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Category: Human Rights

  • Two poems, four years in detention: the Chinese dissident who smuggled his writing out of prison

    My poems were written in anger after Tiananmen Square. But what motivates most prison writing is a fear of forgetting. Today I am free, but the regime has never stopped its war on words

    Most of my manuscripts are locked up in the filing cabinets of the ministry of security, and the agents there study and ponder them repeatedly, more carefully than the creator himself. The guys working this racket have superb memories; a certain chief of the Chengdu public security bureau can still recite the poems I published in an underground magazine in the 1980s. While the literati write nostalgically, hoping to go down in literary history, the real history may be locked in the vaults of the security department.

    The above is excerpted from my book June 4: My Testimony, published in Taiwan in 2011. I wrote that book three times, the later drafts on paper much better than the paper I used for writing in prison, which was so soft and brittle I had to write very lightly. Paper outside prison is solid and flexible enough that you don’t have to worry about puncturing it with the tip of a pen. Thus, I restrained myself and filled in a page of paper, and then how many thousand – ten thousand? More? How many ant-sized words can be packed on to a page? Who knows.

    On 10 October 1995, at two in the afternoon, three police cars carrying about a dozen special agents burst in on me. Everything was carried out in accordance with “legal procedures”, the officers’ IDs and search warrant were presented, the entire search process was meticulously videotaped, and all written matter in the house (including manuscripts, letters, and notes) was confiscated. And this included the very nearly completed draft of this testimony – more than 300,000 characters representing my painstaking efforts of the past year and a half.

    I was breathing normally, signed with a smile, and asked: “Should I bring clothes?” The answer: “No.” I was uneasy leaving my money and valuables at home as I prepared to be the guest of the state for a long time. The agents laughed.

    At 10 o’clock in the evening, I exited the Baiguolin police station in the Xicheng district of Chengdu and was politely told: “Don’t leave the city for the next month.” Thank God, my head was still on my shoulders and I could still write.

    I cursed my carelessness with the foulest language imaginable and set about rewriting with all my might. Without inspiration or passion, the pen slashed the paper to ribbons, and often I could only produce a few hundred words a day. Staring at the paper was useless, and cold sweat couldn’t solve my writer’s block. But I’d made a bet; I couldn’t admit defeat. I wanted to use this to validate my own stupid way of living as an insignificant individual – a bet with the world’s largest dictatorship – with writing materials, so that in future my kids won’t think their dad was just talking big.

    Continue reading…

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

  • ‘Completely stupid’ – ex-Tuvalu PM plea to NZ to rethink fossil fuel plan

    By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist

    A former Tuvalu prime minister says while the New Zealand government’s oil and gas plans show it is concerned about its economy, he is more concerned about the livelihoods and survival of the Tuvalu people.

    Enele Sopoaga — who still serves as an MP in Tuvalu — says the climate crisis is the “main enemy”.

    “There is nothing more serious and more important than that.”

    His comments come after New Zealand’s Resources Minister Shane Jones said it was “left wing catastrophisation” to suggest that waters would be lapping at towns in Pacific countries as a result of the New Zealand government’s decision on gas and coal.

    Shane Jones
    NZ’s Resources Minister Shane Jones . . . “[New Zealand] keeping the lights on and the hospitals functioning, you can’t hold that type of thinking responsible for the tide lapping around Tuvalu.” Photo: RNZ/Samuel Rillstone

    Vanuatu Climate Change Minister Ralph Regenvanu called on the New Zealand government not to reverse the ban at last year’s Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Rarotonga.

    “We call on them not to do it to be in line with Paris, in line with the 1.5 degree target. The science says you cannot [make] new fossil fuels,” he told RNZ Pacific in 2023.

    Despite this, the current New Zealand government has backed its plans, which Tuvalu is not happy about.

    ‘It’s going to sink Tuvalu’
    “Go ahead and drill and open up new coal mining or get new gas stations,” said Sopoaga, “but don’t forget that whatever you are going to do, it’s going to increase greenhouse gas emissions, which are going to sink the islands of Tuvalu and kill the people.

    “It’s just as a matter of fact, as simple as that.”

    Jones was asked by RNZ’s Morning Report how New Zealand’s Pacific neighbours would feel about restarting exploration of oil and gas, and the associated environmental impact.

    Jones said the Pacific understood Aotearoa needed reliable energy to generate an economic dividend to then be able to contribute to the Pacific region.

    “[New Zealand] keeping the lights on and the hospitals functioning, you can’t hold that type of thinking responsible for the tide lapping around Tuvalu. Come on, give us a break,” Jones said.

    Sopoaga called the comments “daft” and “naive”.

    “I think it’s a completely stupid idea,” he said.

    ‘Early demise, rising sea levels’
    “It’s just logical — the more you open up new gases and the more release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere will simply cause the early demise and rising of sea levels that will affect the islands of Tuvalu.

    “I would appeal to New Zealand to rethink about doing that.”

    Sopoaga was prime minister from 2013 to 2019. He was re-elected as an MP in this year’s election and is part of Tuvalu’s 16-member parliament.

    He now wants Aotearoa to stick with its ban on fossil fuel exploration, and to also contribute to the cost of adaptation.

    Sopoaga said he wanted to remind Jones that “we are working as a global team in the world”.

    “Countries cannot just take up their own initiatives, and then go the wrong way.

    “[We can not] go with the national interests of countries, we have to discipline ourselves so that we don’t break up and claim that we are doing what the Paris Agreement and Kyoto Protocol are telling us.

    “In fact, the Paris Agreement is a legally binding framework, and you cannot just simply say we open up new oil fields in New Zealand and these will not affect the Pacific Island countries.

    “This is a stupid idea,” Sopoaga said.

    NZ urged to pacify US/China
    New Zealand is sending a political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week.

    Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has recently spoken about New Zealand’s relationship with China.

    “We strongly believe that in a mature relationship like ours it is possible to discuss differences openly, respectfully, and predictably. We will continue to share our concerns with China, where we have them.

    “China has a long-standing presence in the Pacific, but we are seriously concerned by increased engagement in Pacific security sectors. We do not want to see developments that destabilise the institutions and arrangements that have long underpinned our region’s security.”

    Peters has said he is continuing work started by the previous government to consider partipation in AUKUS Pillar 2, but that New Zealand was a long way from making a decision.

    “I think the role of New Zealand is to de-escalate and pacify the situation, talk to China, talk to Australia, talk to the US,” Sopoaga said.

    “There is no enemy, their biggest enemy is climate change.

    “They are only using this [AUKUS] as a camouflage to move away from responsibility and cause global warming. And they want to ignore their accountability, their responsibility to deal with it,” Sopoaga said.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • US lawyer threatens masked student Gaza protesters with ‘KKK’ felony charges

    Asia Pacific Report

    Ohio’s top lawyer has warned the state’s public universities that a law written to deter Ku Klux Klan demonstrations could be used to impose felony charges on students who wear face coverings while protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza, reports Al Jazeera.

    In a letter sent out this week, after weeks of pro-Palestinian campus protests around the United States, Republican Attorney-General Dave Yost advised the presidents of Ohio’s 34 public universities to forewarn students about the 1953 law.

    “In our society, there are few more significant career-wreckers than a felony charge,” the letter said.

    “I write to you today to inform your student bodies of an Ohio law that, in the context of some behavior during the recent pro-Palestinian protests, could have that effect.”

    Violating this “anti-disguise” law is punishable by a fourth-degree felony charge, up to US$5000 in fines and five years on community control, Yost wrote.

    College campuses around the world have exploded in recent weeks in protests — with the latest at the University of Amsterdam facing a crackdown down by Dutch police — as pro-Palestinian students and faculty members demonstrate against Israel’s war on Gaza, in which almost 35,000 people have been killed.

    Protests in NZ
    In New Zealand, there have been rallies at two of the largest universities in the country, Auckland and Otago, and open letters of protest by academics against government inaction against Israel, while there have been large weekly pro-Palestine demonstrations at more than 20 centres across the country for seven months.

    The global student protests are resonating with Palestinians who have endured the destruction of all 12 universities in Gaza.

    Palestinian university presidents signed an open letter saying the protests serve as a “beacon of hope”.

    Al Jazeera’s The Take podcast series speaks to student protesters as well as advocates in Palestine to examine the issue. Listen to the episode here.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Amnesty urges Fifa to publish report on Qatar migrant worker compensation

    • Llamas report focuses on responsibilities to workers
    • Amnesty International calls on Fifa to reveal findings

    Fifa must publish an independent report into its responsibilities to migrant workers in Qatar and begin the process of providing financial compensation, Amnesty ­International has said.

    The human rights organisation has called on Fifa to finally publish the report by Michael Llamas, president of the Gibraltar Football Association, before its congress in Bangkok next week. It claims the Llamas report has found Fifa has a responsibility to provide financial remedy to workers or the families of workers involved in 2022 World Cup projects in Qatar and that its conclusions were approved by the executive Fifa council in March. The Guardian understands the report is under review by Fifa stakeholders but that the governing body remains committed to its publication.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Persistent UAE´s efforts to maintain critics behind bars: a new mass trial

    The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has invested deeply into portraying itself as a progressive, tolerant and human rights-compliant state. This strategy, however, as in other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, clashes with a reality in which activists and dissidents are detained and tried for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association. The recent unfair trial of 84 people on charges related to the activists’ establishment of an independent advocacy group in 2010 -the Justice and Dignity Committee- is the latest example of that.

    The charges were brought against the defendants in December 2023 under the country’s abusive 2014 counterterrorism law and hearings started in March 2024. In a recent publication of Human Rights Watch, details of the trial and the treatment received by the defendants came to light. The conclusion is clear: due process violations and allegations of ill-treatment characterize the process.

    The due process concerns refer fundamentally to the fact that Emirati authorities have failed to provide lawyers with free access to case files and basic information about the trial. In this sense, it has been noted that the defendant´s lawyers could not obtain physical or electronic copies of the court documents. Instead, they were only able to view them on a screen in the presence and supervision of security officials and take handwritten notes about them. On top of that, the defendant´s family members have also given voice to a serious concern about the partiality of the presiding judge, who is said to be directing witness testimony by putting sentences in the mouth of the witness.

    Furthermore, because of the secrecy surrounding the trial, relatives of the defendants are recurrently denied entry to the courtroom and lawyers are prevented from sharing details of the case with them. Not only that, but basic information about the case, such as all the names of the defendants, is yet to be disclosed by Emirati authorities to the general public. What is known is that Ahmed Mansoor, Nasser bin Ghaith, and Khalaf al-Romaithi, prominent activists and dissidents already serving long prison sentences, are among those on trial. Also, it is accounted that at least 60 of the defendants were already convicted in July 2013 in the UAE94 trial on charges related to the exercise of freedom of expression, association, and assembly, a significant proportion of them arbitrarily held beyond the completion of their sentence. Additionally, one of the UAE94 detainees facing new charges now for “establishing and managing a clandestine terrorist organization (…) known as the ‘Justice and Dignity Committee”, was already convicted for his involvement with the Committee in the past. That indicating that the UAE authorities might be violating the principle of double jeopardy, which prohibits trying people twice for the same offense once they have received the final verdict.

    The abusive detention conditions suffered by the defendants represent another area of concern. According to Human Rights Watch, many of them have been kept in incommunicado solitary confinement for at least 10 months. In a similar vein, the judge was told, by one of the accused, that he was held in incommunicado detention for 2 years and that security personnel had assaulted him recurrently. Another defendant asserted that during a week-long solitary confinement, he was kept naked. On the other hand, except for short calls in December 2023 destined to inform family members of the new case against their relatives, defendants weren´t able to receive phone calls or family visits for a period ranging from 10 months to a year.

    Once the judicial process started, the appalling detention conditions included physical assaults, lack of access to medical care and prescribed medications, persistent loud music during periods of rest and sleep, and forced nudity.

