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Category: Human Rights

  • March 8, 2024 was again International Women’s Day

    Like every year, many organisations used the occasion to focus on the role of women human rights defenders. Here a selection of this year’s actions [for earlier posts see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/international-womens-day/]:

    Global Voices has released a special coverage called Empowering voices: Women in politics, which explores the state of women’s political participation around the world. 

    Human Rights First referred to a new report reveals that WHRDs face increasing harassment and threats from a global movement against gender equality and LGBTQI+ rights. The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, a leading feminist women’s rights organization, released Hope and Resistance Go Together: The State of Women Human Rights Defenders 2023,  a report that found discouraging growth in harassment of WHRDs.  The foundation surveyed 458 women’s and queer rights activists and interviewed 25 activists representing WHRDs from 67 countries affected by violence or conflict.

    They found that 75% reported facing harassment for their activism, a 15% increase from two years ago, and 25% of respondents have received death threats. Most harassment comes from government authorities, but increased harassment from far-right groups and anti-gender equality actors is also driving these startling statistics. Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) across the world face resistance and violence. In 2022, at least 401 HRDs were killed for their peaceful work. But some of the obstacles facing WHRDs are distinct. https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/recognizing-women-human-rights-defenders-on-international-womens-day/

    Human Rights Watch on 7 March carried a piece by Macarena Sáez who says inter alia:

    On this International Women’s Day, we march for the one in three women who experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. We cheer for countries like Argentina, Colombia, and Ireland that value our autonomy to choose to be pregnant and have legalized access to safe abortion, while protesting that abortion is still or again illegal in many places, including US states like Alabama and Texas. At the same time, we march to honor the women who marched before us, like the Mexican women who organized the first feminist congress in 1916 to push for family law reforms and their right to vote, and the Nigerians who waged their “Women’s War” against colonization and patriarchal laws in 1929. Their struggles sadly mirror the reality of many women around the world today – especially women who belong to historically marginalized groups – who continue to rally against violence and abuse.

    Fearing the power of women’s solidarity and collective actions, governments have  stifled women’s speech through restrictions on movement, censorship, smear campaigns, and criminal prosecutions. In highly repressive contexts, like Afghanistan and Iran, women suffer arbitrary detention, and even enforced disappearance and torture, for their activism. Meanwhile, social media companies have not done enough to protect women from online violence, chilling women’s freedom of expression on and offline.    These barriers make it hard for women’s equality to become reality. Gender justice requires an enabling environment in which women can express themselves, speak and spread their political views, and participate in political and public life. Instead of repressing or tolerating the repression of women, governments should recognize our collective actions – and consequent power – and enshrine our rights in laws, policies, and practice. [https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/03/07/womens-voices-have-power-drive-change]

    Amnesty International on 8 March highlighted three prominent women who reveal why sexual and reproductive rights are a major human rights issue : Charlotte Bunch, USA Leila Hessini, Algeria Marge Berer, UK [https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2024/03/three-prominent-women-reveal-why-sexual-and-reproductive-rights-are-a-major-human-rights-issue/]

    On 8 March 8, 2024 Almyra Luna Kamilla and Rosalind Ratana 
opined in IMHO on “Navigating the storms of repression: The resilience of young women rights defenders in Asia”

    [OPINION] Navigating the storms of repression: The resilience of young women rights defenders in Asia

    In recent years, Asia has been witnessing rising authoritarianism and shrinking civic space. Among those in the frontlines of resistance are young women human rights defenders. As we celebrate International Women’s Day, let us demand for an enabling world where women human rights defenders can continue their noble pursuits without fear of reprisals.

    In Thailand, the royal defamation law is being excessively used to silence criticisms against the monarchy. Meanwhile in Sri Lanka, economic and political mismanagement has sparked peaceful protests that are met with violence and intimidation. The fate of Asia’s political climate hangs by a thread as elections are held across many countries, including Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, South Korea, and Pakistan. Now more than ever, governments across the region are finding ways to solidify their power, putting an even tighter grip on civil society to the detriment of democracy and people’s fundamental rights and freedoms.

    Despite such challenges, many are courageously speaking out and taking collective action to reclaim power for the people. This includes young women human rights defenders – or Youth WHRDs – who are claiming space to call out human rights violations and to demand accountability from oppressive governments. [https://www.rappler.com/voices/imho/young-women-rights-defenders-asia/]

    The Alliance for Human Rights in Afghanistan (a coalition of 9 major NGOs) urgently appealed to the international community to significantly bolster its support and actively safeguard the human rights of Afghan women and girls, including Afghan women human rights defenders who face persecution for their peaceful campaigns for rights and basic freedoms.

    In 2023, the Taliban further intensified its oppressive policies toward women, girls, the LGBTIQ+ community, and religious minorities. Afghan women and girls have seen their rights and prospects increasingly curtailed, from greater enforcement of restrictions on education – including a ban on girls attending secondary schools and universities – to intensifying exclusion of women from political and public life. Women have been banned from a growing list of forms of paid employment, and economic barriers, such as the ban on women registering organisations and undergoing vocational training, have contributed to a sharp decline in women’s participation in the labour market, impeding their right to make a living. This exacerbates financial insecurity, widens gender disparities, and further confines women to the private sphere. Lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women face severe threats, including torture, sexual violence, forced marriage, and death. Victims of gender violence, including those who identify as such, lack minimal legal and practical support. Obstacles to healthcare and education have exacerbated poverty and vulnerability among women and girls. In 2023, new discriminatory restrictions imposed by the Taliban included the closure of all beauty salons, blocking women from overseas travel for study, mandating female health workers in some areas to have a male chaperone while travelling or at work, and prohibiting women from entering a famous national park.

    The oppressive environment extends to female activists, NGO leaders and journalists. Notable cases include the arrests of women’s rights activists Neda Parwani and Zholia Parsi, the enforced disappearance and subsequent discovery of Manizha Seddiqi in Taliban custody to date, the arrest of Matiullah Wesa, founder of an NGO advocating for girls’ education rights, and the arbitrary detainment of Ahmad Fahim Azimi and Seddiqullah Afghan—both dedicated girls’ education activists, among many others. Journalists reporting on the Taliban, facing arrests and threats, equally illustrate the difficulties encountered by the media, particularly women, when covering crimes against women or advocating for women’s rights. Collectively, these cases underscore the near-total denial of freedom of expression, gender equality, or any other internationally recognized right in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

    Amid this growing oppression, segregation and fear, Afghan women human rights defenders have urged the international community to exert greater pressure on the Taliban. They call on international bodies to involve Afghan women in all negotiations with the Taliban and to facilitate direct meetings between women and the de facto authorities to address their concerns. Afghan women have also stressed the importance of advocacy for women’s rights by external actors based on the voices and realities of women inside Afghanistan. They call for coordinated efforts between organisations inside and outside the country to defend the rights of Afghan women and girls.

    https://www.omct.org/en/resources/statements/afghanistan-lifting-afghan-women-from-the-shadows-into-the-light-in-the-face-of-the-taliban

    The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, called on the Taliban to release women human rights defenders as the world marks International Women’s Day.

    I reiterate my appeal to the Taliban to respect all the human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, including to education, work, freedom of movement and expression, and their cultural rights, and I urge the meaningful and equal participation of Afghan women and girls in all aspects of public life. I call on the Taliban to immediately and unconditionally release all those who have been arbitrarily detained for defending human rights, especially the rights of women and girls.”

    https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2024/03/afghanistan-un-expert-calls-taliban-release-women-human-rights-defenders

    On 8 March, Civil Rights Defenders presented 4 woman human rights defenders and asked them to share their message to women around the world.

    “The future is women.” – International Women’s Day 2024


    On International Women’s Day, the a group of NGOs (ALQST for Human Rights, Amnesty International, CIVICUS, European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR), Front Line Defenders, Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement, International Service for Human Rights (ISHR),MENA Rights Group, Salam for Democracy and Human Rights) renewed their call on Saudi Arabian authorities to release all women human rights defenders (WHRDs), women’s rights activists and their supporters who are detained in contravention of international human rights standards. The organisations further call on Saudi authorities to lift travel bans imposed on WHRDs and their relatives, and to abolish the male guardianship system. [https://ishr.ch/latest-updates/civil-society-reiterates-their-call-on-saudi-authorities-to-release-jailed-womens-rights-activists/]

    The President of Georgia awarded severl with mesla of honor: co-founder of “Safari” organization Babutsa Pataraia, human rights defender Ana Arganashvili, founders of “National Network for Protection from Violence”: Eliso Amirejibi and Nato Shavlakadze and founder of “Vedzeb” organization Tamar Museridze.

    https://www.interpressnews.ge/en/article/130159-in-connection-with-the-international-womens-day-the-president-awarded-five-female-human-rights-defenders-with-medals-of-honor

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

  • Inter-American Court on the Escazú Agreement’s protection for environmental defenders

    On 7 March 2024, the ISHR report that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights examined the Escazú Agreement’s role in safeguarding environmental defenders, a landmark move for climate justice and human rights

    The Advisory Opinion, which has already garnered a record number of interventions – over 250, a record in the history of the court – will mark a rare instance in which the Court will analyse a treaty that is not part of the Inter-American System, but of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean: the ‘Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean’, also known as the ‘Escazú Agreement‘. For more on this, see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/escazu-agreement/

    In order to support the protection of environmental defenders, ISHR filed an intervention on environmental defenders, in collaboration with CIEL, FARN, and other international, regional and national organisations and human rights experts. 

    The obligation to effectively protect EHRDs

    The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has already recognised that States are obliged to protect human rights defenders, arising from the general obligations to protect the rights to life and integrity of the person, among others. However, the Court has yet to expressly establish whether protecting environmental defenders is an obligation that also derives from environmental commitments made by States, as these stakeholders are an indispensable partner in the fight against climate change. 

    This is an opportunity for the Court to recognise that, in order to guarantee the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, States must protect environmental defenders, as violating their rights also violates the rights they are defending.

    The Court is also called to elaborate upon the specific protection needs of Indigenous, women and youth defenders. These groups face particular forms of attacks which must be addressed with cultural and gender perspectives, taking into account not only the particularities of the attacks they suffer, but also of their needs and desires. 

    In the case of Indigenous groups, the existing jurisprudence of the Court on recognising collective rights, along with the language used in article 9 of the Escazú Agreement – which establishes that ‘persons, groups and organisations’ can defend human rights – provides an opportunity to firmly establish the existence of a collective right to defend human rights, as well as the State’s obligation to set up and adapt their protection measures and mechanisms to ensure that collective protection is available when needed.

    Environmental defenders and ‘access rights’

    While the express mention of environmental defenders in the Escazú Agreement is extremely important, it is not its main focus. The treaty contains several obligations for States to guarantee access to information, to decision-making spaces and to justice in environmental matters. 

    These ‘access rights’ are applicable to all persons, but the Inter-American Court must reaffirm and elaborate upon its own jurisprudence related to their applicability for environmental defenders, which states that: ‘defenders cannot properly defend environmental rights if they cannot exercise their own rights of access to information, freedom of expression, assembly and peaceful association, guarantees of non-discrimination and participation in decision-making‘.

    This is also an opportunity for the Court to clearly assert that private actors are also under the obligation to respect these rights, which includes conducting meaningful consultations and ensuring the free, prior and informed consent of communities affected by their projects.

    The extent of the Advisory Opinion

    Latin America is the region with the most and the oldest laws and protection mechanisms regarding human rights defenders, so it was only logical that it would be the first region to adopt the first treaty that expressly protects them.

    The Inter-American Court has also been a pioneer in this regard. It was the first regional human rights court to deal with human rights defenders’ cases and order structural reforms to better protect them.

    These successes must be celebrated, but there is still work to be done. The coming years will see an increase in three areas, all linked with one another: climate crisis, the amount of environmental defenders, and the risks faced by defenders. 

    The Court must seize this opportunity and set an example for countries in the region and beyond on how to properly defend the rights of those that defend our rights.

    See the intervention here: Amicus 1 IACrtHR AO on CC and EHRDs

    https://ishr.ch/latest-updates/environmental-defenders-and-the-inter-american-court-advisory-opinion-on-climate-change

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

  • Open letter to Sunak condemns ‘crackdown’ on right to protest

    Amnesty International UK among 46 groups to warn of ‘chilling effect’ of new legislation and policing powers

    Nearly 50 organisations have joined forces to condemn what they call a “crackdown” on the right to protest by the UK government.

