a whole sees Te Tiriti as part of this country’s constitutional foundation. You can’t just come in and change that on a whim, like David Seymour and the ACT Party have tried to do.

    “Ninety percent of people who got off their butt and made a submission have clearly rejected the divisive and racist rhetoric that party has pushed.”

    Despite the win, she said the fight was far from over.

    “If anything, this is really just beginning. We’ve got the Regulatory Standards Bill that’s going to be introduced at some point before June. That particular bill will do what the Treaty Principle’s Bill was aiming to do, but in a different and just more sneaky way.

    ‘The next fight’
    “So for me, that’s definitely the next fight that we all gotta get up for again.”

    Waikato, who also launched a petition in March calling for the free school lunch programme contract to be overhauled, said allowing the Treaty Principles Bill to get this far in the first place was a “waste of time and money.”

    “Its an absolutely atrocious waste of taxpayers dollars, especially when we’ve got issues like the school lunches that I am advocating for on the other side.”

    “So for me, the fight’s far from over. It’s really just getting started.”

    ACT leader David Seymour.
    ACT leader David Seymour on Thursday after his bill was voted down in Parliament. Image: RNZ/Russell Palmer

    ACT Party leader David Seymour continued to defend the Treaty Principles Bill during its second reading on Thursday, and said the debate over the treaty’s principles was far from over.

    After being the only party to vote in favour of the bill, Seymour said not a single statement had grappled with the content of the bill — despite all the debate.

    Asked if his party had lost in this nationwide conversation, he said they still had not heard a good argument against it.

    ‘We’ll never give up on equal rights.”

    He said there were lots of options for continuing, and the party’s approach would be made clear before the next election

    Te Tiriti Action Group Pōneke spokesperson Kassie Hartendorp said Te Tiriti offers a "blueprint for a peaceful and just Aotearoa."
    Kassie Hartendorp said Te Tiriti Action Group Pōneke operates under the korowai – the cloak – of mana whenua and their tikanga in this area, which is called Te Kahu o Te Raukura, a cloak of aroha and peace. Image: RNZ

    Eyes on local elections – ActionStation says the mahi continues
    Community advocacy group ActionStation’s director Kassie Hartendorp, who helped spearhead campaigns like “Together for Te Tiriti”, said her team was feeling really positive.

    “It’s been a lot of work to get to this point, but we feel like this is a very good day for our country.”

    At the end of the hīkoi mō Te Tiriti, ActionStation co-delivered a Ngāti Whakaue rangatahi led petition opposing the Treaty Principles Bill, with more than 290,000 signatures — the second largest petition in Aotearoa’s history.

    They also hosted a live watch party for the bill’s second reading on Facebook, joined by Te Tiriti experts Dr Carwyn Jones and Tania Waikato.

    Hartendorp said it was amazing to see people from all over Aotearoa coming together to reject the bill.

    “It’s no longer a minority view that we should respect, but more and more and more people realise that it’s a fundamental part of our national identity that should be respected and not trampled every time a government wants to win power,” she said.

    Looking to the future, Hartendorp said Thursday’s victory was only one milestone in a longer campaign.

    Why people fought back
    “There was a future where this bill hadn’t gone down — this could’ve ended very differently. The reason we’re here now is because people fought back.

    “People from all backgrounds and ages said: ‘We respect Te Tiriti o Waitangi.’

    “We know it’s essential, it’s a part of our history, our past, our present, and our future. And we want to respect that together.”

    Hartendorp said they were now gearing up to fight against essentially another version of the Treaty Principles Bill — but on a local level.

    “In October, people in 42 councils around the country will vote on whether or not to keep their Māori ward councillors, and we think this is going to be a really big deal.”

    The Regulatory Standards Bill is also being closely watched, Hartendorp said, and she believed it could mirror the “divisive tactics” seen with the Treaty Principles Bill.

    “Part of the strategy for David Seymour and the ACT Party was to win over the public mandate by saying the public stands against Te Tiriti o Waitangi. That debate is still on,” she said.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • The Evin Prison Bakers’ Club by Sepideh Gholian review – like no recipe book you’ve ever read

    A political prisoner lifts the lid on the hardships and fantasies of life in Iran’s most notorious jail

    The Iranian political prisoner Sepideh Gholian’s account of life on the women’s wards in Bushehr and Evin prisons is a blindsiding blend of horrifying concrete detail, dizzying surrealism and wild optimism. In every line and in every moment it attempts to recreate, it is entirely and unconditionally defiant. For the reader, discombobulation comes from (at least) two directions. At one moment, you are presented with, for example, the story of a woman attempting to abort her foetus under permanent camera and human surveillance, because the consequences for her unborn child, herself and other family members if the pregnancy continues are unimaginably violent. At another you are instructed how to make elephant ears pastries, designed for large gatherings of visitors, in the cheery tones of the encouraging expert (“It’s not at all messy and impossible to get wrong. You don’t even need an oven. The sweetness is up to you.”)