    This new mass trial, which in the words of the deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch “seems nothing more that a shameless pretext to keep these men behind bars”,  constitutes another bump in the UAE´s road to improving its human rights disheartening record. The European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights urges the Emirati authorities to investigate the alleged abusive conditions and to put an end to the abuses suffered by human rights activists in the country.

    The post Persistent UAE´s efforts to maintain critics behind bars: a new mass trial appeared first on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

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

  • Why have student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza gone global?

    Ceasefire and divestment calls have spread beyond US campuses, with more expected as Rafah offensive begins

    University campuses around the world have been the stage of a growing number of protests by students demanding academic institutions divest from companies supplying arms to Israel.

    The protests, which first spread across college campuses in the US, have reached universities in the UK, the rest of Europe, as well as Lebanon and India.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Rafah ‘last place of safety’ in Gaza, UN aid boss warns

    RNZ News

    As Israel presses ahead with strikes in Rafah and seizing the Rafah crossing from Egypt, aid agencies are sounding the alarm of a “catastrophic humanitarian situation”.

    Rafah was “significant” because it was the only part in Gaza that had not been terribly damaged by the conflict, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) senior deputy director Scott Anderson told RNZ Checkpoint.

    “Most of the infrastructure is intact,” he said.

    “And most importantly, we have 1.4 million of the 2.2 million people in Gaza sheltering here in Rafah. And of that number, more than half are children,” Anderson told Checkpoint.

    “It’s the last place of safety within Gaza.”

    United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) senior deputy director Scott Anderson.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVaZxk9a4-U
    UNRWA’s senior deputy director Scott Anderson . . . “Those two crossings very much are the lifeline of Gaza.” Image: Screenshot RNZ

    He said people struggled daily to find food, water, showers and toilets.

    Palestinians have now been ordered to evacuate parts of Rafah as Israel prepares for a long-threatened assault on Hamas holdouts in the city.

    People displaced five times
    Many of the people had already been displaced five or six times, Anderson said.

    “And now come the evacuation orders and it makes people very nervous and apprehensive.

    “For us it is a concern because Rafah is also where our main supply line for Gaza exists through Kerem Shalom from Israel, or through Rafah Gate from Egypt.”

    He said it would affect aid reaching Rafah.

    A map of southern Gaza showing the "evacuation" area from Rafah
    A map of southern Gaza showing the “evacuation” area from Rafah. Image: LM screenshot APR

    In the north of Gaza, only 30 to 50 trucks could enter a day, whereas Kerem Shalom in the south could accommodate up to 600 trucks.

    The Rafah terminal from Egypt was a path for fuel and diesel to come in.

    “If we don’t have diesel, we don’t have hospitals running, we don’t have food being delivered, water is not being produced, waste isn’t being picked up, and the sewers aren’t running.

    “So those two crossings very much are the lifeline of Gaza, and without those, it could become very much a catastrophic humanitarian situation beyond what already exists.”

    Palestinian militant group Hamas has agreed to a Gaza ceasefire proposal from mediators, but Israel said the terms did not meet its demands.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Mining, big agribusiness, and fossil fuel sectors linked to over 600 attacks against 20,000 human rights defenders in 2023

    Mining, big agribusiness, and the fossil fuel sectors have unleashed an astronomical spate of attacks on human rights defenders (HRDs) throughout 2023. Crucially, perpetrators linked to companies and projects in these sectors account for the majority of over 600 attacks across the course of the year.

    This is according to a new damning report by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC).

    Staggering scale of attacks against human rights defenders

    On Tuesday 7 May, the BHRRC published its annual briefing on attacks against HRDs.

    Alarmingly, the data recorded 630 attacks which directly impacted an estimated 20,000 people. In particular, these were those involved in speaking out against business-related harms during 2023.

    The BHRRC records multiple types of attacks against HRDs. It has most frequently recorded cases of judicial harassment (328), killings (87), physical violence (81), and intimidation or threats (80) throughout 2023.

    Despite the staggering scale of attacks, the BHRRC impressed that these figures are just the tip of the iceberg. Crucially, this is because the data only reflects what is accessible through public sources of information. As such, the briefing noted that:

    many attacks, especially non-lethal attacks (including death threats, judicial harassment and physical violence), never make it to media sources and there remains a significant gap in government monitoring of attacks, the problem is even more severe than these figures indicate. In addition, an “attack” may be against one person named in public sources or against a large number of unidentified people, such as an instance of charges being filed against 11,000 garment workers protesting for higher wages in Bangladesh. Thus, the number of individual HRDs experiencing attacks is higher than the number of attacks mentioned here.

    Corporations driving attacks

    Although attacks were recorded in almost every sector in 2023, certain extractive sectors stood out. Specifically, the BHRRC found that mining (165), agribusiness (117) and oil, gas & coal (112) were the most prolific sectors connected to attacks.

    Of course, the briefing noted that the mining sector is a hotbed for allegations in part due to the drive to transition to greener technology.

    For instance, a separate BHRRC report recently documented the soaring number of rights allegations tied to transition minerals in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

    Largely, companies did not directly perpetrate these attacks directly. Notably, state actors including the police and judicial systems, as well as the military carried out most of these attacks. However, allegations mentioned specific businesses in 50% of these cases. Moreover, as the report stated for instance:

    Companies are often connected with attacks on HRDs, even when state actors are the direct perpetrator. This includes calling police or state security forces to disperse peaceful protests; cooperating with state repression, for example by providing services or products enabling surveillance; and obstructing unionisation. Other tactics used by companies to gain control over land and resources, often leading to conflict and attacks, include dividing communities and engaging in inadequate consultation processes.

    As such, they have consistently been the most dangerous sectors since BHRRC began documenting these attacks in 2015. In tandem with this, these are of course the very sectors fueling the climate and biodiversity crises in the first place.

    Indigenous defenders

    Additionally, companies, states, and organised crime outfits perpetrated over three-quarters (78%) of these attacks against people taking action to protect the climate, environment and land rights.

    Indigenous Peoples are particularly at risk when fighting for our planet. Since January 2015, the BHRRC has recorded more than 1,000 attacks against Indigenous defenders globally.

    The majority of these – 93% – were raising concerns about harms to their lands and territories, our climate and/or the environment.

    In 2023 alone, over a fifth of attacks (22%) were against Indigenous defenders. Indigenous defenders protect over 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity. However, they comprise approximately 6% of the global population. Over three-quarters (78%) of these attacks against Indigenous defenders took place in Latin America, which has been one of the most dangerous regions for attacks against defenders consistently since 2015.

    Voluntary action is “insufficient”

    Co-head of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre’s civic freedoms and human rights defender programme Christen Dobson said:

    We have been documenting attacks against those speaking out about harmful business activities since 2015 – and every year are appalled at the continued violence against people protecting our rights and planet. Mining, agribusiness, and the fossil fuels sectors – those fuelling the planetary crisis – are yet again connected with the highest number of attacks against human rights and environmental defenders. Companies in these sectors must adopt and implement policy commitments to zero tolerance for attacks on defenders. These sectors also urgently need to shift their practice to prioritise a just transition to renewable energy grounded in respect for human rights, including Indigenous Peoples’ rights to self-determination and free, prior and informed consent. This includes the right to say no.

    Many business actors are failing in their responsibility to respect human rights, resulting in harm to people and the environment, fuelling the triple planetary crisis we currently face. Listening to defenders is vital to understanding the risks and harms associated with business activity and to ensuring the transition to green economies is just and benefits workers, environmental defenders and their communities.

    Moreover, Dobson noted that companies’ voluntary action is “insufficient”. As such he argued that:

    there is an urgent need for robust mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation, grounded in safe and effective stakeholder engagement and containing strong safeguards for human rights defenders. Governments must step in and fulfil their duty to protect the rights of defenders. One critical step is legally recognising and protecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights, including their rights to self- determination and to their lands, territories and resources.

    Feature image via Youtube – Bloomberg Quicktake

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Former NUS president settles with union over antisemitism claims

    Shaima Dallali, ousted as NUS president in 2022, said to have accepted ‘substantial’ settlement before tribunal

    A former president of the National Union of Students is said to have accepted a “substantial” settlement to end her legal action against the union following her dismissal over allegations of antisemitism.

    Shaima Dallali was ousted as NUS UK president in November 2022 after an investigation claimed she had made “significant breaches” of the union’s antisemitism policies. But shortly before Dallali’s legal challenge was to be heard by an employment tribunal, the NUS and Dallali’s lawyers said a settlement had been agreed.

    Continue reading…

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

  • NZ local council calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza as strikes hit

    By Robin Martin, RNZ News reporter

    A New Zealand local authority, Whanganui District Council, has passed a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, condemnation of all acts of violence and terror against civilians on both sides of the conflict and the immediate return of hostages.

    It comes as Palestinian militant group Hamas agreed to a Gaza ceasefire proposal from mediators, but Israel said the terms did not meet its demands and pressed ahead with strikes in Rafah.

    Councillor Josh Chandulal-Mackay moved the motion on behalf of the Palestinian Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA).

    He told council that it had a responsibility to the Palestinian and Israeli families living in Whanganui to make its voice heard.

    “A community which upholds international law and human rights is a safer community for all,” he said.

    “Speaking up has moral and political weight.”

    The motion also called for the New Zealand government to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

    ‘Stand up for human rights’
    “This motion is about us calling on our government to do its bit as part of the international community to stand up for human rights, to stand up for peace and to say that a ceasefire an immediate and permanent ceasefire should be called for in the region and implemented in the region without any caveats attached to it,” he said.

    “So that then negotiations for a two-state solution and for peace can be achieved.”

    Chandulal-Mackay said throughout history collective pressure had always driven social change, pointing to the end of apartheid in South Africa as an example.

    Earlier, councillor Rob Vinsen had been at pains to ensure the immediate return of hostages was included in the motion.

    “I know an Israeli in this community whose family, two of them were murdered during the October 7 attack into Israel. Four of his family were taken hostage. Two still are hostages and that’s why I was motivated to put this clause on here about calling for the release of hostages.”

    Mayor Andrew Tripe spoke in support of the motion.

    “We have 101 different nationalities in Whanganui. We live in a global society basically here in Whanganui and my rhetoric is all about peace and unity here in Whanganui and if we can promote that message for Whanganui but also for the rest of the world that’s something I hold strong to.”

    One abstention
    All but one councillor — who abstained — voted in favour of the motion.

    Earlier, council received two petitions — signed by more than 2000 people — organised by the Palestinian Solidarity Network Aotearoa.

    One called for a ceasefire and the other for the Whanganui council not to do business with companies identified by the United Nations as being involved in the building or maintenance of illegal Israeli settlements.

    PSNA spokesperson Sophie Reinhold told council that criticising Israel did not amount to anti-semitism.

    “We want to see all the hostages brought home. We want to see an end to the mass slaughter. In 215 days over 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, over two thirds of them women and children with thousands more still unaccounted for under the rubble.

    “Nothing justifies this. Nothing. Not self-defence, not human shields. Nothing.”

    She urged council “to give a voice to the call for a ceasefire” in a similar fashion as it had done when it condemned Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine in 2022.

    The council received the petitions.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Democracy in Saudi Arabia?: No progress in sight

    Last week, the EU announced a relaxation of Schengen visa rules for the citizens of Saudi Arabia. No human rights compromises were made in exchange. Since democracy constitutes the best umbrella under which human rights can thrive, the next question follows: What is the current state of democracy in Saudi Arabia?

    In its new report on Freedom in the World 2024, Freedom House (FH) confirms, one more year, that Saudi Arabia´s low performance in each dimension accounts for a fair score of 8 out of 100. In the same vein, the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) multidimensional approach continues to define Saudi Arabia as a “closed autocracy” in its Democracy Report 2024, indicating that the country does not hold multiparty elections for the chief executive or the legislature. Saudi Arabia´s reality, along with that of countries such as Libya, helps explain why the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remains “the most autocratic region in the world, with 98% of its population residing in autocracies”.

