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Category: Human Rights

  • UN rights expert report to call for Israel arms embargo over ‘acts of genocide’

    Special rapporteur will tell human rights council Israel’s actions ‘reveal an intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group’

    A UN human rights expert will deliver a report on Tuesday saying that Israel has carried out acts of genocide in Gaza and should be placed under an arms embargo.

    Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said in her report there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Israel was carrying out three of the five acts defined as genocide: killing Palestinians, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, and “deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction” of the population in whole or in part.

    Continue reading…

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

  • American Censorship is Bad for Peace

    I cannot sit back and allow the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids.

    — General Jack D. Ripper in Dr Strangelove

    Most people would agree that in any modern, wealthy, multicultural, free, non-colonized, democratic society, people have the right to know what is going on in their community. In fact, in order to fulfill their various responsibilities as citizens, consumers, workers, company presidents, government officials, family members, etc., they have to know what is going on. We want and need to know what our own government and foreign governments are doing; what products, services, and sociopolitical programs are available in our country; and what medical choices we have when we are sick or injured. There are exceptions, such as children and psychopaths, but in general, all people have the right to benefit from the knowledge in libraries, on the Internet, in museums, and in doctors’ offices. In U.S. cities, almost everyone has a right to a library card.

    During a “state of exception” or a state of emergency though, some convincingly argue that you do not have the right to certain dangerous information. The United States is officially not at war yet with Russia; we just supply their enemies with lots of expensive weapons. But if and when we are at war with Russia, do U.S. citizens have a right to hear Vladimir Putin speak? When we are under attack by a lethal virus, do we have the right to hear about all the various methods of protecting our health, even alternative, traditional, foreign, naturopathic, or unorthodox methods?

    Some would say “no.” Just as you must not be allowed to buy enriched uranium and download from the Internet blueprints for how to make a nuclear bomb, you do not have the right to protect your health from SARS-CoV-2 without using mRNA vaccines. And people who advocate for the Russians, who love Russia, work with Russian companies, promote positive images of Russia, and facilitate the spread of state-sponsored, pro-Russia propaganda must be silenced or banned. Like hate speech, there are certain statements that are just beyond the pale, that are too dangerous and must be suppressed. Some, such as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, argue that when teens are jumping out of windows, the government has a responsibility to step in and prevent people from reading posts encouraging them to engage in this dangerous behavior. With the Supreme Court case of Murthy v. Missouri, Americans are now forced to think about exactly how precious our First Amendment is, and when we prioritize free speech over health and safety.

    In the U.S. today, the government is censoring people and publications on both the Left and the Right, the typical library book-banning activities are up, and there is evidence that artificial intelligence (AI) systems are now doing some of the censorship work, strengthening the hand of the government vis-a-vis the people in ways generally only seen during great crises or wars. (This is documented in the downloadable report from the U.S. House of Representatives “The Weaponization of the National Science Foundation: How NSF Is Funding the Development of Automated Tools To Censor Online Speech”).

    Here we delve into two cases of the Government suppressing free speech, one on the “Left” of the political spectrum and one on the “Right.” On the Left we see the anti-racist and anti-imperialist, African-American activist Omali Yeshitela and two other socialists. On the Right we see people such as Jill Hines, co-director of conservative Health Freedom Louisiana, and Jim Hoft, founder of Gateway Pundit, a right-wing news site that reportedly has published threats against election workers for false claims of election-rigging. Suppressed along with these two on the Right but actually going beyond political categories, we see Jay Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff, epidemiologists that raised questions about government pandemic policies, and professor of psychiatry and human behavior Aaron Kheriaty, who was dismissed by the University of California, Irvine, for refusing an mRNA shot. And finally, we see the suppression of millions of people who do not identify with either the Left or the Right, some of whom are not conspiracy theorists, who have expressed dissatisfaction with the government’s public health measures that were taken in response to SARS-CoV-2.

    Silencing African-American Socialists

    In April of last year the “Uhuru 3,” Omali Yeshitela, an African-American man born in 1941; Penny Hess, a white woman over the age of 70, who is the chairperson of the African People’s Solidarity Committee; and Jesse Nevel, a young, white man who is the “National Chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, the mass organization of the African People’s Solidarity Committee,” were charged by a federal grand jury with acting as unregistered agents of the Russian government. The Biden administration apparently considers them major threats to U.S. national security.

    Yeshitela’s political roots go back to the Civil Rights Movement as a member of the legendary Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1972, he and others felt the need to move beyond protests and to capture political power, so they formed the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP). This was and is an internationalist Black Power movement, or African internationalism, and has been developed over 50 years, fighting against colonialism, and this is not the first time that their free speech rights have been violated, he says.

    Yeshitela explains that he got in trouble with the law this time by touring the U.S. in 2016 to gain support for a movement charging the U.S. with genocide, and going to Russia to speak about self-determination with a Russian NGO, not for the government of the Russian Federation. According to Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors, for the sacrifices he made for white, capitalist Russia, he has received the whopping sum of $7,000. In a summary of the case in October, the Grayzone’s Anya Parampil warns that “lawyers for the Uhuru 3 maintain that the DOJ’s justification for prosecuting their clients sets the stage for the US government to legally harass and prosecute other Americans who criticize US domestic and foreign policy, particularly where designated enemies like Russia or China are concerned.”

    Award-winning peace advocate, spokesperson for the Black Alliance for Peace, and 2016 candidate for U.S. vice president on the Green Party ticket Ajamu Baraka has provided insightful analysis of this case. Early on in the “Russiagate” hype, he warned that those fearmongering about Russia would soon target anti-capitalist, Black liberation movements, just as they did at the end of the Second World War, when peace activists including W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) and Paul Robeson (1898-1976) suffered government oppression. (Robeson also charged the U.S. government with genocide. He did so in 1951 for their failure to stop U.S. lynchings).

    Like Noam Chomsky, Baraka categorizes the U.S. as a lawless, “rogue state.” He warns that our “national security state” is engaging in systematic repression against anyone who opposes them, including “the Left” (from around 7:30 in the video). For example, people who protest “Cop City” are being labeled as “domestic terrorists.” What we are looking at is “McCarthyism 2.0,” he suggests. The Peninsula Peace and Justice Center is one of the few organizations standing up for the Uhuru movement’s right to free speech.

    As Chomsky once said, “Democratic societies can’t force people. Therefore, they have to control what they think.”

    Silencing Opponents of Government COVID-19 Policies

    Besides the violations of free speech that have resulted from Russophobia, Afro-phobia, and reparations-justice-phobia, we are now also facing such violations caused by SARS-CoV-2-phobia, the biosecurity panic, and the war on the virus. In the opinion of Benjamin Wallace-Wells writing for the New Yorker, “the most eyebrow-raising revelations in the Twitter Files, documented mostly by Matt Taibbi and Lee Fang, concern the extent to which the F.B.I. and the Pentagon were interested in controlling what was seen on the platform.” For instance, Lee Fang has written about a British company called “Logically.ai.” According to AP, they are “an established social enterprise bringing credibility and confidence to news and social discourse,” and they launched an app in the U.S. in 2020 that enables “users to receive personalized, verified and in-depth information on any storyline in order to restore digital trust.”

    Such words might make some people feel safe, but Lee Fang warns about the American censorship advocate Brian Murphy, who used to be an FBI agent leading the intelligence wing of the Department of Homeland Security, and is an executive of Logically.ai. Murphy has argued that the U.S. government must now rein in the social media companies, and we, U.S. citizens, must give up some of our freedoms that we “need and deserve” so that we can get our “security back.”

    “Since joining the firm, Murphy has met with military and other government officials in the U.S., many of whom have gone on to contract or pilot Logically’s platform.” The company Logically is doing work outsourced to them by the British government. The government agency responsible, called the “Counter Disinformation Unit” or “CDU,” were targeting a “former judge who argued against coercive lockdowns as a violation of civil liberties and journalists criticizing government corruption. Some of the surveillance documents suggest a mission creep for the unit, as media monitoring emails show that the agency targeted anti-war groups that were vocal against NATO’s policies,” Fang explains. Apparently, not only groups that opposed lockdowns but also groups that promote peace are being surveilled and flagged as dangerous, by a foreign company based in a foreign country.

    Not long ago, few would have guessed that Stanford University would be against free speech, but now it appears that some segment of the university is actively participating in censorship, as a kind of government proxy. Professor Jay Bhattacharya at the Stanford School of Medicine, who is an expert on health policy at Stanford University, and who holds an M.D. as well as a Ph.D. in Economics, has summarized the free speech case Murthy v. Missouri that is currently before the Supreme Court. He points out that Stanford University, his own employer, has a program called the “Stanford Internet Observatory” (SIO) (10:00 to 12:00 in the video) who describe themselves as a “cross-disciplinary program of research, teaching and policy engagement for the study of abuse in current information technologies, with a focus on social media.” The program was founded in 2019.

    In an appellate court struggle, his own university weighed in against him, and they claimed that the Stanford Internet Observatory is not a government cut-out, is just doing research, and is not meant to violate the 1st Amendment. He describes that as “disingenuous.” Stanford has a rule that they require researchers to adhere to, like universities around the world, that human subjects of a research project must not be harmed by the research. Yet this Internet Observatory is basically making a list, effectively a blacklist, of organizations or people to suppress. That would constitute an ethics violation, since the subjects of the research are U.S. citizens, and their rights under the 1st Amendment have been violated. Either this is not research, or it is unethical research, Bhattacharya argues.

    In his expert opinion, the U.S. government is “the number one source of misinformation during the Pandemic.” His “short list” of their misinformation includes the following:

    1. The government overestimated the lethality of COVID-19.
    2. The risk to children was minimal, but the government talked as if everyone was equally at risk.
    3. The government suppressed the “idea of immunity after COVID recovery,” and made people wait for the vaccine.
    4. Evidence that masking was ineffective was available during the early stages of the pandemic. There was no consensus among scientists that masks worked, but the government recommended masks anyway.
    5. The government promoted the illusion that there was a consensus about lockdowns and censored the Great Barrington Declaration.
    6. The government censored people who provided evidence that the vaccines were not safe and effective, even after evidence emerged that there was a risk of myocarditis.

    (12:00-17:00 in video)

    In May of last year, the “New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, filed a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s ongoing efforts to work in concert with social media companies and the Stanford Internet Observatory’s Virality Project to monitor and censor online support groups catering to those injured by Covid vaccines.”

    The Stanford Internet Observatory is a proud member of the “Election Integrity Partnership” (EIP) along with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (“DFRLab”), Graphika, and the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public. The Atlantic Council are notorious militarists.

    In his Twitter Files, Matt Taibbi calls the Stanford Internet Observatory the “ultimate example of the absolute fusion of state, corporate, and civil society organizations.” The DFRLab is partially funded by the Global Engagement Center (GEC). And they, the GEC, are part of the State Department. Taibbi views the GEC as part of the “Censorship-Industrial Complex,” along with organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the DFRLab itself, and Hamilton 68’s creator, the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD). In other words, it appears that many of the same organizations that have engaged in fear mongering over Russia or promoting militarism have also engaged in censoring Americans.

    Conclusion

    The U.S. has become a nation-state that is obsessed with national security. Ajamu Baraka sums up our situation best:

    It’s us today but it’s you tomorrow, if you persist in any kind of oppositional politics, because the ruling element in the U.S. is serious. They are serious about attempting to maintain their hegemony, and their global hegemony. And the notion, of some of the values of the liberal framework, liberal philosophy, liberalism—they have completely abandoned that. They have jettisoned that. And basically they are engaged in lawlessness. The U.S. is now a rogue state. What we have domestically in the U.S. is systematic repression from a national security state that seems to be completely unbound by any kind of standards beyond its own. (From 6:50 to 7:40 in video).

    Then Baraka raises a very important question, i.e., “Where is the opposition?” Our national security state is currently run by “liberals,” people who are supposed to care about freedom of speech and freedom in general, like their liberal predecessors who espoused the idea that freedom was an essential condition for happiness. (Never for people of African or Native American descent or for women, but they did espouse it for wealthy white men). Instead of protecting our rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” they are giving us “death, shackles, and misery.” Now the question is, “What are we going to do about it?”

    We need free speech if we are to build peace. Today they are coming for militant revolutionaries who reject white supremacy, for the narrow-minded Right, and for the medical scientists who recommend a different approach from the government’s approach to SARS-CoV-2. Without a thriving movement against the current censorship, the U.S. government, along with the companies that help the government censor people, could easily pull the rug out from under our feet, even as we diligently work for peace and human rights. Do not be surprised if tomorrow the FBI, or the “Blob,” (i.e., the foreign policy establishment including the State Department, the Pentagon, and the CIA), or any of the many companies that work for them in this constantly expanding biodefense industry come after you next.

    The post American Censorship is Bad for Peace first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Australian group warns of new ‘arrests, torture’ in Papuan crackdown

    Asia Pacific Report

    An Australian solidarity group for West Papua today warned of a fresh “heavy handed” Indonesia crackdown on Papuan villagers with more “arrests and torture”.

    Joe Collins of the Australia West Papua Association (AWPA) gave the warning in the wake of the deployment of 30 elite rangers last week at the Ndeotadi 99 police post in Paniai district, Central Papua, following a deadly assault there by Papuan pro-independence resistance fighters.

    Two Indonesian police officers were killed in the attack.

    The AWPA warning also follows mounting outrage over a brutal video of an Indonesian Papuan man being tortured in a fuel drum that has gone viral.

    Collins called on the federal government to “immediately condemn” the torture of West Papuans by the Australian-trained Indonesian security forces.

    “If a security force sweep occurs in the region, we can expect the usual heavy-handed approach by the security forces,” Collins said in a statement.

    “It’s not unusual for houses and food gardens to be destroyed during these operations, including the arrest and torture of Papuans.

    “Local people usually flee their villages creating more IDP [internally displaced people]”.

    60,000 plus IDPs
    Human rights reports indicate there are more than 60,000 IDP in West Papua.

    “The recent brutal torture of an indigenous Papuan man shows what can happen to West Papuans who fall foul of the Indonesian security forces,” Collins said.

    “Anyone seeing this video which has gone viral must be shocked by the brutality of the military personal involved. 

    The video clip was shot on 3 February 2024 during a security force raid in Puncak regency.

    “The Australian government should immediately condemn the torture of West Papuans by the Indonesian security forces [which] Australia trains and holds exercises with.

    “Do we have to remind the government of Article 7of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights? It states:

    No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.

    “As more Papuans become aware of the horrific video, they may respond by holding rallies and protests leading to more crackdowns on peaceful demonstrators,” Collins said.