    Gholian was detained and tortured in 2018 after helping to organise a strike by sugarcane workers. Released on bail at the beginning of 2019, she was quickly rearrested after Iranian state television broadcasted her “confession”, evidently obtained under duress, and returned to prison. On her release four years later, she recorded a video message in which she removed her hijab, denounced the regime and called for the downfall of supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Unsurprisingly, the video went viral, and even less surprisingly she was immediately returned to Evin prison, where she remains (the introduction by journalist Maziar Bahari tells us that, for “security reasons”, he can’t tell us exactly how her writing has been smuggled out).

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Yale Professors Flee To Toronto School Linked To Massive Human Rights Abuses

    In late March, three professors at Yale University—scholars Marci Shore and “fascism experts” Jason Stanley and Timothy Snyder—announced that they were leaving the United States to teach at the University of Toronto. They made the decision in the face of Donald Trump’s intensifying attacks on higher education, a deeply alarming trend that has seen agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) abduct student activists off the streets with the aim of forcibly deporting them. Stanley and Snyder cite the complicity of the Columbia University administration in Trump’s assault on student activism as a major reason for moving to Canada.

    The post Yale Professors Flee To Toronto School Linked To Massive Human Rights Abuses appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Ahead of COP30, Brazil must acknowledge its hydropower dams have been a disaster

    As Brazil prepares to host COP30 in the city of Belém, it stands before the world as a self-declared leader in clean energy. The Amazon rainforest, often described as the lungs of the planet, has been at the heart of this vision, seen as a source of nearly limitless hydropower potential. For decades, Brazil has promoted hydroelectricity as a clean, sustainable, and cost-effective solution to boost economic growth and fulfil its climate commitments. But while hydropower now constitutes over 60% of Brazil’s energy matrix, this narrative of progress has come at a deep and often irreversible cost, one paid by ecosystems and communities that have long existed in harmony with the rivers now being harnessed for power.

    Brazil’s hydropower dams: a story of displacement and destruction

    The Brazilian government, energy companies, and mainstream media have long presented hydropower as a national achievement, a keystone of development and environmental responsibility. Yet, beneath the surface, scientific research and the lived experiences of countless displaced people tell a different story.

    Since the 1960s, Brazil has invested heavily in dam construction, increasingly targeting the Amazon basin, one of the most ecologically rich and water-abundant areas on Earth. These gigantic projects have not only disrupted sensitive ecosystems but have also led to the mass displacement of Indigenous and traditional communities, disrupted their food sources, such as fishing, triggered widespread deforestation and environmental pollution. Worse yet, these dams contributed to the release of greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide.

    Furthermore, the influx of workers to dam sites often drives rapid urbanisation, placing stress on existing infrastructure and contributing to a surge in violence, crime, and both mental and physical health issues, leaving deep scars on communities that are already struggling to survive.

    Belo Monte dam – a monumental loss

    One of the most impactful projects, with significant irreversible socio-ecological consequences, was the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric complex in Pará, the host state for COP30.

    Igor Cavallini Johansen, professor in the demography department of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), said:

    We must reckon with the persistent inequalities created by large hydropower dams – both in the Altamira region and across the Amazon basin. This legacy of uneven development, where local communities bear the environmental and social costs while distant urban centres reap the energy benefits, demands urgent redress.

    Built between 2010 and 2015 during Dilma Rousseff’s administration, and completed just before her impeachment, Belo Monte has a capacity of 11.2GW and a cost of around $13bn. It stands as Brazil’s second-largest hydropower plant, operated and managed by Norte Energia.

    In June 2022, prior to his election, Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, stated that he had no regrets about supporting Belo Monte in the past, and that he would make the same decision to build the dam again if given the chance. He has consistently expressed his strong support for the Belo Monte project.

    Belo Monte is made up of two dams: an upper dam, Pimental, which diverts water to the canal, and lower dam, Belo Monte, where the powerhouse is located, along a 130-km river stretch of the Xingu River, known as Volta Grande.

    For many, Belo Monte symbolises tragedy, rather than triumph

    The construction of Belo Monte forcibly displaced around 40,000 people, including riverside communities (Ribeirinhos) and a quarter of Altamira’s population, who were relocated to remote resettlements on the city’s outskirts.