    Apart from the lack of free and fair elections and the restriction of all political rights and pluralism, Saudi Arabia´s absolute monarchy is characterized by several deficiencies in terms of civil liberties that the European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR) has largely documented.

    Referring to one of the cornerstones of democracy, the individual’s ability to express freely their personal views on political or other sensitive topics has deteriorated deeply since the killing of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 and the arrests of many prominent writers and activists, making self-censorship a pervasive practice in the country. Citizens of Saudi Arabia and Saudis living and traveling abroad are also both subjected to surveillance and spying, the latter in what could be considered a case of transnational repression. On top of that, as reported by ECDHR, the kingdom continues to engage in the forceful disappearance of activists who exercise their right to freedom of expression. Moreover, freedom of belief is severely curtailed, with the public observance of any religion other than Islam prohibited and the Shiite and Sufi Muslims´ religious practices restricted. The recent case of the 12 football fans imprisoned for peaceful Shia chants represents a clear example not just of the lack of freedom of expression and belief, but also of the recurrent use of the abusive and vaguely worded Anti-Cybercrime Law to crackdown on those liberties. According to FH, the government also heavily controls and influences the media and hampers academic freedom.

    Regarding associational and organizational rights, the situation is equally dire. The government does not respect freedom of assembly – imposing at times the death penalty on those who lead or participate in public protests – discourages independent work on human rights and governance issues by denying licenses that the nongovernmental organizations need to operate, and does not guarantee freedom to form independent labor unions or engage in strikes.

    The rule of law in the country is deficient, too. The judiciary is not independent and due process is flawed: defendants’ rights are not sufficiently protected by law; detainees often see their access to legal counsel denied during interrogation; and lengthy pretrial detention and detention without charge or trial are frequent. Especially preoccupying is that due process is particularly deficient in death penalty cases, despite the severity of the charges. Moreover, capital punishment is still commonly applied to a wide range of crimes that go beyond murder to include drug and protest-related offenses. Overall, in 2023 the kingdom executed 170 people. Corporal punishment, mostly flogging, is also common in criminal sentencing. On the other hand, allegations of torture and other forms of ill-treatment by police and prison officials have been recurrently expressed, being quite alarming the reliance on torture-tainted confessions as the primary basis for convictions.

    Lastly, as for personal autonomy and individual rights, it is worth noting the restrictions on freedom of movement imposed on activists and critics as a way of punishment, as well as women’s suffering of burdensome constraints in the context of the male guardianship system. In addition, foreign workers – more than half of the active labor force – are subjected to economic exploitation through the abusive kafala system.

    Notwithstanding all the highlighted abuses, civil society’s push for democratic change is very much alive, as the People’s Vision for Reform in Saudi Arabia, endorsed by 21 international organizations, demonstrates. However, Saudi Arabia´s significant power over world oil prices as the largest oil producer in OPEC, allowed it to strengthen its repressive system by shielding the regime from critique.

    The European Union, as a supposed defender of human rights around the world, should link any tie to the kingdom to this endeavor.

    The post Democracy in Saudi Arabia?: No progress in sight appeared first on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

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

  • ‘Repair colonial violence’ and support Gaza ceasefire, say Otago academics

    Asia Pacific Report

    Following an open letter by Auckland University academics speaking out in support of their students’ right to protest against the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, a group of academics at Otago University have today also called on New Zealand academic institutions to “repair colonial violence” and end divestment from any economic ties with Israel.

    “In order to honour commitments to decolonisation and human rights, universities must act now,” says the open letter signed by more than 165 academics.

    “As a te Tiriti-led university in Aotearoa New Zealand”, the academic staff said they were calling for the University of Otago to immediately:

    1. Endorse the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and disclose and divest from any economic ties to the apartheid state of Israel,
    2. Condemn those universities [that] have called on police to violently remove protesters from their campuses, and
    3. Call for the protection of students’ rights to protest and assemble and endorse the aims of those protests — the immediate demand of ceasefire and longer term demands to end the apartheid, violence, and illegal occupations under which Palestinians continue to suffer.

    The full letter states:

    “Kia ora koutou,

    “As we write this letter, universities across the United States have become battlegrounds. University administrators are sanctioning and encouraging violence against students and faculty members as they protest the genocidal violence in Gaza.

    “Over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed—of those deaths, it is estimated that more than 13,000 of them have been children. Israel has destroyed all 12 universities in Gaza and targeted staff and students at those universities.

    “The recent discovery of mass graves in Gaza, the hands and feet of many victims bound, has shocked the conscience of the world.

    “In keeping with a long tradition of campus protest, students and staff are demanding their universities stop contributing to genocidal violence.

    Student bodies brutalised
    “In return, their bodies have been brutalised, their own universities endorsing their arrests. Universities should, at the very least, offer crucial spaces for protest, debate, and working through collective responses to urgent social issues. Instead, administrators have called in militarised police forces, fully decked out in anti-riot regalia to repress student protests.

    “The results have been predictable: Professors and students have been arrested en masse and physically assaulted (beaten, pepper-sprayed, shot with rubber bullets, knocked unconscious, choked, and dragged limp across university lawns, their hands cuffed behind them).

    “We at the University of Otago, an institution committed to acknowledging, confronting, and seeking to repair colonial violence, are part of a society that extends far beyond the borders of Aotearoa New Zealand.

    “Acknowledging our history, including that history within its students’ experiences and working practices, compels us as a collective to call out and condemn colonial violence as and when we see it. It is not at all surprising that many of the protests in Aotearoa New Zealand calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have been organised and led by Māori alongside Palestinian activists.

    “Most recently, the Ngāti Kahungunu iwi have come out against the genocide, with one of the rally organisers, Te Ōtane Huata, stating “Tino rangatiratanga to me isn’t only self-determination of our people, it is also collective liberation.”

    “If it is to mean anything to be a te Tiriti-led university here in Aotearoa New Zealand, we must include acknowledgment that the history of Aotearoa New Zealand has been marked by consistent and egregious violations of that very treaty, and that such violations are indelibly part of settler colonialism.

    “Violent expropriation, cultural annihilation, and suppression of resistance have been the hallmarks of this project.

    Decolonisation and human rights
    “In order to honour commitments to decolonisation and human rights, universities must act now. We thus call for the University of Otago to immediately:

    “1. Endorse the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and disclose and divest from any economic ties to the apartheid state of Israel,
    “2. Condemn those universities who have called on police to violently remove protesters from their campuses,
    “3. Call for the protection of students’ rights to protest and assemble and endorse the aims of those protests – the immediate demand of ceasefire and longer term demands to end the apartheid, violence, and illegal occupations under which Palestinians continue to suffer.

    “In other words, the University must call for a liberated Palestinian state if it is to conceptualise itself as a university that seeks to confront its own settler-colonial foundations.

    “The above position aligns with the named values of our universities here in Aotearoa New Zealand. It is our duty that we make these demands, particularly as Palestinians have seen the systematic destruction of their universities and educational infrastructure while Palestinian students of our universities have witnessed their families and friends targeted by the Israeli government.

    “If the University of Otago wants to authentically position itself as an institution that takes seriously its role as a critic and conscience of society and acknowledges the importance of coming to grips with ongoing settler-colonial violence, it should take these demands seriously.

    “We further support the Open Letter to Vice-Chancellor Dawn Freshwater from Auckland University Staff in Solidarity with Students Protesting for Palestine.”

    In solidarity,
    Dr Peyton Bond (Teaching Fellow, Sociology, Gender Studies and Criminology)
    Dr Simon Barber (Lecturer in Sociology)
    Rachel Anna Billington (PhD candidate, Politics)
    Dr Neil Vallelly (Lecturer in Sociology)
    Erin Silver (PhD candidate, Sociology)
    Professor Richard Jackson (Leading Thinker Chair in Peace and Conflict Studies)
    Dr Lynley Edmeades (Lecturer in English)
    Dr Olivier Jutel (Lecturer in Media, Film and Communication)
    Lydia Le Gros (PhD candidate & Assistant Research Fellow, Public Health)
    Dr Abbi Virens (Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Sustainability)
    Sonja Bohn (PhD candidate, Sociology)
    Joshua James (PhD Candidate, Gender Studies)
    Sophie van der Linden (Postgrad Student, Bioethics)
    Dr Fairleigh Evelyn Gilmour (Lecturer in Gender Studies, Criminology)
    Brandon Johnstone (Administrator, TEU Otago Branch Committee Member)
    Dr David Jenkins (Lecturer in Politics)
    Jordan Dougherty (Masters student, Sociology)
    Rosemary Overell (Senior Lecturer in Media, Film and Communication)
    Dr Sebastiaan Bierema – (Research Fellow, Public Health)
    Dr Sabrina Moro (Lecturer in Media, Film and Communication studies)
    Rauhina Scott-Fyfe (Māori Archivist, Hocken Collections)
    Dr Lena Tan (Senior Lecturer, International Relations & Politics)
    Cassie Withey-Rila (Assistant Research Fellow, Otago Medical School)
    Duncan Newman (Postgrad student, Management)

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • End this ‘cruel, barbaric use of force’ on Gaza – WILPF plea to NZ

    Asia Pacific Report

    The Aotearoa chapter of the Women’s International league for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has appealed to the New Zealand government to call out Israel over the “cruel and barbaric use of force” in Gaza and demand a permanent ceasefire.

    The league’s open letter was sent to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters today as Israeli tanks took over the Rafah crossing on Gaza’s border with Egypt and aircraft bombarded residential homes.

    This may be the start of the long threatened assault on southern Gaza where 1.6 million people have been sheltering since the end of last year.

    The border attack comes after Israel announced it would continue its military operation in Rafah even after Hamas had accepted a Gaza ceasefire proposal put forward by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

    WILPF works to end and prevent war, ensure that women are represented at all levels in the peace-building process, defend the human rights of women, and promote social, economic and political justice.

    The WILPF open letter also condemned the closure of the global Al Jazeera television network’s operation in Israel. It said:

    “Kia ora Prime Minister Luxon and Minister of Foreign Affairs Peters,

    “The closure of Al Jazeera media in Israel at the same time as the Israeli occupation forces initiate the long-planned invasion of southern Gaza — an act deplored by many around the world – should prompt all democratic governments to call an end to this cruel and barbaric use of force in Gaza, along with settler violence in the West Bank

    “Palestinians have been ordered to move but, as I am sure you are aware, there is no safe place to move to.

    “Thousands more Palestinians will die if the Israeli government continue their genocidal practices.

    “I call on you as the New Zealand government and representatives of us all to call Israel out and demand a permanent ceasefire.

    “New Zealand governments have spoken up in former times, at the League of Nations and at the United Nations, including against the genocide in Rwanda.

    “Government reiterated its support for a two-state solution but Israeli impunity will prevent that outcome.

    “One small state can start a trend.

    “If the government is unable or unwilling to call an end to the Israeli invasion and a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, can you tell [us] the reasons, please.”

     

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Ghent students occupy university building in climate and Gaza protest

    More than 200 expected to join protest calling for climate action and to cut ties with Israeli institutions

    More than 100 students have occupied Ghent University in the first European protest to fuse demands about Gaza and the climate crisis.

    Ghent’s centrepiece UFO building was peacefully taken over by students calling for concrete action to meet the university’s 2030 climate plans, and asking the university to cut ties with institutions connected to the Israeli military.

    Continue reading…

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

  • The big idea: why we need human rights now more than ever

    In an age of climate crisis and AI, equal treatment is nothing less than essential

    In the three decades since I became a lawyer, human rights – once understood as an uncomplicated good, a tool for securing dignity for the vulnerable against abuses by the powerful – have increasingly come under assault. Perhaps never more so than in the current moment: we are constantly talking about human rights, but often in a highly sceptical way. When Liz Truss loudly proclaims “We’ve got to leave the ECHR, abolish the supreme court and abolish the Human Rights Act,” she’s not the fringe voice she might have been in the 1990s. She represents a dangerous current of opinion, as prevalent on parts of the radical left as on the populist right of politics. It seems to be gaining momentum.

