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Category: United Nations

  • Joint Submission To UN Special Rapporteur Over Israel’s Settler-Colonial, Apartheid Regime

    On 30 April 2021, the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC); Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies; and Habitat International Coalition – Housing and Land Rights Network submitted a joint submission to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Mr Michael Lynk, laying out the framework for the illegality of Israeli colonial settlements, which are key to Israel’s settler-colonial and apartheid regime, and analysing their impact on the Palestinian people’s rights. The joint submission is pursuant to a call for input ahead of the Special Rapporteur’s report on the issue, which will be presented to the Human Rights Council in its 47th Session (21 June – 9 July 2021).

    The post Joint Submission To UN Special Rapporteur Over Israel’s Settler-Colonial, Apartheid Regime appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Yamin Kogoya: Reckless Jakarta is turning West Papuans into ‘terrorists’ to justify waging a war

    ANALYSIS: By Yamin Kogoya

    The Indonesian government has officially labelled the OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka) Free Papuan Movement and its military wing, the TPNPB (West Papua National Liberation Army) as a terrorist group.

    This came about at the height of a string of shootings and killings – which have been taking place in recent months in Papua’s highlands – that led to the killing of a senior Indonesian intelligence officer, General I Gusti Putu Danny Karya Nugraha, last week.

    In response, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has ordered a crackdown on the armed resistance group OPM – TPNPB.

    A few days later, Mohammad Mahfud MD, the coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, declared that those in Papua (presumably the OPM – TPNPB) who commit crimes would be classified as “terrorists”.

    The People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker in Jakarta, Bambang Soesatyo, stressed this issue by saying, “I demand that the government deploy their security forces at full force to exterminate the armed criminal groups (KKP) in Papua which have taken lives.

    “Just eradicate them. Let’s talk about human rights later.”

    This announcement and such statements have caused a reaction among Indonesian leaders and civil society groups.

    Opportunity for resistance
    Police observer Irjen Pol Purn Sisno Adiwinoto warned that labelling Papuan independence groups as “terrorists” would not solve problems in West Papua.

    “If anything, this might just be the opportunity for resistance groups to get the United States involved,” said Adiwinoto.

    Philip Situmorang, public relations officer from the Fellowship of Churches in Indonesia (PGI), asked the government to be careful of their decision to label the armed criminal group (KKB) as a terrorist group.

    The church groups have warned that Jakarta should choose a different approach to Papua.

    Labelling Papua as a terrorist will psychologically impact on the Papuan community, which might instil fear, distrust, and hatred among communities in the land of Papua.

    West Papua is a region known for the international media blackout. This makes it challenging to allow independent media or human rights agencies to investigate the killings.

    The country’s justice system often fails to provide fair, transparent justice for the alleged perpetrators.

    Governor Enembe concerned
    The governor of Papua province, Lukas Enembe, also expressed his concern about the central government announcement.

    The statement released from the governor’s office stated that this labelling would affect the Papuan population, not just OPM – TPNPB. Papuans in West Papua and abroad will be stigmatised through the lens of the word terrorist.

    Hence, the governor asked for the central government to review its decision comprehensively.

    One of the seven points he made was that he strongly suggested the central government check with the United Nations about the decision.

    Benny Wenda, the leader of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, also condemned Jokowi’s announcement.

    “My questions to the president of Indonesia are: Who invaded our country in the first place? Who has killed over 500,000 men, women, and children? Who has displaced over 50,000 civilians since December 2018, leading to the deaths of hundreds of more people?

    An illegal invasion and occupation is a criminal act. Genocide is a terrorist act. Resistance to these are legitimate and necessary,” Benny Wenda said.

    Harmful policy for Papuans
    These concerns are expressed in recognition that, after 60 years, Jakarta insists on introducing a policy that will harm the Papuan people.

    Fifty-eight years ago, in May 1963, was the landing of Indonesian troops after the Western power gave them the green light during the controversial “New York Agreement” – the agreement in which Papuans were not invited.

    The real terror in Papua began from that day.

    Jakarta invents words and phrases and decides their definitions to control Papuan people.

    The Indonesian government has used many names and phrases to legitimise their military operations in the land of Papua.

    Between 1964–1966, leading up to the Act of Free Choice in 1969 (which Papuans consider a sham, or an “Act of No Choice”), army general Kartidjo Sastrodinoto led an operation called “Operasi Wisnurmurti III and IV”.