    For those who stayed, the consequences were equally devastating. Indigenous people and Ribeirinhos lost access to their primary food source – fishing – as fluctuating water levels led to the extinction of fish species. The river’s flow was reduced by an alarming 80%, all due to the diversion of its natural course.

    Maria Francineide Ferreira dos Santos lost her paradise to silence. Her home in Paratizinho was taken from her after she dared to speak against the destruction caused by the Belo Monte dam. In 2016, armed men invaded her house and threatened to kill her if she didn’t back down, but she stood her ground. Soon after, while away for medical treatment, her home was demolished. Forced into the city, she never stopped fighting. Today, she lives in Volta Grande do Xingu, not just as a survivor, but as a fierce guardian of the river and its people.

    Francineide spoke out about the lasting harm Belo Monte has brought to her life and the lives of countless others:

    All the impacts we’ve had are irreparable. The first impact was the biggest crime that Belo Monte committed in the Xingu, the death of the fish and with the displacement of its people who were born and raised in this region, who lived on the islands, without rights, without being heard, without respect, having their houses ripped out and burned, violating our rights.

    Another impact was seeing our people, who didn’t understand anything, lose their homes, being moved to the city where land had exorbitant prices, not giving us the conditions to survive. The government does what it wants. This has been a losing fight. No justice has been done.

    Rodolfo Salm, ecologist, activist, and lecturer at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), who lives in Altamira, spoke about some of the impacts of the project:

    The Belo Monte hydroelectric project stands as a clear example of environmental, social, and economic failure. While presented as a symbol of progress, it has instead triggered widespread destruction in the eastern Amazon. The social consequences have been equally severe, marked by displacement, violence, and unfulfilled promises. Despite the billions spent on compensation, these efforts fall far short of addressing the loss of livelihoods, natural beauty, and vital ecosystem services once provided by the preserved Xingu River.

    Far from bringing prosperity, the project has left the region economically weakened and environmentally damaged. Energy production at Belo Monte is unreliable, with the Xingu River running too low for most of the year, a flaw that was well understood before construction even began.

    Food insecurity: stripped of a fundamental human right

    A study published in the Environmental Research and Public Health journal highlights concerning levels of food insecurity in the region impacted by Belo Monte. Rather than enhancing quality of life, the project triggered a series of negative outcomes: displacement, loss of homes, and the disruption of essential food sources like agriculture and fishing. As a result, food security deteriorated, contributing to increased poverty.

    Johansen, one of the authors of the study, explained:

    The long-term food insecurity faced by communities displaced by Belo Monte is one of the most alarming consequences of the dam’s construction. Our research shows that, nearly 70% of households reported increased difficulty accessing enough food or the types of food they wanted after Belo Monte was built. For more than half of them, this struggle began even before the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning the dam’s impacts – not just external crises – are a relevant driver of this problem.

    One of the most revealing findings is that people officially recognised as ‘impacted’ by Belo Monte – and thus relocated to government resettlement neighbourhoods – were significantly more likely to face hunger. This suggests that the resettlement process itself, rather than improving lives, has maintained or deepened vulnerabilities.

    The resettled communities were stripped of a fundamental human right: access to adequate, nutritious food.

    Deepening dependence on distant supply chains has been a disaster

    Miquéias Freitas Calvi, professor of forestry engineering at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), and one of the authors of the study, said:

    The disruption of the river’s natural balance deeply affects the Indigenous and riverside communities whose lives are rooted in it. Fishing, their primary source of sustenance and income, is under threat, placing food security, health, and cultural survival at risk. As the river fades, so does their self-reliance. More families are forced to abandon their ancestral lands, relying on government aid to survive. Traditional diets give way to ultra-processed foods, compromising their health and identity. What begins as environmental damage quickly becomes a social crisis, eroding generations of sustainable living in harmony with the river.

    In just two years, the city of Altamira’s population (urban area) doubled as thousands arrived from across Brazil, drawn by the promise of work, not only on the Belo Monte dam, but in the web of opportunities it created. With such rapid growth, the most basic human need, food, became a pressing challenge. Yet instead of preparing to sustain a growing city and strengthen the local economy, the region scaled back its food production and deepened its dependence on distant supply chains.

    Johansen explained some of the impacts that go far beyond nutrition:

    The loss of traditional food sources like fish has had devastating impacts that go far beyond nutrition – it’s severed a vital connection to cultural identity and community health. For Indigenous and riverine populations around Belo Monte, fish weren’t just protein; they anchored entire systems of knowledge, social bonds, and spiritual practices.