    “Hopefully Jakarta will realise the video is being watched by civil society, the media and government officials around the world and will control its military in the territory.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • ‘Committed to human rights’, claims Indonesia over West Papua torture

    The Indonesian government has confirmed it is investigating a viral video showing security forces in Papua torturing a civilian.

    The video — which can be seen here – shows an indigenous Papuan man with his hands tied behind his back in an open fuel drum filled with water being kicked, punched and sliced with a knife by a group of men, some of whom are wearing Indonesian military uniforms.

    In an email response, the Indonesian Embassy in New Zealand said: “The incident is deeply regrettable.”

    “The government of Indonesia is committed to its long-standing policy of respecting and promoting human rights as well as its strict policy of zero impunity for misconducts [sic] by security forces,” it said.

    “The investigation to the matter is currently taking place.”

    The embassy said “since this is an ongoing investigation” it will not be able to comment further.

    ‘Speak up’ — campaigners
    Meanwhile, West Papua solidarity groups in Aotearoa are calling on the New Zealand government to register its concerns with Indonesia after the torture video surfaced online.

    West Papua Action Aotearoa spokesperson Catherine Delahunty said New Zealand must speak out against ongoing human rights abuses in Papua.

    “Well we are calling on the New Zealand government to speak up about this,” she said.

    “The very least they can do is to challenge Indonesia about this incident and its context which is the ongoing state military violence against civilians.”

    The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) president Benny Wenda is calling for a UN human rights visit to West Papua.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Death by Fossil: Oil & Gas Emissions Could Kill 11.5 Million People by 2100

    fossil fuel deaths
    6 Mins Read

    Emissions from burning the oil and gas produced by some of the largest fossil fuel companies could cause millions of deaths by the end of the century, according to new research.

    Air pollution from fossil fuel use kills five million people worldwide every year, but the effect of oil and gas doesn’t just stop there. The emissions from burning these fuels cause excess heat, and that could be the cause of death for 11.5 million premature deaths before 2100.

    That’s according to new research by global non-profit Global Witness, which analysed the impact of the emissions from fossil fuel burning until 2050 by Shell, BP, TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil and Chevron. The analysis marks the first attempt to quantify heat-related deaths as a result of planned fossil fuel production, amplifying calls for a phaseout of these fuels.

    “Every 0.1°C of warming will be lethal. Unless the supermajors change course quickly, the death toll will be comparable to some of history’s most brutal wars. We cannot leave it up to them,” Sarah Biermann Becker, senior investigator at Global Witness, told the Guardian. “Governments need to step in, mitigate the impact of extreme heat and urgently ramp up the transition away from fossil fuels.”

    Millions will die even if we reach net zero in 2050

    global witness
    Courtesy: Global Witness

    In 2022, at least 61,000 Europeans died from extreme heat. Such lethal heatwaves have hit nearly every continent in the last few years – and in the US alone, the number of heat-related deaths rose by 95% between 2010 and 2022. Fossil fuels are the leading contributor to planet-heating emissions globally, and between 1991 and 2018, over a third of the nearly 30 million heat-related deaths worldwide were linked to climate change.

    To measure the impact of fossil fuels on heat deaths, Global Witness used two datasets. The first was a Columbia University model assessing the mortality cost of carbon – the link between carbon emissions and heat-related deaths. In a high-emissions scenario – essentially, a business-as-usual situation where we only pursue the climate policies currently in place – this model estimates that every one million metric tonnes of carbon emitted in 2020 will cause an additional 226 excess temperature-related deaths over the next 80 years.

    The second metric used was data from analysis firm Rystad Energy to calculate the fossil fuel production and emissions of these five companies, finding that together, they would add 51 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere by 2050 – that’s twice the current emissions of China, the US and India altogether. Combining this with the high-emissions scenario from the Columbia University model, the researchers ended up with the 11.5 million figure.

    But even in a low-emissions situation, where the world dramatically cuts emissions to reach net zero by 2050, this number would still stand at 5.5 million. And as outlined by multiple other studies, this will hit lower-income countries and individuals the hardest –  the Global North is responsible for 92% of our excess emissions, but 91% of all temperature-related deaths occur in developing countries mostly in the Global South. This is why Global Witness calls it a climate justice issue.

    “We’re already seeing the impacts of heat stress on workers around the world, particularly on people in outdoor or heavy-duty industries such as agriculture and construction,” Shouro Dasgupta, an environmental economist at the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, told the Guardian. “This will likely get much worse as the planet continues to heat up. We need labour protection policies that are tailored to local needs rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. This isn’t just a moral question – it’s also in the economic interests of employers to provide adequate protection for their workers.”

    Fossil fuel companies akin to drug or arms dealers

    fossil fuel emissions
    Courtesy: Tibu/Getty Images

    Global Witness’s analysis comes a few months after fossil fuels were the most talked about topic at the annual UN climate conference in Dubai, which was helmed – ironically – by the chairman of the UAE national oil company, who said during the summit that there’s no science that a fossil fuel phaseout would help achieve the 1.5°C goal, a statement that was met with fierce criticism from climate scientists as well as UN officials.

    COP28 failed to include a fossil fuel phaseout in its final resolution, instead promising a “transition away” from oil and gas. This was thanks to intense lobbying from industry groups, which Global Witness believes has slowed down the transition to renewable energy. The non-profit grappled with the question of who is ultimately responsible for these deaths.

    “When a company spills lethal chemicals into a river, and harms people, we hold it legally responsible,” it noted, adding that DuPont has paid out hundreds of millions for polluting drinking water with chemicals, and whether this extends to carbon emissions that lead to millions dying is an argument fossil fuel companies will be concerned about. But they could argue that they don’t burn much of the fuel they produce, and that societies, individuals and governments are responsible. “It’s certainly true that the line of responsibility between carbon emissions and deaths from extreme heat is not as simple and direct as that of a chemical spill into a river,” the organisation said.

    However, it is these companies solely responsible for digging up these fossil fuels – in the past few months, ExxonMobil and Chevron have poured in over $100B into new oil and gas reserves, while TotalEnergies plans to increase production too. BP and Shell, meanwhile, have weakened their climate pledges.

    In response, TotalEnergies said it didn’t agree with the analysis, specifically the emissions caused by its oil and gas burning, claiming that there’s “fundamental bias” when the blame for these emissions is dished out. It did not acknowledge the mortality cost of carbon either, and said it is investing in new oil projects to offset the “natural decline” in current production to meet expanding global demand.

    TotalEnergies said it was investing in renewable and low-carbon energy too, a stance BP and Shell also took. BP stated that it has not set oil and gas production plans beyond 2030, so it did “not know how Rystad Energy has generated its predictions out to 2050” and rejected the validity of these calculations.

    Shell, meanwhile, told the Guardian: “The pace of transition depends on action in many areas, including government policy, changing customer demand and investment in low-carbon energy. Our aim is to play our part in a balanced energy transition, where the world achieves net zero emissions without compromising on delivery of secure and affordable energy, which has improved so many lives, and which people will continue to need today and for many years to come.”

    But the current situation was best summed via an analogy by Global Witness, which said companies are digging up fossil fuels “eyes wide open in the face of a mountain of evidence documenting the suffering and death” that oil and gas cause. “Drug dealers will claim that they aren’t to blame for drug addictions, and arms dealers will claim that they don’t kill people – that they’re simply supplying people with products they want,” it said. “Fossil fuel firms saying they’re not responsible for the emissions from their products is a similar line of argument.”

    And in a similar vein, researchers from advocacy group Public Citizen are now promoting a legal theory that claims fossil fuel companies in the US could be put on trial for homicide for climate-related deaths.

    The post Death by Fossil: Oil & Gas Emissions Could Kill 11.5 Million People by 2100 appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Activists show the BBC why it shouldn’t buy Perenco’s spin – a year on from major UK oil spill

    Nearly a year on from Perenco spilling 200 barrels of pollution into one of the world’s largest natural harbours in Poole, Dorset, the BBC reported that the oil and gas company has pledged there would be “no repeat.” Yet, just days ahead of the anniversary, Perenco has once again hit headlines. This time, it was for a fatal fire at one of its oil platforms off the coast of Gabon.

    So, on Saturday 23 March local climate activists held a protest march to the site of Perenco’s onshore oil field operations near Poole. There, activists weren’t holding back in calling out Perenco’s well-oiled PR spin to the corporate media – namely the BBC. Crucially, they showed the public broadcaster why shouldn’t so readily buy into the fossil fuel corporation’s narrative, hook, line, and sinker.

    Perenco oil spill

    On March 26 2023, Perenco spilled 200 barrels of ‘reservoir fluid’ into Poole Harbour.

    It leaked from a corroded pipeline situated under Poole Harbour. Perenco caused the spill at its Wytch Farm onshore oilfield site at Studland, Dorset.

    Perenco shut down the pipeline in response to the incident. Following this, the company mobilised the local harbour commissioners and the oil spill response teams to contain the leak. It continued remediation works at the site until January 2024.

    As the Canary noted at the time:

    The harbour is adjacent to multiple biodiverse protected sites. For example, Poole Rocks Marine Conservation Zone lies just east of the harbour entrance, and is home to more than 360 marine species.

    So, a year on from prospective environmental catastrophe, activists marched to the oil field to call for an end to the Anglo-French firm’s extractive operations near key conservation hotspots.

    Protest march to Perenco Wytch Farm

    Extinction Rebellion Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole (XR BCP) coordinated the action which saw campaigners from across the South West converge on Perenco’s oil field facilities.

    Activists from Extinction Rebellion Wimborne and Purbeck, alongside East Dorset Friends of the Earth (FoE), Bournemouth and Poole Greenpeace, and other groups turned up to demand the company cease oil extraction in Dorset.

    Around 70 protesters gathered with drums, placards, and flags two miles from Perenco’s onshore site. Before setting off, an activist led the group in protest song:

    Environmental activists gather before setting off on a 3km march to Wytch Farm oil field. A protester leads the group in song.

    They began via road from Corfe Castle, raising banners that read: “Perenco out”:

    Protesters march along a road towards Perenco's Wytch Farm oil field. They carry a banner that reads: "Perenco Out"

    For an hour, activists slow-marched across 3km of lowland heathland and birch-pine woods, where Perenco carries out its oil extraction, purposely out of sight from nearby communities in Poole and Dorset. As they went, they were singing, drumming, and shouting for the oil company to end its drilling at the site.

    Protesters march with drums and "Perenco out" flags across the lowland heath.

    On arrival at Wytch Farm, they blocked the main entry gates for another hour:

    Protesters turn the corner to Wytch Farm's entrance. Perenco Wytch Farm sign in the foreground.

    Activists block Wytch Farm's main entrance with placards and banners. One reads: "Perenco Climate Criminals" while another states: "Eyes on Perenco".

    "Perenco Out" flags blow in the wind near the entrance to Wytch Farm.

    Then, activists held speeches and picnics against the backdrop of Perenco’s entrance, where behind around 70 operating wells are extracting oil beyond:

    Protesters drum and picnic outside Wytch Farm.

    Protesters gather with placards and drums at Wytch Farm.

    The protest marked XR BCP’s sixth demonstration against the fossil fuel corporation since it caused the spill.

    Ecological and human disaster averted in Poole Harbour… for now

    Despite early concerns after the incident, two new reports have suggested that Perenco managed to avoid causing long-term ecological disaster.

    On Tuesday 19 March, local authorities and environmental regulators published impact reports on the spill. Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole Council (BCP), and Dorset County Council (DCC) commissioned the first report.

    This found that there were negligible to minimal impacts on the local community’s health, the economy, and the environment. However, it did acknowledge that the financial costs did disproportionately fall on small and medium enterprises in the area. Particularly, the spill hurt local aquaculture and fishing businesses.

    In tandem with this, the Environment Agency and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), with other agencies, released its summary assessment of the environmental impacts. Notably, the report reviewed how the spill had affected shellfish, birds, seagrass, and seabed habitats.

    Overall, it concluded that:

    The investigation and monitoring activity undertaken to date indicates that there has been limited impact from the incident on the wider Poole Harbour area. The key impacts have been on the activity in and around Poole Harbour in the first two weeks after the incident when fishing and shellfish activities were restricted.

    From an ecological perspective there does not appear to have been a material impact on the wider Poole Harbour area from data and observations to date.

    In other words, it determined that the spill had caused limited, short-term damage to marine life in the harbour.

    However, a protester pointed out that despite the purportedly minimised harm, Perenco had only just concluded the spill remediation works in January. Property Manager and XR BCP activist Greg Lambe said:

    what damage would a larger spill cause and how long would it take to remove – if this were even possible, if this relatively small spill took 10 to 11 months?

    Perenco’s “ailing, ageing infrastructure”

    Predominantly, the activists at the demonstration weren’t convinced that this would be a one-time incident.

    Long-time East Dorset Friends of the Earth campaigner Martin Price has been scrutinising Wytch Farm’s activities since the site opened in 1979. He told the Canary that while he acknowledged that the reports showed that Perenco “acted as quickly as it could to deal with the problem once it occurred”, he argued that:

    On the other hand, it has caused a huge amount of damage in a very restricted area and I think one of the problems is that it could happen again.

    In particular, Price emphasised that:

    They say it won’t happen again – this particular problem won’t happen again, perhaps, but if a similar or different problem happens elsewhere, it could be much more devastating to the environment of Poole Harbour and the surrounding area.

    Moreover, he said that this was due to “ailing, ageing infrastructure”. Specifically, Price referenced the site’s former owner, BP. The oil and gas giant sold its Wytch Farm assets to Perenco in 2011. It did so in response to leaking at least 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, in its infamous Deepwater Horizon disaster.

    Price explained to the Canary that it sold Wytch Farm:

    because it was becoming uneconomic for them. Now, if a big multinational feels it’s uneconomic, then they’re basically handing they’re problem onto somebody else. With the best will in the world, with the best investment in the world, Perenco really can’t afford to keep this going for longer.

    In essence, it decided to sell off older, less profitable assets in the UK to finance the spiralling costs of its clean-up. As a result, Perenco now operates these end-of-life oil wells.

    Of course, it is precisely this ageing infrastructure that campaigners contend is the issue.

    Multiple “wake-up calls”

    In fact, before it sold off Wytch Farm to Perenco, BP also caused a leak at the site. This forced the company to shut down its operations there for two months in early 2011. Fellow East Dorset Friends of the Earth campaigner Angela Pooley told the Daily Echo at the time that the leak towards the end of 2010:

    should be a wake-up call to us all to remind us of the potential for disaster in Dorset.

    Fast forward 13 years later, and of course, the major incident in the harbour unfortunately vindicated Pooley’s warning. Environmental campaigners have continued to echo this since the 2023 spill. As the Canary previously reported, local Green Party politician and environmental activist Chris Rigby said at the time of the incident that it had been an “accident waiting to happen”.