    The years between 1977-1982, a general named Imam Munandar led another operation named “Operasi Kikis”, followed by “Operasi Sapu Bersih”.

    The “Operasi Penyisiran” was another name given for 2002-2004 operations in Wamena, Papua’s highland town.

    Many military operations
    These are just a few of many, both visible and invisible, military operations in West Papua.

    These terminologies carry specific energy and command and manifest different state behaviours that target Papuan lives; they mean something like “wipe-out, clean, straighten, remove, taming the wild forest, restoring order” etc.

    They are not the languages of healing and reconciliation but of war and elimination.

    Elites in Jakarta have convinced themselves to believe that there is a monster in the land of Papua and that the beast needs to be eliminated. This paranoid way of thinking is akin to saying all non-black immigrants in the land of Papua are scary, so we should label them as demons and kill them or labelling all Muslims as terrorists because they are following the religion of Islam.

    The Papua governor and civil society groups are concerned that every Papuan will be stigmatised as a terrorist, regardless of whether they are a member of OPM – TPNPB or not.
    This labelling is not just to harm OPM – TPNPB but is a direct assault on Papuan history, language, livelihood, and aspirations for a better world, pushed by Papuan resistance groups.

    One of the main concerns that have been raised within the resistance movements is that the Indonesian government is labelling West Papua national liberation as a terrorist to criminalise the movement and depict them as radical extremists in the eyes of international communities.

    This is an old colonial game, where blaming the victims makes it difficult for them to report the crimes, allowing the perpetrators to avoid being held accountable for their actions.

    Metro TV interview
    In the media interview by Metrotvnews on April 30, Mohammad Mahfud MD stated they must contain the situation in West Papua before controlling the situation outside of Papua, inferring that influencing public opinion in the international community must begin by creating a terrorist of West Papua.

    The central government in Jakarta will use the word “terrorist” to convince the international community not to support these activist groups in West Papua. It intends to damage the integrity and reputation of the West Papua liberation movement, which has been gaining a lot of sympathy from international communities and institutions such as ACP (Africa Caribbean Pacific group of states), MSG (Melanesian Spearhead Group), PIF (Pacific Islands Forum) and Human Rights Council in Geneva.

    Many described the announcement as a desperate attempt to halt the region’s independence movement. David Robie wrote that this is Jakarta’s “worst ever” policy on West Papua, as reported by Asia Pacific Report last week on April 30.

    President Jokowi’s welfare approach and his 12 visits to Papua turned out to be a mere trojan horse. He and his government are not delivering welfare to Papuan people at all – they are creating terrorists in West Papua to justify war against the Papuan people.

    How will they distinguish and catch this monster, which they have called “terrorist” in Papua? Or are they going to create one that looks like a terrorist?

    Is OPM a terrorist group or a legendary saviour in Papuan’s independence imagination?

    In the 1980s, when I was growing up in my highland village of Papua from the ages of 8-12, I often heard the name OPM. At the time, the name sounded like it had magical power. I still associate the name OPM with that story.

    OPM ‘has secret power’
    At that time, I was told that OPM has a secret power that controls weather patterns. My family said that if you see heavy rain or thick clouds covering the mountains, then it is a sign that OPM is near or OPM created the bad weather to confuse their enemies.

    This kind of story made me very curious about the name OPM.

    I then asked my elders, who were OPM’s enemy and whether OPM were human or forest spirits? They would say to me that OPM were not forest spirits. They were human beings just like us, but they couldn’t divulge their identities to keep their family members safe from interrogation if their true identities were revealed to Indonesian soldiers.

    According to the village story, OPM have the power of nature, and they can obscure the sight of the Indonesian soldiers and make them crazy. At the time, I was astonished by these stories.

    With these fascinations, I continued to ask if the OPM was something that I should fear.

    They would tell me, “child, you should not be afraid of the OPM, because the OPM will protect you, and they will expel the Indonesian soldiers who were roaming around here, killing and raping women”.

    I grew up with these types of stories, and I am sure that many Papuans have similar stories to tell about what the name of OPM means to them.

    Hope for a better world
    OPM carries the spirit that keeps the hope of a better world (free from Indonesia) alive. That’s how I understand it. That hope, in Papuans’ imagination, is political independence from Indonesia.