    Generations developed intricate fishing techniques tied to the Xingu’s seasonal floods, passing down this wisdom through stories and shared labor. The act of fishing itself was communal – a space where elders taught youth, where myths were retold, where social ties were reinforced. With the dam’s disruption of river ecology, we’ve seen not just declining catches but a rupture in this intergenerational transmission.

    Public perceptions of hydropower in Brazil

    A study published in the Energy Research & Social Science journal explores how communities living near major hydropower dams perceive this form of energy, in sharp contrast to the broader national population. Focusing on the Altamira region, deep in the Amazon and heavily impacted by the Belo Monte dam, the study offers a glimpse into the lived reality behind Brazil’s hydropower narrative.

    Although Altamira is not located directly beside the dam, it served as a central hub for its construction. As a result, the city experienced significant negative impacts, including the rise in crime, prostitution, drug use, public health challenges such as increased dengue fever cases, and social disruption.

    Having lived through these changes, Altamira’s residents perceive the social and environmental consequences of hydropower far more critically than the general population. Still, 60% of residents continue to express support for hydropower, a complex and conflicted relationship with a project that has profoundly altered their daily lives.

    This contradiction reveals the harsh reality of “sacrifice zones”, areas like Altamira and its neighbouring communities that are left to absorb the full cost of national development while receiving little in return. The psychological cost is profound: some residents appear to cope by believing their hardship is a necessary contribution to the nation’s progress.

    Perhaps most heartbreaking is the widespread frustration over energy costs. A staggering 84% of Altamira’s population say they are dissatisfied with the affordability of electricity, despite living in the shadow of one of the world’s largest hydropower projects.

    The ‘narrative of progress and modernity’

    Johansen further explained:

    There’s the powerful narrative of progress and modernity that dominates media coverage and political discourse. Hydropower is consistently framed as “clean energy” and a driver of national development, with stories appearing almost exclusively in economic sections of newspapers. This selective coverage emphasises job creation and energy security while minimising reports about displacement, ecological damage, and cultural loss. The result is a skewed public perception where the benefits feel abstract and national, while the costs remain hyper-localised.

    In addition, there’s the entrenched notion of sacrifice zones – the idea that certain regions must bear the burden of development for the greater good. Many in Altamira express a resigned acceptance that “someone has to pay the price” for Brazil’s energy needs. This sentiment is reinforced when they see the electricity from Belo Monte, which is connected to the national grid, primarily powering distant urban centers in the southeast while there are local communities in the Amazon facing energy poverty.

    The stark reality of Altamira – sitting in the shadow of one of Brazil’s largest hydropower plants yet struggling with expensive electricity – exposes a fundamental injustice in our energy system. This isn’t just poor planning; it’s a systemic failure that treats local communities as infrastructure sites rather than equal beneficiaries.

    As Brazil prepares to welcome the world at COP30, it faces an urgent question: can a nation truly claim climate leadership while ignoring the voices of those sacrificed in the name of energy?

    We can ‘no longer justify sacrificing’ the Amazon for hydropower in Brazil

    Johansen’s shared a powerful message to Brazil and the world about the irreversible consequences of hydropower dams in biodiversity hotspots like the Amazon:

    The construction of hydropower dams in biodiversity hotspots like the Amazon has taught us several hard lessons that should fundamentally reshape future energy planning. First and foremost, these projects cause irreversible ecological damage – flooding vast areas of pristine rainforest, destroying unique habitats, and potentially driving species extinction.

    Equally troubling is the consistent pattern of human rights violations. Indigenous and traditional communities repeatedly face displacement without proper consultation or fair compensation, as starkly demonstrated by the Belo Monte project. These aren’t isolated incidents but systemic failures in how such projects are approved and implemented.

    The climate calculus for tropical dams has also proven flawed. Rather than being clean energy solutions, their reservoirs become methane factories as submerged vegetation decomposes – in some cases making them worse climate offenders than fossil fuel plants. This challenges the very rationale for prioritising hydropower in rainforest regions.

    Perhaps the most crucial lesson is that we can no longer justify sacrificing the Amazon’s ecological and cultural wealth for questionable energy gains. The evidence clearly shows that in biodiversity hotspots, the costs of large dams nearly always outweigh the benefits – a reality that demands a fundamental shift in energy policy.

