A round-up of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Mexico to China
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Covid failings, crackdown on protest, police discrimination and resumed arms trade with Saudi Arabia all listed in annual report
Amnesty International has published a stark rebuke of the UK government’s stance on human rights, saying that it is “speeding towards the cliff edge” in its policies on housing and immigration, and criticising its seeming determination to end the legal right for the public to challenge government decisions in court.
In its annual report on human rights around the world, Amnesty International says the UK’s increasingly hostile attitude towards upholding and preserving human rights legislation raises “serious concerns”.
Related: ‘Narcos are looking for me’: deadly threats to Peru’s indigenous leaders
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Demonstrations against the police bill follow a long tradition of radicalism. Protesters say that, after last week’s violence, their side of the story has not been told
For the third time in less than a week thousands of protesters gathered in the centre of Bristol last Friday to oppose the police and crime bill, which many fear will criminalise the social movements and vibrant, alternative cultures that have made the West Country city such a hub of resistance to the government.
As the grey rain clouds over Bristol’s crumbling, graffiti-scrawled Georgian streets and tower blocks gave away to cool spring sunshine, a diverse crowd of mainly young people assembled on muddy College Green, starting point for so many of the city’s demonstrations over the years, including the Black Lives Matter march that toppled the statue of slave trader Edward Colston last June.
Related: BLM protesters topple statue of Bristol slave trader Edward Colston
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Burberry and H&M among brands targeted over stance on region at centre of Uighur abuses allegations
Chinese celebrities and politicians are racing to distance themselves from western brands as Beijing steps up a campaign to penalise those making accusations of abuses in Xinjiang, including fashion companies that boycott the region’s cotton.
Related: China imposes sanctions on UK MPs, lawyers and academic in Xinjiang row
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Last year a group called Channel Rescue began watching the waters off Dover, to ensure the safety of those arriving on our shores. They explain why this is more important than ever
Louise vividly remembers her first Channel watch. She had just moved from London to Dover when, one morning last autumn, she got up at half past five. After a few tries to get her 1980s moped going, she was off. “I’m driving through the mist on top of the cliffs, racing to meet a man in the dark.” Fifteen minutes later, she was at the car park of a local golf course, metres from the cliff edge. The only car there belonged to her fellow volunteer. “I met Joe and he was totally lovely. We chatted and watched the darkness through a telescope. And then, very slowly, watched it get light.”
Magnificent as it was, Louise, 30, and Joe, 36, were not there for the view. They are volunteer human rights observers for Channel Rescue (CR), established in 2020 as a citizens’ response to last year’s surge in migrants attempting to cross the Channel from France. The originators were a loose group of anti-racist and anti-fascist activists based, mostly, in London. They crowdfunded £19,000 and modelled their mission on the longstanding human rights monitoring around the Greek island of Lesbos.
You can’t get anywhere near people … People are taken to mysterious locations, whether it’s a hotel or detention centre
Priti Patel says they’re gonna push the boats back. It’s against human rights and international law but it could happen
We’re not tackling the heart of the problem, which is racism. We’re skirting around the edges
Related: Refugee supporters hold ‘welcome event’ for asylum seekers in Kent
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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It is the first time for three decades UK or EU has punished China for human rights abuses
Britain and the EU have taken joint action with the US and Canada to impose parallel sanctions on a senior Chinese officials involved in the mass internment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province in the first such western action against Beijing since Joe Biden took office.
The move also marked the first time for three decades the UK or the EU had punished China for human rights abuses, and both will now be working hard to contain the potential political and economic fallout. China hit back immediately, blacklisting MEPs, European diplomats and thinktanks.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Australia’s asylum processing centres on the islands of Manus and Nauru have been widely condemned for systemic abuses, and human rights violations
Eight years and the equivalent of £5bn. Twelve deaths and thousands of lives damaged, disrupted, and left in limbo. Australia’s “offshore processing” regime for asylum seekers achieved little and resolved less, a refugee held at the heart of the system for seven years has said.
“Australia has created a tragedy,” journalist and author Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian Kurdish refugee detained on Manus Island, told the Guardian. “I don’t think the people of the UK want their government to create the same tragedy in their name.”
Related: More than 30 countries condemn Australia at UN over high rates of child incarceration
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Charles Oti should be in his NHS job fighting the virus. Instead, the Home Office wants to send him to Nigeria
An infection control specialist who has been offered a job as a senior NHS biomedical scientist to help tackle the pandemic is facing deportation by the Home Office, prompting fresh calls for a more “humane” approach to skilled migrants.
The government has refused Charles Oti, 46, from Nigeria the right to remain in the UK even though the job he was offered is among the government’s most sought-after skilled positions.
Related: Skilled Commonwealth migrants still facing ‘unlawful’ deportation
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Some demonstrators detained by police after gathering in Hyde Park for Piers Corbyn speech
Thousands marched under a heavy police presence through central London in protest against lockdown on Saturday, with officers leading small numbers of people away in handcuffs.