    To be OPM is to be a proud Papuan, and to be Papuan is to be proud to be OPM because, in the minds of Papuans, OPM represents hope, freedom, salvation, healing, and reconciliation.

    As legend has it in the island of Biak, during the early 1940s, before Indonesia got their Independence from the Dutch, it was the spirit of the Morning Star that healed the legends Manarmakeri and Angganitha.

    Papuan people in the Biak island were already dreaming of a new world – a world free from terror, with the spirit of the Morning Star before Indonesia gained its independence in 1945.

    OPM stands to manifest that utopian dream of a Papuan free state as sovereign people. This fear of manifesting Papuan statehood drives Jakarta’s reckless policies toward West Papua.

    If Papuans were asked, without any intimidation or bribery, which spirit do they trust and believe in, the OPM or Indonesia security forces, I am confident that they would choose the spirit and the legend of OPM because that spirit stands for freedom and salvation.

    The word “terrorist” is the deadliest weapon that Indonesia has invented to kill Papuan people

    Labelling is dangerous
    This reckless labelling is dangerous, as already expressed by Governor Lukas and other civil society groups, because all Papuan people will suffer, not just OPM. Papuan people are already suffering in every aspect of their lives, this labelling will add more under the Indonesian rule and western capitalist world order.

    It is unfortunate that Indonesia is one of the most religious places, and yet unable to uphold its own religious morals and ethical teachings, as inscribed in their constitutional pillars: Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa (Belief in the Almighty God) and Kemanusiaan Yang Adil dan Beradab (Just and Civilised Humanity). Do the Indonesian ruling elites still believe in these words?

    With all the human and material resources being spent on securing West Papua, the question we need to be asking is, ‘why is Jakarta still unable to catch all the perpetrators and bring them to face justice?’

    If the elites in Jakarta believe with sincerity in promoting the slogan “wonderful Indonesia” on the world’s stage, then the way they approach Papua needs to change.

    Papua will always be like a pebble in Indonesia’s shoe – it must be resolved in a humane manner if the “wonderful Indonesia dream” is to be fully realised. Turning West Papua into a terrorist and justifying it to wage war against the Papuan people is not the way to achieve peace in the land of Papua.

    • Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
    • Other Yamin Kogoya articles

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Yamin Kogoya: Reckless Jakarta is turning West Papuans into ‘terrorists’ to justify waging a war

    ANALYSIS: By Yamin Kogoya

    The Indonesian government has officially labelled the OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka) Free Papuan Movement and its military wing, the TPNPB (West Papua National Liberation Army) as a terrorist group.

    This came about at the height of a string of shootings and killings – which have been taking place in recent months in Papua’s highlands – that led to the killing of a senior Indonesian intelligence officer, General I Gusti Putu Danny Karya Nugraha, last week.

    In response, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has ordered a crackdown on the armed resistance group OPM – TPNPB.

    A few days later, Mohammad Mahfud MD, the coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, declared that those in Papua (presumably the OPM – TPNPB) who commit crimes would be classified as “terrorists”.

    The People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker in Jakarta, Bambang Soesatyo, stressed this issue by saying, “I demand that the government deploy their security forces at full force to exterminate the armed criminal groups (KKP) in Papua which have taken lives.

    “Just eradicate them. Let’s talk about human rights later.”

    This announcement and such statements have caused a reaction among Indonesian leaders and civil society groups.

    Opportunity for resistance
    Police observer Irjen Pol Purn Sisno Adiwinoto warned that labelling Papuan independence groups as “terrorists” would not solve problems in West Papua.

    “If anything, this might just be the opportunity for resistance groups to get the United States involved,” said Adiwinoto.

    Philip Situmorang, public relations officer from the Fellowship of Churches in Indonesia (PGI), asked the government to be careful of their decision to label the armed criminal group (KKB) as a terrorist group.

    The church groups have warned that Jakarta should choose a different approach to Papua.

    Labelling Papua as a terrorist will psychologically impact on the Papuan community, which might instil fear, distrust, and hatred among communities in the land of Papua.

    West Papua is a region known for the international media blackout. This makes it challenging to allow independent media or human rights agencies to investigate the killings.

    The country’s justice system often fails to provide fair, transparent justice for the alleged perpetrators.

    Governor Enembe concerned
    The governor of Papua province, Lukas Enembe, also expressed his concern about the central government announcement.