    When asked for comment, Norte Energia issued to following statement:

    Screenshot
    Screenshot
    Brazil hydropower
    Screenshot

    By Monica Piccinini

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Repression of the Baloch women human rights defenders in Pakistan

    Dr. Sabiha Baloch is a woman human rights defender and member of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), a network focused on advocating for the human rights and interests of the Baloch people in Pakistan. Dr. Sabiha Baloch has faced reprisals due to her work, including attacks against her family. Notably, her work as a woman human rights defender has led to the abduction of her brother and relative, who were subsequently released after several months in detention. Dr. Sabiha Baloch has been an integral part of peaceful campaigns against extra judicial killings, enforced disappearances and arbitrary arrests in Balochistan. She was part of the Baloch Long March and the Baloch National Gathering in 2024, which faced severe State reprisals, including violence and arrests. Since March 2025, following the arrest of several leading human rights defenders and members of the BYC, Dr. Sabiha Baloch has continued to document and highlight violations, and demand the release of detained colleagues and protesters.

    On 5 April 2025, Pakistani authorities arrested the father of Baloch woman human rights defender Beebow Baloch. He is currently detained at the Hudda District Prison in Balochistan under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Act (MPO). The woman human rights defender Beebow Baloch has also been held at the same prison under the MPO since her arrest on 22 March 2025.

    On 7 April 2025, Pakistani authorities arrested woman human rights defender Gulzadi Baloch in Quetta, Balochistan, with disturbing reports of excessive violence being used during the arrest. For several hours following her arrest, there was no information about her fate or whereabouts, causing serious concerns for her physical and mental safety. She is presently held at the Hudda district prison under the regressive Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Act, which severely restricts access to bail.

    In March 2025 UN experts demanded the release: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/03/pakistan-un-experts-demand-release-baloch-human-rights-defenders-and-end

    The NGO Frontline demands that Baloch human rights defenders in Pakistan are protected from reprisals, and end their ongoing persecution and punishment in the State, including for exercising their right to free expression and peaceful dissent, under the guise of national security.

    https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/baloch-woman-human-rights-defender-sabiha-baloch-facing-risk-imminent-arrest-and-reprisals

    https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/father-baloch-woman-human-rights-defender-beebow-baloch-arrested

    https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/woman-human-rights-defender-gulzadi-baloch-arrested

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • NGOs demand end to crackdown on peaceful Human Rights Defenders in Turkey

    On 4 April 2025 a joint statement by 13 international, regional and national civil society organisations, strongly condemned violations of the right to protest in Turkey, including police brutality, ill-treatment that may amount to torture, mass arbitrary detentions, and the systematic persecution of human rights defenders. 

    Mass protests erupted across Turkey on 19 March 2025, following the detention of more than 100 individuals —including the Mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu. These arrests, made as part of investigations into allegations of “corruption” and “terrorism”, and their timing have raised widespread concerns that the charges are politically motivated – just days before İmamoğlu’s    expected presidential candidacy. 

    In the immediate aftermath of the arrests, authorities imposed sweeping restrictions, including days-long blanket bans on gatherings across multiple cities, restricted access to several social media platforms curbing access and preventing the dissemination of information, and shut down major public transportation routes in İstanbul, all in a systematic effort to suppress dissent and mobilisations. 

    Despite these measures, thousands have continued to gather in protest across the country since 19 March. While protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful, journalists and civil society organisations have documented grave human rights violations in several locations, and particularly in Saraçhane, Istanbul, including an indiscriminate and disproportionate display of police violence and brutality that may amount to torture and other ill-treatment, including beatings with batons, demonstrators being kicked while subdued on the ground, close-range targeting with Kinetic Impact Projectiles (KIPs), as well as the indiscriminate use of chemical irritants and water cannons. Based on widely circulated footage and public testimonies, and in line with the UN Committee Against Torture’s recommendations to Turkey following its periodic review in 2024, the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) has also denounced the use of restraint methods that inflict unnecessary pain, such as prolonged handcuffing behind the back and stress positions. These practices, known to cause serious health consequences, have at times been publicised by police officers themselves via personal accounts, seemingly as a tactic of intimidation.

    Reports have stated that protesters who have been met with excessive police force have suffered grave and long-lasting injuries such as head trauma and eye damage due to tear gas cartridges and KIPs, burns and respiratory issues due to the indiscriminate and widespread use of tear gas and water cannons, which in some cases resulted in their hospitalisation. The full extent of the injuries, as well as the physical and psychological toll on protesters’ health, will only become clear in the following months. 

    According to the report of Human Rights Association (İHD), as of 27 March 2025, a total of 1,879 people—including children, lawyers, journalists, students, union leaders and human rights defenders—have been taken into custody during protests and house raids on the grounds of inciting protests, engaging in violence, concealing their faces with masks, and using bats or other objects. Over 260 of them have been placed in pre-trial detention, while judicial control measures have been imposed on 468 individuals simply for exercising their right to peaceful protest. Istanbul Bar Association Child Rights Committee reported that among the arrested in İstanbul, 20 were under the age of 18. 

    Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) also highlights incidents of torture, ill-treatment and sexual violence in detention facilities.  Lawyers have denounced the treatment of seven female detainees who were subjected to beatings as well as unjustified strip searches while in custody. According to a released testimony, another female victim reported being groped by a police officer while handcuffed behind the back and forcefully pinned to the ground and that she soiled herself out of fear during the ordeal. She was reportedly placed under house arrest after her testimony. The Turkish Medical Association has recalled the importance of medical examinations upon entry in custody and detention to prevent and document torture and other ill-treatment.

    Human rights defenders, including those monitoring the protests, have also become targets of State repression during the protests. Journalists and media organisations covering protests have also been persecuted, infringing on the right to freedom of expression and the right to information. As of 28 March, at least 14  journalists were detained after covering the protest. 

    Lawyers representing those who were arbitrarily detained in the context of protests, were also targeted. At least 14 lawyers were detained, including the lawyer of İmamoğlu, demonstrating the State authorities’ disregard for the rule of law and the right to defence, due process and justice. In the midst of the protests as part of the general intimidation strategy against lawyers, on 21 March the Istanbul Bar Association’s executive board was dismissed by the decision of İstanbul 2nd Civil Court of First Instance- a move that raises serious concerns of further attacks on the independence of the legal profession and the detainees’ right to legal representation. Following the decision, police interfered as lawyers attempted to march from the courthouse in Çağlayan to the Istanbul Bar Association building in Taksim to protest the decision.

    Signatories:

    • ARTICLE 19
    • Asociación Unidad de Defensa Jurídica, Registro y Memoria para Nicaragua (AUDJUDRNIC)
    • CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
    • EuroMed Rights
    • Front Line Defenders
    • Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
    • ILGA-Europe
    • United Against Torture Consortium (UATC), through its following members:
      • The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT)
      • Omega Research Foundation
      • Redress
      • And the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
    • Unidad de Protección a Defensoras y Defensores de Derechos Humanos – Guatemala (UDEFEGUA)
    • Within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders:
      • International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
      • World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)

    see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/turkey/

    https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/statement-report/end-brutal-crackdown-peaceful-protest-and-human-rights-defenders

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • Profile in Persecution: Aqeel Muslem AbdulHusain Juma

    Aqeel Muslem AbdulHusain Juma, a 16-year-old minor and school student, was arrested by Bahraini authorities on 14 January 2025 after appearing for a summons before the High Criminal Court. He is the younger brother of 17-year-old detained minor Abbas Muslem AbdulHusain Juma, who was arrested on 26 August 2024 and convicted on similar charges in the same case, including unlawful assembly, rioting, and arson. During his detention, he has endured torture, denial of family visits and legal counsel, deprivation of education, and an unfair trial. He is currently held in the Juvenile section of Dry Dock Prison, serving a one-year sentence.

    In October 2024, at just 15 years old, Aqeel was repeatedly summoned for questioning at Budaiya Police Station. Accompanied by his father during each session, he was released under assurances from the responsible officer that his legal status was secure, he would not be arrested, and there was no cause for concern. On 21 October 2024, at 8:30 A.M., he attended what was supposed to be his final questioning with his father. 

    On 9 January 2025, at the end of his first school term, Aqeel’s family received a summons requiring his attendance before the High Criminal Court on 14 January 2025, along with a referral order—issued on 26 December 2024—for their detained older son, Abbas. The order also referred 15-year-olds Ali Husain Matrook Abdulla and AbdulAziz Husain AlHammadi to the High Criminal Court, all on charges of arson, unlawful assembly, and rioting. When the family reviewed the referral order, they were shocked to find that Aqeel had also been referred to the High Criminal Court in the same case on the same charges and labeled as a “wanted” and “fugitive,” despite having fully complied with all previous summonses.. 

    On 14 January 2025, Aqeel, accompanied by his family, complied with the summons and appeared before the High Criminal Court. The judge ordered his detention until 21 January 2025 pending investigation on charges of 1) arson and 2) unlawful assembly and rioting, brought by the Public Prosecution Office (PPO) on 26 December 2024.

    Between 14 and 28 January 2025, Aqeel was interrogated without the presence of a lawyer or guardian, despite being a minor. His family could not afford legal representation, and the authorities failed to appoint one for him. During this time, officers threatened him and pressured him to confess. To protect his family’s emotional well-being, he refrained from disclosing the methods of torture he endured. On 21 January 2025, the Public Prosecution Office (PPO) extended Aqeel’s detention by another week pending investigation. His trial began on 28 January 2025 without legal representation, as his family could not afford a lawyer, and the court failed to appoint one.