    In particular, Rigby was citing Perenco’s pollution record since it took over the onshore oil field. Crucially, Perenco has presided over ten pollution incidents at the site between 2011 and 2020.

    Now, the Canary can reveal that Perenco has reported another incident since the spill took place in March 2023.

    Through a Freedom of Information request to the Environment Agency, we found that Perenco had breached its permit conditions. More specifically, the company reported exceeding the limits of nitrogen oxide emissions it is licensed to emit to the air from the gas engines on site.

    While comparatively minor, the fault and resulting pollution perhaps show that even on high alert after a major spill, the company can’t guarantee further failures – with all the potentially hazardous consequences for people and nature nearby.

    Perenco disaster in Gabon

    On top of calling for Perenco to leave the Wytch Farm site, the activists drew parallels with its operations in the Global South.

    As the Canary previously outlined, the company is responsible for a litany of environmental and social harms across the planet. So unsurprisingly, less than a week before its Poole Harbour spill year anniversary the company hit headlines for a fatal accident in Gabon.

    On Wednesday 20 March, a fire on a Perenco-operated offshore rig off the coast of the central African nation killed five workers. A further worker is still missing.

    XR BCP member Helen Nicol told the Canary that the accident Perenco is responsible for in Gabon made their protest “especially important”. She said that the spill in Poole Harbour last year had been eye-opening:

    because initially we were focused incredibly locally and then we started looking further afield. We realised what was happening in the DRC, what was happening in Peru, Ecuador, Gabon, and the Caribbean – and it just seems that Perenco have a policy of disregard for their workers, for the lands that they’re based in, and for the whole world.

    If they can cut a corner, they will cut a corner – they’re not safe, they’re not safe in Poole Harbour, and they’re not safe anywhere else.

    Again, she attributed this to Perenco’s business model. Specifically, she referenced how it buys up older oil and gas fields from other companies:

    The strategy they have of taking end of life oil wells and then trying to drag the very last drop of profit out of it, regardless of the consequences to the surrounding landscape and the people who live around them and the people who work for them is disgusting – and they need to stop.

    A representative of Gabon’s space agency has previously corroborated this concern. The representative told media outlet Investigate Europe that despite causing pollution in offshore Atlantic sites:

    They kept on pumping anyway, even though their aging system requires huge maintenance work

    Activists “shine a light” on Perenco’s risky business

    Given the latest incident in Gabon, Nicol therefore said that the group would continue:

    to shine a light on their practices, and keep highlighting the fact that they are not a safe pair of hands.

    Ultimately, the groups want to put a stop to its risky business in Poole and beyond. Activists see Perenco’s Wytch Farm as a significant first target.

    East Dorset Friends of the Earth Martin Price told the Canary that the Climate Change Committee had been clear:

    the government’s main advisor is saying we must totally divest from fossil fuels within the next 16 years. Now, if we’re to do that, we have to start now.

    As such, Price argued:

    Where better to start than in one of the most environmentally sensitive, one of the most rewarding in terms of international status sites in England, and possibly even in parts of Western Europe.

    In stark contrast however, Perenco has also shown no signs of slowing down at the site.

    In 2023, it drilled a new bore from an existing well. Dorset County Council licensed this particular well bore to pump out oil until December 2031. What’s more, for 2024 alone, the company plans to submit applications to drill five new wells on-site.

    Moreover, it has made early rumblings of its intention to use Wytch Farm for carbon capture and storage (CCS). CCS is a notorious fossil fuel industry palatability ploy to make continued extraction appear socially and environmentally compatible.

    At the end of the day then, it’s just another fossil fuel company gaslighting communities and nature into oblivion. Extending the life of its oil and gas business comes over protecting the lives of people and the planet every time. But the local climate community in Dorset will continue to mobilise against it.

    At this latest protest, groups successfully held the profiteering company’s feet to the fire. Crucially, activists articulated that the only way to truly guarantee “no repeat” of a spill like the incident in Poole Harbour, is “Perenco out”, in the UK and everywhere, for good.

    Featured image and additional images via Hannah Sharland and Extinction Rebellion Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole.

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • West Papuan wounds of suffering – diplomatic pressure on Indonesia needed urgently

    COMMENTARY: By Ronny Kareni

    Recent videos depicting the barbaric torture of an indigenous Papuan man by Indonesian soldiers have opened the wounds of West Papua’s suffering, laying bare the horrifying reality faced by its people.

    We must confront this grim truth — what we witness is not an isolated incident but a glaring demonstation of the deep-seated racism and systematic persecution ravaging West Papuans every single day.

    Human rights defenders that the videos were taken during a local military raid in the districts of Omukia and Gome on 3-4 February 2024, Puncak Regency, Pegunungan Tengah Province.

    Deeply proud of their rich ethnic and cultural heritage, West Papuans have often found themselves marginalised and stereotyped, while their lands are exploited and ravaged by foreign interests, further exacerbating their suffering.

    Indonesia’s discriminatory policies and the heavy-handed approach of its security forces have consistently employed brutal tactics to quash any aspirations for a genuine self-autonomy among indigenous Papuans.

    In the chilling footage of the torture videos, we witness the agony of this young indigenous Papuan man, bound and submerged in a drum of his own blood-stained water, while soldiers clad in military attire inflict unspeakable acts of violence on him.

    The state security forces, speaking with a cruel disregard for human life, exemplify the toxic blend of racism and brutality that festers within the Indonesian military.

    Racial prejudice
    What makes this brutality even more sickening is the unmistakable presence of racial prejudice.

    The insignia of a soldier, proudly displaying affiliation with the III/Siliwangi, Yonif Raider 300/Brajawijaya Unit, serves as a stark reminder of the institutionalised discrimination faced by Papuans within the very forces meant to protect civilians.

    This vile display of racism underscores the broader pattern of oppression endured by West Papuans at the hands of the state and its security forces.

    These videos are just the latest chapter in a long history of atrocities inflicted upon Papuans in the name of suppressing their cries for freedom.

    Regencies like Nduga, Pegunungan Bintang, Intan Jaya, the Maybrat, and Yahukimo have become notorious hotspots for state-sanctioned operations, where Indonesian security forces operate with impunity, crushing any form of dissent through arbitrary arrests.

    They often target peaceful demonstrators and activists advocating for Papuan rights in major towns along the coast.

    These arrests are often accompanied by extrajudicial killings, further instilling intimidation and silence among indigenous Papuans.

    Prabowo leadership casts shadow
    In light of the ongoing failure of Indonesian authorities to address the racism and structural discrimination in West Papua, the prospect of Prabowo’s presidential leadership casts a shadow of uncertainty over the future of human rights and justice in the region.

    Given his controversial track record, there is legitimate concern that his leadership may further entrench the culture of impunity. We must closely monitor his administration’s response to the cries for justice from West Papua.

    It is time to break the silence and take decisive action. The demand for the UN Human Rights Commissioner to visit West Papua is urgent.

    This is where the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), with its influential members Fiji and Papua New Guinea, who were appointed as special envoys to Indonesia can play a pivotal role.

    Their status within the region paves the opportunity to champion the cause and exert diplomatic pressure on Indonesia, as the situation continues to deteriorate despite the 2019 Pacific Leaders’ communique highlighting the urgent need for international attention and action in West Papua.

    While the UN Commissioner’s visit would provide a credible and unbiased platform to thoroughly investigate and document these violations, it also would compel Indonesian authorities to address these abuses decisively.

    I can also ensure that the voices of the Papuan people are heard and their rights protected.

    Let us stand unyielding with the Papuan people in their tireless struggle for freedom, dignity, and sovereignty. Anything less would be a betrayal of our shared humanity.

    Filed as a special article for Asia Pacific Report.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • NZ protesters call for expulsion of Israeli ambassador over Gaza atrocities

    Asia Pacific Report

    A leader of one of New Zealand’s main Palestine solidarity groups today called on the government to expel the Israeli ambassador and call for an immediate ceasefire in the genocidal war on Gaza.

    “We know what the crimes are — occupation. Land theft. Ethnic cleansing. Apartheid. Genocide. All crimes against humanity,” Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) secretary Neil Scott told a cheering protest rally in Auckland’s Te Komititanga (Britomart) Square.

    “My challenge to the politicians of Aotearoa is stand up for international law. Oppose Israeli crimes against humanity. Speak up.”

    Expressing a frequently cited epithet, “Silence is complicity”, Scott gave a brief rundown on the months of protest since the deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, pointing out that the struggle really began after the Second World War with the Naqba (“Catastrophe”) forced expulsions of Palestinians in 1948.

    “Another week. Another rally. Another month! Another rally,” Scott began.

    “Another year. Another decade. And another decade. Another rally . . .

    “This didn’t start on October 7 last year. It started in 1948.”

    Heavy Israeli attacks
    Scott’s condemnation of the New Zealand government for its “silence” followed news reports today that Israeli forces had launched “violent” ground and air attacks on Khan Younis and bombed homes in Rafah and Deir el-Balah, killing at least 14 Palestinians.

    Mediation efforts to end the bloodshed in Gaza appear to be struggling, reports Al Jazeera, with a Hamas official saying Israeli negotiators had rejected their latest proposals for a ceasefire and claiming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “not interested” in negotiating peace.

    PSNA secretary Neil Scott
    PSNA secretary Neil Scott . . . “Throughout those years, we knew that extreme racism and Jewish supremacy was baked into the core of Zionist ideology.” Image: David Robie/APR

    Scott said that “many long term campaigners” would know that “Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa stalwart, Janfrie Wakim, her husband [David] and a whole bunch of Palestine supporters were pivotal in setting up these [Auckland] rallies”.

    “Monthly rallies. They were set up in 1981,” he said.

    “Forty-three years ago. Forty-three long damn years ago . . .  silence from [New Zealand] governments.

    “Throughout those years, we knew that extreme racism and Jewish supremacy was baked into the core of Zionist ideology.”

    "The New Zealand Genocide"
    “The New Zealand Genocide” aka The New Zealand Herald . . . New Zealand news media have been consistently condemned at the Palestine rallies for months for their alleged bias in favour of Israel. Image: David Robie/APR

    Turning to the systematic theft of Palestinian land, Scott asked: “Who here knew about the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine — the Israeli theft of Palestinian land.

    “The Israeli ethnic cleansing of millions of Palestinians from their homes and lands.”

    The Israeli apartheid had treated Palestinians as second class humans, if Zionist Israel had thought of Palestinians as humans at all.

    “We took on South African apartheid back in the day,” he said about the 1981 anti-aterheid Springbok rugby tour protests which were inspirational in forcing eventual change to the minority white-ruled regime in Pretoria.

    “But [with] the Israeli apartheid of Palestinians. . . Our governments have done nothing.

    “All of those breaches of international law! Laws Aotearoa has signed up to. All crimes against humanity,” Scott said.

    “You. I. And most people with a simple interest in know was happening in Palestine know the facts. The truth.

    "Stop the Zionist bloodshed"
    “Stop the Zionist bloodshed” . . . getting ready for today’s Palestine solidarity rally in Auckland. Image: David Robie/APR

    “For decades, we have been taking action shouting the issues from the roof tops. Almost begging successive governments to take action.

    “Not to spout silly, petty words and then look the other way but take real action.”

    Scott said PSNA had written to ministers, taken delegations to Wellington, and visited local MPs in their offices as well as holding rallies.

    “Successive governments knew. They all knew about these crimes against humanity.”

    But for more than 85 years of Israel committing crimes against humanity, successive New Zealand governments had taken “no real action”.

    “They have never sent the Israeli ambassador home to show our displeasure of those crimes against humanity,” Scott said.

    A young girl at the Auckland rally holds a placard in a tribute for a Gazan nurse
    A young girl at the Auckland rally holds a placard in a tribute for a Gazan nurse who adopted Malak when she was left with no parents, bombed by the Israelis. Image: David Robie/APR

    He said New Zealand governments had allowed 200 young Israelis to come to Aotearoa to “rest and relax” after enforcing a vicious deadly occupation of Palestine.

    “A dehumanising apartheid. And now, to rest and relax after committing genocide.

    “What the hell are the politicians thinking? Where are their moral compasses? Israelis committing genocide,” Scott said.

    “With a warm smile — welcome to Aotearoa and thanks for bringing your blood stained money with you. Feel free to walk among us, free from consequences.

    “We must sanction genocidal Israel. Send the ambassador home. End the Israeli working holiday visa! Ban ZIM shipping agents from our lands.

    “Silence is complicity — to the politicians: End your silence.”

    Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March
    Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March . . . praised the crowd for providing the solidarity momentum for their work in Parliament for justice over Gaza. Image: David Robie/APR

    Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March praised he crowd for protesting week after week and applying pressure on the government — “it’s thanks to you,” he said to resounding cheers.

    He explained the moves the Green Party was taking to persuade the government to grant humanitarian visas for members of Palestinian families in New Zealand impacted on by the brutal ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

    A Palestinian campaigner, Billy Hania, was also among many speakers. He broadcast a series of outspoken messages, including a Tiktok rundown on NZ government ministers’ support for Israel and from Michael Fakhri, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.

    He also praised many of the regular protesters for their perseverance and solidarity, naming several in the crowd.

    Meanwhile, Hanan Ashrawi, a former member of the Palestine Legislative Council, has told Al Jazeera’s Inside Story that the US should support a “straightforward” resolution in the UN Security Council instead of using “using evasive tactics”.

    UN Security Council members are expected to vote on a new resolution put forward by the elected “E10” members calling for an immediate ceasefire on Monday.

    Israel is reported to have killed more than 32,070 people in the war on Gaza arrested more than 7350 Palestinians in West Bank so far during the war.

    Visiting the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip, UN Secretary-General Antònio Guterres said a line of blocked aid trucks stuck on Egypt’s side of the border while Palestinians faced starvation on the other side was a “moral outrage”.

    "Bombing children is not self-defence"
    “Bombing children is not self-defence” . . . placards in Auckland’s Te Komititanga Square today. Image: David Robie/APR

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Ten years to go: key questions facing Saudi Arabia’s 2034 World Cup

    Fifa and the presumptive hosts face significant challenges over human rights, worker protections and the scale of construction

    Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup. We know this, despite the fact that Fifa’s bidding process does not finish until the end of 2024. But with 10 years until the tournament there is still much we don’t know. Some of these issues are important, such as the time of year in which the games will be played, but others are more significant still. With the power of the global football community to influence outcomes perhaps at its peak, here are three key areas of uncertainty:

    Continue reading…

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

  • Hong Kong’s ‘alarming’ national security law comes into force

    Law, which has in effect silenced opposition, comes into force with penalties of up to life in prison for treason and insurrection

    Hong Kong’s new national security law came into force on Saturday, putting into immediate effect tough penalties of up to life imprisonment for crimes including treason and insurrection.