    As an idealistic youngster, I would have been shocked to know that in 2024 it would be necessary to return to the back-to-basics case, to justify the need for fundamental rights and freedoms. But in a world where facts are made fluid, what were once thought of as core values have become hard to distill and defend. In an atmosphere of intense polarisation, human rights are trashed along all parts of the political spectrum – either as a framework to protect markets, or as a form of undercover socialism. What stands out for me is that the most trenchant critics share a profound nationalism. Nationalists believe that universal human rights – the clue’s in the name – undermine the ability of states to agitate for their narrower interests.

    Continue reading…

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

  • The Guardian view on transnational repression: dissidents need safety in their new homes | Editorial

    Authoritarian governments are extending their pursuit of critics far beyond their borders

    Forty-five years ago, the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was killed in London with a poison-tipped umbrella as he made his way home from work. The horrifying case transfixed the British public.

    So transnational repression is not new, including on British shores. But unless its target is unusually high-profile, or it uses startling tactics such as those employed by Markov’s killers – or in the attempt to assassinate Sergei Skripal – much of it passes with minimal attention.

    Continue reading…

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

  • UN Food Chief Warns Famine Is Underway in Northern Gaza — and It’s Headed South

    United Nations World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain said Friday that Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip are experiencing “full-blown famine” after nearly seven months of Israeli bombardment and invasion — and that deadly malnutrition is “moving its way south” through the embattled enclave. While U.N. agencies have warned since March that famine was imminent in Gaza…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Auckland Palestine rally honours Gaza journalists for freedom award

    Asia Pacific Report

    About 500 people honoured Palestinian journalists in the heart of the New Zealand city of Auckland today for their brave coverage of Israel’s War on Gaza, now in its seventh month with almost 35,000 people killed, mostly women and children.

    Marking the annual May 3 World Press Freedom Day “plus two”, the crowd also strongly applauded UNESCO’s Guillermo Cano Award being presented to the Palestinian journalists for their “courage and commitment”.

    Several speakers gave tributes to the journalists, the more than 100 Gazan news workers killed had their names read out and put on display, and cellphones were lit up due to the breeze preventing candle flames.

    Activist MC Anna Lee praised the journalists and said they set an example to the world.


    Shut the Gaza war down chants in Auckland.     Video: Café Pacific

    Journalist Dr David Robie, convenor of Pacific Media Watch, said 143 journalists had been killed, according to Al Jazeera and the Gaza Media Office, and it was mostly targeted “assassination by design”.

    He paid tribute to several individual journalists as well as the group, including Shireen Abu Akleh, shot by an Israeli sniper more than a year before the October 7 war outbreak, and Hind Khoudary, a young journalist who had inspired people around the world.

    The Guillermo Cano Prize was awarded to the Gaza journalists in Santiago, Chile, as part of World Press Freedom Day global events.

    Nasser Abu Baker, president of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS) and vice-president of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), received the UNESCO prize on behalf of his colleagues in Gaza.

    Candles for the Palestinian journalists
    Candles for the Palestinian journalists – named those who have been killed. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    ‘Unique suffering, fearless reporting’
    The UN cultural agency has recognised the “unique suffering and fearless reporting” of Gaza’s journalists by awarding them the freedom prize.

    Apart from those journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza since October 7, nearly all the rest have been injured, displaced or bereaved.

    From the start of the conflict, Israel closed Gaza’s borders to international journalists, and none have been allowed free access to the enclave since.

    A thousand Gazan journalists were working at the start of the war, and more than a 100 of them have been killed.

    “As a result,” reports the IFJ, “the profession has suffered a mortality rate in excess of 10 percent — about six times higher than the mortality rate of the general population of Gaza and around three times higher than that of health professionals.

    PJS president Baker said: “Journalists in Gaza have endured a sustained attack by the Israeli army of unprecedented ferocity — but have continued to do their jobs, as witnesses to the carnage around them.

    “It is justified that they should be honoured on World Press Freedom Day.


    Naming the martyred Gaza journalists.   Video: Café Pacific

    ‘Most deadly attack on press freedom’
    “What we have seen in Gaza is surely the most sustained and deadly attack on press freedom in history. This award shows that the world has not forgotten and salutes their sacrifice for information.”

    IFJ general secretary Anthony Bellanger said: “This prize is a real tribute to the commitment to information of journalists in Gaza.

    “Journalists in Gaza are starving, homeless and in mortal danger. UNESCO’s recognition of what they are still enduring is a huge and well-deserved boost.”


    Kia Ora Gaza – doctors speak out.      Video: Café Pacific

    Gaza Freedom Flotilla blocked
    Also at the rally today were Kia Ora Gaza’s organiser Roger Fowler and two of the three New Zealand doctors who travelled to Turkiye to embark on the Freedom Flotilla which was sending three ships with humanitarian aid to break the Gaza siege.

    Israel thwarted the mission for the time being by pressuring the African nation of Guinea-Bissau to withdraw the maritime flag the ships would have been sailing under.

    However, flotilla organisers are working hard to find another flag country for the ships and the doctors vowed to rejoin the mission.

    Palestinian children at today's Auckland rally
    Palestinian children at today’s Auckland rally . . . one girl is holding up an image of an old pre-war postage stamp from the country called Palestine with the legend “We are coming back”. Image: David Robie/Cafe Pacific Report

    Pacific Media Watch

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Media freedom award for the Gaza journalists who have paid a terrible price in Israel’s genocidal war

    By David Robie, convenor of Pacific Media Watch

    Along with the devastating death toll – now almost 35,000 people, hundreds of aid workers and hundreds of medical staff have been killed in the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza — journalists have also paid a terrible price.

    By far the worst of any war.

    In Vietnam, 63 journalists were killed in two decades.

    The Second World War was worse, with 67 journalists killed in seven years.

    But now in the war on Gaza, we have had 143 journalists killed in seven months.

    That’s the death toll according to Al Jazeera and the Gaza Media Office. (Western media freedom monitoring usually cite a lower figure, around the 100 plus mark, but I the higher figure is more accurate).

    And these journalists — sometimes their whole families as well – have been deliberately targeted by the Israeli “Offensive” Force – I call it “offensive” rather than what it claims to be, defensive (IDF).

    Kill off journalists
    Assassination by design. Clearly the Israeli policy has been to kill off the journalists, silence the messengers, whenever they can.

    Try to stifle the truth getting out about their war crimes, their crimes against humanity.

    But it has failed. Just like the humanity of the people of Gaza has inspired the world, so have the journalists.

    Their commitment to truth and justice and to telling the world their horrendous story has been an exemplary tale of bravery and courage in the face of unspeakable horror.

    But there has been a glimmer of hope in spite of the gloom. On Friday — on World Press Freedom Day, May 3 — UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency, awarded all Palestinian journalists covering the war in Gaza the annual Guillermo Cano Award for media freedom.

    This award is named in honour of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian investigative journalist who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper El Espectador in Bogotá, Colombia on 17 December 1986.

    Announcing the Gaza award in the capital of Chile, Santiago, in an incredibly emotional ceremony, Mauricio Weibel, chair of the international jury of media professionals, declared:

    “In these times of darkness and hopelessness, we wish to share a strong message of solidarity and recognition to those Palestinian journalists who are covering this crisis in such dramatic circumstances.

    “As humanity, we have a huge debt to their courage and commitment to freedom of expression.”

    Ultimate price
    For those of us who watch Al Jazeera every day to keep up with developments in Palestine and around the world — and thank goodness we have had that on Freeview to balance the pathetic New Zealand media coverage — I would like to acknowledge some of their journalists who have paid the ultimate price.

    First, I would like to acknowledge the assassination of American-Palestinian Shireen Abu Akleh, who was murdered by Israeli military sniper while reporting on an army raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank on 11 May 2022.

    Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh
    Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh . . . killed by an Israeli sniper in 2022 with impunity. Image:

    A year later there was still no justice, and the Paris-based media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders issued a protest, saying:

    “The systematic Israeli impunity is outrageous and cannot continue.”

    Well it did, right until the war on Gaza began five months later.

    But I am citing this here and now because Shireen’s sacrifice has been a personal influence on me, and inspired me to take a closer look into Israel’s history of impunity over the killing of journalists — and just about every other crime. (It has violated 62 United Nations resolutions without consequences).

    I have this photo of her on display in my office, thanks to the Palestinian Youth Aotearoa, and she constantly reminds me of the cruelty and lies of the Israeli regime.

    Now moving to the present war, last December, Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh was wounded in an Israeli strike in which his colleague and Al Jazeera Arabic’s cameraman Samer Abudaqa was killed, while they were reporting in southern Gaza.

    Dahdouh’s wife Amna, son Mahmoud, daughter Sham and grandson Adam were previously killed in an attack in October after an Israeli air raid hit the home they were sheltering in at the Nuseirat refugee camp.

    Then the veteran journalist’s eldest son, Hamza Dahdouh, also an Al Jazeera journalist, was killed in January by an Israeli missile attack in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

    News media reports said he was in a vehicle near al-Mawasi, an Israel-designated safe area, with journalist Mustafa Thuraya, who was also killed in the attack.

    According to reports from Al Jazeera correspondents, their vehicle was targeted as they were trying to interview civilians displaced by previous bombings.

    In February, Mohamed Yaghi, a freelance photojournalist who worked with multiple media outlets, including Al Jazeera, was also killed in an Israeli air strike in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza.

    Al Jazeera’s Gaza offices in a multistoreyed building were bombed two years ago, just as many Palestinian media offices have been systematically destroyed by the Israelis in the current war.

    Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branded Al Jazeera as a “terrorist channel”. Why? Because it broadcasts the truth about Israel’s genocidal war and Netanyahu threatened to ban the channel from Israel under a new law to control foreign media.

    Today, a month after that threat, Netanyahu has today followed up after his cabinet voted unanimously to order Al Jazeera to close down operations in Israel, which will curb the channel’s reporting on the daily Israeli harassment and raids on the Palestinians of the Occupied West Bank.

    And this is the country that proclaims itself to be the “only democracy” in the Middle East.

    Many of the surviving Gaza journalists are very young with limited professional experience.
    They have had to learn fast, a baptism by fire.

    I would like to round off with a quote from one of these young journalists, Hind Khoudary, a 28-year-old reporter for Al Jazeera since day one of the war, who used to sign on her social media reports for the day “I’m still alive”:

    “I am a daughter, a sister to eight brothers, and a wife.

    “Choosing to stay here is a choice to witness and report on the unbearable reality my city endures. Forced from my home, alongside countless Palestinians, we strive for the basics – clean food and water – without transportation or electricity.

    “I am not a superhero; I am shattered from the inside. The loss of relatives, friends, and colleagues weighs heavy on my soul. Israeli forces ravaged my city, reducing homes to rubble. [Thousands of] civilians still lie beneath the remnants.

    “My heart is aching, and my spirit is fragile. Since October 7, journalists have been targets; Israel seeks to stifle our voices.

    “I miss my family.

    “But surrender is not an option. I will continue to report, to breathe life into the stories of my people until my last breath. Please, do not let the world forget Palestine. We are weary, and your voice is our strength.

    “Remember our voices, remember our faces.”

    Pacific Media Watch convenor Dr David Robie delivering a speech on media freedom
    Pacific Media Watch convenor Dr David Robie delivering a speech on media freedom at the Palestinian rally at Auckland today. Image: Del Abcede/Pacific Media Watch

    This article is adapted from a media freedom speech by Pacific Media Watch convenor Dr David Robie at the Palestine rally today calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza war.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Auckland University staff appeal over Gaza protest in solidarity with students

    Asia Pacific Report

    A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine.