    Aqeel was not brought before a judge within 24 hours of his arrest and was denied legal representation during both interrogation and trial. He was not given adequate time or resources to prepare his defense, nor was he able to present evidence or challenge the charges against him. His family could not afford a lawyer, and the court failed again to appoint one during the trial period. On 11 February 2025, the High Criminal Court sentenced Aqeel, along with his brother Abbas and their friends Ali Husain Matrook Abdulla and AbdulAziz Husain AlHammadi, to one year in prison on charges of 1) unlawful assembly and rioting and 2) arson related to burning tires.

    Following his arrest, Bahraini authorities banned Aqeel’s family from visiting him in detention. The Dry Dock Prison administration has also deprived Aqeel of his right to education. 

    On 11 March 2025, two months after his arrest, Aqeel’s family was finally allowed to visit him at Dry Dock Prison for the first time.

    Aqeel’s arbitrary arrest as a minor, torture, denial of family visits and legal counsel, unfair trial, and deprivation of his right to education constitute clear violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, also known as the Nelson Mandela Rules, to which Bahrain is a party.

    Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) calls upon Bahraini authorities to fulfill their human rights obligations by immediately and unconditionally releasing Aqeel. ADHRB further urges the Bahraini government to investigate allegations of arbitrary arrest, torture, denial of family visits and legal counsel, and deprivation of education, ensuring that perpetrators are held accountable and that Aqeel is compensated for the violations he endured. At the very least, ADHRB advocates for a fair retrial for Aqeel under the Bahraini Restorative Justice Law for Children and in accordance with international legal standards, leading to his release. Furthermore, ADHRB calls on Bahraini authorities to allow regular family visits for Aqeel, permit him to resume his education, and offer the necessary support to enable him to complete his studies.

    The post Profile in Persecution: Aqeel Muslem AbdulHusain Juma appeared first on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

    This post was originally published on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

  • Shuttering Of Department Of Homeland Security Oversight Arm Freezes Cases

    On Feb. 10, more than a dozen Department of Homeland Security officials joined a video conference to discuss an obscure, sparsely funded program overseen by its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. The office, charged with investigating when the national security agency is accused of violating the rights of both immigrants and U.S. citizens, had found itself in the crosshairs of Elon Musk’s secretive Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

    It began as a typical briefing, with Homeland Security officials explaining to DOGE a program many describe as a win-win.

    The post Shuttering Of Department Of Homeland Security Oversight Arm Freezes Cases appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • US border force reported to the UN for human rights abuse at migrant detention centres

    A legal non-profit in the US has sent damning evidence of US border force officials appalling persisting record of human rights abuses at open air detention sites, to the United Nations.

    US border force reported to the UN for human rights abuse

    On Monday 7 April, the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CHRCL) and the Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) submitted a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) on US Customs and Border Protection (CBP)’s continued human rights abuses at open air detention sites.

    The CHRCL is a legal non-profit that protects and advances the rights of migrants. SBCC is a coalition of organisations from San Diego, California, to Brownsville, Texas that seeks to hold US border force accountable and ensure they respect migrants’ human rights.

    Every five years, members of the UN HRC review all member countries’ human rights records in a unique process known as Universal Periodic Review. Therefore, SBCC and CHRCL submitted a joint report to the UN as part of this process. It’s to urge the council to hold the US accountable for CBP’s continued human rights abuses, including open air detention along the southern border.

    As part of this process, SBCC and CHRCL also joined a coalition of two dozen migrants’ rights groups urging action on the deteriorating human rights situation for migrants in the US.

    Trump expanding human rights violating detention

    On March 19 2025, media announced that the Trump administration may expand open air detention along the border in New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

    Reportedly, the government would do so by having the military:

    take control of a buffer zone along a sprawling stretch of the southern border and empower[ing] active-duty U.S. troops to temporarily hold migrants who cross into the United States

    This would be alongside the Roosevelt Reservation, a narrow 60-foot stretch of land that the federal government controls. Historically, the Department of the Interior has managed it.

    Since 2023, SBCC has documented, and members have provided aid at, and advocated against open air detention sites at the US-Mexico border.

    In 2024, CHRCL conducted multiple monitoring visits to the sites in its capacity as co-counsel in the Flores Settlement Agreement.  This governs conditions for children in US government custody.

    The visits led Flores Counsel to successfully file for enforcement of the Agreement with respect to open air detention sites in February of 2024.

    Migrants subjected to ‘inhumane conditions’ by US border force

    Border Policy Counsel for the Southern Border Communities Coalition Ricky Garza said:

    We reject military occupation and the Administration’s attempts to normalize open air detention.