    In response to Rishi Sunak’s recent remarks on extremism and “mob rule” linked to protesters, Amnesty International UK and 45 others have sent a letter to the prime minister calling for “leadership, not censorship”.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Palestine supporters picket RNZ studios and call for ‘truth’ on Gaza

    Pacific Media Watch

    About 25 pro-Palestinian protesters picketed the Auckland headquarters of Radio New Zealand today in the second of two demonstrations claiming that media is providing biased coverage of Israeli’s war on Gaza that is now in its fifth month.

    Last week protesters directed their criticism at Television New Zealand which never reported the picket.

    Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) secretary Neil Scott called on RNZ and other media to “tell the full truth” about the Israeli genocide in Gaza that has so far killed 30,800 people, mostly women and children.

    At least 20 people — mostly babies and children — have been reported by Palestinian health authorities as having starved to death in the past week.

    Scott said news media were providing “one-sided propaganda” in their reportage.

    The protest came amid mounting criticism around the world over Western media coverage of the war and growing reports by media monitoring and research agencies of bias.

    Protesters also picketed several media offices in Australian cities today, condemning coverage by the public broadcaster ABC.

    ‘Selective’ news
    In a street placard headlined “Silence is complicity”, the protesters said that New Zealand media “selectively chooses” what was reported and broadcast BBC news feeds that were ‘inaccurate and misleading”.

    “The media sculpts information to create public perceptions rather than informing people of the facts,” Scott said.

    He said that news media refused to tell New Zealanders about Palestinian rights such as the “right of the occupied to fight occupation”, and that the occupier — Israel — was obligated to provide for the needs of the people under occupation, such as food, water and health.

    A Palestinian "silence is complicity" placard
    A Palestinian “silence is complicity” placard outside the foyer of the RNZ House in Auckland’s Hobson Street today. Image: APR

    Scott also said Palestinians had the right not to be arrested and held without charge, trial or conviction — and a large number of Palestinian detainees were being held under “administrative detention”, effectively Israeli hostages.

    Israel is holding more than 8200 Palestinian prisoners, more than 3000 of them without charge.

    Scott said that there had been more than 20 weeks of rallies and vigils against the war in New Zealand, “averaging 25 rallies and events per week”, but they had been barely covered by media.

    In Sydney, high profile Australian-Lebanese broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf, who has publicly challenged the ABC over its coverage and was ousted for perceived sympathy for the Palestinian plight, said she was “incredibly humbled and moved” by the demonstrations in front of ABC studios.

    She has taken legal action against the ABC and the Federal Court on Thursday ordered mediation between her and the ABC management.

     

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Treason could mean life sentence under new Hong Kong national security law

    Debate has begun on Article 23 – legislation designed to bring laws closer to those of mainland China

    Hong Kong’s government has released the draft text of a new national security law that would further tighten control on the city and bring its laws closer in line with mainland China.

    The law, known as Article 23, is a domestic piece of legislation defining and penalising crimes related to national security.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Rift widens between New Caledonia’s pro-French and independence parties

    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ French Pacific correspondent

    One of the main components of New Caledonia’s pro-independence FLNKS umbrella, the Union Calédonienne (UC), says it has now suspended all discussions with two pro-French parties until further notice.

    These are the Rassemblement and Les Loyalistes.

    Public broadcaster NC la 1ère has reported the bone of contention is a series of recent comments made by pro-French politicians from those parties after a UC-organised demonstration in downtown Nouméa turned violent.

    This happened during French Home Affairs and Overseas Minister Gérald Darmanin’s visit to New Caledonia.

    During those clashes between protesters and French security forces, at least five gendarmes were hurt, one suffering a head trauma after being hit by an iron bar.

    The protests were motivated by UC’s opposition to French government plans to amend the French Constitution and modify the rules of eligibility for voters at New Caledonia’s local elections.

    Support for the UC and FLNKS is primarily from indigenous Kanaks who make up 41 percent of the population of 271,000, according to the 2019 census.

    Lawsuit to ban activist group
    Leaders from both pro-French parties filed a court case and called for the UC-reactivated group (CCAT — Cellule de coordination des actions de terrain — field action coordination cell), which organised the protest, to be officially dissolved.

    In a statement, UC expressed “regret” at the violence during those clashes, but also accused those politicians of showing disrespect to the pro-independence camp.

    Over the past two years, Darmanin has been repeatedly calling on all of New Caledonia’s political parties to hold talks together in an inclusive and bipartisan way and come up with a visionary agreement that would lay the foundations for a new political future.

    The previous autonomy Nouméa Accord, signed in 1998, is now deemed to have reached the end of its 25-year lifespan.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Israeli army detains female journalist, activist in West Bank raids

    Pacific Media Watch

    The Israeli army has raided dozens of homes in the West Bank and detained 20 Palestinians, including two women — journalist Bushra al-Taweel and activist Sumood Muteer.

    Quoting witness accounts, Quds News Network reported that al-Taweel was beaten up by an officer who insulted her before she was arrested.

    Today is International Women’s Day.

    The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said 57 journalists have been detained since October 7, with 38 of them still in jail. The organisation added that 22 of them were detained without charge.

    Since October 7, at least 424 Palestinians, including 113 minors, three women and 12 prisoners in Israeli custody, have been killed in the West Bank alone.

    At least 7450 Palestinians have been detained since the start of the war in Gaza.

    The Gaza Media Office has reported at least 180 journalists and media workers have been killed since October 7.

    Israeli forces ‘likely’ machinegunned reporters
    Meanwhile, a new digital forensic report has found that Israeli forces “likely” shot machinegun at reporters after shelling them, killing one journalist and wounding six others on the Lebanese border last October 13.

    An Israeli tank crew fired shells at a clearly marked group of journalists near the border, killing one Reuters reporter and wounding six others, including two Al Jazeera reporters and an Agence France-Presse reporter.

    An analysis by the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), commissioned by Reuters, has found that the journalists were also targeted with machineguns, likely fired by the same Israeli forces.

    “It is considered a likely scenario that a Merkava tank, after firing two tank rounds, also used its machine gun against the location of the journalists,” TNO’s report said.

    “The latter cannot be concluded with certainty as the direction and exact distance of [the machinegun] fire could not be established.”

    AFP global news director Phil Chetwynd, reacting to the finding, said: “If reports of sustained machine gun fire are confirmed, this would add more weight to the theory this was a targeted and deliberate attack.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Israeli army detains female journalist, activist in West Bank raids

    Pacific Media Watch

    The Israeli army has raided dozens of homes in the West Bank and detained 20 Palestinians, including two women — journalist Bushra al-Taweel and activist Sumood Muteer.

    Quoting witness accounts, Quds News Network reported that al-Taweel was beaten up by an officer who insulted her before she was arrested.

    Today is International Women’s Day.

    The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said 57 journalists have been detained since October 7, with 38 of them still in jail. The organisation added that 22 of them were detained without charge.

    Since October 7, at least 424 Palestinians, including 113 minors, three women and 12 prisoners in Israeli custody, have been killed in the West Bank alone.

    At least 7450 Palestinians have been detained since the start of the war in Gaza.

    The Gaza Media Office has reported at least 180 journalists and media workers have been killed since October 7.

    Israeli forces ‘likely’ machinegunned reporters
    Meanwhile, a new digital forensic report has found that Israeli forces “likely” shot machinegun at reporters after shelling them, killing one journalist and wounding six others on the Lebanese border last October 13.

    An Israeli tank crew fired shells at a clearly marked group of journalists near the border, killing one Reuters reporter and wounding six others, including two Al Jazeera reporters and an Agence France-Presse reporter.

    An analysis by the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), commissioned by Reuters, has found that the journalists were also targeted with machineguns, likely fired by the same Israeli forces.

    “It is considered a likely scenario that a Merkava tank, after firing two tank rounds, also used its machine gun against the location of the journalists,” TNO’s report said.

    “The latter cannot be concluded with certainty as the direction and exact distance of [the machinegun] fire could not be established.”

    AFP global news director Phil Chetwynd, reacting to the finding, said: “If reports of sustained machine gun fire are confirmed, this would add more weight to the theory this was a targeted and deliberate attack.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • The Tory government is being hauled to the UN over human rights violations here in the UK

    The UN is once again hauling the Conservative-led UK government in front of it, over at-home violations of chronically ill and disabled people’s human rights under the so-called UNCRPD.

    The UNCRPD and the UK government

    As the Canary has documented, the UNCRPD is a human rights branch of the UN. It oversees the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The UK has signed up to this conventions. However, in 2016 the UNCRPD assessed how the country was sticking to the rules. It found that successive UK governments had committed “grave” and “systematic” violations of disabled people’s human rights.

    Every so often, the UNCRPD monitors countries to see if they are acting in line with the CRPD’s articles or not. The last time the committee looked at the UK was in 2016 – and the report was damning. Then, in August 2017, the UNCRPD followed up on its report; this included its chair accusing the government of creating a “human catastrophe” for disabled people. Yet in 2018 the government effectively whitewashed the UNCRPD report.

    Now, the committee is investigating the UK again.

    As part of this process, Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) have come together to collate evidence. What they’ve found is damning. You can read the Canary‘s full analysis of the report here, but as one of its conclusions summed up:

    There has been continued regression since the last public examination of the UK under the CRDP

    A Tory no-show amid damning evidence

    With that in mind, the UNCRPD summoned the Tory government to Geneva for 28 August 2023. However, ministers have backed out of the meeting – but it went ahead without the UK government, anyway. Disabled people’s organisations (DPOs), charities, and campaign groups did attend. The evidence they gave was damning.

    The Canary previously reported on the more-than-28,000-word report a coalition of DPOs submitted to the UNCRPD. Evidence within it included that:

    • “In 2018 there were 365,000 DDP living in unsuitable properties”.
    • By January 2020, the DWP had removed 102,000 Motability customers’ Personal Independence Payment (PIP) awards that “entitled them to vehicles”.
    • 62% of “working-age people referred to food banks in early 2020 were Disabled”.
    • From mid March to July 2020, 59% of Covid deaths were that of disabled people.
    • 7.2 million households with a disabled person are living in poverty. This accounts for just over 10% of the UK’s population, but half of all UK poverty.

    So, the UNCRPD heard this evidence without the government present. However, it will now be in front of the committee.

    The government: evading UNCRPD accountability

    As charity Disability Rights UK wrote:

    On March 18th, the UK Government will finally face up to the United Nations (UN), giving evidence on their violations of Disabled people’s rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities…

    The UN Committee reconvenes in March, to hear what action the UK Government has taken since 2017, to correct their record of human rights violations…

    Three key UN Convention Articles are being reviewed, Article19 (independent living), article 27 (work and employment) and article 28 (adequate standard of living and social protection). The breaches were caused directly by Government policies and services between 2010 and 2015.

    It noted that:

    The reason this upcoming hearing at the UN is so significant is because it’s the first time the UK Government will be scrutinised on the world stage in over 6 years. Following on from their absence in August 2023 and request for a postponement until now, they can no longer evade accountability. We must make sure as many people as possible are aware of the ongoing UN investigation and outcomes, so that the government feels the full force of pressure from the grassroots combined with international and legislative enforcement.

    In denial

    It is highly likely – in fact, almost a certainty – that the Tory government will try to downplay the previous UN report, and whitewash its appalling record on the rights of chronically ill and disabled people. Moreover, the UK’s opposition Labour Party – likely to be elected to government this year – is following a similar path to the incumbents; pledging to clamp-down on people reliant on social security.

    Plus, the UNCRPD’s hands are effectively tied. There is no legal recourse for it to take action again the UK government over the violations.

    So, it will be down to activists, campaigners, and the public to hold those in power to account – as it has been for decades. The Canary will continue to report on the situation with the UNCRPD.

    Featured image via Rishi Sunak – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Mary Lawlor’s new report focusses on Youth Human Rights Defenders

    UN Report Unveils Strategies to Shield Child, Youth Human Rights Defenders
    UN Report Unveils Strategies to Shield Child, Youth Human Rights Defenders

    Emmanuel Abara Benson, on 6 March 2024, unveils in BNN a new UN report which highlights the challenges faced by young activists, advocating for global support and legal frameworks to safeguard their rights and efforts:

    Amnesty International heralds a new UN report as a significant advancement for young activists worldwide, set to be introduced by UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor during the 55th Session of the Human Rights Council on 12 March 2024. The document, titled “We are not just the future”: challenges faced by child and youth human rights defenders”, highlights the unique challenges faced by young activists, including oppression, age-based discrimination, and barriers to resources and legal aid.