Demonstrators gathered at Speakers’ Corner by Hyde Park at about midday, where the anti-lockdown figurehead Piers Corbyn gave a speech saying he would “never take a vaccine” and falsely claiming that the scale of deaths from Covid was not dissimilar to those from flu each year.
Related: Johnson’s government is deeply authoritarian: the policing bill proves it | Daniel Trilling
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Tribunal rules trio said to have travelled to Syria to join Isis were left stateless by Home Office decision
Three British-Bangladeshis said to have travelled to Syria to join Islamic State (Isis) have won a legal challenge against the stripping of their British citizenship after a tribunal ruled the move left them stateless.
Two women who were born in the UK, known only as C3 and C4, had their British citizenship removed in November 2019 on the grounds of national security.
Related: Shamima Begum ruling sets dangerous precedent, say legal experts
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Regulator finds disturbing inconsistencies, including order being applied to everyone over 80 with dementia in one residence
Blanket orders not to resuscitate some care home residents at the start of the Covid pandemic have been identified in a report by England’s care regulator.
A report published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found disturbing variations in people’s experiences of do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions during the pandemic.
Related: Fury at ‘do not resuscitate’ notices given to Covid patients with learning disabilities
Serious concerns about breaches of some individuals’ human rights
Significant increase in DNACPRs put in place in care homes at the beginning of the pandemic, from 16,876 to 26,555
119 adult social care providers felt they had been subjected to blanket DNACPR decisions since the start of the pandemic
A GP sent DNACPR letters to care homes asking them to put blanket DNACPRs in place
In one care home a blanket DNACPR was applied to everyone over 80 with dementia
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Guardian readers on the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill and the threat it poses to civil liberties
Your leader (The Guardian view on policing dissent: Johnson plays politics with protest, 15 March) rightly notes: “Whatever pieties the government cloaks its proposals in, a partisan systematic reduction in civil liberties is a very dangerous thing for democracies.” Indeed, the words used by the home secretary and government spokesperson in defence of the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill, and of police action at the vigil, come straight from the PR coaching manual used by President Putin and his like in Hungary, Hong Kong, Myanmar and far too many places round the world.
Frank Land
Totnes, Devon• The government’s welcoming of Hongkongers fleeing a repressive regime now seems rather ironic. They may be a little surprised to find that they have no right to protest here either.
Continue reading…
Rachel Meredith
Long Marston, North YorkshireThis post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Foreign secretary told staff UK intended to trade with countries with poor rights records
Civil servants have been scolded after the British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, was revealed to have told staff the UK intended to trade with countries with poor human rights records.
Philip Barton, the permanent secretary at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), said Raab had been speaking “openly and candidly” to Whitehall workers on a call with thousands of them on Tuesday.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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NUS and rights groups report allegations of heavy-handed enforcement of lockdown rules
Students at several UK campuses have accused their universities of granting police officers access to halls of residence to check for breaches of coronavirus rules, with some complaints of officers entering accommodation in the middle of the night.
Students at Sheffield and Manchester who spoke to the Guardian described regular police patrols and widespread use of fines of up to £800 as universities clamp down on the mixing of households to avoid repeating the major coronavirus outbreaks that occurred in autumn now that students are returning for the spring term.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Scheme distracts from rightful criticisms of police response to Clapham vigil, campaigners say
Plans to protect women by putting plainclothes police officers in nightclubs are bizarre, frightening and “spectacularly missing the point”, campaigners and charities have said.
The plans were outlined by the government as part of the steps it was taking to improve security and protect women from predatory offenders. Called Project Vigilant, the programme can involve officers attending areas around clubs and bars in plainclothes, along with increased police patrols as people leave at closing time.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Exclusive: Siham Hamud’s father says he is pleased Uxbridge high school listened to the family’s concerns
A school that had threatened the parents of a Muslim schoolgirl with legal action after she wore a skirt that was deemed “too long” has dropped its legal challenge and apologised.
Siham Hamud, 12, had described being bullied for her religious beliefs after being sent home every day in December from Uxbridge high school in Hillingdon, west London, and told to only come back when she wore a shorter skirt.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Anger grows after vigil for Sarah Everard is stopped despite court ruling on right to demonstrate
Police officers are using coronavirus regulations to break up socially distanced demonstrations even though the country’s largest police force has conceded in a landmark legal case that people have a right to protest during the current national lockdown.
The Metropolitan police admitted in the high court on Friday that it had discretion on how to respond to protests and it could not impose a blanket ban on demonstrations, after the force was challenged by the organisers of the planned vigil to remember Sarah Everard in south London.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Mounting concern that ministers are using pandemic to curtail freedoms in the UK
Organisers of a vigil for Sarah Everard are seeking a court order to assert their right to protest after the Metropolitan police reversed their position on allowing the event to go ahead. The possible challenge comes at a time of mounting concern about the police and the government using the pandemic to curtail the right to protest.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Human rights groups indicate they will seek to take case to supreme court after appeal court judgment
MI5’s partially secret policy of allowing agents to participate in serious crimes in pursuit of intelligence was legal, three court of appeal judges have concluded.