    Human rights law is clear that all people must be treated with dignity and respect regardless of immigration status.

    Executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law Sergio Perez echoed this:

    The cruelty of forcing asylum-seekers – many of whom have fled unimaginable horrors – into squalid, virtually unsheltered sites along the border is self-evident.

    No human being, least of all pregnant persons and vulnerable children, should be subjected to these inhumane conditions. There is no possible justification for such deplorable treatment, and we call on the United Nations to hold the U.S. accountable for violating its human rights treaty obligations and failing to properly care for people seeking a better life.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Open letter to NZME board – don’t allow alt-right Canadian billionaire to take over NZ’s Fourth Estate

    OPEN LETTER: By Martyn Bradbury, editor and publisher of The Daily Blog

    NZME directors ‘have concerns’ about businessman Jim Grenon taking editorial control

    NZME’s directors have fired their own shots in the war for control of the media company, saying they have concerns about a takeover bid including the risk of businessman Jim Grenon taking editorial control.

    In a statement to the NZX, the board said it was delaying its annual shareholders meeting until June and opening up nominations of other directors.

    NZME . . . RNZ report on NZME's directors "firing their own shots'
    NZME . . . RNZ report on NZME’s directors “firing their own shots in the war for control of the media company”.

    Grenon, a New Zealand resident since 2012, bought a 9.3 percent stake in NZME for just over $9 million early in March.

    NZME is publisher of a number of newspapers, including The New Zealand Herald, as well as operating radio stations and property platform OneRoof.

    Within days of taking the stake, Grenon had written to the company’s board proposing that most of its current directors be replaced with new ones, including himself, and said the performance of the company had been disappointing and he was wanted to improve the editorial content.

    NZME has now told the stockmarket it had concerns whether Grenon’s proposals were in the best interests of the company and shareholders. — RNZ News

    Dear NZME Board,

    I was once a columnist for The New Zealand Herald, but I’m too left wing for your stable of acceptable opinions and now just run award-winning political podcasts instead.

    The Daily Blog editor and publisher Martyn "Bomber" Bradbury
    The Daily Blog editor and publisher Martyn “Bomber” Bradbury. Image: TDB screenshot APR

    Normally as board members of a financialised media company in late stage capitalism with collapsing revenue thanks to social media, you don’t generally have to consider the actual well being of our democracy.

    Let me be as clear as I can to you all.

    You hold in your hands the fate of Fourth Estate journalism and ultimately the democracy of New Zealand itself.

    As the largest Fourth Estate platforms in the country, your obligations go well beyond just shareholder profit.

    Alt-right billionaire Jim Grenon has in my view been extremely disingenuous.

    The manner in which NZME has been sold as underperforming so that the promise of a quick buck from OneRoof seems the focus point is made more questionable because I suspect Grenon’s true desire here is editorial control of NZME.

    His relationship with a far-right culture war hate blog that promotes anti-Māori, anti-trans, anti-vaccine, climate denial editorial copy alongside his support for culture war influencers suggest a radicalised view of the world which he intends to implement if he gains control.

    Look.

    NZME is right wing enough, your first editorial in The New Zealand Herald was calling for white people to start war with Māori, Mike Hosking is the epitome of right wing commentary and the less said about Heather Du Plessis Allan, the better, but all of you acknowledge that 2 + 2 = 4.

    Alt-Right billionaires don’t admit that.

    Alt-right billionaires tend to lean into divisive culture war rhetoric and are happy to promote 2 + 2 = whatever I say it is.

    You cannot allow alt-right billionaires with radicalised culture war beliefs take over the largest media platforms in the country.

    This moment demands more than dollars and cents, it requires a strong defence of independent editorial content, even when that editorial content is right wing.

    The NZ Herald, Heather and Mike are without doubt right wingers, but they are right wingers who pitch their argument within the realms of the real and factual.

    Alt-right billionaires do not do that.

    If NZME is taken over and the editorial direction takes a hard right culture war turn, you will be dooming NZ democracy and planing us on a highway to hell.

    You must, you must, you must stand against this attack on editorial independence.

    Republished from The Daily Blog with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Executions at 10-year high after huge increases in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia

    Amnesty International confirms 1,518 people executed in 2024 but says real total is likely to be thousands more

    More people were executed in 2024 than in any other year over the past decade, mainly reflecting a huge increase in executions in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty International’s annual report on the use of the death penalty.

    The human rights NGO said that although the number of countries carrying out executions was the lowest on record, it had confirmed 1,518 executions globally in 2024, a 32% increase over the previous year and the highest since the 1,634 carried out in 2015.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.