    The statement released from the governor’s office stated that this labelling would affect the Papuan population, not just OPM – TPNPB. Papuans in West Papua and abroad will be stigmatised through the lens of the word terrorist.

    Hence, the governor asked for the central government to review its decision comprehensively.

    One of the seven points he made was that he strongly suggested the central government check with the United Nations about the decision.

    Benny Wenda, the leader of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, also condemned Jokowi’s announcement.

    “My questions to the president of Indonesia are: Who invaded our country in the first place? Who has killed over 500,000 men, women, and children? Who has displaced over 50,000 civilians since December 2018, leading to the deaths of hundreds of more people?

    An illegal invasion and occupation is a criminal act. Genocide is a terrorist act. Resistance to these are legitimate and necessary,” Benny Wenda said.

    Harmful policy for Papuans
    These concerns are expressed in recognition that, after 60 years, Jakarta insists on introducing a policy that will harm the Papuan people.

    Fifty-eight years ago, in May 1963, was the landing of Indonesian troops after the Western power gave them the green light during the controversial “New York Agreement” – the agreement in which Papuans were not invited.

    The real terror in Papua began from that day.

    Jakarta invents words and phrases and decides their definitions to control Papuan people.

    The Indonesian government has used many names and phrases to legitimise their military operations in the land of Papua.

    Between 1964–1966, leading up to the Act of Free Choice in 1969 (which Papuans consider a sham, or an “Act of No Choice”), army general Kartidjo Sastrodinoto led an operation called “Operasi Wisnurmurti III and IV”.

    The years between 1977-1982, a general named Imam Munandar led another operation named “Operasi Kikis”, followed by “Operasi Sapu Bersih”.

    The “Operasi Penyisiran” was another name given for 2002-2004 operations in Wamena, Papua’s highland town.

    Many military operations
    These are just a few of many, both visible and invisible, military operations in West Papua.

    These terminologies carry specific energy and command and manifest different state behaviours that target Papuan lives; they mean something like “wipe-out, clean, straighten, remove, taming the wild forest, restoring order” etc.

    They are not the languages of healing and reconciliation but of war and elimination.

    Elites in Jakarta have convinced themselves to believe that there is a monster in the land of Papua and that the beast needs to be eliminated. This paranoid way of thinking is akin to saying all non-black immigrants in the land of Papua are scary, so we should label them as demons and kill them or labelling all Muslims as terrorists because they are following the religion of Islam.

    The Papua governor and civil society groups are concerned that every Papuan will be stigmatised as a terrorist, regardless of whether they are a member of OPM – TPNPB or not.
    This labelling is not just to harm OPM – TPNPB but is a direct assault on Papuan history, language, livelihood, and aspirations for a better world, pushed by Papuan resistance groups.

    One of the main concerns that have been raised within the resistance movements is that the Indonesian government is labelling West Papua national liberation as a terrorist to criminalise the movement and depict them as radical extremists in the eyes of international communities.

    This is an old colonial game, where blaming the victims makes it difficult for them to report the crimes, allowing the perpetrators to avoid being held accountable for their actions.

    Metro TV interview
    In the media interview by Metrotvnews on April 30, Mohammad Mahfud MD stated they must contain the situation in West Papua before controlling the situation outside of Papua, inferring that influencing public opinion in the international community must begin by creating a terrorist of West Papua.

    The central government in Jakarta will use the word “terrorist” to convince the international community not to support these activist groups in West Papua. It intends to damage the integrity and reputation of the West Papua liberation movement, which has been gaining a lot of sympathy from international communities and institutions such as ACP (Africa Caribbean Pacific group of states), MSG (Melanesian Spearhead Group), PIF (Pacific Islands Forum) and Human Rights Council in Geneva.

    Many described the announcement as a desperate attempt to halt the region’s independence movement. David Robie wrote that this is Jakarta’s “worst ever” policy on West Papua, as reported by Asia Pacific Report last week on April 30.

    President Jokowi’s welfare approach and his 12 visits to Papua turned out to be a mere trojan horse. He and his government are not delivering welfare to Papuan people at all – they are creating terrorists in West Papua to justify war against the Papuan people.

    How will they distinguish and catch this monster, which they have called “terrorist” in Papua? Or are they going to create one that looks like a terrorist?

    Is OPM a terrorist group or a legendary saviour in Papuan’s independence imagination?

    In the 1980s, when I was growing up in my highland village of Papua from the ages of 8-12, I often heard the name OPM. At the time, the name sounded like it had magical power. I still associate the name OPM with that story.