    The law – commonly referred to as article 23 – targets five categories of national security crimes, and was swiftly passed by Hong Kong’s opposition-free legislature on Tuesday.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Wenda condemns ‘sadistic brutality’ of Indonesian torture of Papuan – calls for UN action

    Asia Pacific Report

    A West Papuan pro-independence leader has condemned the “sadistic brutality” of Indonesian soldiers in a torture video and called for an urgent United Nations human rights visit to the colonised Melanesian territory.

    “There is an urgent need for states to take more serious action on human rights in West Papua,” said president Benny Wenda of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP).

    Describing the “horror” of the torture video in a statement on the ULMWP website, he called for the immediate suspension of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) membership of Indonesia.

    Citing the 1998 Rome Statute, Wenda said torture was a crime against humanity.

    “Indonesia has not signed this treaty — against torture, genocide, and war crimes — because it is guilty of all three in West Papua and East Timor,” Wenda said. His statement said:

    ‘Horror of my childhood’
    “I am truly horrified by the video that has emerged from of Indonesian soldiers torturing a West Papuan man. More than anything, the sadistic brutality on display shows how urgently West Papua needs a UN Human Rights visit.

    “In the video, a group of soldiers kick, punch, and slash the young Papuan man, who has been tied and forced to stand upright in a drum full of freezing water.

    “As the soldiers repeatedly pummel the man, they can be heard saying, ‘my turn! My turn!’ and comparing his meat to animal flesh.

    “Watching the video, I was reminded of the horror of my childhood, when I was forced to watch my uncle being tortured by Suharto’s thugs.

    “The Indonesian government [has] committed these crimes for 60 years now. Indonesia must have their MSG Membership suspended immediately — they cannot be allowed to treat Melanesians in this way.

    “This incident comes during an intensified period of militarisation in the Highlands.

    “After an alleged TPNPB fighter was killed last month in Yahukimo, two Papuan children were tortured by Indonesian soldiers, who then took humiliating ‘trophy’ photos with their limp bodies.

    “Such brutality, already common in West Papua, will only becoming more widespread under the genocidal war criminal [newly elected President Prabowo Subianto].

    ‘Torture and war crimes’
    “According to the Rome Statute, torture is a crime against humanity. Indonesia has not signed this treaty, against torture, genocide, and war crimes, because it is guilty of all three in West Papua and East Timor.

    “Though it is extreme and shocking, this video merely exposes how Indonesia behaves every day in my country. Torture is such a widespread military practice that it has been described as a ‘mode of governance’ in West Papua.

    “I ask everyone who watches the video to remember that West Papua is a closed society, cut off from the world by a 60-year media ban imposed by Indonesia’s military occupation.

    “How many victims go unnoticed by the world? How many incidents are not captured on film?

    “Every week we hear word of another murder, massacre, or tortured civilian. Over 500,000 West Papuans have been killed under Indonesian colonial rule.

    “There is an urgent need for states to take more serious action on human rights in West Papua. We are grateful that more than 100 countries have called for a visit by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

    “But Indonesia clearly has no intention of honouring their promise, so more must be done.

    “International agreements such as the [European Union] EU-Indonesia trade deal should be made conditional on a UN visit. States should call out Indonesia at the highest levels of the UN. Parliamentarians should sign the Brussels Declaration.

    “Until there [are] serious sanctions against Indonesia their occupying forces will continue to behave with impunity in West Papua.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Big Oil, Big Lawsuits: The Fossil Fuel Industry is Bracing Itself for Climate Trials

    fossil fuel lawsuits
    6 Mins Read

    A quarter of Americans now live in cities and states taking companies to court over lying to the public.

    By Kate Yoder

    It’s been six years since cities in California started the trend of taking Big Oil to court for deceiving the public about the consequences of burning fossil fuels. The move followed investigations showing that Exxon and other companies had known about the dangers of skyrocketing carbon emissions for decades, but publicly downplayed the threat. Today, around 30 lawsuits have been filed around the country as cities, states, and Indigenous tribes seek to make the industry pay for the costs of climate change.

    Until recently, most of these cases had been stuck in limbo. Oil companies were trying to move them from the state courts in which they were filed to federal courts, a more business-friendly setting. But just in the past year, the Supreme Court declined to hear their arguments to relocate these cases on three separate occasions, most recently clearing the way for Minnesota’s case to proceed in state court. That means executives from Exxon Mobil, BP, and other oil giants may soon have to defend their actions in front of a jury.

    “Last year was a really pivotal year in terms of getting past the industry’s big push and their delay tactics,” said Alyssa Johl, vice president for the legal program at the Center for Climate Integrity, an environmental advocacy organization that provides support for these cases. “That issue and that effort has been put to rest, and now they have to face the music.”

    The long delays might have strengthened the legal arguments against fossil fuel companies. Researchers have uncovered more details about what oil companies knew about climate change and when, and the science connecting fossil fuel emissions to climate disasters has matured, arming cities and states with more evidence. All the while, the effects of climate change — the heat waves, the blazes, the wildfire smoke — have only grown more obvious, and more costly. Last year, the U.S. recorded a billion-dollar disaster every two weeks.

    Climate lawsuits against fossil fuel companies have proliferated

    exxon lawsuit
    Courtesy: Andrew Kelly/Reuters

    “With each month and with each year that these cases are stalled, the impacts for communities just grow,” said Delta Merner, the lead scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists’ litigation hub. “I think that’s important context for understanding these cases, and for understanding the additional cases that have been filed over the last six years.”

    That might explain the spread of lawsuits from coastal cities and states to inland areas like Minnesota, Colorado, and most recently, Chicago. With the third-largest city in the country suing BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and other oil titans for lying about climate change, a quarter of Americans now live in cities and states that are taking fossil fuel companies to court, according to the Center for Climate Integrity.

    One of the cases that’s furthest along, filed by Massachusetts against Exxon Mobil in 2019, is already in the process of “discovery,” the last major step before a trial. In this stage, both sides try to uncover evidence that could help their case in court. The discovery process could unearth further details of oil companies’ deception, such as what individual CEOs or other company executives did with the information they learned about climate change, Johl said.

    Another case that’s at the front of the pack is Honolulu’s suit seeking damages from Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Sunoco, among others. In October, the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court dismissed the companies’ appeal to throw out the suit, clearing the way for a trial. Last week, the companies asked the Supreme Court to toss that ruling.

    The industry’s current line of argument in the Honolulu case (and others) is that these lawsuits are about the broader issue of emissions and pollution, and that the federal Clean Air Act preempts any claim brought by cities and states. So far, this approach has seen some modest success. In January, Delaware’s Superior Court denied oil companies’ motion to dismiss the state’s case against them while granting a few concessions, including that out-of-state emissions were the territory of the Clean Air Act, beyond the limits of state law. Emissions that originated in Delaware, however, were fair game.

    As these climate cases have slowly begun to proceed, recent months have brought lawsuits from California, cities, and tribes. Last September, the state of California demanded that oil companies fund efforts to recover from extreme weather. In December, the Makah and Shoalwater Bay tribes along the coast of Washington state became the first Native American tribes to take oil companies to court over the costs of responding to climate-related risks from rising seas, flooding, and ocean acidification. Meanwhile, Hoboken, New Jersey, and a collection of cities in Puerto Rico have added racketeering lawsuits to the mix, alleging that oil companies engaged in a conspiracy of deception.

    Science is quashing Big Oil’s rhetoric

    fossil fuel lawsuits
    Courtesy: Chris Leboutillier/Unsplash

    New research has made it harder for oil giants to say they couldn’t have known the outcome of burning so much fossil fuel. A study published in the journal Science last year found that Exxon’s scientists predicted the effects of climate change with startling accuracy in the 1980s. Exxon’s models nearly matched actual temperature changes over the past several decades.

    Then there’s the blooming area of scientific inquiry that connects climate change to extreme weather events. Researchers are now able to quantify how corporate emissions have fueled climate disasters, a critical development for these cases, Merner said. “This is the cutting edge where the science is moving towards — to be able to look not just at these global averages, but to see what is happening regionally.”

    A study Merner coauthored last year found that 37 percent of the forests burned in the Western United States since 1986 can be linked to carbon pollution from a group of 88 of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers. Last June, Multnomah County — home to Portland — cited the research in its lawsuit against oil companies over their contributions to a deadly heat wave that hit the Pacific Northwest in 2021. In newer cases, like Multnomah’s and the ones filed by Indigenous tribes, the oil industry is sticking to its strategy of trying to move the case to federal courts, according to Margaret Barry, who maintains a climate litigation database at Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center.

    The new and improved science linking climate change to weather disasters has been a game changer for all of these cases, Merner said. “We can’t sit back and argue whether or not climate change played a role in extreme weather or public health problems that we’re facing today, because attribution science shows that it does and can calculate what that role was.” 

    “It’s really what the industry fears the most,” Johl said. “They don’t want anyone digging through their archives and divulging their innermost thoughts and secrets.” Much of what the public learned about the tobacco industry’s effort to cover up the link between lung cancer and smoking, for example, came out of the discovery process, made public as part of a major settlement in 1998, when Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and other tobacco giants agreed to pay states $206 billion over the next 25 years. 

    The discovery phase of the Massachusetts case is expected to wrap up later this year, and it could head to trial as early as 2025, Johl said.

    Oil companies have plans to fight back, though. In response to the new lawsuit from Chicago, industry representatives characterized the lawsuits as a “waste of taxpayer resources” and contended that climate change should be addressed by Congress, not the courts. “They’re going to raise issues every step of the way and raise defenses every step of the way,” Johl said.

    This article by Kate Yoder was originally published on Grist. It is republished here as part of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.

    The post Big Oil, Big Lawsuits: The Fossil Fuel Industry is Bracing Itself for Climate Trials appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • What did the US’s vetoed Gaza ceasefire resolution say?

    Draft resolution put before UN represents important tonal – but not substantive – shift for White House

    After months of vetoing other UN security council resolutions in an effort to defend Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, the US has in recent weeks gone on to the diplomatic front foot in New York, drafting and tabling its own resolution that was put to a vote on Friday before being vetoed by Russia and China.

    The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the resolution would send “a strong signal”. But what was that signal precisely?

    Continue reading…

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

  • US Has Redefined “Human Shields” to Enable Israel’s Slaughter of Gaza Civilians

    The civilian death rate from the United States-backed Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip is the highest of any conflict since the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Rather than demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from Gaza in return for the release of Israeli hostages, President Joe Biden has vetoed multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Big oil boasted feminism and climate solutions at a major fossil fuel conference – and it was all greenwashing bullshit

    Houston, we have a problem – and it’s the fossil fuels industry. Between Monday 18 to Friday 22 March, big oil and gas gathered in Houston, Texas for CERAweek. It’s one of the industry’s largest annual conferences.

    A polluter’s paradise, over 8,000 delegates from energy, finance, and the technology sectors, rubbed elbows with government officials from across the globe.

    So, the Canary caught up with the greenwashing galore and climate-wrecking shenanigans that took place throughout the week.

    CERAweek: awash with climate denial and delay

    Off to a strong start, on Monday, big oil and gas bosses began with a predictable display of climate dither and delay. Execs were demonstrating how to recycle – using long-debunked climate denial tropes:

    According to CEO of the $1.8 trillion Saudi Aramco oil and gas corporation Amin Nasser, it’s time to ditch the fossil fuel pledge countries made at COP28. You know, the already weak and watered down bare minimum commitment to phase them out, eventually – agreed barely four months ago. He told the audience:

    We should abandon the fantasy of phasing out oil and gas, and instead invest in them adequately

    But then, who wouldn’t listen to the head of “the world’s most valuable oil company” for advice on the energy transition?

    Unfortunately, the organ grinders were. Specifically, attendees trash-talked Biden’s pause on approvals for new liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals, and the US administration appeared ready to roll over.

    As Heated reported, the LNG export pause simply applies to new terminals – that is, the US Department of Energy cannot currently rubber-stamp the construction of new facilities. It doesn’t include a freeze on exports from existing facilities.

    As a result, this means that the eight existing export terminals can continue to operate. What’s more, the ten the department approved before the pause will still go ahead. Alarmingly, this could potentially double US exports of LNG by 2028.

    Nonetheless, this didn’t stop industry talking heads from playing the victim:

    Ah yes, the notoriously hard-to-get-approval-for projects like the Alaska LNG “carbon bomb” pipeline the Biden administration greenlit in May 2023. Or the Willow project it approved in March 2023, which campaigners estimate will produce the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent of 70 coal-fired-power plants across its 30 year lifespan.

    So US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm reassured the government’s fossil fuel paymasters:

    Cue rare capture of a fossil fuel exec rubbing his hands with glee:

    Lobbying, PR, and industry greenwashing at CERAweek

    Besides trying to weasel out of international climate commitments, fossil fuel companies discussed how to do-away with pesky environment protections-cum-red-tape. In particular, the kind that prevents them from pumping out unfettered pollution. Don’t look now, but #LobbyingGoals2024 incoming:

    Err, so that would be 401 regulations of the US Clean Water Act that enable states or tribes to protect their water resources.

    What’s more, what fossil fuel conference would be complete without a smorgasbord of false climate solutions? Here we have Chevron peddling the industry’s favourite pet technology project for the clean energy transition:

    And there was plenty more where that came from, like this big polluter vision for “green” energy marital bliss:

    CERAweek also provided the opportune moment to spin some junk PR:

    Didn’t you know, we environmentalists all want to see a throw-back to the energy dark ages. How on earth could we power our electric grids without burning the decomposed remains of dead things chock-full of climate-wrecking carbon? If only there were some other sustainable, renewable resources we could use to power stuff. Oh wait…

    Girl-boss feminism and cutting edge solutions

    However, it wasn’t all fossil-fuel-mongering and fake climate solution gloom. The conference offered the cutting edge of technology for saving the planet. Like this AI barista coming to replace the underpaid and overworked low-wage workforce in a coffee shop near you soon.

    So, if you fancied your mugshot on a latte, replete with logo for maximum brand loyalty brownie points, you could head to ExxonMobil’s zone in the “Innovation Agora” (ooh):

    That’s some nifty product placement right there. Though, noted lack of keep-cup lads.

    Moreover, who said a fossil fuel conference filled to the rafters with a predominantly white, male, cisheteronormative, Global North execs didn’t have something for everyone?

    In fact, at CERAweek, women in energy got a whole dinner panel dedicated to them:

    What a heart-warming display of corporate girl-boss feminism. Hats off to the fossil fuel industry for showing us that capitalism routinely subordinates women’s rights to the cult of individual financial success. Nothing like a slice of weaponised inclusion served with your Exxon-selfie coffee though, right?