    The report by Mary Lawlor sheds light on the considerable obstacles child and youth defenders encounter, such as intimidation, threats, and attacks, both in physical and digital realms. Amnesty International’s Sara Vida Coumans emphasizes the overdue recognition of the distinct experiences and adversities young defenders face compared to their adult counterparts. The report also addresses the issue of “gatekeeping” by adult-led groups, which hampers the ability of young activists to access necessary resources and participate in decision-making processes.

    Amnesty International has documented numerous instances of abuses against young human rights defenders. Examples include Fatima Movlamli from Azerbaijan and Mahmoud Hussein from Egypt, who faced intimidation and arbitrary detention, respectively, due to their activism. Moreover, the report mentions the plight of child climate defender Leonela Moncayo in Ecuador, who was intimidated with an explosive device outside her home, highlighting the risks young activists face. The organization calls for governments worldwide to heed the Special Rapporteur’s recommendations, particularly in providing legal aid and support for young defenders. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2023/11/13/hrw-submission-to-special-rapporteur-focuses-on-child-and-youth-human-rights-defenders/

    The document not only brings to the forefront the specific challenges faced by child and young human rights defenders but also underscores the importance of global support and legal frameworks to safeguard these individuals. By spotlighting the adverse impact of social media, the right to peaceful assembly, and the effects of climate change on young people, the report advocates for a more inclusive and supportive environment for young activists. Governments are urged to adopt the recommendations, recognizing the vital role of young defenders in advocating for human rights and democratic reforms.

    This groundbreaking report marks a pivotal moment in the recognition and support of child and young human rights defenders. By highlighting the unique challenges they face and offering targeted strategies for protection, the UN and Amnesty International are paving the way for a more inclusive and equitable future for young activists. The global community’s response to these recommendations will be instrumental in ensuring that young voices are not only heard, but also protected in their brave efforts to defend human rights.

    https://bnnbreaking.com/breaking-news/human/un-report-unveils-strategies-to-shield-child-youth-human-rights-defenders

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

  • Israel just sent a massive ‘f*ck you’ to the rest of the world – not that the world will do anything

    Israel has been acting with impunity for around 75 years – not least during its ongoing, current genocide in Gaza. However, the far-right state dragged has itself to another disgraceful low. Meanwhile, the West and its allies in the global north looked on – albeit it with some weasel words from a former UK prime minister – while China blasted the situation as a “disgrace to civilisation”.

    Israel: yet more illegal settlements

    The Israeli government said on Wednesday 6 March it has pushed forward construction plans for 3,500 settler homes in the occupied West Bank. The move comes after far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich vowed in February to expand settlements. This was in response to Palestinian gunmen killing an Israeli civilian and wounding several others in the Occupied West Bank.

    Israeli minister Orit Strook wrote on X that:

    Nearly 3,500 settlement units… We promised – we are delivering… Together we will continue to advance the settlements

    Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said there were 3,426 homes advanced through a planning committee, across Ma’ale Adumim and Kedar, east of Jerusalem, and Efrat, south of the city.

    After three Palestinian gunmen shot dead an Israeli and injured several near the illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim on February 22, Smotrich said:

    Our enemies must know that any harm done to us would result in more construction, more development and even more control over the entire country.

    Moreover, far-right Israeli minister of national security Itamar Ben-Gvir said:

    Our right to life overrides the Palestinians’ freedom of movement… I will fight for barriers around the villages that will limit the freedom of movement of the residents of the Palestinian Authority.

    Ben-Gvir’s comments should be viewed as colonialism in action.

    Context, context

    Greenlighting the next step for the pre-planned homes comes less than two weeks after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said any Israeli settlement expansion would be “counterproductive to reaching enduring peace” with the Palestinians.

    Meanwhile, on Thursday 7 March Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi slammed Israel and its allies in a press conference, saying:

    It is a tragedy for humankind and a disgrace for civilisation that today, in the 21st century, this humanitarian disaster cannot be stopped… The international community must act urgently, making an immediate ceasefire and the cessation of hostilities an overriding priority, and ensuring humanitarian relief an urgent moral responsibility.

    Of course, context is everything – not least when Palestinians attack Israelis, and then Israel retaliates.

    Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Settlements in the Palestinian territories are illegal international law – like the one in Ma’ale Adumim.

    Despite opposition abroad, Israel has in recent decades build dozens of settlements across the West Bank – often violently. They are now home to more than 490,000 Israelis, who live alongside – but often act aggressively and violently towards – around three million Palestinians in the territory.

    South Africa appealing to the ICJ to stop Israel’s genocide

    All this comes as South Africa petitioned the International Court of Justice on 6 March to impose fresh emergency measures on Israel over what it described as the “widespread starvation” resulting from its Gaza offensive.

    It is the second time Pretoria has asked the court for additional measures – its first request in February was denied.

    South Africa said it was “compelled to return to the Court in light of the new facts and changes in the situation in Gaza – particularly the situation of widespread starvation” during the offensive.

    Pretoria said its application may be “the last opportunity that this Court shall have to save the Palestinian people in Gaza already dying of starvation, and now ‘one step’ from famine,” citing the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

    The UN has warned famine is looming. Yet Israel has repeatedly killed Palestinians queuing for food in Gaza; a potential war crime if ever there was one.

    If Israel is an ‘occupying power’ then Palestinians can resist… no?

    Even ex-PM and now UK foreign secretary David Cameron appeared to toughen his words, saying on 6 March:

    The UK supports Israel’s right to self-defence. But as the occupying power in Gaza, Israel has a legal responsibility to ensure aid is available for civilians.

    That responsibility has consequences, including when we as the UK assess whether Israel is compliant with international humanitarian law.

    Of course, Cameron’s tough words are also weasel ones – given he personally refused to stop arms sales to Israel.

    However, they’re also interesting. He noted Israel is the “occupying power in Gaza” – as it is in the illegally-occupied West Bank. So, on that basis under international law Palestinians in both territories surely have the right to resist an occupying power – or, as the UN general assembly puts it:

    legitimacy of the people’s struggle for liberation from colonial and foreign domination… by all available means.

    Israel might like to bear that in mind as it starts bulldozing Palestinian’s homes for its 3,500 new illegal settlements, as it massacres Gazans queuing for bread, and as its ministers display open and rampant colonialism.

    Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse

    Featured image via the Israeli PM – YouTube

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Profile in Persecution: Sayed Osama Ali Husain

    Sayed Osama Ali Husain was a 16-year-old student when Bahraini authorities arbitrarily arrested him from the street without presenting an arrest warrant. During detention, he endured torture, denial of access to legal counsel, and an unfair trial based on confessions extracted under torture. He is currently serving a 22-year and 6-month sentence in Jau Prison on politically motivated charges.

     

    On 5 March 2017, officers from the Ministry of Interior (MOI), riot police officers, security police officers, and Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) officers arrested Sayed Osama on Al-Maared Street where he was going with his friend to have dinner at a restaurant located in a commercial area in the Bahraini capital, Manama. Subsequently, the officers transported Sayed Osama, simultaneously beating and torturing him, and raided the apartment where he had been hiding. They transferred him to the CID building afterward. Moreover, the parents were not aware that Sayed Osama was arrested at the time, whereas they found out the next day at dawn when they woke up to the news of the raid on the apartment. Approximately six hours after the arrest, they received a call from Sayed Osama stating that he was at the CID building, where he was detained for almost four days.

     

    Before his arrest, Sayed Osama was being pursued on a daily basis for two years. Consequently, he was compelled to hide in an apartment and lived in difficult conditions, experiencing instability and insecurity. Furthermore, two years before his arrest, at the age of 14, Sayed Osama had been sentenced to two years in prison on charges of riots, illegal assembly, and the manufacture of usable and explosive devices. On the other hand, the family’s house received multiple summonses at different times without mentioning the charges or providing any reason.

    At the CID building, officers repeatedly tortured Sayed Osama by beating him on various parts of his body during the entire interrogation period. They stripped him of his clothes and placed him in a very cold room for an extended period of time. He endured various other forms of torture but didn’t disclose all of them out of fear for the feelings of his parents. Due to the torture he endured, Sayed Osama has been suffering from various injuries. The interrogation lasted for about a week and was conducted without the presence of a lawyer. As a result of the threats and torture, he confessed before the Public Prosecution Office (PPO) to some of the charges against him.

    On 19 March 2017, two weeks after his arrest, Sayed Osama was transferred to the Dry Dock Detention Center, where he was able to meet his family for the first time since his arrest. On 11 May 2017, he was transferred to the New Dry Dock Prison, designed for convicts under the age of 21.

     

    Sayed Osama was not brought before a judge within 48 hours of his arrest, was not given adequate time and facilities to prepare for his trial, and wasn’t able to present evidence and challenge evidence presented against him. Furthermore, there was no lawyer present as neither the parents hired a lawyer nor did the court provide one.

    The court convicted Sayed Osama between 27 March 2016 and 28 February 2019, in cases related to 1) illegal assembly and rioting, 2) manufacturing usable or explosive devices, 3) intentional damage to buildings or public property, 4) placing structures simulating forms of explosives, 5) manufacturing or trading in explosives or importing weapons, 6) importing or possessing explosives or rifles or pistols, 7) explosion or attempted explosion, 8) arson, 9) violation of the terms of the license to import explosives or their quantity, and 10) negligent destruction. He was sentenced to a total of 22 years and 6 months in prison. Sayed Osama appealed some of the rulings, but the court of appeal rejected all the appeals and upheld the verdicts.

    Sayed Osama is still suffering from injuries resulting from the torture he was subjected to by the officers during his arrest and interrogation in 2017, and he is still being denied treatment and health care.

    Sayed Osama’s warrantless arrest, torture, denial of attorney access, unfair trial, and medical negligence constitute violations of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to which Bahrain is a party. Furthermore, the violations 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 on the Bahraini authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Sayed Osama. ADHRB also urges the Bahraini government to investigate allegations of arbitrary arrest, torture, denial of legal counsel, and medical negligence, and to hold the perpetrators accountable. ADHRB further advocates for the Bahraini government to provide compensation for the injuries he suffered due to torture and hold the perpetrators accountable. At the very least, ADHRB advocates for a fair retrial for Sayed Osama under the Restorative Justice Law for Children, leading to his release. Additionally, it urges the Jau Prison administration to immediately provide Sayed Osama with the necessary health care to address the injuries resulting from torture, holding it responsible for any additional deterioration in his health condition.

    The post Profile in Persecution: Sayed Osama Ali Husain appeared first on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

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

  • Fiji military commander seeks redemption for ‘past wrongs’

    By Vijay Narayan in Suva

    Army commander Major-General Jone Kalouniwai has highlighted the need for the Republic of Fiji Military Forces to “redeem itself” as an institution and embark on a process of transformation, reconciliation, and restoration.

    Speaking at the Force Church Service for the RFMF at Queen Elizabeth Barracks, Major-General Kalouniwai said the 1987, 2000, and 2006 political upheavals were mentioned as key moments in Fiji’s history where the RFMF played a significant role in coups.

    He said yesterday marked a significant event as the institution embarked on a journey of reconciliation and restoration.

    Major-General Kalouniwai emphasised the importance of acknowledging past wrongs and seeking reconciliation with those who had been affected by the actions of the RFMF.

    He urged members of the RFMF to reach out to those who had been wronged and amend things in order to set things right.

    The army commander said the call for reconciliation and restoration came at a crucial time for the RFMF as it sought to move forward from its troubled past and build a more positive and inclusive future.

    The RFMF said Major-General Kalouniwai’s words served as a reminder of the responsibility that the RFMF had to the people of Fiji and the importance of seeking forgiveness and reconciliation in order to heal the wounds of the past.

    Symbolic gesture
    The Force Church Service at Queen Elizabeth Barracks was a symbolic gesture of the RFMF’s commitment to reconciliation and restoration.

    The army said it was hoped that this event would mark the beginning of a new chapter for the RFMF, one that was characterised by transparency, accountability, and a commitment to upholding the values of democracy and respect for human rights.

    It also said that as the RFMF embarked on this journey of reconciliation and restoration, it was important for all members of the institution to reflect on their actions and strive to make amends for past wrongs.

    They said by acknowledging the mistakes of the past and seeking forgiveness, the RFMF could begin rebuilding trust with the people of Fiji and move towards a more peaceful and prosperous future.

    Vijay Narayan is news director of Fijivillage News. Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Activists may have sabotaged the Tesla factory, but Elon Musk is the true criminal

    On Tuesday 5 March, mainstream media outlets were ablaze with the news of an arson attack that brought Tesla factory in Grünheide, Germany, owned by multi-billionaire Elon Musk to a grinding halt. A group of climate activists claimed responsibility for the sabotage of a nearby electricity pylon which caused the shut-down.