    They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by students over Israel’s war on Gaza, and criticised her for “minimising” the seriousness of the seven-month war that has been widely characterised as genocide.

    They have also criticised the vice-chancellor’s announcement for failing to acknowledge that “our students were planning to establish an encampment to urge the University of Auckland to divest from any entities and corporations enabling Israel’s ongoing military violence against Palestinians in Gaza, where at least 34,535 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military operations since 7 October 2023″.

    Their open letter said in full:

    “Tēnā koe Vice-Chancellor Dawn Freshwater,

    “As members of staff of the University of Auckland, we are deeply concerned by your announcement of 30 April 2024 advising students and staff of your decision to not support the establishment of an overnight encampment by students protesting in solidarity with Palestine.

    “Firstly, we are concerned that your announcement failed to acknowledge that our students were planning to establish an encampment to urge the University of Auckland to divest from any entities and corporations enabling Israel’s ongoing military violence against Palestinians in Gaza, where at least 34,535 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military operations since 7 October 2023. Importantly, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese recently found that there are ‘reasonable grounds’ to determine that this violence by Israel amounts to the commission of the crime of genocide. Rather than acknowledging this cause, your announcement disappointingly mischaracterised and minimised Israel’s violence as a ‘conflict’ and the resulting humanitarian crisis as a ‘heightened geopolitical tension.’

    “Secondly, we are concerned that in making your decision, you sought advice from the New Zealand Police rather than from your own students and staff. We believe that this approach to such an important matter falls short of the ‘values which bind us as a university community’ you mentioned in your announcement.

    “Thirdly, we are concerned that the reason you have provided for your decision is that the University of Auckland needs to avoid ‘introducing the significant risks that such encampments have brought to other university campuses.’ We believe that this reasoning erroneously places the blame for any safety risks in overseas campuses on students and staff who established peaceful encampments, rather than on university administrators who decided to seek unnecessary police intervention to break up these encampments, which has then led to the unjust arrests and detainments of students and staff.

    “Finally, we are concerned that your decision to seek the advice of the New Zealand Police and blame peaceful encampments for safety risks in other campuses suggests that you intend to call the New Zealand Police on your students and staff who decide to exercise their right to protest with a peaceful encampment on campus grounds. We believe that making such a suggestion to students and staff also falls short of the ‘values which bind us as a university community’ you mentioned in your announcement.

    “Accordingly, we urge you to reverse your decision and to offer your full support to students and staff who may choose to exercise their right to protest by establishing a peaceful encampment on campus grounds.

    “We also urge you not to discipline or penalise students and staff who may choose to participate in peaceful protests and encampments in any way, and to engage with them in good faith and in accordance with the ‘values which bind us as a university community’.

    Ngā mihi nui,

    Auckland University Staff in Solidarity with Students

    Fuimaono Dylan Asafo
    Associate Professor Rhys Jones
    Professor Papaarangi Reid
    Professor Emeritus Jane Kelsey
    Dr Suliana Mone
    Professor Emeritus David V Williams
    Professor Andrew Jull
    Associate Professor Donna Cormack
    Dr Nav Sidhu
    Associate Professor George Laking
    Mia Carroll
    Ankita Askar
    Caitlin Merriman
    Dr Rebekah Jaung
    Dr Eileen Joy
    Sione Ma’u
    Arin Hectors
    Dr Ian Hyslop
    Dr Fleur Te Aho
    Associate Professor Treasa Dunworth
    Professor Nicholas Rowe
    Dr Emalani Case
    Emmy Rākete
    Kendra Cox
    Zoe Poutu Fay
    Kenzi Yee
    Niamh Pritchard
    Associate Professor Lisa Uperesa
    Eru Kapa-Kingi
    Daniel Wilson
    Kate Jack
    Dr Karly Burch
    Sean Sturm
    Campbell Talaepa
    Professor Liz Beddoe
    Erin Jia
    Emily Sposato
    Fahizah Sahib
    Dina Sharp
    Dr Murray Olsen
    Dr Cynthia Wensley
    Sasha Rodenko
    Gabbi Courtenay
    Atama Thompson
    Professor Paula Lorgelly
    Jess Kelly
    Amelia Kendall
    Abigail Siddayao-Ramos
    Bianca Parker
    Georgia Nemaia
    Muhammad Bazaan Ghaznavi
    Erica Farrelly
    Dr Vivienne Kent
    Morgan Allen
    Carrie Rudzinski
    Thomas Gregory
    Lauren Brentnall
    Lily Chen
    Awhi Marshall
    Max Stephens
    Dr. Charlotte Toma
    Sonia Fonua
    Benjamin Kauri Doyle
    Kyrin Bhula
    Isobel Rist
    Kelly Young
    Ngahuia Harrison
    Briar Meads
    Emma Parangi
    Mai AlSharaf
    Dr Anita Mudaliar
    Dave Henricks
    Maryam Madawi
    Yeray Madroño
    Marnie Reinfelds
    Maizurah Maidin
    Nida Zuhena
    Professor Virginia Braun
    Bridget Conor
    Amani Mashal
    Anastasia Papadakis
    Ayla Hoeta Lecturer, Assistant Associate Dean Maaori
    Associate Professor Elana Curtis
    Professor Nicola Gaston
    Nina Dyer
    Renz Alinabon

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Auckland academics call out university stance over pro-Palestine protest

    RNZ News

    A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians.

    This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it supported the right of students and staff to protest peacefully and legally, it would not support an overnight encampment due to health and safety concerns.

    The university’s statement said advice from police had been taken into account, and the university would “work constructively” with the protesters to facilitate an alternative form of protest.

    “This compromise enables students and staff who wish to express their views to do so in a peaceful and lawful manner, without introducing the significant risks that such encampments have brought to other university campuses,” the statement said.

    On Wednesday, more than 100 people gathered at the university’s central city campus for the rally, with those taking part expressing a range of views toward violence between Israel and Palestinians and the war in Gaza.

    Protest organisers Students for Justice in Palestine, said the demonstration was the initial event in a long-term campaign to advocate for Palestinian rights, in “support for justice and peace”, and invited any member of the university to take part, “regardless of background or affiliation”.

    After the university’s statement against the planned encampment, the group changed the event to a campus rally, which they said would make it more accessible to a more diverse range of people.

    Open letter of concern
    However, now an open letter signed by 65 university staff and academics says they held deep concerns about the university’s stance toward the protest.

    The institution’s reaction “mischaracterised” the focus of the protest, minimised the violence in Gaza, and had not acknowledged a call for the institution to “divest from any entities and corporations enabling Israel’s ongoing military violence against Palestinians in Gaza”, the letter said.

    It condemned the university for not seeking advice about the planned protest from its own students and staff, and said the institution’s stance had implied the protesters would “introduce significant risks”.

    One of the signatories, senior law lecturer Dylan Asafo, told RNZ the University of Auckland vice-chancellor had taken poor advice.

    “The vice-chancellor is essentially blaming the violence and unrest that we’re seeing on the newest campuses [overseas] on staff and students who set up peaceful encampments there, rather than on university administrators and police forces who have broken up those peaceful encampments.”

    The academics also want confirmation protesters won’t be punished by the university.

    “We also urge you not to discipline or penalise students and staff who may choose to participate in peaceful protests and encampments in any way, and to engage with them in good faith,” the letter said.

    The university has been approached for comment.

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


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • New Caledonia’s women sit-in to support smeared Kanak journalist

    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

    A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics.

    The peaceful demonstration was held on Nouméa’s Place des Cocotiers to protest against violent messages posted by critics against Waia on social networks — and also against public comments made by local politicians, mostly pro-France.

    Political leaders and social networks have criticised Waia for her coverage of the pro-independence protests on April 13 in the capital.

    “We are here to sound the alarm bell and to remind our leaders not to cross the line regarding freedom of expression and freedom to exercise the profession of journalism in New Caledonia,” president Sonia Togna New Caledonia’s Union of Francophone Women in Oceania (UFFO-NC).

    “We’re going to go through very difficult months [about the political future of New Caledonia] and we hope this kind of incident will not happen again, whatever the political party,” she said.

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

    Paris-based World Press Freedom Index
    Pacific Media Watch reports that yesterday was World Press Freedom Day worldwide and France rose three places to 21st in the Paris-based RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index rankings made public yesterday.

    This is higher than any other other country in the region except New Zealand (which dropped six places to 19th, but still two places higher than France).

    New Zealand is closely followed in the Index by one of the world’s newer nations, Timor-Leste (20th) — among the top 10 last year — and Samoa (22nd).

    Fiji was 44th, one place above Tonga, and Papua New Guinea had dropped 32 places to 91st. Other Pacific countries were not listed in the survey which is based on media freedom performance through 2023.

    New Zealand is 20 places above Australia, which dropped 12 places and is ranked 39th.

    Rivals in the Indo-Pacific geopolitical struggle for influence are the United States (dropped 15 places to 55th) and China (rose seven places to 172nd).

    Pacific Media Watch


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • ICC demands end to threats against court amid Gaza war probe

    Asia Pacific Report

    The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court.

    The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement yesterday that all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence its officials must cease immediately.

    While the prosecutor’s statement did not mention Israel, it was issued after Israeli and US officials have warned of consequences against the ICC if it issues arrest warrants over Israel’s war on Gaza, reports Al Jazeera.

    “The office seeks to engage constructively with all stakeholders whenever such dialogue is consistent with its mandate under the Rome Statute to act independently and impartially,” Khan’s office said.

    “That independence and impartiality is undermined, however, when individuals threaten to retaliate against the court or against court personnel should the office, in fulfillment of its mandate, make decisions about investigations or cases falling within its jurisdiction.”

    It added that the Rome Statute, which outlines the ICC’s structure and areas of jurisdiction, prohibits threats against the court and its officials.

    Arrest warrants speculation
    Over the past week, media reports have indicated that the ICC might issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over the country’s conduct in Gaza.

    The court may prosecute individuals for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The Israeli military has killed nearly 35,000 people in Gaza and destroyed large parts of the territory since the start of the war on October 7.

    News of possible ICC charges against Israeli officials led to an intense pushback by the country and its allies in the United States.

    On Tuesday, Netanyahu released a video message rebuking the court.

    “Israel expects the leaders of the free world to stand firmly against the ICC outrageous assault on Israel’s inherent right of self-defence,” he said.

    “We expect them to use all the means at their disposal to stop this dangerous move.”

    The court has been investigating possible Israeli abuses in the occupied Palestinian territory since 2021. Khan has said his team is investigating alleged war crimes in the ongoing war in Gaza.

    In October, Khan said the court had jurisdiction over any potential war crimes committed by Hamas fighters in Israel and by Israeli forces in Gaza.

    Student protests spread to NZ
    Meanwhile, more than 2200 students have been arrested in the United States as protests against the war on Gaza and calling for divestment from Israel have spread to more than 30 universities in spite of police crackdowns, and have also emerged in Australia, Canada, France, United Kingdom — and now New Zealand in the Pacific.

    RNZ News reports that more than 100 students gathered on Auckland University’s city campus to protest against the war.

    The rally was originally planned as an encampment, but the university said any overnight stand would not be allowed.

    Tents had been set up within the crowd, but protest organisers said the event would be a rally.

    Academic staff have appealed over the administration’s decision against the encampment.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Sanders Rips Colleagues for Attacking Student Protesters Instead of Netanyahu



    Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday night spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate about the student protests taking place on college campuses across the country, and the ongoing, horrific humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

    Sanders’ remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below and can be watched live here:


    President, some of us have been out of school for awhile and we may have forgotten our American history. But I did want to take a moment to remind some of my colleagues about a document called the U.S. Constitution and, specifically, the First Amendment of that Constitution.

    For those that may have forgotten, here is what the First Amendment says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

    Let me also take this opportunity to remember our late colleague, the former congressman John Lewis for his heroic role in the Civil Rights Movement.