    Funny then, that CERAweek’s X account quietly glossed over the part where just 22% of their speakers, and only a third of the attendees were women last year. Unsurprisingly, it’s not exactly looking much better this year. By the Canary’s count, women comprised marginally over 23% of this year’s speakers.

    Of course, the sector that sparked the term “man-camps” at worker sites, where women have reported sexual assault and human trafficking, would want you to believe they’re feminist for placing a few women on a panel.

    Perhaps there’s a reason there are still so few women in energy – because, reality check – the industry is misogynistic as hell.

    Sacrifice zones for profit over people

    Despite everything, big oil was bleating into a (granted, extraordinarily well-connected and financed) echo-chamber. Crucially, the good folks on X and beyond weren’t buying into the industry’s bullshit.

    Environmental Defense Fund’s Mark Brownstein pulled apart the industry’s weasel words on the energy transition:

    Meanwhile, frontline communities from Texas and Louisiana also took their fight to the front door. Specifically, they protested outside the conference over the deadly pollution the industry produces, which is killing their communities:

    So another year, another fossil fuel conference promoting the destruction of the planet. Once again, oil and gas CEOs demonstrated their commitment to sacrificing communities and nature for their killer profits.

    They’ll hide behind the low-hanging fruit of climate solutions they offer, while claiming to lead the world’s green energy transition. Ultimately, tepid tinkering to rampant extractive capitalism will not save the Earth. But it will save their bottom-line.

    Feature image via Fox 26 Houston/Youtube.

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Consent Defence: UK Climate Activists Lose ‘Last Remaining’ Protection for Criminal Damage During Protests

    consent defence
    6 Mins Read

    This week, climate protestors in England and Wales prosecuted for criminal damage lost the right to use the ‘consent defence’, which has been available to them since 1971 and led to a series of acquittals in the past.

    Four years ago, campaigners from the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion threw pink paint over the buildings of Christian Aid, Amnesty International, Greenpeace and Friends of Earth in London. A month later, environmental protestors sprayed paint over the headquarters of the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green Parties. In both instances, most of the protestors were cleared of criminal charges.

    A year later, Extinction Rebellion took chisels and hammers to the windows of HDFC Bank’s head office in London, causing £500,000 worth of criminal damage and putting up stickers reading: “£80 billion into fossil fuels in the last 5 years.” But in late 2023, these activists were also acquitted.

    In all these cases, the accused used a UK statute that has been around since 1971, the Criminal Damage Act. Known as the ‘consent defence’, it involves defendants arguing that they honestly believed that the owner of a property would have consented to their actions had they known why they had been taken.

    It has been described as the “last remaining line of legal defence” for climate activists who have been charged with property damage. But on Monday, this consent defence was effectively taken away from them, after a UK court of appeal said the “beliefs and motivation” of defendants don’t comprise a lawful excuse for property damage.

    Defendants can’t use climate change facts as evidence

    extinction rebellion
    Courtesy: Extinction Rebellion

    The decision stemmed from the not-guilty verdict of a defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in a climate trial last year. But attorney general Victoria Prentis lodged an appeal on a point of law to the court of appeals to argue that consent defence shouldn’t be available to climate activists, as part of a broader government effort to curb disruptive protests over climate change. She said she wanted “clarity on the law as guidance for future cases” involving climate protesters.

    Speaking to the Guardian, the defendant said: “I was found not guilty by a jury after a long trial. I feel like the attorney general is trying to retrospectively challenge the jury’s decision. It feels like an assault on the rights of juries to acquit someone having listened to the evidence.”

    But this week, three judges in the appeals court ruled in Prentis’s favour, noting that “the political or philosophical beliefs” and the “reasoning and wider motivation” are “too remote” to be classified as a “lawful excuse”. In an even bigger blow, it added that evidence from defendants about the facts or effects of climate change would now be inadmissible.

    “The court holds that the circumstances of the damage have to be linked directly to the damage. They might include, for example, the time, place and extent of the damage. In a protest case, they would include the fact that the damage was caused as part of a protest,” said Sue Carr, the lady chief justice of England and Wales. “But the circumstances would not include the political or philosophical beliefs of the person causing the damage. They would not include the reasoning or wider motivation of the defendant. Those matters are too remote from the damage.”

    Prentis welcomed the verdict, claiming it “will ensure consistency and give judges much-needed clarity” in this area of law. “Climate change is an important issue and while the right to protest must be protected, it does not give a right to cause serious criminal damage no matter how strongly held a belief is,” she said.

    While the ruling doesn’t impact the outcome of previous trials, it will affect the defences available to climate protestors in future cases.

    UN official lambasts UK crackdown on climate protests

    uk climate protest
    Courtesy: Marc Pell/Unsplash

    The verdict is a big blow to climate activists and groups like Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain, removing the final defence available to people who spray some paint on buildings, demonstrate on the streets, or sit peacefully in public protest – all in an effort to raise the alarm about the climate emergency and urge action.

    But it’s hardly a surprise, given that the UK has been clamping down on protestors for a good while now. Prentis’ predecessor, Suella Braverman had similarly turned to the court of appeal after Conservatives were vexed over the acquittal of four people who toppled the statue of Edward Colston – a slave trader – in Bristol. The court of appeal adjudged that protestors can’t rely on the European convention of human rights as a defence against criminal damage.

    That was in December 2022, and sparked a series of restrictions imposed upon defendants across the country over the next year, including both people charged with criminal damage and less serious offences. For example, peaceful, non-violent protestors on trial were forbidden from mentioning the words ‘climate change’, ‘fuel poverty’ or the civil rights movement when on trial for public nuisance – essentially, they were found in contempt of court and jailed trying to explain why they were protesting.

    Another instance showcasing the UK’s crackdown on climate protests involved a Just Stop Oil protestor who was jailed for six months for participating in a peaceful slow march protest on a London road, becoming the first to be found guilty under the Public Order Act 2023, which is said to make anyone walking on a road subject to prosecution for “interference with key national infrastructure”. Similarly, two protestors were jailed for over two years and seven months for climbing the Queen Elizabeth II bridge to unveil a Just Stop Oil banner and forcing police to stop traffic.

    “When will the legal profession and the judiciary wake up to what’s happening? It must be obvious to every serious observer that British law is being instrumentalised, on behalf of the fossil fuel industry, to silence and repress those taking action to confront the extreme danger from climate breakdown,” said Tim Crosland of the climate charity Plan B.

    The UK’s efforts to suppress climate protests are deeply concerning, especially when you realise people aren’t allowed to even mention the term ‘climate change’ or its effects – those that we’re seeing happen every single day – in their defence, let alone them being admissible as a valid defence. Michel Forst, the UN special rapporteur for environmental defenders, outlined that he was “seriously concerned by these regressive new laws” in January.

    “It is very difficult to understand what could justify denying the jury the opportunity to hear the reason for the defendant’s action, and how a jury could reach a properly informed decision without hearing it, in particular at the time of environmental defenders’ peaceful but ever more urgent calls for the government to take pressing action for the climate,” he said.

    Crosland added: “If the urgent interventions from the UN and civil society organisations are not setting warning lights flashing, what will it take? With the established courts failing to discharge their basic function of protecting the British public from the abuse of power, it’s inevitable that others will step up.”

    The post Consent Defence: UK Climate Activists Lose ‘Last Remaining’ Protection for Criminal Damage During Protests appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Kenyan Del Monte farm seeks human rights manager after claims of violence

    Exclusive: new role created after Guardian uncovered allegations against company’s security guards

    A vast Del Monte pineapple farm in Kenya that supplies most British supermarkets is advertising for a human rights manager to address its “human rights challenges” in the wake of allegations of killings and violence by its security guards.

    The job advert says the candidate will need to “develop a detailed action plan to address human rights challenges in the workplace and in surrounding communities”.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Te Kuaka calls for urgent law change on spy agency, warns over Pacific

    Asia Pacific Report

    Te Kuaka, an independent foreign policy advocacy group with a strong focus on the Pacific, has called for urgent changes to the law governing New Zealand’s security agency.

    “Pacific countries will be asking legitimate questions about whether . . . spying in the Pacific was happening out of NZ,” it said today.

    This follows revelations that a secret foreign spy operation run out of NZ’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) for seven years without the knowledge or approval of the government or Parliament.

    RNZ News reports today that the former minister responsible for the GCSB, Andrew Little, has admitted that it may never be known whether the foreign spy operation was supporting military action against another country.

    New Zealand’s intelligence watchdog the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security revealed its existence on Thursday, noting that the system operated from 2013-2020 and had the potential to be used to support military action against targets.

    The operation was used to intercept military communications and identify targets in the GCSB’s area of operation, which centres on the Pacific.

    In 2012, the GCSB signed up to the agreement without telling the then director-general and let the system operate without safeguards including adequate training, record-keeping or auditing.

    When Little found out about it he supported it being referred to the Inspector-General for investigation.

    How the New Zealand Herald, NZ's largest newspaper, reported the news of the secret spy agency
    How the New Zealand Herald, NZ’s largest newspaper, reported the news of the secret spy agency today . . . “buried” on page A7. Image: NZH screenshot APR

    Refused to name country
    But he refused to say if he believed the covert operation was run by the United States although it was likely to be one of New Zealand’s Five Eyes partners, reports RNZ.

    Te Kuaka said in a statement today the inquiry should prompt immediate law reform and widespread concern.

    “This should be of major concern to all New Zealanders because we are not in control here”, said Te Kuaka member and constitutional lawyer Fuimaono Dylan Asafo.

    “The inquiry reveals that our policies and laws are not fit for purpose, and that they do not cover the operation of foreign agencies within New Zealand.”

    It appeared from the inquiry that even GCSB itself had lost track of the system and did not know its full purpose, Te Kuaka said.

    It was “rediscovered” following concerns about another partner system hosted by GCSB.

    While there have been suggestions the system was established under previously lax legislation, its operation continued through several agency and legislative reviews.

    Ultimately, the inquiry found “that the Bureau could not be sure [its operation] was always in accordance with government intelligence requirements, New Zealand law and the provisions of the [Memorandum of Understanding establishing it]”.

    ‘Unknowingly complicit’
    “We do not know what military activities were undertaken using New Zealand’s equipment and base, and this could make us unknowingly complicit in serious breaches of international law”, Fuimaono said.

    “The law needs changing to explicitly prohibit what has occurred here.”

    The foreign policy group has also raised the alarm that New Zealand’s involvement in the AUKUS security pact could compound problems raised by this inquiry.

    AUKUS is a trilateral security pact between Australia, the UK and the US that aims to contain China.

    Pillar Two’s objective is to win the next generation arms race being shaped by new autonomous weapons platforms, electronic warfare systems, and hypersonic missiles.

    It also involves intelligence sharing with AI-driven targeting systems and nuclear-capable assets.

    ‘Pacific questions’
    “Pacific countries will be asking legitimate questions about whether this revelation indicates that spying in the Pacific was happening out of NZ, without any knowledge of ministers”, said Te Kuaka co-director Marco de Jong.

    “New Zealand’s involvement in AUKUS Pillar II could further threaten the trust that we have built with Pacific countries, and others may ask whether involvement in that pact — with closer ties to the US — will increase the risk that our intelligence agencies will become entangled in other countries’ operations, and other people’s wars, without proper oversight.”

    Te Kuaka has previously spoken out about concerns over AUKUS Pillar II.

    “We understand that there is some sensitivity in this matter, but the security and intelligence agencies should front up to ministers here in a public setting to explain how this was allowed to happen,” De Jong said.

    He added that the agencies needed to assure the public that serious military or other operations were not conducted from NZ soil without democratic oversight.”


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Still No Human Rights for the Poor

    The poor and marginalised have not seen any gains in almost 30 years of democracy. The poor remain poor and unemployment, poverty and inequality are worse today than at the end of apartheid. Many more people live in shacks than in 1994.

    Those who live in shack settlements continue to be denied access to basic services such as water and sanitation. Violent evictions continue. Those in the rural areas continue to walk long distances to the nearest health facilities. Those who live in farms continue to be abused by farmers who see them as less than human.

    For almost thirty years we have been treated as human waste and not as human beings. For as long as our dignity and our existence as humans is not recognised we will not be celebrating Human Rights day. For as long as rights on paper do not mean rights in reality we will not celebrate. Instead we are mourning the betrayal of democracy by the ANC, a democracy that so many ordinary people fought so hard for.

    The ANC is a corrupt government with immoral leaders who have no integrity. They came to power claiming to represent the people but have made themselves the enemy of the people. They have vandalised our humanity.

    The ruling party will be using this holiday that is held on the anniversary of the massacres in Sharpeville and Langa in 1960 for its own electioneering. It will do so despite the fact that it perpetrated its own massacre in Marikana in 2012, and despite the fact that it has never acted to stop the assassinations of grassroots activists. It will do so despite the fact that the people of Sharpeville and Langa continue to live under inhuman conditions, like so many other poor people across the country.

    The rights to equality, dignity and justice – as well as the more concrete rights to land and housing – have not been realised because the ANC is led by people who do not care about society. They continue to steal from the poor and deprive us of even basic services such as water, sanitation, electricity and refuse collection. They continue to deny us access to land, to a fair share of the wealth of the country and to a right to participate in all relevant discussions and decision making. Thirty years of rule by the ANC has been thirty years of shame.

    When we organise to build our power from below to struggle for justice we are met with repression, including assault, arrest, imprisonment and assassination. Even our most basic rights to political freedom are denied under the ANC. For us the rights and freedoms on paper do not exist in reality. Repression ensures that we remain oppressed.

    For this reason it is essential to use our collective vote to remove the ANC from power and to give a clear lesson to all politicians in all parties that if they disrespect the people and repress their struggles they will also be removed. We know that there is no socialist or even progressive party on the ballot and that we cannot vote for freedom and justice in this election. All the political parties are funded by factions of the elite and not one of them is on the side of the people. Not one of them is a mass democratic formation. We know very well that whatever coalition of parties rules us after the election we will have to keep struggling against them from the day that they form a new government.

    However we can vote against repression, against the political party that has murdered our comrades and the government that has allowed it to happen and often acted in support of repression. We will be using our collective vote as the poor to remove the ANC.

    Outside of the electoral process we will be organising to keep building our collective democratic power from below and using it to advance towards a more just society.

    The post Still No Human Rights for the Poor first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Under pressure, Australia reinstates some visas to Gazans fleeing genocide

    By A Firenze in Gadigal/Sydney

    Palestinians fleeing war-ravaged Gaza for safety in Australia were left stranded when the Labor government abruptly cancelled their visas.

    The “subclass 600” temporary visas were approved between last November and February for Palestinians with close and immediate family connections.

    Families of those fleeing Gaza, and organisations assisting Palestinians to leave Gaza, began to receive news of the visa cancellations on March 13.