    Musk branded the Vulkan – Volcano – Group who carried out the sabotage as “eco-terrorists”. Yet, the perpetrators of social and environmental violence against communities and nature are the true criminals – and Musk is no exception.

    He’s is no climate hero

    Naturally, the usual clamour of climate tech bros, Muskrats, and Musketeers – whatever Elon stans are calling themselves these days – rallied behind him on X. Seemingly, they were incensed that activists would attack the electric vehicle factory of the self-professed climate visionary.

    But let’s be real: Elon Musk is no climate hero.

    Firstly, the factory in question. Yes, it does manufacture parts for electric vehicles (EVs), and yes, these are better for the climate. EVs do produce less in greenhouse gas emissions than petroleum combustion vehicles. However, as I have previously pointed out, EVs are also not a panacea to the climate transport problem.

    There’s still the not so small matter that producing vehicles to replace the entire existing petroleum fleet will generate a lot of emissions. On top of this, you have the pollution and ecological destruction of extracting the multitude of critical minerals required for their manufacture. Not to mention the labour violations, rights abuses, and land-grabbing linked to mining for these materials.

    Incidentally, Musk knows all about these unconscionable crimes too. In its statement about the action, the Vulkan group catalogued a comprehensive, yet notably non-exhaustive, rap-sheet of Musk’s misdeeds.

    In Indonesia, Survival International has tied Tesla supply chains to the endangerment of an uncontacted Indigenous tribe. The company and its suppliers have violated workers’ rights in multiple countries. It sources battery materials from mining behemoth Glencore – twice topping the list for human rights abuses in the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s transition minerals allegations database.

    Musk’s Tesla factory expansion

    None of this is to even mention that the factory in Grünheide itself has posed no shortage of issues. The plant’s expansion will use up 1.4m cubic metres of water in a heavily drought-prone part of Germany. This equates to the water consumption of more than 30,000 people.

    And that’s not all. A local water utility has accused the factory of polluting Berlin’s drinking water. It has alleged that Tesla has been exceeding its permits by six times the levels of hazardous pollutants.

    Alongside this, a separate activist group has been fighting plans to raze a nearby forest for the expansion. Meanwhile, an undercover investigation by German outlet Stern revealed that the factory had put workers’ safety at risk. Employees have sustained severe injuries, including amputation and burns from the site.

    In February, the local community overwhelmingly rejected plans for its expansion. Yet, the vote was non-binding, so the local authority will get the final say.

    Sanctity of climate tech and profit

    Any climate justice activist worth their salt knows that we don’t solve this intensifying crisis by replicating the same systems that instigated it in the first place. Elon Musk’s trail of green capitalist harms should be a damning indictment of this model.

    What’s more, aside from being a serially exploitative human being, coloniser, and profiteer – Musk’s climate credentials are also highly questionable.

    First up, there’s SpaceX. It’s not rocket science to recognise that a multi-billion dollar space tourism endeavour will come with stonking climate costs in emissions terms.

    Then, there’s his reluctance to support improvements to public mass transit systems. Arguably, accessible public transit amenities are the just transport solution governments should be investing in to tackle the climate crisis. Alas, these don’t feature in Musk’s blueprint for the future.

    Instead, his The Boring Company plans to build a network of private tunnels to – supposedly – alleviate traffic congestion. A snazzy-sounding side-hussle for the owner of the foremost EV business in the world. Unsurprisingly, his pet tunnel project hasn’t gotten anywhere fast. Musk’s pioneer bravado simply hasn’t matched reality: by the close of 2023, his company had built just 2.4 miles of tunnels.

    Elsewhere, Musk has upheld the sanctity of so-called climate tech through and through.

    For example, he has flung his philanthropic funds towards nascent climate solutions like carbon capture and storage (CCS). Increasingly, it’s clear that the technology is largely a smokescreen for the fossil fuel industry. Ultimately, CCS has simply thrown oil and gas majors a handy lifeline to continue their parade of environmental destruction, while sucking up and storing emissions mostly ineffectively.

    Let’s also not forget about the climate shitshow that is now X, formerly Twitter. Climate denier accounts have been flourishing on the platform, spreading disinformation wide-scale.

    Given all this, Vulkan Group’s action makes total sense from a resistance perspective against climate injustice.

    Hitting capitalists like Musk where it hurts

    Of course, Elon Musk’s reaction was laughably predictable. He took to X to decry the saboteurs as “the dumbest eco-terrorists on Earth” and “puppets of those who don’t have environmental goals”.

    Contrary to Musk’s puerile response however – there was nothing “dumb” about an action that hit the forerunning fat cat of the billionaire capitalist class where it hurts – in the wallet.

    The company has estimated that the outage will run losses into the hundreds of millions of euros. Of course, that’s a drop in the ocean for one of the richest humans on Earth.

    What’s more, it pales in comparison to losses he’s suffered from his own self-inflicted business blunders. The tech and business extraordinaire wiped $25bn off his fortune in a single year thanks to his Twitter takeover, and managed to lose $41bn of Tesla shares – in just two weeks.

    But ostensibly, the action’s power is not in pursuit of Musk’s profit loss alone, temporary or otherwise.

    Andreas Malm’s scintillatingly titled book “How to Blow up a Pipeline” articulates how appealing to the institutions of power to protect people and the planet above profit is evidently failing. In that way, he argues that depriving the violent and environmentally unjust state and private forces of their capital is, in fact, a proportionate response.

    Drawing on the works of American social history scholar R.H. Lossin, Malm argues that since governments will not be willing to forfeit profit, sabotage of property is necessary to “break the spell”:

    A refinery deprived of electricity, a digger in pieces: the stranding of assets is possible, after all. Property does not stand above the earth; there is no technical or natural or divine law that makes it inviolable in this emergency. If states cannot on their own initiative open up the fences, others will have to do it for them. Or property will cost us the earth.

    Moreover, he explains that:

    the states have fully proven that they will not be the prime movers. The question is not if sabotage from a militant wing of the climate movement will solve the crisis on its own – clearly a pipe dream – but if the disruptive commotion necessary for shaking business-as-usual out of the ruts can come about without it. It would seem foolhardy to trust in its absence and stick to tactics for normal times.

    In the footsteps of resistance to injustice

    Of course, Vulkan Group also aren’t the first to implement more radical tactics. The Tesla action follows in the footsteps of brave activists who have taken non-violent direct action against other polluting projects. A major example is the Dakota Access Pipeline in the US. In that instance, activists quite literally turned off the taps to the fossil fuels by directly sabotaging an oil pipeline.

    For that, the courts handed out harsh prison terms to the saboteurs. Meanwhile, of course, fossil fuel companies can spill oil, leak emissions, poison communities, and wipe out ecosystems without consequences. As such, it’s a supremely fucked up system when the people protecting the planet are locked behind bars, while ecocidaires are free to wreak their devastation upon the world.

    Naturally, climate activists are also not the first or only group to employ the destruction of property to fight issues of extreme social injustice. Resistance to apartheid, export of genocidal arms, women’s suffrage, and Black Lives Matter are just a handful of the movements that have used similar tactics.

    For many of these, activists targeted the infrastructure and source of oppression: capitalism itself. Indeed, in the Tesla factory’s case, activists aimed at shutting down an enterprise harming local communities and nature in the name of capitalist greed.

    As ever then, the reality is that the capitalists killing the planet are the true criminals and extremists. The activists resisting the merchants of death are, and always will be my climate heroes. Especially those sticking it to the likes of a whiny ecocidal nepo baby like Elon Musk.

    Featured image via Daniel Oberhaus/Wikimedia, cropped and resized to 1200 by 900, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Food Security in the GCC: Assessing the Risk of Future Shortages

    Food security is described by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) as ‘’ all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. In addition, food security is structured in four pillars, namely: 1) Availability (people having consistent sources of food), 2) Access (people have sufficient resources to purchase food), 3) Stability (people can access food that remains at a stable price during time) 4) Utilization  (people know how to distribute food). Currently, among the Arab countries, the GCC is considered more food secure according to the Global Food Security Index. However, some long-standing issues remain present due to the national supply strategies, possibly causing a disruption in food security in the long term.

    The main issue is the region’s lack of control over its food sources, making it highly import-dependent. GCC countries import about 85% of their food, including 93% of cereals, 62% of meat and 56% of vegetables. Under these circumstances, a disruption in the supply chain, such as a pandemic, would leave the countries vulnerable to shortages. To minimise possible shocks, GCC governments have launched food intervention measures. For example, countries like UAE, Qatar and Kuwait have adopted national food strategies to boost domestic production and diversify import sources. Arguably, these steps helped preserve the region’s short-term food security without tackling more long-term issues.

    Firstly, being highly dependent on imports makes the region food secure but non-food self-sufficient. In this sense, in case of a rise of protectionist policies, they would be vulnerable to price and supply shocks. Secondly, the import strategy would need to be sufficient to bear the costs of population growth.  In 2005, the total population in the GCC area was 25.8 million, compared to 56.65 million in 2018. In light of this growth, it is questionable whether the availability or accessibility of food can be maintained at acceptable levels. Thirdly, relying so heavily on import strategies undermines the future adverse effects of climate change on food availability. In this sense, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) has forecasted that crop yields will fall by more than 10% by 2030 and at a similar rate by 2050. Consequently, in light of possible droughts or floods, the international market would shift to protectionist policies to ensure the presence of emergency food supplies.

    Furthermore, another possible security risk could hinder food availability in the short term. A relevant aspect of this analysis is where these countries obtain their food supplies. Most of the imports pass several of the most important maritime chokepoints. The main one is the Strait of Hormuz, where any disruption would negatively affect UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia receives supplies from the Mandab Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea. Considering the current political frictions in the Red Sea and the ongoing political conflict among states of the Strait of Hormuz.

    To conclude, it is possible to affirm that GCC countries have adopted logical but risky strategies to cope with food insecurity. Generally, it is considered that the domestic production of food in the area is complex due to the hot desert climate, which causes scarce water resources and poor soils. Consequently, it will be essential to understand if GCC countries will adjust to the overarching factors contributing to food security and ascertain that possible national food production policies in the GCC will not cause environmental damage (e.g. Rangeland deterioration in Saudi Arabia). Most importantly, food security strategies will be tailored to human rights necessities, meaning that the food supply is based on population growth.

    The post Food Security in the GCC: Assessing the Risk of Future Shortages appeared first on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

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

  • Lynda Tabuya fights back – ‘it’s unfortunate that as a woman I continue to be targeted’

    By Finau Fonua, RNZ Pacific journalist

    Fiji’s Women’s Minister Lynda Tabuya says the decision by the People’s Alliance executive council to remove her as deputy leader of the governing party is “unfair as it is based solely on allegations . . . generated by opponents from outside the party”.

    Tabuya, who has been at the centre of an alleged sex and drug scandal with the sacked Education Minister Aseri Radrodro, was removed from the position on Monday.

    According to the People’s Alliance, the scandal and associated allegations involving Tabuya had caused “potentially irreparable damage” to the party.

    However, in a statement to RNZ Pacific today, Tabuya said she was “disappointed with the two lawyers in the legal and disciplinary subcommittee who have based their recommendations on allegations published on social media which is aimed to weaken the Coalition and weaken the party”.

    “It is a dangerous precedent to set that by applying the constitution of the party they have based their decision to remove me as deputy party leader on allegations which they perceive as potentially causing damage,” she said.

    “This comes as no surprise as these very same people opposed my appointment to be deputy party leader before the elections in 2022, so they have pounced on this opportunity to do so.

    “It’s most unfortunate that as a woman I continue to be targeted with my removal last year as leader of government business and now as deputy party leader.”

    She said the party must stand for fairness and justice and applying the law equally based on evidence and facts, not allegations

    RNZ Pacific has contacted the People’s Alliance general secretary for comment.

    Reaction expected
    The publisher of Grubsheet, Graham Davis, who first reported — along with Fijileaks — about the scandal involving Tabuya and Radrodro, said Tabuya was attempting to “muddy the waters” with her reaction.

    “It is telling that Lynda Tabuya doesn’t directly address the allegations against her that the PAP executive council has found to be proven on the recommendation of its disciplinary committee — including at least two lawyers — after a detailed examination of the evidence first reported by Fijileaks and Grubsheet,” he told RNZ Pacific.

    “To turn her fire on the PAP in a vain attempt to muddy the waters is to be expected.”