    I know it’s very easy to heap praise on Congressman Lewis and many others decades after they did what they did, but, I would remind my colleagues them that Mr. Lewis was arrested 45 times for participating in sit-ins, occupations, and protests – 45 times – for protesting segregation and racism.

    I would also remind my colleagues that the Lunch Counter protest at Woolworths and elsewhere desegregating the South were in fact sit-ins and occupations where young Black and white Americans bravely took up space in private businesses, demanding an end to racism and segregation that existed at that time.

    I find it incomprehensible that members of Congress are spending their time attacking the protestors rather than the Netanyahu government which brought about these protests and has created this horrific situation.

    Further, as I hope everybody knows, we have also seen in recent decades protests — some of them massive protests — against sexism, homophobia, and the need to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels in order to save this planet.

    In other words, protesting injustice and expressing our opinions is part of our American tradition. And when you talk about America being a free country, whether you like it or not the right to protest is what American freedom is all about. That’s the U.S. constitution.

    And, M. President, let me also remind you: exactly 60 years ago, student demonstrators occupied the exact same building on Columbia’s campus as is taking place right now – ironically, the same building.

    Across the country, students and others, including myself, joined peaceful demonstrations in opposition to the war in Vietnam. Those demonstrators were demanding an end to that War.

    And maybe – just maybe – tens of thousands of American lives and countless Vietnamese lives might have been saved if the Government had listened to those demonstrators.

    And I might also add that the President at that time – a great president — Lyndon Johnson, chose not to run for re-election because of the opposition to him that occurred as a result of his support for that Vietnam War. And further, let us not forget those who demonstrated against the failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe those protestors should have been listened to as well.

    Shock of all shocks, government policy is not always right.

    President, I noted recently that a number of my colleagues in both parties, as well as many news reporters, TV, newspapers, are very concerned about the protests and violence we are seeing on campuses across the country.

    So let me be clear: I share those concerns about violence on campuses, or, for that matter, any place else, and I condemn those who threw a brick through a window at Columbia University. That kind of violence should not be taking place on college campuses.

    I am also concerned and condemn about the group of individuals at UCLA in California who violently attacked the peaceful encampment of anti-war demonstrators on the campus of UCLA.

    President, let me be clear: I condemn all forms of violence on campus whether they are committed by people who support Israel’s war efforts or those who oppose those policies.

    And I hope we can also agree that in the United States all forms of bigotry must be condemned and eliminated. We are seeing a growth of antisemitism in this country which we must all condemn and work to stop.

    To stand up for Palestinian rights and the dignity of the Palestinian people does not make one a supporter of terrorism.

    We are also seeing a growth of Islamophobia in this country which we must all condemn and stop. And in that regard, I would mention that in my very own city of Burlington, Vermont, three wonderful young Palestinian students were shot at close range on November 25th of last year. They were visiting a family member to celebrate Thanksgiving, walking down the street, and they were shot.

    President let make an additional point, I have noted that there is an increasing tendency in the media and on the part of some of my colleagues here in the Senate to use the phrase “Pro-Palestinian” to suggest that that means “Pro-Hamas.”

    To my mind, that is unacceptable and factually inaccurate. The overwhelming majority of American people and protestors understand very well that Hamas is a terrorist organization that started this war by attacking Israel in an incredibly brutal and horrific way on October 7th.

    To stand up for Palestinian rights and the dignity of the Palestinian people does not make one a supporter of terrorism.

    And let me also mention something that I found rather extraordinary and outrageous.

    And that is just a few days ago Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the right-wing extremist government in Israel, a government which contains out-and-out anti-Palestinian racists.

    Netanyahu issued a statement in which he equated criticism of his government’s illegal and immoral war against the Palestinian people with antisemitism.

    In other words, if you are protesting, or disagree, with what Netanyahu and his extremist government are doing in Gaza, you are an antisemite.

    That is an outrageous statement from a leader who is clearly trying – and I have to tell you, he seems to be succeeding with the American media — trying to deflect attention away from the horrific policies that he is pursuing that created an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.

    So, let me be as clear as I can be: It is not antisemitic or pro-Hamas to point out that in almost seven months Netanyahu’s extremist government has killed 34,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 77,000 – seventy percent of whom are women and children.

    And to protest that or to point that out is not antisemitic. It is simply factual.

    It is not antisemitic to point out that Netanyahu’s government’s bombing has completely destroyed more than 221,000 housing units in Gaza, leaving more than one million people homeless – almost half the population. No, Mr. Netanyahu it is not antisemitic to point out what you have done in terms of the destruction of housing in Gaza.

    It is not antisemitic to realize that his government has annihilated Gaza’s health care system, knocking 26 hospitals out of service and killing more than 400 health care workers. At a time when 77,000 people have been wounded and desperately need medical care, Netanyahu has systematically destroyed the health care system in Gaza.

    It is not antisemitic to condemn his government’s destruction of all of Gaza’s 12 universities and 56 of its schools, with hundreds more damaged, leaving 625,000 children in Gaza have no opportunity for an education. It is not antisemitic to make that point.

    It is not antisemitic to note that Netanyahu’s government has obliterated Gaza’s civilian infrastructure – there is virtually no electricity in Gaza right now, virtually no clean water in Gaza right now, and sewage is seeping out onto the streets.

    It is not antisemitic to make that point.

    President, it is not antisemitic to agree with virtually every humanitarian organization that functions in the Gaza area in saying that his government, in violation of American law, has unreasonably blocked humanitarian aid coming into Gaza.

    They have created the conditions under which hundreds of thousands of children face malnutrition and famine. It is not antisemitic to look at photographs of children who are starving to death because they have not been able to get the food that they need. It is not antisemitic to agree with American and UN officials that parts of Gaza could become famine districts in the not very distant future.

    It is not antisemitic to agree with virtually every humanitarian organization that functions in the Gaza area in saying that his government, in violation of American law, has unreasonably blocked humanitarian aid coming into Gaza.

    Antisemitism is a vile and disgusting form of bigotry that has done unspeakable harm to many millions of people for hundreds of years, including my own family. But it is outrageous and it is disgraceful to use that charge of antisemitism to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies that Netanyahu’s extremist and racist government is pursuing.

    Furthermore, it is really cheap politics for Netanyahu to use the charge of antisemitism to deflect attention from the criminal indictment he is facing in the Israeli courts.

    Bottomline, M. President: it is not antisemitic to hold Netanyahu and his government for their actions. That is not antisemitic. It is precisely what we should be doing.

    Because among other things we are the government that has supplied billions and billions of dollars in order for him to continue his horrific war against the Palestinian people.

    President, I would also point out while there has been wall to wall coverage of student protests, I think that’s about all CNN does right now, I should mention that it is not just young people on college campuses that are extremely upset about our Government’s support and funding for this illegal and immoral war.

    The people of the United States – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – do not want to be complicit in the starvation of hundreds of thousands of children.

    And I would point out that just last week this Senate voted to give Netanyahu another unfettered $10 billion for his war.

    Let me quote just a few polls:

    April 14 – Politico/Morning Consult: 67% support the United States calling for a ceasefire. This is at a time when Netanyahu is threatening to expand the war into Rafah.

    April 12th – CBS: 60% think the U.S. should not send weapons and supplies to Israel as opposed to 40% who think the U.S. should. And for my Democratic colleagues, those figures are disproportionately higher among Democratic voters.

    April 10th – Economist/YouGov: 37% support decreasing military aid to Israel, just 18% support an increase. Overall 63% support a ceasefire, 15% oppose.

    No, M. President. This is not just protestors on college campuses who are upset about U.S. policy with regards to Israel and Gaza. Increasingly the American people want an end to U.S. complicity in the humanitarian disaster which is taking place in Gaza right now.

    The people of the United States – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – do not want to be complicit in the starvation of hundreds of thousands of children.

    Maybe, and here’s a very radical idea, maybe it’s time for politicians to listen to the American people. Maybe it’s time to rethink the decision this body recently made to provide Netanyahu another $10 billion dollars in unfettered military aid.

    Maybe it’s time to not simply worry about the violence we are seeing on American campuses, but focus on the unprecedented violence in Gaza which has killed 34,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 77,000 Palestinians – 70% percent of whom are women and children.

    So, I suggest to CNN and some of my colleagues here, take your cameras off of Columbia and UCLA. Maybe go to Gaza and show us the emaciated children who are going to die of malnutrition because of Netanyahu’s policies. Show us the kids who have lost their arms and their legs. Show us the suffering.

    President, let me conclude by saying, I must admit, I find it incomprehensible that members of Congress are spending their time attacking the protestors rather than the Netanyahu government which brought about these protests and has created this horrific situation.

    Thank you and I yield.

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams.

  • OPM’s Bomanak accuses UN of failing to uphold decolonisation role over West Papua

    Asia Pacific Report

    A West Papuan resistance leader has condemned the United Nations role in allowing Indonesia to “integrate” the Melanesian Pacific region in what is claimed to be an “egregious act of inhumanity” on 1 May 1963.

    In an open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM (Free Papua Organisation) leader Jeffrey P Bomanak has also claimed that this was the “beginning of genocide” that could only have happened through the failure of the global body to “legally uphold its decolonisation responsibilities in accordance with the UN Charter”.

    Bomanak says in the letter dated yesterday that the UN failed to confront the “relentless barbarity of the Indonesian invasion force and expose the lie of the fraudulent 1969 gun-barrel ‘Act of No Choice’”.

    The open letter follows one released on the eve of Anzac Day last month which strongly criticised the role of Australia and the United States, accusing both countries of “betrayal” in Papuan aspirations for independence.

    According to RNZ News today, an Australian statement in response to the earlier OPM letter said the federal government “unreservedly recognises Indonesia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over the Papua provinces”.

    The White House has not responded.

    The OPM says it has compiled a “prima facie pictorial ‘integration’ history” of Indonesia’s actions in integrating the Pacific region into an Asian nation. It plans to present this evidence of “six decades of crimes against humanity” to Secretary-General Guterres and new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.

    The open letter states:

    May 1, 2024

    Dear Secretary-General Guterres,

    I am addressing you in an open letter which I will be releasing to media and governments because I have previously brought to your attention the history of the illegal annexation of West Papua on May 1st, 1963, and the role of your office in the fraudulent UN referendum in 1969, called an Act of Free Choice and I have never received a reply.

    Part of the opening page of the five-page OPM open letter to the United Nations
    Part of the opening page of the five-page OPM open letter to the United Nations. Image” Screenshot APR

    After six decades of OPM letters and Papuan appeals to the UN Secretariat, I am providing the transparency and accountability of an “open letter”, so that historians of the future can
    investigate the moral and ethical credibility of the UN Secretariat.

    May 1st is a day of mourning for Papuans. A day of grief over the illegal annexation of our ancestral Melanesian homeland by a violent occupation force from Southeast Asia.

    Indonesia’s annexation of Western New Guinea (Irian Jaya/West Papua) on May 1, 1963, is
    commemorated in Indonesia’s Parliament as a day of integration. The photos on these pages on these pages show a different story. The reality these photos portray is, in fact, one of the longest ongoing acts of genocide since the end of the Second World War.

    An invasion and an illegal annexation not unlike Nazi Germany’s annexation in 1938 of
    its neighbouring country, Austria. The difference for Papuans is that the UN and the USA were co-conspirators in preventing our right to determine a future that was our right to have under the UN decolonisation process: independence and nation-state sovereignty.

    A very chilling contradiction — the Allies we fought alongside, nursed back to life, and died with during WWII had joined forces with a mass-murderer not unlike Hitler — the Indonesian president Suharto (see Photo collage #2: Axis of Evil).

    Some scholars have called the May 1, 1963 annexation “Indonesia’s Anschluss”. Suharto and the conspirators goal of colonial invasion and conquest had been achieved through
    the illegal annexation of my people’s ancestral homeland, my homeland.