    The number of people affected by the sudden visa cancellations was unclear, however there were at least 12 individuals who had had visas cancelled while in transit.

    The stories of those affected have been shared over social media. They included the 23-year-old nephew of a Palestinian-Australian, stranded in Istanbul airport for four nights after having his visa cancelled mid-transit, unable to return to Gaza and unable to legally stay in Istanbul.

    A mother and her four young children were turned around in Egypt, when their visas were cancelled, meaning they were unable to board an onwards flight to Australia.

    A family of six were separated, with three of the children allowed to board flights, while the mother and youngest child were left behind.

    2200 temporary visas
    The Department of Home Affairs said the government had issued around 2200 temporary subclass 600 visas for Palestinians fleeing Gaza since October 2023.

    Subclass 600 visas are temporary and do not permit the person work or education rights, or access to Medicare-funded health services.

    Israelis have been granted 2400 visitor visas during the same time period.

    The visa cancellations for Palestinians have been condemned by the Palestinian community, Palestinian organisations and rights’ supporters.

    The Palestine Australia Relief and Action (PARA) started an email campaign which generated more than 6000 letters to government ministers within 72 hours.

    Nasser Mashni, president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN), called on Labor to “follow through on its moral obligation to offer safety and certainty” to those fleeing, pointing to Australia’s more humane treatment of Ukrainian refugees.

    The Refugee Action Collective Victoria (RAC Vic) called a snap action on March 15, supported by Socialist Alliance and PARA.

    ‘Shame on Labor’
    David Glanz, on behalf of RAC Vic, said the cancellations had effectively marooned Palestinians in transit countries to the “shame of the Labor government which has supported Israel in its genocide”.

    Samah Sabawi, co-founder of PARA, is currently in Cairo assisting families trying to leave Gaza.

    She told ABC Radio National on March 14 about the obstacles Palestinians face trying to leave via the Rafah crossing, including the lack of travel documents for those living under Israeli occupation, family separations and heavy-handed vetting by the Israeli and Egyptian authorities.

    Sabawi said the extreme difficulties faced by Palestinians fleeing Rafah were compounded by Australia’s visa cancellations and its withdrawal of consular support.

    She also said Opposition leader Peter Dutton had “demonised” Palestinians and pressured Labor into rescinding the visas on the basis of “security concerns”.

    Labor said there were no security concerns with the individuals whose visas had been cancelled. It has since been suggested by those working closely with the affected Palestinians that their visas were cancelled due to the legitimacy of their crossing through Rafah.

    PARA said the government had said it had “extremely limited” capacity to assist.

    Some visas reinstated
    It is believed that some 1.5 million Palestinians are increasingly desperate to escape the genocide and are waiting in Rafah. Many have no choice but to pay brokers to help them leave.

    Some of those whose visas had been cancelled received news on March 18 that their visas had been reinstated.

    A Palestinian journalist and his family were among those whose visas were reinstated and are currently on route to Australia.

    Graham Thom, Amnesty International’s national refugee coordinator, told The Guardian that urgent circumstances needed to be taken into account.

    “The issue is getting across the border . . .  The government needs to deal with people using their own initiative to get across any way they can.”

    He said other Palestinians with Australian visas leaving Gaza needed more information about the process.

    It is not known how many other Palestinians are waiting for their visas to be reinstated.

    Republished from Green Left magazine with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • There is no moral argument that justifies the sale of weapons to Israel | Mary Lawlor

    Israel has shown it will use these arms indiscriminately against Palestinians. Why does the west continue to supply them?

    Earlier this month, a doctor who had recently returned from Gaza provided shocking testimony about the scale of human suffering that Palestinians are enduring under an Israeli military onslaught that has entered its sixth month. There exist no moral arguments that can justify the continued sale of weapons to Israel by states that respect the principle of the universality of human rights.

    During my work as the United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights defenders, Palestinian human rights defenders have emphasized to me the importance of a ban being placed on such sales, given that Israel has demonstrated time and again that it will use such weapons indiscriminately against Palestinians.

    Mary Lawlor is the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders

    Continue reading…

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

  • NZ government urged to help evacuate Palestinians from war on Gaza

    By Katie Scotcher, RNZ News political reporter

    The New Zealand government is being urged to create a special humanitarian visa for Palestinians in Gaza with ties to this country.

    More than 30 organisations — including World Vision, Save the Children and Greenpeace — have sent an open letter to ministers, calling on them to step up support.

    They also want the government to help evacuate Palestinians with ties to New Zealand from Gaza, and provide them with resettlement assistance.

    Their appeal is backed by Palestinian New Zealander Muhammad Dahlen, whose family is living in fear in Rafah after being forced to move there from northern Gaza.

    His ex-wife and two children (who have had visitor visas since December) were now living in a garage with his mother, sisters and nieces who do not have visas.

    “There is no food, there is no power . . .  it is a really hard situation to be living in,” he told RNZ Morning Report.

    If his family could receive visas to come to New Zealand “it literally can be the difference between life and death”.

    ‘Everyone susceptible to death’
    With Israel making it clear it still intended to send ground forces into Rafah “everyone is susceptible to death and at least we would be saving some lives”.

    Dahlen said New Zealand had a tradition of accepting refugees from areas of conflict, including Sudan, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Syria.

    “So why is this not the same?”

    He appealed to Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters to intervene and approach the Egyptian government.

    “We need these people out,” he said.

    “Please give them visas; this is a first step. This is something super super difficult and huge and requires ministerial intervention.”

    Border permission needed
    At the Gaza-Egypt border potential refugees needed to gain the permission of officials from both Israel and Egypt.

    Egypt had concerns about taking in too many refugees from Gaza so the New Zealand government would need to provide assurances flights had been organised.

    If the government offered a charter flight to bring refugees to this country, “that would be amazing”.

    World Vision spokesperson Rebekah Armstrong said the government had responded with immigration support in other humanitarian emergencies.

    “We provided humanitarian visas for Ukrainians when their lives were torn apart by war, and we assisted Afghans to leave and resettle in this country when the Taliban returned to power. The situation for vulnerable Palestinians is no different.

    “Palestinians are living in a perilous environment, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes; children and families starving with literally nothing to eat; and healthcare and medical treatment nearly impossible to access,” Armstrong said.

    Several hundred
    The organisations did not know exactly how many people would qualify for such a visa, but estimated it could be several hundred.

    “We know there’s around 288 Palestinian New Zealanders in New Zealand, and they have estimated that there would be around 300-400 people that are their family members that they’d like to bring here,” Armstrong said.

    “That’s a very small number and as we’ve seen, in the case of Ukraine . . . the actual number of people that have probably come here would be significantly less than that, it’s not like they’re asking for the world. I think it’s quite a conservative number myself.”

    She told Morning Report similar visas for Ukrainians and Afghans had been organised within days or weeks.

    “It would be New Zealand’s response to this catastrophic situation that is unfolding. We want to be on the right side of history and this is one way we could help.”

    She said embassies in the region would need to assist with the logistics of people leaving Gaza.

    NZ government ‘monitoring’
    Stanford said in a statement the government was monitoring the situation in Gaza.

    “The issue in Gaza is primarily a humanitarian and border issue, not a visa issue, as people are unable to leave.

    “People who have relatives in Gaza can already apply for temporary or visitors’ visas for them,” Stanford said.

    But Armstrong said: “If there is the political will, the government can do this.

    “Other countries are doing this . . .  Canada and Australia are getting people out. It’s tricky, but it’s not impossible.”

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Profile in Persecution: Husain Mohamed Falah

    Husain Mohamed Falah was a 17-year-old Bahraini minor and high school student when Bahraini authorities arrested him from his home on 15 December 2014 without presenting any arrest warrant. During his detention, he endured torture, sexual harassment, denial of attorney access during interrogation and trial, and an unfair trial. He is currently serving a life sentence in Jau Prison, facing religious discrimination, medical neglect, and being denied his rights to education and communication with his family.

    On 15 December 2014, at 4:00 A.M., plainclothes officers arrived with a 16-passenger bus, an armored vehicle, and more than 10 Jeep cars, and conducted a forceful raid at Husain’s family house where they were sleeping. They broke the doors of the house and the garage, confiscated his identification card along with his phone, and took him on the bus to the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) building without providing any arrest warrant or reason behind his arrest. En route to the CID building, officers blindfolded Husain inside the bus and hit him on the head. On the same day at 6:00 A.M., Husain’s parents received a 4-second call from him, stating that he was in the CID building. Two days later, at 4:00 A.M., officers returned to Husain’s home, raided it, and filmed the raid with two cameras without submitting a search warrant They searched Husain’s room, focusing on his personal belongings. They confiscated an old phone he had that did not have a SIM card and was not working. On 19 December 2014, Husain was brought blindfolded near his home, to a location where Bahraini authorities claimed he participated in “rioting and the killing of a police corporal”.

    At the CID building, Husain was interrogated for a week without the presence of a lawyer. CID officers tortured him by completely blindfolding him, stripping him of his clothes, forcing him to stand for extended periods with his hands cuffed, pouring hot water on him, and spitting on his face. Officers also subjected Husain to electric shocks, sexual harassment, and verbal abuse, and prevented him from contacting his parents. Subsequently, he confessed to the fabricated charges brought against him under torture.

    Following his interrogation, Husain was brought on 22 December 2014 before the Public Prosecution Office (PPO), which subsequently ordered his detention for two months, and his lawyer was not allowed to attend. He was then transferred to the Dry Dock Detention Center, where he endured further torture. On 24 December 2014, Husain’s family was able to visit him for the first time since his arrest.

    Husain was not brought before a judge within 48 hours after arrest, was not given adequate time and facilities to prepare for his trial, was denied access to his attorney before and during the court sessions, and was unable to present evidence or challenge the evidence presented against him. Furthermore, the court utilized the confessions extracted from him under torture as evidence against him in his trial. On 30 December 2015, Husain was sentenced to life imprisonment and deprivation of his Bahraini nationality after being convicted in a mass trial with 22 other defendants for 1) joining a terrorist cell to kill a police corporal on 8 December 2014, and 2) carrying out riots on 9 December 2014. Although Husain was transferred to the courtroom for the sentencing hearing, he was not allowed to enter and was forced to wait outside. Then the lawyer came out and informed the family of the judgment. His citizenship was reinstated on 27 April 2019, through a royal pardon. Husain appealed his sentence, and on 22 December 2016, the Court of Appeal rejected his appeal and upheld the initial verdict. Consequently, the Court of Cassation upheld the sentence on 5 June 2017.

    Husain is currently serving his sentence in Jau Prison, enduring discriminatory treatment based on his belonging to the Shia religious sect and facing threats and deprivation of his rights by the prison officers from time to time on the pretext of taking revenge for the alleged murder of a policeman. In addition, he’s currently deprived of calling his family, experiencing issues within his eye retina that are getting worse as a result of medical negligence, and is denied his right to continue his university education. Husain’s family filed complaints to the Ombudsman, documenting the raid, torture, and eye conditions. The Ombudsman received these complaints and visited Husain with no result obtained.  This mistreatment and medical neglect prompted Husain to go on hunger strikes every now and then to protest against the prison’s poor status and the violations to which he was subjected.

    Husain’s warrantless arrest, torture, sexual assault, denial of access to legal counsel during interrogations and trial, unfair trial, deprivation of his rights to education and communication, discriminatory treatment based on his belonging to the Shia sect, and medical negligence represent clear violations of the Convention against Torture and Other Degrading and Inhuman Treatment (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). Furthermore, the violations he endured as a minor 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 upon the Bahraini authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Husain. ADHRB also urges the Bahraini government to investigate the allegations of Husain’s arbitrary arrest as a minor, torture, denial of attorney access during interrogations and trial, deprivation of his rights to education and communication, discriminatory treatment based on his belonging to the Shia sect, and medical neglect while holding the perpetrators accountable. At the very least, ADHRB calls for a fair retrial for him under the Restorative Justice Law for Children, leading to his release. Additionally, it urges the Jau Prison administration to promptly provide appropriate healthcare for Husain, holding it responsible for any possible deterioration in his health. Finally, ADHRB calls on the Jau Prison administration to immediately grant Husain his right to regularly call his family and allow him to continue his university studies.

    The post Profile in Persecution: Husain Mohamed Falah appeared first on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

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

  • New Caledonia’s provincial elections delay passes final voting hurdle

    ANALYSIS: By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

    An “organic law” to postpone New Caledonia’s provincial elections has passed the final hurdle and been endorsed by the French National Assembly.

    During a session on Monday marked by poor attendance (only 104 MPs out of 577) and sometimes heated debates, 71 French MPs voted in favour and 31 against.

    Late February, the same Bill was also endorsed by the French Upper House, the Senate, by a large majority of 307 for and 34 against.

    The “organic law” effectively moves the date of New Caledonia’s provincial elections (initially scheduled for May 2024) to December 15 “at the latest”.

    The date change was clearly designed to provide more time for local politicians to arrive at an inclusive and bipartisan agreement which would lay the foundations for a political agreement and a new institutional status after the Nouméa Accord (signed in 1998) has been in force in the French Pacific archipelago for the past 25 years.

    The Accord had prescribed that three self-determination referendums should take place in New Caledonia, which was the case over the past five years.

    All three consultations (held in 2018, 2020 and 2021) yielded a narrow “no” to independence, although the third one (held in late 2021) had been contested by the pro-independence movement after a boycott due to the impact of the covid pandemic on indogenous Kanaks.

    The Nouméa Accord stipulated that after those three referendums had been held, and if they had resulted in three “no” notes, then politicians should meet and hold forward-looking talks to analyse “the situation thus created”.

    Over the past two years, France has tried to create the conditions for those talks to be held, but some components of the pro-independence umbrella FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) are yet to join the local and inclusive format of the political talks.

    In the pro-French camp, divisions have also surfaced with some parties attending talks but refusing to sit with other pro-French components.

    3 MPs from French National Assembly on a mission to French Overseas territories
    Three MPs from the French National Assembly on a mission to French Overseas Territories, including the French Pacific. Image: LNC

    Constitutional changes
    The postponement of provincial elections now paves the way for another French government project, promoted by Home Affairs and Overseas Minister Gérald Darmanin — who has visited New Caledonia half a dozen times since 2023 — for a constitutional amendment directly related to New Caledonia’s political future.

    The amendment is also related to local elections in the sense that it purports to modify the conditions of eligibility once prescribed, on a transitional basis, by the Nouméa Accord.

    What has been since referred to as the “frozen” electoral roll (enforced since 2007) allowed only French citizens who had resided in New Caledonia before 1998 to vote in those provincial elections (for the three parliaments of the Southern, Northern and Loyalty Islands provinces).