    Meanwhile, Tabuya remains a cabinet minister despite being removed as PAP deputy party leader.

    According to the Fiji Sun newspaper, only Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka can remove her from cabinet, as per the 2013 Constitution.

    “The Fiji Sun has been reliably informed that the PM is seeking legal opinion before making his call,” the newspaper reported.

    Rabuka is currently on official travel in Australia.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Why have Albanese and other politicians been referred to the ICC over Israel’s war on Gaza?

    ANALYSIS: By Donald Rothwell, Australian National University

    In an unprecedented legal development, senior Australian politicians, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, have been referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigation into whether they have aided or supported Israel’s actions in Gaza.

    The referral, made by the Sydney law firm Birchgrove Legal on behalf of their clients, is the first time any serving Australian political leaders have been formally referred to the ICC for investigation.

    The referral asserts that Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and other members of the government have violated the Rome Statute, the 1998 treaty that established the ICC to investigate and prosecute allegations of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

    Specifically, the law firm references:

    • Australia’s freezing of aid to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the aid agency that operates in Gaza
    • the provision of military aid to Israel that could have been used in the alleged commission of genocide and crimes against humanity
    • permitting Australians to travel to Israel to take part in attacks in Gaza
    • providing “unequivocal political support” for Israel’s actions in Gaza.

    A key aspect of the referral is the assertion, under Article 25 of the Rome Statute, that Albanese and the others bear individual criminal responsibility for aiding, abetting or otherwise assisting in the commission (or attempted commission) of alleged crimes by Israel in Gaza.

    At a news conference today, Albanese said the letter had “no credibility” and was an example of “misinformation”. He said:

    Australia joined a majority in the UN to call for an immediate ceasefire and to advocate for the release of hostages, the delivery of humanitarian assistance, the upholding of international law and the protection of civilians.

    How the referral process works
    There are a couple of key questions here: can anyone be referred to the ICC, and how often do these referrals lead to an investigation?

    Referrals to the ICC prosecutor are most commonly made by individual countries — as has occurred following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — or by the UN Security Council. However, it is also possible for referrals to be made by “intergovernmental or non-governmental organisations, or other reliable sources”, according to Article 15 of the Rome Statute.

    The ICC prosecutor’s office has received 12,000 such referrals to date. These must go through a preliminary examination before the office decides whether there are “reasonable grounds” to start an investigation.

    The court has issued arrest warrants for numerous leaders over the past two decades, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and his commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova; former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir; and now-deceased Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

    Why this referral is unlikely to go anywhere
    Putting aside the merit of the allegations themselves, it is unlikely the Australian referrals will go any further for legal and practical reasons.

    First, the ICC was established as an international court of last resort. This means it would only be used to prosecute international crimes when courts at a national level are unwilling or unable to do so.

    As such, the threat of possible ICC prosecution was intended to act as a deterrent for those considering committing international crimes, as well as an incentive for national authorities and courts to prosecute them.

    Australia has such a process in place to investigate potential war crimes and other international crimes through the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI).

    The OSI was created in the wake of the 2020 Brereton Report into allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan. In March 2023, the office announced its first prosecution.

    Because Australia has this legal framework in place, the ICC prosecutor would likely deem it unnecessary to refer Australian politicians to the ICC for prosecution, unless Australia was unwilling to start such a prosecution itself. At present, there is no evidence that is the case.

    Another reason this referral is likely to go nowhere: the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, is currently focusing on a range of investigations related to alleged war crimes committed by Russia, Hamas and Israel, in addition to other historical investigations.

    Given the significance of these investigations – and the political pressure the ICC faces to act with speed – it is unlikely the court would divert limited resources to investigate Australian politicians.

    Increasing prominence of international courts
    This referral to the ICC, however, needs to be seen in a wider context. The Israel-Hamas conflict has resulted in an unprecedented flurry of legal proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s top court.

    Unlike the ICC, the ICJ does not deal with individual criminal responsibility. The ICJ does, however, have jurisdiction over whether countries violate international law, such as the Genocide Convention.

    This was the basis for South Africa to launch its case against Israel in the ICJ, claiming its actions against the Palestinian people amounted to genocide. The ICJ issued a provisional ruling against Israel in January which said it’s “plausible” Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and ordered Israel to take immediate steps to prevent acts of genocide.

    In addition, earlier this week, a new case was launched in the ICJ by Nicaragua, alleging Germany has supported acts of genocide by providing military support for Israel and freezing aid for UNRWA.

    All of these developments in recent months amount to what experts call “lawfare”. This refers to the use of international or domestic courts to seek accountability for alleged state-sanctioned acts of genocide and support or complicity in such acts. Some of these cases have merit, others are very weak.

    As one international law expert described the purpose:

    It’s […] a way of raising awareness, getting media attention and showing your own political base you’re doing something.

    These cases do succeed in increasing public awareness of these conflicts. And they make clear the desire of many around the world to hold to account those seen as being responsible for gross violations of international law.The Conversation

    Dr Donald Rothwell, professor of international law, Australian National University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • 18th edition of the International Women of Courage Awards

    On Monday, 4 March 2024, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and First Lady Jill Biden hosted the annual International Women of Courage (IWOC) Awards ceremony at the White House. See: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/A386E593-5BB7-12E8-0528-AAF11BE46695

    Now in its 18th year, the Secretary of State’s IWOC Award recognizes women from around the globe who have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength, and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equity and equality, and the empowerment of women and girls, in all their diversity – often at great personal risk and sacrifice.  The 2024 awardees and many earlier laureates can be found via the Digest link above.

    USAID Administrator Samantha Power had the following to say: It has always taken bravery and stubbornness to stand up for human rights. But today the threats that human rights activists and defenders face – from threats to their families to legal retribution to imprisonment and outright violence at the hands of those who would prefer to see them silenced – those threats are grave, and sadly they are growing. In 2022, more than 400 human rights defenders were murdered, the highest number ever recorded in a single year. I am in awe of the women we are honouring today for their courage. 

    They refuse to back down because of a shared conviction captured by Fatima Corazon, one of the women we are recognizing today. As she puts it, courage, even in the face of danger and fear is the driving force to achieve positive change. The women we are honoring live this conviction every minute of every day. They have been unjustly imprisoned, they have been driven from their homes or trapped inside their homes, they have seen their families and their colleagues attacked, or they have received death threats and been assaulted themselves. 

    But they do not relent. They go on fighting, they fight for the rights of political prisoners, they organize movements to bring services to marginalized communities, they publish articles, they host rallies, and they call out injustice wherever they can. Even in the most dangerous places against all odds, they are continuing their work demonstrating incredible, inspiring courage and putting their lives on the line to defend human rights. 

    Benafsha Yaqoobi has dedicated her life to defending the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. A former attorney and member of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, she has helped women escape violence and visually impaired children attend school. Today, she continues to fight for the future of Afghanistan – one that respects human rights and human dignity.

    Born in Isla Luis Vargas Torres, one of the most violent enclaves within Esmeraldas, Ecuador, Fátima Corozo has put her life on the line to draw hundreds of young people away from rising gang violence and help them get the education and job opportunities they need to build the futures they want for themselves.

    Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello was the only woman amongst 75 people imprisoned during the black spring, Cuba’s crackdown on dissidents two decades ago, Martha was jailed for her activism. After her release, she continued to fight for the rights of political prisoners documenting fraudulent court hearings and supporting activists and their families. Unfortunately, as the Secretary relayed, the Cuban government is preventing Ms. Roque Cabello from leaving the country. So she is not here to accept the award, but let us give her a heartfelt round of applause.

    As a result of Fariba Balouch’s outspoken activism for the rights of women and systematically oppressed ethnic minorities in Iran’s poorest province of Sistan and Baluchestan, Iranian authorities have threatened her life. And after she escaped to London, they detained her son and brother in a further attempt to intimidate her. Yet, Ms. Balouch believes the only way forward is resistance, and she continues to advocate for marginalized communities in Iran refusing to be silenced.

    https://www.miragenews.com/2024-intl-women-of-courage-awardees-unveiled-1185728

    https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/speeches/mar-04-2024-administrator-samantha-powers-remarks-international-women-courage-awards-ceremony

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

  • Protests demand UNRWA funding restored as Israel starves Palestinians

    By Alex Bainbridge, Peter Boyle, Isaac Nellist, Jacob Andrewartha, Jordan Ellis, Alex Salmon, Stephen W Enciso and Khaled Ghannam of Green Left

    Thousands marched for Palestine across Australia at the weekend in the wake of Israel’s massacre of more than 100 starving Palestinians who were trying to get flour from an aid truck southwest of Gaza City.

    Israel’s siege on Gaza has stopped Palestinians from accessing food, medical supplies and other crucial aid. A United Nations report found that more than 90 percent of the population, more than 2 million people, are facing starvation and malnutrition.

    This is made worse by the cutting of funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) by Western governments, the main organisation providing aid to Gaza, after Israel alleged that 12 of its 30,000 staff were involved in the October 7 incursion.

    The Labor government has refused to restore funding to UNRWA despite foreign minister Penny Wong conceding she had not seen any evidence to support Israel’s allegations.

    “Our government has suspended funding to UNRWA when instead it should be restoring it and increasing it,” Greens senator Larissa Waters told the Meanjin/Brisbane rally on March 3, reported Alex Bainbridge.

    Waters said that Foreign Minister Penny Wong was right to condemn Israel’s attack on food vans but that she was “not bowled over by the strength of response because Senator Wong has said she’s going to get her department to have a little word to the Israeli ambassador”.

    “That’s all she’s going to do after we saw desperate parents getting slaughtered [while getting] food for their children.”

    ‘Solidarity with Palestinian women’
    The rally had a “Solidarity with Palestinian women” theme in recognition of International Women’s Day on March 8.


    Call on global Jewish community to rise up against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.   Video: Green Left

    Protesters held a minute’s silence in recognition of United States Air Force serviceperson Aaron Bushnell who self-immolated on February 25 in protest against the US government’s participation in genocide.

    Israel has begun its bombardment offensive against Rafah, the small city in southern Gaza where 1.4 million people are sheltering. More than 30,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7.

    A YouGov survey found that more than 80 percent of Australians support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, showing the Palestine solidarity movement has cut through the establishment media pro-Israel messaging.

    Edie Shepherd, from the Tzedek Collective, an anti-Zionist Jewish group told thousands at the rally in Gadigal/Sydney on March 3 that the global Jewish community must “rise up against the dominant Zionist frameworks that wield hate, power militarism to carry out atrocities against Palestinians”, reported Peter Boyle.

    “The greatest shame is that our survival of genocide has been weaponised to commit genocide against Palestinians now.”

    Nasser Mashni, president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN), told the March 3 rally in Garramilla/Darwin that “Israelis and Zionists want to kill Palestinians”, reported Stephen W Enciso.

    Israel's massacre of starving Palestinians has been dubbed the "flour massacre"
    Israel’s massacre of starving Palestinians has been dubbed the “flour massacre”. Image: Alex Bainbridge/Green Left

    ‘They want decolonisation’
    “Palestinians do not want to kill Israels. Indigenous folk do not want to kill their colonisers. They just want to be acknowledged. They want [a] treaty. They want their rights. They want restitution. They want racism to stop and decolonisation to start,” he said.

    Kulumbirigin Danggalaba Tiwi woman Mililma May drew links between the colonial violence faced by Indigenous people in Australia and Palestine.

    She pointed to the coronial inquest into the killing of Kumanjayi Walker by former constable Zachary Rolfe, in which Rolfe gave evidence about widespread racism in the Northern Territory Police Force.

    “We are witnessing in plain evidence the racism and the deep horror that exists in the NT police, as across the colony,” May said.

    “We live in the same states and under the same violence as Palestine. It just manifests itself in different ways.”

    Kites flying for Gaza
    A kite-flying for Gaza event was organised by Pilbara for Palestine in Karratha, Western Australia on March 3.

    Children made and flew kites decorated with Palestinian flags, watermelons and “Free Palestine” in solidarity with the children on Gaza.

    Organiser Chris Jenkins told Green Left that the action “demonstrated once again that support for Palestine exists from the CBD to the bush”.

    The community also raised money for UNRWA.

    In Muloobinba/Newcastle a “Hands off Rafah” rally and kite-flying event was held on March 2 at Nobby’s Beach, reported Khaled Ghannam.

    Former Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon, who visited Palestine in June last year, said the Israeli occupation impacts on everything Palestinians do.

    “One of the common things that people we interviewed said was, ‘please take our voice to the world’,” she said.