    General and president-in-waiting Suharto signed a contract in 1967 with American mining giant Freeport, another company associated with David Rockefeller, two years before we were to determine our future through the aforementioned gun-barrel UN referendum project-managed by a brutal occupation force. Our future had already been determined by Suharto, David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, and Suharto’s friend, UN secretary-General U Thant. U Thant had succeeded Dag Hammarskjöld who had been assassinated for his controversial view that human rights and freedom were absolutely universal and should not be subjected to the criminal whims of either tyrants like Suharto or a resource industry with views on human rights and freedom that resembled Suharto’s.

    I do not need to give you a blow-by-blow history for your edification — you already know the entire history and the victim tally — 350,000 adults and 150,000 children and babies. And rising. You are, after all, a man of some principle — Portugal’s former prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, as well as a member of the Portuguese Socialist Party. And presiding as Portuguese prime minster during the final years of Fretilin’s war of liberation in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony invaded by Indonesia in 1975 with anywhere up to 250,000 victims of genocide. Please explain to me the difference between the Indonesia’s
    invasion and “integration” of East Timor and Indonesia’s invasion and “integration” of my homeland, Western New Guinea (West Papua).

    Apart from the oil in the Timor Gap and the gold and copper all over my homeland — the wealth of someone else’s resources promoting the “integration” policies pictured over these pages.

    As a member of a socialist party, you might be attending May Day ceremonies today. I will be counselling victims and the families of loved ones who have been “integrated” today. Yes, the freedom-loving Papuans are holding rallies to protest the annexation of our homeland . . .  to protest the failure — your failure — to apply justice and to end this nightmare.

    The cost of the UN-approved annexation to Papuans in pain and suffering: massacres, torture, systemic rape by TNI and Polri, mutilation and dismemberment as a signature of your barbarity. Relentless barbarity causing six decades of physical and cultural genocide, ethnocide, infanticide, and wave after wave of ethnic cleansing.

    The cost to Papuans in the theft and plunder of our natural resources: genocide by starvation and famine.

    The cost to Papuans from the foreign resource industry plundering our natural resources: the devastation of pristine environments, whole ecosystems poisoned by the resource industry’s chemical toxicity, called tailings, released into rivers thereby destroying whole riverine catchments along with food sources from fishing and farming — catchment rivers and nearby farming lands contaminated by Freeport, and other’s. A failure to apply any international standards for risk management to prevent the associated birth defects
    in villages now living in contaminated catchments.

    That we would choose to become part of any nation so brutal defies credibility. That the UN approved integration should have been impossible based on the evidence of the ever-increasing numbers of defence and security forces landing in West Papua and undertaking military campaigns that include ever-increasing victims and internally displaced Papuans, the bombing of central highland villages a current example? Such courage! Why are foreign
    media not allowed into my people’s homeland?

    Secretary-General Guterres, future historians will judge the efficacy of the United Nations. The integrity. West Papua will feature as a part the UN Secretariat’s legacy. To this endeavour, as the leader of Organisasi Papua Merdeka, I ask, and demand that you comply with your obligations under article 85 part 2 and sundry articles of your Charter of United Nations which requires that you inform the Trusteeship Council about your General Assembly resolution 1752, with which you are subjugating our people and homelands of West New Guinea which we call West Papua.

    The agreement which your resolution 1752 is authorising, begins with the words “The Republic of Indonesia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, having in mind the interests and welfare of the people of the territory of West New Guinea (West Irian)”

    Your agreement is clearly a trusteeship agreement written according to your rules of Chapter XII of your Charter of the United Nations.

    The West Papuan people have always opposed your use of United Nations military to make our people’s human rights subject to the whim of your two administrators, UNTEA and from 1st May 1963 the Republic of Indonesia that is your current administrator.

    We refer to your organisation’s last official record about West Papua which still suffers your ongoing unjust administration managed by UNTEA and Indonesia:

    Because you also used article 81 and Chapter XII of your Charter to seize control of our homelands when you created your General Assembly resolution 1752, the Netherlands was excused by article 73(e), “to transmit regularly to the Secretary-General for information purposes, subject to such limitation as security and constitutional considerations may require, statistical and other information of a technical nature relating to economic, social, and educational conditions in the territories for which they are respectively responsible other than those territories to which Chapters XII and XIII apply”, from transmitting further reports about our people and the extrajudicial killings that your new administrators began using to silence our demands for our liberty and independence.

    We therefore demand your Trusteeship Council begin its unfinished duty of preparing your United Nations reports as articles 85 part 2, 87 and 88 of your Charter requires.

    West Papua is entitled to independence, and article 76 requires you assist. It is illegal for Indonesia to invade us and to impede our independence, and to subsequently subject us to six decades of every classification for crimes against humanity listed by the International Criminal Court.

    We know this trusteeship agreement was first proposed by the American lawyer John Henderson in 1959, and was discussed with Indonesian officials in 1961 six months before the death of your Dag Hammarskjöld. We think it is shameful that you then elected Indonesia’s friend U Thant as Secretary-General, and we demand that you permit the Secretariat to perform its proper duty of revealing your current annexation of West Papua (Resolution 1752) to your Trusteeship Council.

    I look forward to your reply.

    Yours sincerely,

    Jeffrey P Bomanak
    Chairman-Commander OPM
    Markas Victoria, May 1, 2024

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Engage with UN human rights bodies: a useful guide

    ILGA World (https://ilga.org/) published a comprehensive index of deadlines facilitating engagement with UN human rights mechanisms. This invaluable resource is crafted to serve as a guiding beacon for human rights defenders (HRDs) dedicated to advancing the rights of individuals within the realms of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC). The active involvement of HRDs in UN mechanisms is paramount, acting as a catalyst for transformative global change. The Guide is equally useful for non-SOGIESC submissions.

    For those aspiring to witness targeted recommendations on SOGIESC issues directed at their respective countries, active participation in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) holds utmost importance.

    Similarly, collaboration with the Treaty Bodies provides a unique platform wherein a panel of experts rigorously evaluates a nation’s adherence to international human rights treaties, illuminating crucial intersections with the challenges faced by the LGBTI community.

    This index serves as a vital compass, delineating pivotal deadlines and milestones, empowering HRDs to navigate the intricate UN mechanisms strategically, thus making substantial contributions to promoting and protecting human rights on a global scale.

    General United Nations deadlines

    Special Rapporteur on slavery

    deadline for submission of Calls for inputs: 12 April 2024
    Additional info and questionnaire

    Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt

    deadline for submission of Calls for inputs: 20 April 2024
    Additional info and questionnaire

    Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

    deadline for submission of Calls for inputs: 25 April 2024
    Additional info and questionnaire

    Special Rapporteur on Torture

    deadline for submission of Calls for inputs: 24 April 2024
    Additional info and questionnaire

    Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls

    deadline for submission of Calls for inputs: 30 April 2024
    Additional Info and questionnaire

    Special Rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures

    deadline for submission of Calls for inputs: 30 April 2024
    Additional info and questionnaire

    Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions

    deadline for submission of Calls for inputs: 10 May 2024
    Additional info and questionnaire

    Special Rapporteur on minority issues

    deadline for submission of Calls for inputs: 10 May 2024
    Additional info and questionnaire

    The Guide then lists all countries by continent

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

  • Profiles in Persecution: Ahmed and Mahmood Mohamed Habib

    Twin brothers Ahmed and Mahmood Mohamed Habib were 17-year-old minor students when Bahraini authorities arrested them along with some of their friends on 1 July 2015 while they were eating Suhoor during the month of Ramadan. During their detention, they were subjected to enforced disappearance, torture, sexual harassment, sectarian-based insults, and unfair trials based on confessions extracted under torture. Ahmed was sentenced to 40 years in prison, and Mahmood was sentenced to 47 years and six months in prison on politically motivated charges before being released on 8 April 2024, under a royal pardon that included 1584 convicts.

     

    On 1 July 2015, at 3:00 A.M., military and civilian vehicles, with helicopter support, surrounded the house in the Wadyan area, where Ahmed and Mahmood were eating suhoor during the month of Ramadan with their friends. Riot police officers from the Ministry of Interior (MOI) and two plainclothes officers raided the house and arrested the twins and the young men who were accompanying them: Ali Hasan Ashoor, Ali Jaafar AlAmr, Ahmed Hasan AlAnsara, and Ahmed Yasser Ahmed. The officers did not present any arrest warrant, nor provide a reason for the arrest. Subsequently, they transferred them to the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) building.

     

    After their arrest, Ahmed and Mahmood were forcibly disappeared for two days. Their family didn’t know about the arrest until after it was spread on social media platforms, and they heard the news from other people. On 3 July 2015, two days after the arrest, the twins called the family and informed them that they were at the CID building.

     

    At the CID, officers interrogated and tortured Ahmed and Mahmood. They severely beat them, took photos and videos of them while they were naked, and didn’t allow them to pray. Furthermore, they beat them whenever they tried to go to the bathroom and forced them to sign fabricated confessions to some of the charges brought against them. The interrogations lasted for about two weeks and were conducted without the presence of a lawyer. Subsequently, they were transferred to the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO) on 4 July 2015, and on 8 July 2015, they were transferred to the Dry Dock Prison. On 11 July 2015, 11 days after the arrest, Ahmed and Mahmood’s parents were able to visit them for the first time since the arrest in the Dry Dock Prison.

     

    Ahmed and Mahmood were not brought promptly before a judge, did not have adequate time and facilities to prepare for their trials, weren’t able to present evidence and challenge evidence presented against them, and were denied access to their lawyer. Furthermore, their confessions extracted under torture were used against them as evidence in their trials.

     

    The court convicted Ahmed between 29 October 2015 and 31 March 2020 in cases related to 1) gathering and rioting, 2) manufacturing usable or explosive devices, 3) negligent destruction, 4) using force and violence against a public official, 5) arson, 6) endangering people’s lives or safety, 7) violating the conditions of getting a license to import explosives, 8) using explosives to endanger the funds of others, 9) importing or possessing explosives, guns or pistols, and 10) explosion or attempted explosion. He was sentenced to a total of more than 50 years in prison. Ahmed appealed some of the rulings, however, the Court of Appeal rejected some of the appeals and upheld the verdicts. On the other hand, it accepted the rest of the appeals and reduced the sentences. After the appeals, the total sentence became 40 years in prison.

     

    Mahmood was convicted between 23 April 2013 and 29 October 2018 in cases related to 1) gathering and rioting, 2) breaching the prestige of the court, 3) manufacturing usable or explosive devices, 4) negligent destruction, 5) using force and violence against a public official, 6) arson, 7) endangering people’s lives or safety, 8) violating the conditions of getting a license to import explosives, 9) using explosives to endanger the funds of others, 10) importing or possessing explosives, guns or pistols, and 11) explosion or attempted explosion. He was sentenced to more than 59 years and six months in prison. Mahmood appealed some of the rulings, however, the Court of Appeal rejected some of the appeals and upheld the verdicts. On the other hand, it accepted the rest of the appeals and reduced the sentences. After the appeals, the total sentence was reduced to 47 years and six months in prison.

     

    While serving their sentences in Jau Prison, Ahmed and Mahmood were deprived of prayer and insulted based on their Shia religious sect.

     

    On 8 April 2024, King Hamad bin Isa AlKhalifa of Bahrain issued a royal decree pardoning 1584 convicts on the occasion of the silver jubilee of his accession to the throne, coinciding with Eid al-Fitr, with Ahmed and Mahmood among them. Ahmed and Mahmood were released on the same day.

    Ahmed and Mahmood’s warrantless arrest, torture, denial of attorney access, unfair trials, sectarian-based insults, and sexual harassment constitute violations of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to which Bahrain is a party. Furthermore, the violations they endured as minors contravene the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which Bahrain is also a party.