    The Constitutional amendment, if adopted by the French Congress (a special joint gathering of both the Upper and Lower Houses — the Senate and the National Assembly) by a majority of three fifths, would now change this and allow citizens to vote in the local elections provided they have been residing in New Caledonia for at least 10 uninterrupted years.

    Darmanin has on several occasions defended the draft amendment, saying the “frozen” roll was not compatible with France’s “democratic principles” — that it effectively denied about 25,000 citizens (both indigenous Kanaks and non-Kanaks) in New Caledonia the right to vote at the local elections.

    The new text would re-introduce “minimal democratic conditions”.

    The constitutional amendment has been strongly criticised by pro-independence parties, who fear the “unfrozen” version of the electoral roll would create a situation whereby they could become a minority.

    Currently, through the old system, pro-independence parties hold the majority in two of the three provincial assemblies (North and Loyalty Islands) as well as in New Caledonia’s territorial government (presided by a pro-independence leader, Louis Mapou).

    The provincial elections results are also crucial in the sense that they are followed by a “trickle-down” effect — the Congress (territorial parliament) makeup is based on their results, and, in turn, the Congress members choose New Caledonia’s President who then chooses a “collegial” government.

    “The minimum 10-year period seems perfectly reasonable and those who are against this are in fact against democracy,” Darmanin told reporters during his latest visit to New Caledonia last month.

    Constitutional amendment debates
    The postponement of provincial elections is designed to give local politicians more time to arrive at a French-desired local, inclusive and consensual agreement on New Caledonia’s political and institutional future.

    Darmanin has also repeatedly insisted that if such agreement was reached “before July 1”, the French-drafted constitutional amendment would be replaced by the contents agreed locally and then submitted to the French Congress.

    “I’ve always said that if there was a local agreement, even if we were just a few metres away from concluding such an agreement, we would look at the possibility of postponing or even stopping the constitutional process to include the new text,” he stressed last month.

    Process gaining momentum
    “But for now, all I can see is people not turning up at meetings and not taking their responsibilities,” he added.

    The pro-independence umbrella FLNKS is due to hold its Congress on 23 March 23 amid apparent divisions within its component parties.

    The French-drafted constitutional amendment is to begin its legislative journey on March 20 before the Senate’s Law Committee, then on March 27 during a Senate debate and then on May 13 before the French National Assembly.

    Over the past few days, several French MPs have visited New Caledonia during fact-finding field missions.

    The first one was a delegation of four MPs from the French Senate’s Law Committee which met a wide spectrum of local politicians ahead of the March 20 session in Paris.

    Over two days, they claim to have held 26 “auditions” with a wide range of political and administrative players in New Caledonia in order to “better understand everyone’s respective positions”.

    “Discussions were frank and in a climate of trust”, delegation leader and the Senate’s Law Committee President, Senator François-Noël Buffet, told a press conference on Monday.

    Four French Senators at a press conference in Nouméa, 17 March.
    Four French Senators at a press conference in Nouméa this week. Image: NC la Première TV

    Politicians urged to find their own agreement
    “We would have liked an inclusive agreement between all of New Caledonia’s players. But for the time being, it’s not there yet . . .  But if an agreement comes, we’ll take it . . .  In fact, it would be best if things did not drag for too long,” Buffet said.

    Before the senatorial visit, three MPs from the French National Assembly have also spent three days in New Caledonia, as part of a similar fact-finding mission.

    But their trip came under a wider mission that also included French Polynesia and Wallis-and-Futuna to study possible statutory and institutional “evolutions” for France’s overseas territories.

    They also commented on New Caledonia’s proposed constitutional amendment.

    “This is a real tension-generating project . . .  It is therefore important that an agreement is found between [New] Caledonia’s politicians and to avoid that the French Parliament has to make a decision on New Caledonia’s future status.

    “A decision concerning the future of nearly 300,000 people should not be left to French MPs, who know nothing about New Caledonia’s issues,” MP Davy Rimane told a press conference in Nouméa last Friday.

    “So I’m urging my Caledonian colleagues to reach an agreement.”

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pivotal role of PNG’s village courts in curbing sorcery violence

    RNZ PACIFIC Q&A: By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist

    In Papua New Guinea, sorcery accusation-related violence (SARV) remains a significant form of violence across many parts of the country.

    Many of the hundreds of cases that are reported end up before the village court system, which has been the focus of a study by the PNG Institute of National Research in partnership with the Australian National University and Divine Word University.

    These institutions looked at the role of the village courts, when dealing with SARV cases, and how it can be improved.

    Miranda Forsyth from the ANU’s School of Regulation and Global Governance was one of the researchers involved and spoke with RNZ Pacific’s Don Wiseman about the issues.

    Don Wiseman (DW): This matter of sorcery accusation related violence does appear to be getting worse and worse across PNG, and while many of the victims’ cases are being taken to the village courts, this isn’t always working for them?

    Miranda Forsyth (MF): That’s right. So first of all, in terms of it getting worse and worse, we actually don’t know. What we do know is that it is a major problem that isn’t going away. There are hundreds of these cases every year. And we know that it is impacting upon different communities in different ways. And it’s traveling into provinces that had never used to be in before. So, for example, in Enga [Province], there weren’t these kinds of cases before about 2010.

    We also know that in some places where, traditionally, it was men who were being accused then, now women are being accused there. We also know that children are a growing group of victims of sorcery accusations.

    We can also say that it seems that some of the violence has changed as well. There’s a kind of a sexualised violence that’s often used when it’s women who are being accused, but doesn’t tend to have been around as prevalently in the past. So, just to contextualise a little bit, the claims that it’s growing — of course these crimes are very hidden, often the whole community is complicit.

    And so people don’t go to the police, they don’t go to the court. And that’s been the case forever, really. We don’t have any good data where we can say, ‘oh, clearly, these are the trends’. But there’s a lot more attention being paid to the issue now, which is fantastic.

    It certainly appears from the number of cases that are being reported in the newspapers and that are getting to the formal courts as well, that the numbers are growing. In terms of what happens when people go to see the village courts; what our research has found is that there are both challenges for the village court magistrates and there’s also a lot of really creative responses.

    DW: It’s clearly a challenging matter right across the country for officials at every level. But for these village magistrates working largely in isolation, it must be horrendously challenging?

    MF: Yes, particularly the village court magistrates who are not really clear themselves about what the law is, who might believe very strongly in sorcery, those are big challenges for them. Often, as well, it’s a village court magistrate against the entire community. So it puts their lives at risk.

    We’ve certainly documented a number of cases where village court magistrates have had their house burned down or been chased out of the village when they’ve been trying to act on behalf of the accused and the accused family. It’s quite a precarious position.

    What we find is that the village court magistrates are most successful when they can act in coalition with, for example, a sympathetic police officer or a strong religious leader or a strong village leader — a community leader of some sort, when there is support from a strong family member, as well.

    All of these things give credibility and help the village court magistrate to manage the case.

    DW: There are examples as well, though aren’t there in your research, of magistrates, who clearly believe the accusations of sorcery and end up siding with the perpetrators?

    MF: Absolutely. We’ve documented quite a number of those cases where the village court magistrates will require the person who’s been accused to pay compensation to their accusers for having performed sorcery. This is obviously a really problematic outcome for the person who’s been accused, that not only have they been accused, they’ve gone through what can often be horrendous physical violence, but then the justice system actually condemns them further and requires them to pay compensation.

    We’ve also documented some cases where the village court magistrates have also been involved in giving beatings to the people who have been accused. There are definitely those cases that are problematic. A number of those, however, were appealed to the higher courts and the higher courts then gave out sentences and issued very clear instructions to say that that was inappropriate. So there is some degree of oversight by those higher level courts.

    However, there are certainly village court magistrates who are really trying to be creative in the way in which they’re helping victims of SARV. They are, for example, issuing preventative audits. When it’s the suspicion and talk and gossip going around, and they’re getting on the front foot and they’re saying, ‘we are warning everybody that you are not allowed to take any action against these particular people’. That works better when they’re able to rely upon a police officer to support them.

    We also find that some village court magistrates are able to use their mediating functions to really understand what’s going on at the heart of these accusations. Is it really about a fear of sorcery or is it about somebody wanting to take another wife, for example? Or are there land disputes that are really at the heart of this? And they then proactively get involved in mediating those underlying tensions so that the accusations themselves don’t develop any further.

    DW: It’s a question largely then of greater resourcing, more education for these people?

    MF: A lot of them [the magistrates] don’t have their salary paid on a regular basis. They don’t have regular training. They don’t have supports in terms of oversight by the higher courts. They don’t have police officers that they can call upon to help to keep the peace when they’re holding their meetings. There is a great need for more support for village for magistrates, who are often doing an amazing job against all odds.

    DW: What else could be done to improve their lot and improve the lives of sorcery accusation victims?

    MF: One of the things that we’ve proposed is that there are creative training materials that are distributed, for example, through people’s smartphones, so that they can refresh their memory, ‘Oh, that’s right. That’s what the law says and these are the different strategies that we can use to address these cases’, short videos, for example, or else just little pads that they can keep in their pocket.

    We also thought about the fact that it would be a good idea to facilitate the setting up of direct communication links between village court magistrates and the police and SARV victims so that they can quickly be activated when people are afraid that something is going to go down, then they can step in. Because what we find is that the earlier the intervention is made, the more chance it’s got of being effective.

    Once things really get out of control. It’s very hard for anybody to stop it, unfortunately.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • World Bank report finds imminent risk of catastrophic famine in Gaza Strip

    Findings come as UN secretary general calls on Israel to give unconditional access to Gaza for aid relief

    Half the population of the Gaza Strip is at imminent risk of famine as food shortages approach catastrophic levels for more than a million people, the World Bank has warned.

    Almost six months after the war between Israel and Hamas began, the Washington-based Bank said urgent action was needed to prevent widespread deaths from starvation within the next two months.

    Continue reading…

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

  • ‘Man-made famine’ charge against Israel is backed by mounting body of evidence

    Prospect of Israel facing war crimes charges has moved closer after UN condemnation of Gaza aid restrictions

    The accusation by the UN and other humanitarians that Israel may be committing a war crime by deliberately starving Gaza’s population is likely to significantly increase the prospect of legal culpability for the country, including at the international court of justice.

    Amid reports that the Israel Defense Forces are hiring dozens of lawyers to defend against anticipated cases and legal challenges, the charge that Israel has triggered a “man-made famine” by deliberately obstructing the entry of aid into Gaza is backed by an increasing body of evidence.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Company linked to Unilever & Nestlé is using tax havens to hide criminal deforestation HALF the size of Singapore

    Since 2021, a single company has cut down biodiverse rainforest in Indonesia equivalent to nearly half the size of Singapore. Crucially, the corporation involved in the rampant deforestation is utilising a complex structure of shell companies and a tax haven to obscure ownership and evade accountability. Yet companies like Unilever and Nestlé still buy its products.

    Deforestation of endangered species’s vital habitat

    These are the findings of a new report by a coalition of leading environmental organisations published on Monday 18 March. Titled “Deforestation Anonymous”, the research sheds light on the alarming resurgence of deforestation in Indonesia. Notably, it documented the largest current case of deforestation among all pulpwood and oil palm plantation companies in the country.

    In the last three years, PT Mayawana Persada, which operates a forestry concession in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo, has cleared more than 33,000 hectares of rainforest.

    There, the biodiverse rainforest ecosystem is home to multiple endangered species. For example, these include Bornean orangutans, helmeted hornbills, white-bearded gibbons, and sun bears.

    Green groups Auriga Nusantara, Environmental Paper Network, Greenpeace International, Woods & Wayside International, and Rainforest Action Network used a combination of satellite imagery, corporate structure mapping, and supply chain tracking to conduct their analysis.

    Hilman Afif of Auriga Nusantara said of the findings:

    Over 55,000 hectares of rainforest remains in the Mayawana concession, making it a critical test case for efforts to control deforestation in Indonesia

    Clearing sacred Indigenous forests

    On top of destroying a vital habitat, the deforestation has also catalysed a conflict between the company and a local Dayak Indigenous community.

    Crucially, a local Indigenous People’s organisation has said that Mayawana’s concession overlaps with 3,650 hectares of Dayak ancestral land.

    Originally, the report noted that in May 2020, community leaders negotiated an agreement with the company. Specifically, Mayawana would exclude parts of the Kuanan Hilir community’s ancestral land from pulpwood development.

    However, in April 2022 community leaders alleged that Mayawana had proceeded to clear sacred forests. Alongside this, they claimed it had encroached on agroforestry sites the Indigenous community depended on as a vital source of household income.

    As a result, the community fought back. Initially, they imposed customary fines on the company. Yet, when the company refused to pay up, the Indigenous community stepped up their response. In June 2023, community members blocked the company’s bulldozers from clearing the forest.

    However, despite the Dayak community’s efforts, the company’s opaque ownership structure makes it difficult to know who should be held accountable for its destructive activities.

    Obscuring ownership, evading accountability

    The report revealed that Mayawana is using complex corporate structures involving offshore secrecy jurisdictions to continue clearing tropical forests.

    Mayawana is owned by a chain of holding companies that leads to the offshore tax havens of the British Virgin Islands and Samoa. Neither country requires companies to disclose the names of shareholders to the public.

    Arie Rompas of Greenpeace Indonesia said that:

    This complex corporate structure, in effect, hides the ultimate beneficial owner(s) of the company and can shield them from the legal and reputational risks of destroying such vast tracts of tropical forest

    In the case of Mayawana, corporate documents, operational management connections, and supply chain links indicate the company is related to the Royal Golden Eagle Group (RGE).

    RGE is a global producer of pulp, paper, packaging, tissue, viscose, and palm oil. Moreover, it is the parent conglomerate of APRIL, Asia Symbol, Sateri, Apical and Asian Agri. In 2015, RGE – and several of its subsidiaries including APRIL – initiated a policy of “zero deforestation” in its supply chain.

    Indonesian tycoon Sukanto Tanoto owns RWE. Tanoto presently sits at 982 on the Forbes Billionaire list and has a net worth of $3bn. It is one of Indonesia’s largest pulp and paper producers and a significant player in the palm oil industry

    Companies complicit

    Naturally, some of the world’s largest fashion brands, consumer goods manufacturers, and mass retailers, purchase products from RGE. These include major brands like Colgate-Palmolive, Kao, Mondelēz, Nestlé, Nissin Foods, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever. Banks like Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) also finance RGE’s operations.

    Of course, many of these corporations make sustainability claims to customers about not causing rainforest destruction or harming communities. As such, the report now calls these sustainability claims into question over Mayawana’s continuing deforestation in Borneo.