    “We are part of a massive global movement, millions of people are on the move around the world in so many countries, with a similar message to us:

    • Ceasefire now,
    • Restore UNRWA funding, and
    • End the occupation.”

    She said the UN had called on Australia and other countries to stop arming Israel.

    Republished with permission from Green Left.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Wenda calls for Dutch support over UN visit, slams Prabowo presidency

    Asia Pacific Report

    A West Papuan independence leader has called on the Dutch Parliament to support a United Nations visit to the Melanesian region ruled by Indonesia and says the recent election of Prabowo Subianto as the next President is a “frightening” prospect due to his notorious human rights record.

    Addressing the Dutch Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee last week, United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) president Benny Wenda said that more than 100 separate countries had now demanded that Indonesia allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate in West Papua.

    “Indonesia’s continued refusal to obey this demand is why we are here today,” Wenda said.

    “As our former coloniser, it is very important that you understand the situation in West Papua and show support for our struggle,” he said, thanking the Parliament for the opportunity to speak.

    Addressing last month’s presidential election in Indonesia, Wenda strongly condemned the election of Prabowo Subianto, describing this as a “concerning and frightening” development for West Papua.

    “Let’s be clear: Prabowo is a war criminal. He is complicit in crimes against humanity and in genocide in East Timor and West Papua.,” Wenda said.

    ‘Never held accountable’
    “He has never apologised or been held accountable for the many atrocities he has been involved in. This is a man who was considered too brutal even for the Indonesian army.”

    Prabowo was the only presidential candidate who did not comply with a human rights record questionnaire from Human Rights Watch prior to the election.

    Last month, Wenda publicly called for an international arrest warrant against Prabowo.

    “Because of his past, his ideology, and because of statements he made during his election campaign, we have good reason to fear that Prabowo will further escalate the militarisation of West Papua,” Wenda told the Dutch parliamentarians.

    “We are already suffering ecocide and genocide. The situation will only get worse under this murderer.

    Wenda said they had already seen the first atrocity of the new Prabowo era.

    Last month, the Indonesian military arrested and tortured two Papuan teenagers in Yahukimo.

    Torture ‘trophy photos’
    “They then took photos with these two innocent children as trophies. Indonesia has repeatedly shown they will target children — the new generation of West Papuans,” Wenda said.

    Torture in West Papua had become so common that it was being described as a “mode of governance”.

    “With Prabowo as President, there must be a renewed campaign for a UN fact-finding mission in my country. The world must pay attention to our plight.

    “Human rights do not exist in West Papua.”

    In six years since Indonesia had first invited the UN to West Papua more than 100,000 Papuans had been displaced from their homes and made refugees in their own land, said Wenda.

    “Over 75,000 of my people remain displaced to this day. Over 1400 have been killed. It is no coincidence that this violence has happened while Indonesia has sent 25,000-30,000 extra troops to occupied West Papua.”

    Indonesia refused aid
    Indonesia had also consistently refused to let aid reach displaced people, meaning that many had died of hunger or thirst in the bush.

    “No UN visit, no aid workers, no journalists allowed. West Papua is becoming the North Korea of the Pacific,” Wenda said.

    In West Papua, there were two crimes — genocide and ecocide, he said.

    While the UN had not been allowed in, Indonesia had increased its destruction of West Papuan ancestral land – “our mountains, rivers and forests”.

    A new gold mine – “the size of Jakarta” — was now being built called Wabu Block, while BP had completed its expansion of the Tangguh gas field, which would provide 35 percent of Indonesia’s gas.

    Indonesia had also rejected a tribal land claim in Boven Digoel.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Resisting in Exile: Voice of Human Rights Defenders – side event tomorrow, 5 March 2024

    On Tuesday, 5th March, 2pm – at the Palais des Nations, Room XXV- will take place the side event Resisting in Exile: Voice of Human Rights Defenders

    “I do not like the idea of being a refugee. I do not want to leave the country because I wanted to make it better.”  Human rights defender quoted by the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders in A/HRC/37/51.

    In ‘People Power Under Attack’ (2022), CIVICUS reports that the number of countries where civic freedoms are being curtailed and civil society is under severe attack is increasing… In such contexts and under such pressure, defenders can see leaving the country as their only option. These defenders, along with defenders expelled by their home governments, face the huge challenges of short or protracted exile, including economic insecurity and ongoing threats. Defenders in exile question if and how they can continue human rights work from abroad and how those who remain deal with a fractured human rights community.

    In this event the four organisers [Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR-Centre), International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights, (Race and Equality), International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), and DefendDefenders] will bring the voices of human rights defenders from around the world to the Council so that States, UN experts and officials and civil society colleagues can hear their voices. What is the experience of being in exile like? What is the impact on individual work and that of the community of defenders? What demands do exile defenders make to the Council?

    This event aims to raise greater awareness about the phenomenon of defenders in exile and encourage discussion and action on how to support these defenders. It is also aimed at looking at what is needed to prevent exile becoming some defenders’ only feasible option.

    During this event, defenders in exile from will speak of the impact of their experience of exile on their own lives, those of their families, and their communities. They will highlight the specific needs defenders in exile have in terms of legal guarantees, and political and financial support and of their ongoing work to defend rights from exile.

    Defenders in exile will also send in testimonies, to be shown in video form or read out by fellow defenders. We aim to fill the room with the voices of those in exile who cannot be in Geneva to participate directly.

    Recall the recommendations made by the previous Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Michel Forst, in his 2018 report to the Council (A/HRC/37/51), including in regard to the prohibition of non-refoulement to persecution, relocation schemes, and access to protection measures for defenders in exile.

    The conversation will take place during the Council session when the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders will be presenting her report to the Council. We hope that the Special Rapporteur will be available to, highlight the need for greater attention to, and investment in the prevention of, the closure of civic space so as to forestall the need for defenders to leave the country.

    See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2022/03/04/warning-human-rights-defenders-in-ukraine-and-in-exile-will-be-danger/

    https://forum-asia.org/?p=39063

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

  • State repression of environmental defenders ‘a major threat’ to human rights

    In a landmark paper, the UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention warns that the continued State efforts to repress and criminalise environmental protests, including direct action and civil disobedience, are a threat to fundamental freedoms and democracy itself.

    The world is currently facing a triple planetary crisis and despite this alarming and unprecedented situation, States are failing to meaningfully address it. In response to this, environmental human right defenders (EHRDs), Indigenous Peoples, peasants movements and civil society from around the world have exercised their right to peacefully protest and participate in demonstrations to pressure their governments into taking concrete actions.

    Some of these demonstrations have taken the form of civil disobedience which has been disproportionately repressed by governments and law enforcement officials.

    On 28 February 2024 Michel Forst, the UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders, published a position paper highlighting a trend towards the repression and criminalisation of defenders engaging in environmental protests and civil disobedience in Europe, as well as an alarming toughening of stances against them in political discourse and the law enforcement and judicial practices. [The UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters – known as the Aarhus Convention – was adopted in 1998. It aims to protect every person’s right to live in an environment adequate to his or her health and well-being.] See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/aarhus-convention/]

    Forst also points to legislative attempts to ban specific organisations – citing France’s Soulèvements de la Terre, Spain’s Futuro Vegetal, or Letze Generation in Germany and Austria. These moves come alongside new or updated laws – including the UK’s ‘2022 Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act’ and Italy’s 2024 ‘eco vandalism’ law -, which the paper says have virtually prohibited certain kinds of protests. 

    The Special Rapporteur flags how politicians demonise environmental movements engaging in civil disobedience, while national or pan-European intelligence services no longer hesitate to label peaceful groups or individuals as potential or genuine terrorist threats.

    The paper also recognises that European States have been disproportionately and increasingly used criminal, administrative and civil measures against environmental human rights defenders recurring to civil disobedience. This includes excessive and disproportionate use of force against them and extensive investigation and surveillance measures. 

    Other takeaways include the use of social media by State and non-state actors that have contributed to creating negative narratives against EHRDs and the challenges that defenders and activists face to access to justice.

    While civil disobedience tactics have been recently used in protests related to climate justice, they have been constantly used to advocate for other legitimate causes including international solidarity, where States have also criminalised such moves.

    This paper also comes shortly after the 25th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Right Defenders and it is a good reminder that civil disobedience is and should be recognised as a legitimate form of exercising the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

    States must stop criminalising human right defenders exercising these rights and focus on addressing the root causes of their mobilisation.

    https://ishr.ch/latest-updates/state-repression-of-civil-disobedience-on-environment-a-major-threat-to-human-rights

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

  • Excerpts from Türk’s global update to the Human Rights Council

    UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk at the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council, OHCHR/Pierre Albouy

    At the 55th session of the Human Rights Council, Volker Türk – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – made his overview statement on 4 march 2024. Here some highlights:

    ….Around the world, 55 conflicts are flaring. Widespread violations of international humanitarian and human rights law are generating devastating impact on millions of civilians. Displacement and humanitarian crises have already reached an unprecedented scale. And all of these conflicts have regional and global impact.

    Overlapping emergencies make the spectre of spillover conflict very real. The war in Gaza has explosive impact across the Middle East. Conflicts in other regions – including in the Horn of Africa, Sudan and the Sahel – could also escalate sharply. Increasing militarisation on the Korean Peninsula raises threat levels. The deteriorating security c risis in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which the Council will address on 3 April, is alarming. In the Red Sea, as well as the Black Sea, attacks are creating shock-waves for the global transport of goods, adding to the economic pain inflicted on less developed countries…..

    In Latin America and the Caribbean, the prevalence and violence of gangs and organized crime have severe impact on the lives and rights of millions of people, including in Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras and Mexico. Punitive and militarized responses have in some cases led to grave human rights violations, potentially further fuelling violence. Only policies grounded in human rights can provide effective and sustainable solutions. Corruption, impunity, poor governance and the structural root causes of violence – such as discrimination and failure to uphold economic, social and cultural rights – must be tackled, with the full participation of civil society and affected communities. International cooperation needs to be enhanced, to address the illegal arms trade and ensure accountability for transnational crimes…

    Fear is fragmenting societies across the world, unleashing fury and hatred. They are also fuelled by a winner-take-all attitude that frames elections as the spoils of conquest.

    ..Good governance requires constant oversight and accountability, via independent checks and balances to the exercise of power, meaning that it is strongly underpinned by the rule of law, including independent justice systems. Fundamental freedoms – the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, peaceful assembly and association – are also essential.

    …

    I am profoundly concerned by the prospect of intense disinformation campaigns in the context of elections, fuelled by generative artificial intelligence. There is an acute need for robust regulatory frameworks to ensure responsible use of generative AI, and my Office is doing its utmost to advance them…

    Autocracy and military coups are the negation of democracy. Every election – even an imperfect one – constitutes an effort to at least formally acknowledge the universal aspiratio n to democracy However, in a so-called ‘illiberal democracy’ – or, as the Prime Minister of Hungary referred to his country, an ‘illiberal State’ – the formal structure of election is maintained, civic freedoms are restricted, the media’s scrutiny of governance is eroded by installing government control over key media outlets, and independent oversight and justice institutions are deeply undermined, concentrating power in the executive branch.

    It is important to recognise that in many cases, this year’s electoral processes will ensure a smooth transfer of power, free of hatred; and that the governance structures that result will broadly achieve their main function of representing the many voices of the people, and advancing their rights.

    But in other cases, I have serious concerns about the human rights context in which several elections are taking place.

    In the Russian Federation, the authorities have further intensified their repression of dissenting voices prior to this month’s Presidential election. Several candidates have been prevented from running, due to alleged administrative irregularities. The death in prison of opposition leader Alexei Navalny adds to my serious concerns about his persecution. Since the onset of Russia’s war on Ukraine, t housands of politicians, journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers and people who have simply spoken their minds on social media have faced administrative and criminal charges, and this trend appears to have worsened in recent months, with many cultural figures targeted. Last month, a new bill passed into law that further punishes people convicted of distributing information deemed to be false about Russia’s armed forces, as well as people who seek to implement decisions by international organizations that the Russian Federation “does not take part in”. I urge a swift and comprehensive review of all cases of deprivation of liberty that result from the exercise of fundamental freedoms; as well as an immediate end to the repression of independent voices and the legal professionals who represent them. The future of the country depends on an open space.