The judges held on Tuesday that MI5 was “not above the law” because the long-established power did not equate to an immunity from prosecution, in the latest step in a long-running legal case brought by four human rights groups.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Dr Agnes Kalibata responds to a report on the 2021 summit that she is leading as a special envoy for the UN secretary general
As you note in your article (Farmers and rights groups boycott food summit over big business links, 4 March), farmers have for too long been on the fringes of global discussions about hunger, poverty and climate change, despite being the frontline of our food systems and the custodians of our natural resources.
The UN food systems summit marks a momentous opportunity for farmers, producers and many others who support them to be at the heart of the year-long consultative process that has been launched to improve our shared food system.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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White supremacists spread a myth of the plight of ‘Irish slaves’. Now academics and authors are bringing the true history to light
It was one of the most shocking chapters in Britain’s long, bloody subjugation of Ireland: the buying, selling and transportation of Irish chattel slaves to the colonies in America.
Manacled and brutalised, they filled the bellies of ships that crossed the Atlantic and were put to work on plantations in the Caribbean and North America, sweating till they died in service of empire and profits.
Related: Activists target removal of statues including Columbus and King Leopold II
I don’t really know what to say. An “Irish slaves” meme posted on Facebook on the 21 June by a member of the Norristown Republican Committee has racked up almost 900,000 shares in less than a week thus potentially appearing on approx 300 million timelines. pic.twitter.com/7NhD6B3MSj
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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These rights have been central to many key justice fights in the past 20 years, and we can’t allow politicians to take them away
- Kate Allen is the director of Amnesty International UK
The Human Rights Act is like serious injury insurance, or perhaps an action plan for a global pandemic: you hope you never need it.
The problem is that you might do, and it seems this horrific past year has reminded people in the UK that it’s wise to foresee potential trouble ahead. In new polling we at Amnesty commissioned this week, more than two-thirds (68%) of people thought it was important to have a safety net to hold the government to account when things go wrong, while more than half (53%) believed the coronavirus pandemic had illustrated the importance of human rights protections.
Related: How the British government is trying to crush our right to protest | Gracie Mae Bradley
Kate Allen is the director of Amnesty International UK
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Nearly 140 parliamentarians warn trumped-up charges could result in death penalty for Jagtar Singh Johal
Nearly 140 MPs and peers have written to Dominic Raab urging him to do more to secure the release of a young Sikh man facing the death penalty in India after a confession allegedly extracted under torture.
The letter calls on the foreign secretary to accept that Jagtar Singh Johal is being detained arbitrarily, and says at least three of the charges levelled against him carried the death penalty.
Related: Boris Johnson to visit India in January in bid to transform G7
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Priti Patel obtains advice on ensuring post-Covid demonstrations do not impact on ‘rights of others to go about their business’
Concern over the government’s limitation of the right to protest during lockdown continues to mount after it emerged that the home secretary, Priti Patel, is eager to grant police greater powers to control demonstrations once the Covid restrictions are lifted.
In a letter to HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) Patel wrote that although she appreciates protest is “a cornerstone of our democracy” she wanted to know how the Home Office could help police ensure protests in the future do not impact on “the rights of others to go about their daily business”.
Related: Drones used by police to monitor political protests in England
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Human rights abuses cut little ice with holidaymakers who rush to the beach
How many abducted and imprisoned princesses would it take for British tourists to turn their backs on Dubai? Three? Four? Ten? Because two “disappeared” princesses doesn’t look like being enough, even now that a secretly filmed account by one of them, saying she had been captured, assaulted, drugged and repatriated, has appeared on the BBC – corroborating the fact-finding judgment of a UK judge, published a year ago.
Sir Andrew McFarlane accepted, following claims by lawyers for Princess Haya, a fugitive ex-wife of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum of Dubai, vice-president of the UAE, that his daughters Latifa and Shamsa had both been forcibly returned to Dubai after escaping in 2018 and 2000 respectively. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, it emerged, was withholding information that might shed light on Shamsa’s rendition from the UK.
In May’s case it was careless, at best, when she visited Dubai, to have overlooked Latifa’s 2018 video
Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab agreed the videos were a cause for concern, albeit not enough to warrant sanctions
Catherine Bennett is an Observer columnist
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Home Office accused of betrayal over network of new asylum-seeker centres
A new network of immigration detention units for women is being quietly planned by the Home Office, contrary to previous pledges to reform the system and reduce the number of vulnerable people held.
An initial detention centre, based in County Durham on the site of a former youth prison, will open for female asylum seekers this autumn.
Related: Britain’s immigration detention: how many people are locked up?
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Charity Reprieve criticises government’s ‘abdication of responsibility’ over Shamima Begum
Britain risks creating “a new Guantánamo” in Syria by leaving Shamima Begum and others like her stranded in Syrian detention camps, it has been claimed, after the supreme court rejected Begum’s appeal against a decision to revoke her UK citizenship.
A key figure who has been involved with Begum’s case said the judgment left the 21-year-old in a legal limbo, unable to return to the UK or mount an effective challenge to the deprivation decision remotely.
Related: Shamima Begum is a victim of trafficking – and the UK should treat her as such | Maya Foa
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.