     

    As such, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) calls on the Bahraini authorities to investigate allegations of arbitrary arrest, torture, sexual assault, denial of legal counsel, and sectarian discrimination, provide compensation for Ahmed and Mahmood, and hold the perpetrators accountable. While ADHRB welcomes the royal pardon issued, which included several political prisoners, it considers this belated step incomplete if the Bahraini government does not investigate the violations endured by these released individuals and compensate them. This step would also be considered incomplete if the perpetrators are not held accountable and political arrests and violations within prisons are not stopped.

    The post Profiles in Persecution: Ahmed and Mahmood Mohamed Habib appeared first on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

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

  • ‘They are trying to eradicate us completely’: the passion and pain of telling the stories of Afghan women

    Her family have been threatened and her team faces increasing risks in Afghanistan, but Zahra Joya knows she must keep reporting from exile

    On the nights that she manages to fall asleep, Zahra Joya always returns to Afghanistan in her dreams. On good nights she travels back to Bamyan, her home province, with its green mountains and bright blue lakes, or to her parents as they looked when she was a little girl.

    Increasingly though, her dreams are full of roadside bombs or men with guns. Some nights, memories of her last hours in Afghanistan play over and over on a loop: the panicked crowds outside Kabul airport, people being whipped and beaten, the sound of her sisters crying.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Colonial UK and France ramp up racist migrant rhetoric with Rwanda plan and detention centres

    Once again, the violence of colonial ‘fortress’ Europe is on full display as the UK ramps up its racist refugee policies. Meanwhile, across the Channel, a new report has exposed France’s abusive migrant detention regime.

    Rwanda plan: Tories set their immoral scheme in motion

    The UK government has begun its appalling assault on migrants living across the country.

    On Monday 29 April, the Home Office launched a spate of detentions. As the Guardian reported:

    Detainees will be immediately transferred to detention centres, which have already been prepared for the operation, and held until they are put on planes to Rwanda. Some will be put on the first flight due to take off this summer.

    Now, the government has confirmed that it has detained a number of these migrants ready for deportation.

    A Supreme Court ruling last year that ruled that sending migrants to Rwanda in this way would be illegal because it:

    would expose them to a real risk of ill-treatment

    Moreover, numerous rights groups, the UN Refugee Agency, and the UN’s human rights office have slammed the government’s scheme. In February, UN human rights chief Volker Türk issued a scathing statement on the plan, saying that:

    It is deeply concerning to carve out one group of people, or people in one particular situation, from the equal protection of the law – this is antithetical to even-handed justice, available and accessible to all, without discrimination.

    Immigration tyrannising migrants

    Naturally however, this hasn’t stopped the racist Tory government from ramming it through parliament. On 22 April the House of Commons passed the abhorrent new law which greenlights the Tory’s flagship asylum policy.

    So, following this, a new Home Office document has now revealed that the government plans to deport 5,700 migrants to Rwanda this year.

    Specifically, it detailed that Rwanda has “in principle” agreed to accept 5,700 migrants already in the UK.

    Under the government’s new plans, it can deem asylum claims inadmissible for migrants who arrived in the UK between January 2022 and June last year.

    So of course, it has already started its foul campaign tyrannising migrants.

    Calling it “another major milestone” in the Rwanda plan, the ministry released photographs and a video of immigration enforcement officers detaining several migrants at different residences.

    Violence in France’s detention centres

    Meanwhile, across the Channel, the violent racist architecture of colonial borderisation has also been in full swing.

    A new report by migrant rights groups including SOS Solidarity and France Terre d’Asile (“France Land of Asylum”) has revealed that migrant detention in France is also on the rise. Worse still, the report documented a rise in violence towards migrants inside these detention facilities.

    Specifically, it found that France had incarcerated more undocumented migrants in detention centres in 2023 than in 2022.

    French authorities held 46,955 migrants in the detention centres across the country and in overseas territories in 2023. This was compared to 43,565 the previous year.

    In mainland France, the large majority were men, 5% were women and 87 individuals were children accompanied by their parents. More than 120 said they were under-18 but French authorities had declared them to be adults. Most migrants were Algerian, Tunisian and Moroccan, in that order.

    On average detention centres held them 28.5 days out of a maximum allowed of 90 days. Notably, this was a week longer than the previous year. Given this, the report noted how the incarceration had impacted the mental health of the detainees. Detention had sometimes led to suicide attempts, self-mutilation, tensions and violent incidents with people working with them.

    Crucially, the report noted:

    Never have our associations witnessed so many violent acts as in 2023

    While some detainees sometimes clashed with others held with them, the report also identified police violence towards migrants.

    For example, at one centre in the Paris region, more than 40 migrants officially complained of:

    physical violence, threats or insults of racist or homophobic character, (and) sexual assaults

    Notably, this violence was specifically from police inside the facility.

    Trash ‘deterrent’ and ‘detention’ rhetoric

    Predictably, both colonial governments have bandied about bullsh*t about ‘detention’ and ‘deterrent’.

    The Tories xenophobia-fueled argument is that the threat of being deported to Rwanda will deter tens of thousands of annual cross-Channel arrivals.

    Of course, this isn’t what the official statistics show. Instead, arrivals have increased by more than a quarter in the first third of the year compared to the same period in 2023.

    Similarly, France has held up its detention scheme as a major pillar of its deportation plans.

    However, the nonprofit report found that of those held in detention centres, it had expelled 15% fewer detainees from the country last year compared to 2022, despite an increase in deportations overall.

    Ultimately, it’s all bluster and demonstrates the dangerous end point of scapegoat politics. People seeking safety from persecution, poverty, and violence should be welcomed into our communities. Instead, vile governments continue their immoral, racist colonial project without a shred of conscience.

    Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

    Feature image via Wikimedia/Youtube/the Canary

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Extractive ‘green’ capitalists are abusing workers and communities in Europe and Asia for transition minerals

    Rampant extractive, exploitative capitalism is rearing its ugly head – but this time, it’s over the transition to greener, cleaner energy. As the world grapples with the transition away from fossil fuels to tackle the climate crisis, nations have been on the hunt for the vital minerals needed to power this shift to renewable technologies. Now, a new report has exposed over 400 abuse allegations tied to these transition minerals across Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

    Transition minerals: a litany of abuse allegations

    On Tuesday 30 April, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre published a damning new report. Specifically, this identified a litany of abuse allegations linked to the development, extraction, and processing of transition minerals in countries across Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA).

    In the report, the Centre identified 20 critical transition minerals. Effectively, these are materials that manufacturers use for renewable energy technologies. This includes minerals for battery and other components to produce EVs. For example, this included minerals like copper, iron, lithium, and zinc.

    Of course, these minerals are vital as countries ramp up efforts to shift away from climate-wrecking fossil fuels. Invariably, nations are turning to green technology in order to meet their domestic and international climate commitments. At COP28, nations agreed to triple the global capacity of renewables this decade. As the Canary’s HG reported however, the big players at the G7 are currently falling short of this pledge. Nonetheless, as countries make moves in this direction, the pressure for supplies of transition minerals will creep up.

    However, it’s in this context that the Centre has previously revealed a shocking litany of abuse allegations over transition minerals in other regions. As the Canary previously reported for instance, a report it produced in March 2023 on the Andean region of South America revealed that:

    corporations are inflicting damage on the environment and the territories of peasant farmers and indigenous peoples.

    Similarly, a separate Business and Human Rights Resource Centre analysis from May 2023 revealed that mines in the Philippines and Indonesia had impacted the health of nearby communities.

    Now, the Centre has turned its attention to the EECA region, which is fast becoming a new hotspot for Europe’s supply.

    Harming workers and communities

    Titled ‘Fuelling injustice: Transition mineral impacts in Eastern Europe & Central Asia’, the report looked at the human rights and environmental abuses linked to transition minerals in the EECA region.

    Alarmingly, it identified a total of 421 allegations of abuse across 16 countries between 2019 and 2023. It documented allegations in the following: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

    The allegations detailed a number of human rights and environmental impacts such as labour rights violations, air, soil, and water pollution, and harm to the health of people living and working near mining and processing infrastructure.

    Of course, workers and communities bore the brunt of these human rights and environmental abuses. Allegations impacted workers in 185 instances, with communities hot on their heels at 178 cases.

    As the report noted, for communities these allegations mostly caused environmental impacts, such that:

    Water pollution accounted for 29% of all impacts on communities, closely followed by air pollution (27%) and soil pollution (22%).

    Alongside this, mining and mineral processing also impacted local community livelihoods in 16% of the allegations. These included reports of:

    roads destroyed by open quarries, damaged or collapsed houses, pollution of agricultural and grazing lands, and water contamination.

    Overall, occupational health and safety violations was the top human rights impact associated with transition mineral mining in the region, accounting for 64% of all impacts on workers.

    On top of this, the report found workplace deaths linked to 28% of allegations impacting them, with 52 recorded allegations. Meanwhile, workplace injuries (18%) were also a major concern. Further to this, labour rights issues accounted for 20% of allegations. These included, among other issues, unpaid and underpaid wages, access to information about terms of work contracts, workplace discrimination, long working hours and violations of freedom of association.

    Europe’s drive for transition minerals

    Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Europe has been attempting to cut its dependence on it for its source of transition minerals. However, despite a mass of sanctions, it has continued to to plough billions into mining companies linked to the Kremlin.

    For instance, investigative outlet Investigate Europe found that Europe imported critical minerals to the tune of €13.7bn between March 2022 and July 2023. And the Centre’s new report has laid out the human costs of this.

    Notably, Russia topped the analysis for the number of abuse allegations, at 112 reports associated with transition mineral mining and processing.

    In March, the EU Commission put forward its proposals for the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA). Ostensibly, this is partly in response to the EU’s growing need for critical minerals for the green energy transition. Notably, the bloc currently relies on supplies from Russia and China and wants to change this.

    Given this, the CRMA plans to break this dependency and aims for instance for:

    • Extraction from Europe to meet 10% of the EU’s consumption
    • Processing capacity to meet 40% of its consumption

    So, as part of this CRMA strategy, the EU is seeking ‘strategic partnerships’ with other mineral-rich nations.

    It has already signed strategic partnerships with two countries in the EECA region (Ukraine and Kazakhstan). As well as this, it has initiated negotiations on a strategic partnership with Uzbekistan.

    However, non-profits have already raised their concerns over these. In particular, they have noted the lack of transparency and consultation with local communities. In tandem with this, they pointed out the agreements’ insufficient human rights protection safeguards and responsible business conduct requirements.

    For example, in a briefing, they highlighted that:

    In the draft CRMA, the language on environmental impacts, human rights and engagement with local communities remains vague, failing to mention key international instruments or standards.

    In addition to this, they underscored how:

    Efforts to analyse Strategic Partnerships are hampered by a concerning lack of transparency in negotiations and the lack of an inclusive, deliberative, truly participatory, consultation process. Communities impacted by mining, and trade unions, environmental and human rights NGOs have not been consulted, and key stakeholders have had to rely on press releases with incomplete information

    Exposing the “scale and severity of human rights abuse”

    As such, the new research points to the urgent need for significant changes in the EECA mining sector. Crucially, this will be vital if countries are to achieve a fast and fair energy transition.

    Senior researcher for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre Ella Skybenko said:

    While we can all agree the rapid transition to clean energy is essential for the survival of our planet, it is extremely concerning to see this happening at the cost of further harm to human rights and the environment. Our research exposes the scale and severity of human rights abuses and environmental damage caused by mining and processing transition minerals in EECA. The companies responsible for this must no longer be able to enjoy impunity.

    A just transition to clean energy must centre on three core principles: shared prosperity, human rights and social protection, and fair negotiations. Disappointingly, in the EECA region, all three of these principles are currently missing when it comes to transition minerals project development, extraction and processing. There is an urgent need to transform existing business models in the EECA extractive sector if we are to ensure the transition to clean energy is just and sustainable – and does not come at the expense of people and the environment.

    Ultimately, the green energy transition should be just and fair. However, the new report shows that while the usual extractive capitalists are in the driving seat, it’s a far cry from either.

    Feature image via Youtube – Kyiv Post

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.