    Iran’s legislative election three days ago was Iranians’ first opportunity to vote since the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests of 2022 and 2023. It took place in a country that has been deeply divided by the Government’s repression of the rights of women and girls. People who participated in the protests have been persecuted, imprisoned on long sentences and in some cases, put to death. The draft Bill on “Supporting the Family by Promoting the Culture of Chastity and Hijab”, if adopted, would impose severe punishments for acts that should not be deemed criminal in any country. In my ongoing engagement with the Iranian authorities, I have urged immediate reforms to uphold the rights of all Iranians, including the right of women to make their own choices, and an immediate moratorium on the death penalty….

    In the United States of America, in this electoral year, it is particularly important for authorities at all levels to implement recent recommendations by the UN Human Rights Committee to ensure that suffrage is non-discriminatory, equal and universal. A 2021 Presidential executive order acknowledges that disproportionate and discriminatory policies and other obstacles have restricted the right to vote for people of African descent, and emphasises the need to overturn them. Yet according to the Brennan Center for Justice , at least 14 states have passed laws in 2023 that have the effect of making voting more difficult. In a context of intense political polarisation, it is important to emphasise equal rights, and the equal value of every citizen’s vote…

    In Afghanistan, I deplore continuing and systematic violations of human rights, particularly the comprehensive violations of the rights of women and girls, which exclude them from every aspect of public life, including secondary and tertiary education; employment; and movement. Advancing the rights of women and girls must be the highest priority for all who work on and in Afghanistan. The civic freedoms and media freedoms of all Afghans are profoundly curtailed, with many women human rights defenders and journalists suffering arbitrary detentions. The resumption of public executions is horrific. I remain concerned about forced expulsion of Afghans from neighbouring countries, particularly for those who face a risk of persecution, torture or other irreparable harm in Afghanistan.

    In the United Arab Emirates, another mass trial is underway based on counter-terrorism legislation that contravenes human rights law. In December, new charges were brought against 84 people, including human rights defenders, journalists and others who were already in prison. Several were nearing the end of their sentence or have been arbitrarily held in detention after completion of their sentence. Their joint prosecution constitutes the second-largest mass trial in the UAE’s history, after the so-called “UAE94” case in 2021, and includes many of the same defendants. I remain concerned about broader patterns of suppression of dissent and the civic space in the country, and I urge the Government to review domestic laws in line with international human rights recommendations.

    Dialogue between China and my Office continues in areas such as counterterrorism policies, gender equality, minority protection, civic space, and economic, social and cultural rights. As we move forward, it is important that this dialogue yield concrete results, notably in respect of the policy areas raised during the Universal Periodic Review. I recognise China’s advances in alleviating poverty and advancing development, and I have urged that these advances be accompanied by reforms to align relevant laws and policies with international human rights standards. During the UPR, China announced plans to adopt 30 new measures for human rights protection, including amendments to the Criminal Law, and revisions of the Criminal Procedure Law. My Office looks forward to engaging with China on this; I particularly encourage revision of the vague offence of “picking quarrels and making trouble” in Article 293 of the Criminal Law, and I urge the release of human rights defenders, lawyers and others detained under such legislation. I also call on the Government to implement the recommendations made by my Office and other human rights bodies in relation to laws, policies and practises that violate fundamental rights, including in the Xinjiang and Tibet regions. I am engaging with the Hong Kong authorities on continuing concerns about national security laws…

    In many countries, including in Europe and North America, I am concerned by the apparently growing influence of so-called “great replacement” conspiracy theories, based on the false notion that Jews, Muslims, non-white people and migrants seek to “replace” or suppress countries’ cultures and peoples. These delusional and deeply racist ideas have directly influenced many perpetrators of violence. Together with the so called “war on woke,” which is really a war on inclusion, these ideas aim to exclude racial minorities – particularly women from racial minorities – and LGBTQ+ people from full equality. Multiculturalism is not a threat: it is the history of humanity, and deeply beneficial to us all.

    Peace, like development, is built and nourished through rights. It is by upholding and advancing the full spectrum of human rights, including the right to development and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, that States can craft solutions that are durable – because they respond to the universal truth of our equality and the inextinguishable desire for freedom and justice.

    History is a record of humanity’s capacity to surmount the worst challenges. Among the greatest achievements of humanity over the past 75 years has been the recognition that addressing human rights in every country– all human rights; it is not an à la carte menu – is a matter of international concern.

    See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2024/02/26/human-rights-defenders-issues-at-the-55th-session-of-the-human-rights-council/

    For the ful text, see:

    https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2024/03/turks-global-update-human-rights-council

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

  • DAWN calls on UN to set up global protection force for Gaza

    Asia Pacific Report

    The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) should act urgently to establish an international protection force to safeguard Palestinian civilians and ensure the unobstructed delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza as a last-ditch attempt to prevent imminent, says DAWN.

    If the UNSC is blocked by a US veto or fails to reach consensus, the UN General Assembly should reconvene the 10th session of “Uniting for Peace” and authorise such a force itself.

    Recent airdrops of aid, now with the participation of the US Air Force, are “inadequate to meet the ongoing catastrophe in Gaza”, says DAWN (Democracy for the Arab World Now).

    It signals the availability of international military forces to help stabilise the situation.

    “We urgently need the UNSC to authorise an international protection force to ensure the safe and effective delivery of food to starving Palestinian men, women, and children, just as it has done in other situations of catastrophic conflicts,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN.

    “Tragically, without such intervention, it has become clear that Israel will continue to deliberately block such aid, which is the sole cause of the starvation and imminent famine in Gaza.”

    On February 29, at least 117 Palestinians were killed, and more than 750 others were wounded after Israeli troops opened fire on civilians gathered at a convoy of food trucks southwest of Gaza City, highlighting both the desperation of the starving civilian population and their inability to safely access humanitarian aid.

    Aid delivery halted
    International humanitarian organisations have halted all aid delivery to northern Gaza for nearly two weeks due to the lack of security, which is a direct result of actions and policies of the Israeli military, including targeting Palestinian police forces attempting to secure aid delivery.

    The Biden administration reportedly warned Israel last week that as a direct result of its actions, “Gaza is turning into Mogadishu”.

    The same day, the UN Security Council met in an emergency session called by Algeria on what is now being described as the “flour massacre,” but members failed to agree on a statement about the deaths and injuries of civilians seeking aid.

    At a meeting of the UNSC last week under the auspices of UNSC Resolution 2417, UN agencies warned that at least 576,000 people in Gaza were facing famine-like conditions.

    The  UN World Food Programme noted that there would be an “inevitable famine” in the besieged Palestinian enclave, amid increasing reports of children dying of starvation as Israel continued to hinder aid delivery to the population.

    Gaza was seeing “the worst level of child malnutrition anywhere in the world,” Carl Skau, deputy head of the World Food Programme, told the UN Security Council last week, with one child in every six under the age of two acutely malnourished.

    “Civilians and aid groups have described food shortages so dire that people were turning to leaves and bird food and other types of animal feed for sustenance.”

    A new World Bank report has found that Gaza’s total economic output had shriveled by more than 80 percent in the last quarter of 2023, 80 to 96 percent of Gaza’s agricultural infrastructure had been damaged or destroyed, and about 80 percent of Gazans had lost their jobs.

    Since the start of the war in Gaza on October 9, Israel’s retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive has killed more than 30,000, more than 10,000 of them children, and wounded more than 70,000 people.

    “The whole world is watching in horror as Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians, not only impeding the delivery of aid but actually firing and killing people desperately trying to obtain a few sacks of flour,” said Whitson.

    “If the international community doesn’t have the guts to hold Israel accountable for its atrocities and end this grotesque, genocidal assault on Palestinian civilians, the very least it can do is establish a UN protection force to ensure the safe delivery of aid.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Banned for almost two decades, Fiji’s Great Council of Chiefs is back and seeking greater influence

    By the ABC’s Fiji reporter Lice Movono and Pacific Local Journalism Network’s Nick Sas in Suva

    Some described it as a case of looking back to go forward.

    This past week in Fiji — a place where politics, race, the army and tradition mix together in an often potent stew — the Great Council of Chiefs, a organisation banished for almost two decades, came together to re-establish its place in modern Fiji.

    It came on the same week a regional body of traditional leaders, including a Māori king and princess, Samoan king and Fiji’s chiefs, met on Fiji’s sacred island of Bau to discuss ways of becoming more entrenched in politics and the big decisions affecting the region.

    This new push comes at a time when governments in countries such as New Zealand are pushing back against traditional influence, with Māori language and specific social services being abolished.

    A man in traditional dress speaking making an offering
    Ceremony played a big part at this week’s events in Fiji, as traditional leaders spoke about ways to integrate into modern society. Image: Godsville Productions/ABC

    For some commentators, it reflects a new Fiji and a more mature Pacific region: something that should be encouraged to meld together aspects of traditional life into modern society.

    Yet for others, it brings back memories of a time of fear and division.

    “The Great Council of Chiefs has committed a lot of mistakes in the past, including being used by some as a leverage for ethnonationalism and racial hatred,” political sociologist Professor Steven Ratuva told the ABC.

    “It needs to rise above that and must function and be seen as a unifying, reconciliatory and peace-building body.”


    ‘Times have changed’
    The Great Council of Chiefs (GCC), known as Bose Levu Vakaturaga in Fijian, dates back to colonial times. Established in 1876, the council was used as an advisory body for the British colonial rulers.

    After Fiji’s independence in 1970, the GCC became entrenched in the constitution, with chiefs acting as a significant part of Fiji’s Senate. During the next three decades it had periods of waxing and waning influence, with its independence and political interference often under the spotlight.

    Most notably, as an organisation to promote and represent indigenous Fijians (the iTaukei), it was accused by some of sidelining Fiji’s substantial Indo-Fijian population — which makes up about 35 per cent of Fiji — and in turn stoking racial tension.

    In his 2006 coup, military strongman Voreqe Baninimarama took over the country and eventually abolished the GCC, which he considered a threat to his autocracy, famously telling chiefs to “go drink homebrew under a mango tree”.

    Fiji political rivals Sitiveni Rabuka (left), a former prime minister, and Voreqe Bainimarama, the current Prime Minister
    Former Fiji prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama (right) seized power in a coup in 2006 and suspended the Great Council of Chiefs the following year, abolishing it completely in 2012. He was defeated in last year’s general election. Current Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka (right) staged the first two coups in 1987 and reinstated the GCC this year. Image: Vanguard/IDN

    But after winning the December 2022 election, and in turn removing Bainimarama’s 16-year grip on power, Fiji’s new prime minster Sitiveni Rabuka, himself a former coup leader, re-established the GCC.

    Rabuka last week told the 54 chiefs of the GCC — of which only three are women — that “peace must be its cornerstone”.

    “While the body is intrinsically linked to the governance and well-being of the iTaukei [traditional Fijians], it carries a profound obligation to embrace and advocate for every member of our diverse society,” Rabuka said.

    Ratu Viliame Seruvakula, a military commander under the former Fijian government who worked with the United Nations for almost two decades, was last week elected as the GCC’s new chairperson.

    Ratu Viliame Seruvakula
    Ratu Viliame Seruvakula is the new chair of the Great Council of Chiefs . . . “people have become more aware in looking [for] something to help guide them forward.” Image: ABC News/Lice Movono)
    He said his main goal was to modernise the organisation and protect it from political interference.

    “Times have changed,” Seruvakula said.

    “It’s quite obvious that for the last 15 years, people have become more aware in looking [for] something to help guide them forward.”

    And in a move that has drawn parallels to Australia’s failed Indigenous Voice to Parliament, he wants the GCC to be a “statutory body with its own machinery and own mechanism.”

    “I think this is heading in the right direction [to] really go forward and move iTaukei forward.” he said.

    The ‘politics of prestige’
    About 60 percent of Fiji is indigenous, with the  iTaukei population, particularly in regional areas of Fiji, dealing with emended issues of systemic poverty, drugs, crime, unemployment and domestic violence.

    Some in Fiji think the re-establishment of the GCC will help address these issues.

    A Fijian chief with a club smiling
    Traditional dress on the sacred island of Bau. Image: Godsville Productions/ABC News

    Yet, for Professor Steven Ratuva, political sociologist and director of the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury, it is not an easy fix.

    “The question of how the GCC will serve the interests of the iTaukei needs serious discussion,” he said.

    “Simply using the old style of chiefly protocol, politics of prestige and struggle for power have not worked in addressing the worsening situation — in fact, these contributed to some of the problems youths today are now facing.”

    And, he said, the racial issue must be addressed.

    “How will it protect other ethnic groups? This has to be made very clear to ensure that the anxiety and worries are addressed amicably and trans-ethnic trust is established.”