    Senior forest campaigner with Rainforest Action Network Fitri Arianti said that the report showed that:

    Despite promises to end deforestation, major brands and banks continue to do business with the Royal Golden Eagle Group, turning a blind eye to its destructive practices

    More specifically, the report highlighted how RGE, through its shadow company PT. Toba Pulp Lestari (PT. TPL), has continued to clear forests.

    Notably, this was after its stated cut-off date for deforestation in 2015. Satellite imagery analysis commissioned by RAN showed that it cleared significant natural forests within PT TPL concessions after the cut-off date.

    Of course, this violated commitments made by RGE Group, as well as its customers like Procter & Gamble and Nestlé.

    Certification scheme greenwashing environmental destruction

    What’s more, the reports findings made a mockery of key sustainable forestry accreditations.

    In particular, RWE subsidiary Asia Pacific Resources International Holding Ltd (APRIL) is seeking to re-establish its Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. Supposedly, the FSC is the “world’s most trusted forest certification system”. Ostensibly, the FSC claims that its label confirms that a company is managing a forest:

    in a way that preserves biological diversity and benefits the lives of local people and workers, while ensuring it sustains economic viability.

    The FSC disassociated APRIL from its certification over a decade ago for destructive forestry practices. Now, however, the FSC has engaged in a years-long effort to facilitate APRIL’s re-entry to the scheme.

    Given this, authors of the Mayawana report have called on the FSC to suspend the untenable “remedy” process for APRIL. Crucially, they demand that the FSC should do so, at the very least until Mayawana stops deforestation, and resolves its conflicts with communities in an equitable and accountable manner.

    Naturally, through a statement issued by APRIL, the RGE Group denied any association with PT Mayawana Persada.

    Moreover, the organisations argued that the deforestation it has documented since December 2020 should not only prohibit APRIL’s and PT. TPL’s association with FSC, it should also preclude PT. TPL products from being imported into the EU market under new European Union Deforestation Free Regulation (EUDR).

    The EU adopted the new law in May 2023. It aims to prevent the import of commodities that resulted in deforestation after December 2020.

    RGE “wreaking havoc on our planet”

    Therefore, the report organisations are calling on brands and banks to publicly announce immediate suspensions of their relationships with RGE. Moreover, they are urging these actors and the Forest Stewardship Council to thoroughly investigate their findings, and ensure that they are no longer complicit in environmental destruction and human rights abuses.

    Arianti said:

    We cannot allow companies like RGE to continue wreaking havoc on our planet while profiting from unsustainable practices. It is time for brands and banks to take a stand for the environment and forest-dependent communities on the frontlines of commodity expansion.

    Ultimately, the report underscored the challenge in holding opaquely-owned corporations to account for driving the biodiversity crisis, and threatening Indigenous communities. However, the coalition’s research goes some way to disentangling these duplicitious corporate structures that allow companies to elude consequences for their ecocide.

    Feature image via National Geographic/Youtube

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Climate justice organisations call for host Azerbaijan to drop fossil fuel exec from COP29 committee

    Over 150 non-profit organisations have called out the influence of big oil at this year’s upcoming climate crisis negotiations in Azerbaijan. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) will hold the COP29 international climate summit in Baku in November.

    In an open letter, a global coalition led by 350.org and Oil Change International raised their grave concerns about clear conflict of interest in the COP29 organising committee. Specifically, the coalition of groups has singled out host Azerbaijan’s choice to include its state oil company president Rovshan Najaf as a member.

    COP29 host ramps up fossil fuels

    Azerbaijan’s state oil company, SOCAR, plans to expand fossil fuel production. Moreover, a Global Witness analysis from January found that the country is set to ramp up gas production by a third over the next decade. This will see Azerbaijan take production from 37bn cubic metres in 2024, to 49bn cubic metres in 2033.

    Overall, Global Witness estimated that fossil fuel companies would plough US $41.4bn to extract 411bn cubic metres of Azeri gas. Notably, it said that this could pay the cost of installing more than 1,170 offshore wind turbines, and emit 781m tonnes of carbon dioxide – or twice the annual emissions of the UK.

    Given this, the signatories of the open letter called Azerbaijan out. It read:

    Despite Azerbaijan being a party to the Paris Agreement, having endorsed the UAE consensus and accepted the findings of the IPCC, SOCAR plans to expand its fossil fuel production, which is incompatible with the objective of limiting warming to 1.5°C, and lacks a clear and credible strategy to transition away from fossil fuels.

    In short, SOCAR’s plans contradict the Paris Climate Agreement – the arguable cornerstone of the COP climate negotiations.

    COPs lead by compromised petrostates

    Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time the summits host’s actions has run counter to climate goals. Azerbaijan follow intransigent fossil fuel devotees such as the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and the United Kingdom to the table.

    As the Canary’s Tracy Keeling reported, the UK’s COP26 welcomed 503 fossil fuel lobbyists into the fold. Now of course, the UK’s Tory-led government has abandoned even the slimmest pretence of keeping to its climate goals, and plans to increase gas production.

    Likewise, Egypt escalated fossil fuel lobbyist entry into the summit, granting 636 delegates access. Again, the country has boosted fossil fuel production in recent years.

    However, the UAE’s COP28 took this to new heights when it allowed 2,456 corporate fossil fuel lobbyists into the conference. Worse still, UAE national oil company Adnoc’s head sultan Al Jaber acted as the country’s COP28 president-designate. Notoriously, Al Jaber championed the role of fossil fuels, arguing they would be needed for the “forseeable future”.

    The signatories to the open letter acknowledged this, stating:

    We are further aware that Azerbaijan is not the first fossil fuel producing country to host a COP. At COP28. At COP28, global civil society criticized the nomination of Sultan Al Jaber as COP president in order to protect the global climate talks from the influence of the fossil fuel industry.

    Now, another oil exec threatens to derail the next annual summit.

    More oil execs and employees

    Specifically, Azerbaijan has included SOCAR president Rovshan Najaf in the COP29 organising committee. As Climate Home News reported, the group also includes the head of state energy company Azerenergy’s Balababa Rzayev.

    Initially, civil society groups additionally heavily criticised the committee for consisting of men only. After this, Azerbaijan added 12 women to the previously all-male committee.

    Moreover, COP29 marks a consecutive summit putting a fossil fuel veteran at the helm of negotiations. Following in predecessor Al Jaber footsteps, former long-term state oil company employee-turned minister of ecology and natural resources Mukhtar Babayev is heading the key summit.

    As such, the open letter argued that:

    The inclusion of the president of the state oil company in the COP29 organizing committee presents a significant conflict of interest. The credibility of the COP29 presidency, already weakened by your historic ties to the oil and gas industry, risks being further jeopardized by this decision.

    Repressive states

    On top of this, the open letter further expressed deep concerns over civil society’s freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, and human rights in the COP29 host country Azerbaijan. The groups noted that:

    in Azerbaijan, peaceful protests are repressed and independent organizations and media outlets face excessive restrictions in law and practice. Just last week, Azerbaijani authorities conducted raids on local media offices and detained a dozen journalists and other civil society members.

    Such tactics are routinely used by the government of Azerbaijan to silence civil society, especially those who speak out about corruption and environmental harms in the oil industry – like Gubad Ibadoghlu , who has been imprisoned for over six months.

    In particular, the organisations highlighted that the inclusion of two further members to the organising committee was “highly problematic” and could create a “chilling effect”. These include Ilgar Musayev, the head of the country’s Service of Special Communication and Information Security and chief of the state’s security service Ali Naghiyev.

    Naturally, human rights organisations have raised similar concerns at previous COPs.

    Egypt’s mass arbitrary detention of hundreds of activists in the weeks leading up to COP27 set the stage for its surveillance and suppression of civil society voices.

    Then, climate justice groups highlighted the similarly autocratic UAE’s repressive protest laws and poor human rights record ahead of the negotiations in 2023.

    So, for the upcoming negotiations, the open letter called for clarification of state security and the special communication and information security services’ role during COP29. Head of public engagement at 350.org Namrata Chowdhary said:

    The climate movement has steadfastly held the line at climate negotiations, COP after COP after COP, pushing political leaders to drive the transformational change in climate policy we urgently need to see. But for three years in a row, these UN climate talks are hosted in countries where the interests of the fossil fuel industry are given precedence over those of people and the planet.

    Worse still, they exercise their authority to deliberately exclude the voices of the people most directly impacted by climate change, and threaten our right to push for the solutions we need.

    Chowdhary added that:

    Inviting the heads of oil companies and the secret service onto the organising committee sends a clear signal to civil society – that we will be held at a distance, and our influence limited.

    A “deep stake in seeing climate action fail”

    The letter was originally signed and sent by the executive directors of 350.org, Oil Change International, Action Aid, and CIEL. Since then, organisations representing youth, environmental, human rights, and Indigenous groups from over 50 countries and six continents have signed on.

    However, COP29 president-designate Mukhtar Babayev still hasn’t responded.

    Global policy manager with Oil Change International Romain Ioualalen said:

    The upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference must be the COP that starts implementing a full, fast, fair, and funded transition away from fossil fuels, after the promises made in Dubai.

    Yet, this will be the second COP in a row that is run by someone with deep ties to the oil and gas industry, which has a deep stake in seeing climate action fail. The recent inclusion of the President of the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) on the core COP29 team sends yet another profoundly negative signal on the potential capture of crucial climate talks by the oil and gas industry.

    Additionally, Ioualalen added:

    The COP29 presidency was heavily criticized for failing to ensure gender balance on its organizing committee and should therefore know that its choices will be scrutinized globally.

    But, like with their correction of adding women to the committee, after introducing an all male panel earlier this year, it is not too late to separate oil company interest from the most important climate change conference of the year.

    Needless to say however, the petrostate architects of climate dither and delay have shown again that they will likely bring more “blah, blah, blah” to COP29. Of course, it wouldn’t be a climate summit without it.

    Feature image via EnerSol/Youtube

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Hundreds stage Sydney ‘die-in’ to protest massacres in Gaza

    By Wendy Bacon in Sydney

    Twenty-four weeks of city marches and a five-week vigil outside the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s electoral office in Marrickville have taken pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war on Gaza to an unprecedented level.

    In a new development, hundreds of protesters joined in a street theatre performance outside Albanese’s electorate office on Friday evening to highlight their horror at massacres of Palestinian citizens by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in Gaza.

    Over 31,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, including many shot by the IDF while seeking care in hospitals, food from aid trucks or fleeing IDF bombing.

    Senator Mehreen Faruqi
    Senator Mehreen Faruqi (right) at the protest . . . Image: Wendy Bacon

    The street theatre protest was part of an ongoing 24-hour-a-day peaceful vigil that has been going now for five weeks. There is no shortage of volunteers.  A minimum of 6 people are present at any one time with around 200 people visiting each day.

    When City Hub attended twice last week, frequent toots from passing cars indicated plenty of public support.

    At 6.30 pm on Friday, sirens and rumblings could be heard along Marrickville Road sending a signal to scores of protesters dressed in white to lie down on the pavement. They were then sprinkled with red liquid.

    As the sirens quietened, a woman’s voice rang out: “War criminals, that is what our government is. They are not representing the people . . . We will not stop until our government ends every single tie with Israeli apartheid.

    ‘We’ll not stop . . .’
    “We will not stop until the ethnic cleansing has ended. Palestinian voices need to be heard. Palestinian voices must be amplified.”

    Greens Deputy Leader Senator Mehreen Faruqi attended the action. Before the “die-in”, she responded to Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s announcement earlier in the day that Australia will resume funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

    Last week, Senator Faruqi called on Wong urgently to restore the funding. “It has been 43 days since the morally corrupt government made the inexcusable decision to suspend aid funding to UNRWA despite the minister admitting she hadn’t seen a shred of evidence,” she tweeted.

    Along with some other Western governments, the Albanese government suspended UNRWA funding when Israel circulated a reportedly “explosive” but secret dossier outlining alleged links between Hamas and UNRWA staff. This happened shortly after the International Court of Justice found that Israel is “plausibly” committing genocide.

    The dossier alleged that UNRWA members were involved in the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023.  After analysing the documents, Britain’s Channel 4 concluded that the dossier provided “no evidence to support the explosive claim that UN staff were involved in terror attacks”.

    Recently, UNRWA accused Israel of torturing UNRWA staff to get admissions. On Friday, the European Union’s top humanitarian official Janez Lenarcic said that neither he nor anyone at the EU had been shown any evidence.

    In “unpausing” the aid, Wong provided no evidence about what the government knew when it suspended aid and what it now claims to know about the allegations. Speaking at Friday’s protest, Senator Faruqi said she welcomed the restoration of  funding but, “just as they restored the funding, they paused the visas of Palestinians en route to Australia while they were mid-air. How cruel and how inhumane can this Labor government get? Just as you think that there are no further depths that they can get to, they show us that they can.” (Late on Sunday, there were reports that the visa decision may be reversed.)

    Unprecedented protest
    While protests outside Prime Minister’s offices are not unusual, a 24-hour protest for more than a month has never happened before.

    Given the length of the protest, it is remarkable that there has been almost no media mainstream coverage. City Hub conducted a Dow Jones Factiva search which revealed one report on SBS and a mention in The Guardian. (The search engine does not cover commercial radio.)

    The weeks long, 24 x 7 protest in the heart of the Prime Minister’s own electorate has remained hidden from most of the Australian public and international audiences.

    Prime Minister Albanese has not responded to requests for meetings with organisers who include Palestinian families who have been his constituents for many years. City Hub has spoken to protest organisers who say that despite repeated requests, they have received no response from the Prime Minister. The office is now closed to the public which means people are unable to deliver letters or make inquiries.

    Protesters sit down in Market Street

    The Marrickville protest
    The ongoing 24-hour sit-down Marrickville protest. Image: Wendy Bacon

    The ongoing 24-hour sit-down Marrickville protest is an extension of the broader protest movement in which thousands of protesters marched on Sunday for the 24th week in a row. Similar protests have been happening in Melbourne and other cities. Again, although there have been bigger protests at times, the regularity of protests attended by thousands each week is unprecedented in Australian history.

    Protests on this scale did not happen even during the Vietnam War era in the 1970s.

    Last week, protesters marched from Hyde Park down Market Street completely filling several blocks of Sydney’s busiest shopping area. Their chant “Ceasefire Now’ reverberated around the streets. It was accompanied by drummers, some of them children.

    Some protesters briefly took their demonstration to a new level by staging a brief sit-down in Market Street. The area was filled with Sunday shoppers who watched as protesters chanted, “While you’re shopping, bombs are dropping.”

    The Prime Minister’s office has been contacted for comment. When a response is received, this article will be updated.

    Wendy Bacon was previously professor of journalism at the University of Technology (UTS). She spoke at the rally about the lack of media coverage of pro Palestinian protests. She will write about this in a future article.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.