    The professor in comparative politics at Victoria University of Wellington, Jon Fraenkel, agreed.

    “It has played a questionable role [in Fiji] in the past,” he said. “But I think [overall] that the restoration of the GCC is a positive move.”

    The GCC will meet later this year to establish its goals and timeline.

    GCC leaders will also be part of a Pacific Traditional Leaders Forum to be held in Hawai’i in June, a new body established last week on Bau Island — which met before the GCC meeting — to promote the input of traditional leaders in decision-making.

    Professor Fraenkel said that at this early stage it was difficult to know whether it was part of a concerted trend across the region for traditional leaders to have more say.

    “Again, to have greater links between government and community leadership is a positive thing,” he said.

    “It’s the case in many countries in the Pacific that the village level or the local level, chiefs can still be extremely important.

    “But I don’t think that linking traditional leaders up with their people is going to be done in Hawai’i, it’s going to be done back home, in the community.”

    Republished with permission from ABC Pacific News.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • UPNG’s student body rejects rape allegations over campus video

    By Bramo Tingkeo in Port Moresby

    A disturbing video has surfaced of a female, alleged to be a rape victim, attempting to jump out of the Kuri Dom Lecture Building at the University of Papua New Guinea.

    UPNG Students Representative Council (SRC) president Joel Rimbu has dispelled this allegation, saying that the female was not a student — she was an outsider visiting her boyfriend, who is alleged to be a staff member.

    An argument broke out during their rendezvous where the frustrated female attempted to jump out of the building, while students filmed.

    Rimbu said he was at the location assessing the situation with Uniforce Security of UPNG.

    “She was later dropped of at the nearest bus stop to go home,” he said.

    “She refused to take the matter to the police.”

    Speaking about the safety of female students on campus, the SRC female vice-president, Ni Yumei Paul, immediately raised the incident with the Campus Risk Group (UniForce) and they were assured that the group would investigate and report back next week.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Europe’s Border Policies Are Sacrificing Migrant Lives for Corporate Profits

    This February, France’s Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin unveiled plans for a large-scale military operation against migrants in Mayotte. The island chain hosts a major French naval base in the Indian Ocean. Since France converted Mayotte from a “territorial collectivity” to an overseas department in 2011, authorities have deported thousands of undocumented residents. Most come from the…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • NZ’s shameful act over Hamas in defiance of Gaza atrocities reality

    COMMENTARY: By David Robie

    New Zealand has taken another shameful act in its tone deaf approach to Israel’s War on Gaza this week by declaring Hamas a “terrorist entity” at a time when millions are marching worldwide for an immediate ceasefire and a lasting peace founded on an independent state of Palestine.

    It would have been more realistic and just to condemn Israel for its genocidal war and five months of atrocities.

    Instead, it has been corralled into the Five Eyes clique with an increasingly isolated United States as it continues to support the war with taxpayer funded armaments and providing the cloak of diplomacy.

    It was really unwise of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s coalition government to declare the Hamas political wing as terrorist, after already having declared the military wing terrorist in 2010.

    Many argue around the world with increasing insistence that actually Israel is a rogue terrorist state.

    Also, it is very unlikely that Benjamin Netanyahu will succeed in his aims of “destroying” the Hamas movement, whatever the final outcome of the war.

    As John Minto points out, Palestinian resistance movements have the right under international law to take up arms to fight against their colonial occupiers just as the African National Congress (ANC) had the right to take up arms to fight for freedom in apartheid South Africa.

    Hamas represents an ideal, an independent Palestinian state and that can never be defeated.

    Factions meet for unity
    The various factions of the Palestinian resistance and political movements, including Fatah and Hamas, have been meeting in Moscow this week to settle their differences and stitch together a framework for a “Palestinian government of unity” as a basis for the future political architecture of independence.

    The United Nations General Assembly in 1969 — two years after the 1967 Six Day War when Israel seized Gaza from Egypt and Occupied West Bank from Jordan — recognised and reaffirmed “the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination”.

    This includes the right to choose their own representatives, including Hamas, a nationalist independence movement defending their illegally occupied territory, not a “terrorist” movement that the US and Israel try to have the world believe.

    They are still very likely to be in the post-war line-up ending the status quo after five decades of illegal military occupation of Palestinian lands and the rash of illegal Israeli settlements.

    American economist and public policy analyst Professor Jeffrey Sachs
    American economist and public policy analyst Professor Jeffrey Sachs . . . “Israel is a criminal. Israel is in non-stop war crime status. Image: Judging Freedom

    American economist and public policy analyst Professor Jeffrey Sachs summed up the reality over Israel’s colonial settler project in an interview this week by describing the Netanyahu government as a “murderous gang” and “zealots”, warning that “they are not going to stop”.

    “Israel has deliberately starved the people of Gaza. Starved. I am not using an exaggeration.

    “I’m talking literally starving a population,” said the director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at New York’s Columbia University.

    ‘Israel is criminal’
    “Israel is a criminal. Israel is in non-stop war crime status. Now, I believe, it is in genocidal status, and it is without shame, without remorse, without truth, without insight into what it is doing.

    “But what it is doing is endangering Israel’s fundamental security because it is driving the world to believe that the Israeli state is not legitimate.

    “This will stop when the United States stops providing the munitions to Israel. It will not be by any self-control in Israel. There is none in this government.

    “This is a murderous gang in government right now. These are zealots. They have some messianic vision of controlling all of today’s Palestinian lands. They are not going to stop.

    “They believe in ethnic cleansing, or worse, depending on whatever is needed. And it is, again, the United States, which is the sole support. And it our mumbling, bumbling president and the others that are not stopping this slaughter.”

    In addition, to the growing massive protests around the world against the Israeli extremism, a growing number of countries and organisations, inspired by two International Court of Justice cases against Israel — one by South Africa alleging genocide by Israel and the other by the UNGA seeking a ruling on the legality of Israel’s military occupation of Palestine — have introduced lawsuits.

    A Dutch court last month ordered the government to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel following concern that the country may be violating international laws such as the Genocide Convention.

    Follow-up lawsuit
    South Africa is preparing a follow-up lawsuit against the US and the UK for “complicity” in Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. South African lawyer lawyer Wikus Van Rensburg said: “The United States must now be held accountable for the crimes it committed.”

    Nicaragua is suing Germany at the ICJ for funding Israel – its export of weapons and munitions to the country has risen ten-fold since the Hamas deadly attack on Israel last October 7 — and cutting aid to the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), the major humanitarian agency in Gaza.

    It has called for emergency measures that would force Germany to cease military aid to Israel, and restart funding to the UNRWA.

    Nicaragua lawyers said in their lawsuit that the action was necessary because of Germany’s “participation in the ongoing plausible genocide and serious breaches of international humanitarian law” in Gaza.

    "Would it be OK for you if they killed me?"
    “Would it be OK for you if they killed me?” . . . placard with child in pram at the Palestine solidarity rally in Auckland on Saturday. Image: David Robie/APR

    Instead of joining the US-led coalition in the Red Sea operation against the Houthis, who are targeting US, UK and Israeli-linked ships to disrupt maritime trade in support of the Palestinians, New Zealand would have been more constructive by joining the South African case against Israel in The Hague.

    Principle before profit if New Zealand is really committed to international rules based diplomacy.

    Nicaragua lawyers said in their lawsuit that the action was necessary because of Germany’s “participation in the ongoing plausible genocide and serious breaches of international humanitarian law” in Gaza.

    No time to be ‘neutral’
    This is no time to be “neutral” over the War on Gaza, there are fundamental issues of global justice and human rights at stake. As various global aid officials have been saying, every day that passes without a ceasefire and a step towards an independent Palestine as a long-term solution means more children dying of starvation or from the bombing.

    The death toll is already a staggering more than 30,000 — mostly women and children. The war is clearly directed at the people of Gaza, collective punishment.

    Australian columnist Caitlin Johnstone warns against neutrality, advice that might have been heeded by New Zealand’s foreign affairs advisers.

    “At least be real with yourself that by refusing to pick a position you are licking the boot of a nuclear-armed ethnostate that is backed by the most powerful empire the world has ever seen.”

    And that impunity needs to end.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • I’ve Been Unhoused. It Could Happen to You. Let’s Stop Criminalizing It.

    For a period in 2005, I was one of the more than 740,000 people who were experiencing homelessness at that time in the U.S. On an eastern section of Sunset Boulevard where tourists never venture, there’s the Hollywood Sunset Free Clinic — less chic than it sounds. Still, they had services ranging from medical care to showers, and for those seeking the latter, they’d give away those little test…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • NZ news media under fire for ‘bias, propaganda’ in Gaza coverage

    Pacific Media Watch

    New Zealand news media came under fire at today’s Palestine solidarity rally in Auckland calling for an immediate ceasefire in the war in Gaza with speakers condemning what they said was pro-Israeli “bias” and “propaganda”.

    About 500 protesters waved Palestinian flags and many placards declaring “If you’re not heartbroken and furious, you’re not paying attention – stop the genocide”, “Killing kids is not self-defence” and “Western ‘civility, democracy, humanity, morality’ – bitch, where?”.

    They gave Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s government a grilling for the “weak” response to Israel atrocities.

    Many speakers were angry over the massacre of starving Palestinians when Israeli military forces opened fire on a crowd seeking aid in the central Gaza City area on Thursday with latest Gaza Health Ministry reports indicating that at least 115 Gazans had been killed with 760 wounded.

    The overall death toll is now 30,228 Palestinians killed and 71,377 wounded in Gaza since the war began on October 7.

    The UN Human Rights office called for a swift and independent probe into the food aid shootings, saying “at least 14 “similar attacks had occurred since mid-January.

    The Biden administration has announced a plan with Jordan to airdrop aid into Gaza but former USAID director Dave Harden has criticised the move as “ineffectual” for the huge humanitarian need of Gaza.

    Airdrops ‘symbol of failure’
    “Airdrops are a symbol of massive failure,” he told Al Jazeera.

    The bodies of three more Palestinians killed in the food aid slaughter were recovered.

    Responses to the Gaza food aid massacre
    Responses to the Gaza food aid massacre . . . “If you’re not hearbroken and furious, you’re not paying attention.” Image: David Robie/APR

    The New Zealand media were condemned for relying on “flawed” media coverage and journalists embedded with the Israeli military.

    “The New Zealand media ‘scalps’ information to create public perceptions rather than informing the public of the facts so that we can come to the conclusion that what Israel is doing in Gaza is genocide,” Neil Scott, secretary of the Palestine Solidarity Network  (PSNA), told the crowd.


    PSNA’s Neil Scott addressing the Palestine solidarity crowd today. Video: APR

    “What Israel is doing in Palestine is apartheid, what Israel is doing in Palestine is occupation – each of those three, plus way more, are crimes against humanity.

    “And what is the New Zealand media doing and saying about this?”

    “Nothing,” shouted many in the crowd.

    “Nada,” continued Scott.

    ‘Puppies are cute’
    “Puppies? Puppies are cute. We’ll get those on TV.

    “Genocide. Apartheid. Occupation. Crimes against humanity. Don’t give us news.”

    Television New Zealand's 1News headquarters in Auckland
    Television New Zealand’s 1News headquarters in Auckland . . . target of a protest yesterday and condemnation today over its Gaza war coverage. Image: APR

    Scott led a deputation of protesters to the headquarters of Television New Zealand yesterday, citing many examples of misinformation of lack of fair and “truthful” coverage.

    But management declined to speak to the protesters and the 1News team failed to cover the protest over TVNZ’s coverage of the war on Gaza.

    Criticisms have been mounting worldwide against Western news media coverage, especially in the United Kingdom and the United States, the staunchest supporters of Israel and the source of most of NZ’s global news services, including the Middle East.

    CNN ‘climate of hostility’
    Yesterday, the investigative website Intercept reported how CNN media staff, including the celebrated international news anchor Christiane Amanpour, had confronted network executives over what they claimed as stories about the war on Gaza being changed and a “climate of hostility” towards Arab journalists.

    According to a leaked internal recording, Amanpour told management that the CNN policy was causing “real distress” over “changing copy” and ”double standards”.

    Meanwhile, one of some 50 protests across New Zealand today – in Christchurch – was disrupted by a group of counter-demonstrators supporting Israel who performed a haka at the Bridge of Remembrance.

    The group from the Freedoms and Rights Coalition – linked to the Destiny Church – waved Israeli flags and chanted “go back to Israel”.  The pro-Palestinian supporters yelled “shame on them” and carried on with their regular weekly march to Cathedral Square.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.