    OPM ‘has secret power’
    At that time, I was told that OPM has a secret power that controls weather patterns. My family said that if you see heavy rain or thick clouds covering the mountains, then it is a sign that OPM is near or OPM created the bad weather to confuse their enemies.

    This kind of story made me very curious about the name OPM.

    I then asked my elders, who were OPM’s enemy and whether OPM were human or forest spirits? They would say to me that OPM were not forest spirits. They were human beings just like us, but they couldn’t divulge their identities to keep their family members safe from interrogation if their true identities were revealed to Indonesian soldiers.

    According to the village story, OPM have the power of nature, and they can obscure the sight of the Indonesian soldiers and make them crazy. At the time, I was astonished by these stories.

    With these fascinations, I continued to ask if the OPM was something that I should fear.

    They would tell me, “child, you should not be afraid of the OPM, because the OPM will protect you, and they will expel the Indonesian soldiers who were roaming around here, killing and raping women”.

    I grew up with these types of stories, and I am sure that many Papuans have similar stories to tell about what the name of OPM means to them.

    Hope for a better world
    OPM carries the spirit that keeps the hope of a better world (free from Indonesia) alive. That’s how I understand it. That hope, in Papuans’ imagination, is political independence from Indonesia.

    To be OPM is to be a proud Papuan, and to be Papuan is to be proud to be OPM because, in the minds of Papuans, OPM represents hope, freedom, salvation, healing, and reconciliation.

    As legend has it in the island of Biak, during the early 1940s, before Indonesia got their Independence from the Dutch, it was the spirit of the Morning Star that healed the legends Manarmakeri and Angganitha.

    Papuan people in the Biak island were already dreaming of a new world – a world free from terror, with the spirit of the Morning Star before Indonesia gained its independence in 1945.

    OPM stands to manifest that utopian dream of a Papuan free state as sovereign people. This fear of manifesting Papuan statehood drives Jakarta’s reckless policies toward West Papua.

    If Papuans were asked, without any intimidation or bribery, which spirit do they trust and believe in, the OPM or Indonesia security forces, I am confident that they would choose the spirit and the legend of OPM because that spirit stands for freedom and salvation.

    The word “terrorist” is the deadliest weapon that Indonesia has invented to kill Papuan people

    Labelling is dangerous
    This reckless labelling is dangerous, as already expressed by Governor Lukas and other civil society groups, because all Papuan people will suffer, not just OPM. Papuan people are already suffering in every aspect of their lives, this labelling will add more under the Indonesian rule and western capitalist world order.

    It is unfortunate that Indonesia is one of the most religious places, and yet unable to uphold its own religious morals and ethical teachings, as inscribed in their constitutional pillars: Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa (Belief in the Almighty God) and Kemanusiaan Yang Adil dan Beradab (Just and Civilised Humanity). Do the Indonesian ruling elites still believe in these words?

    With all the human and material resources being spent on securing West Papua, the question we need to be asking is, ‘why is Jakarta still unable to catch all the perpetrators and bring them to face justice?’

    If the elites in Jakarta believe with sincerity in promoting the slogan “wonderful Indonesia” on the world’s stage, then the way they approach Papua needs to change.

    Papua will always be like a pebble in Indonesia’s shoe – it must be resolved in a humane manner if the “wonderful Indonesia dream” is to be fully realised. Turning West Papua into a terrorist and justifying it to wage war against the Papuan people is not the way to achieve peace in the land of Papua.

    • Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
    • Other Yamin Kogoya articles
    Print Friendly, PDF & Email

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • UK accused of stranding vulnerable refugees after Brexit

    Exclusive: Torture survivors and lone children stuck in Greece and Italy after Home Office ‘deliberately’ ends cooperation on family reunions

    The Home Office has been accused of failing to reunite vulnerable refugees who have the right to join family in the UK under EU law, leaving lone children and torture survivors stranded.

    The government faced widespread criticism when it announced that family reunion law would no longer apply after the UK left the EU, and it promised that cases under way on that date would be allowed to proceed.

    Related: Outrage at U-turn on promise to reunite child refugees with UK family

    Related: ‘I was alone, I had nothing’: from child refugee to student nurse in Athens

    Continue reading…

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

  • Bolivia Proposes To The UN To Urgently Convene An Earth Assembly

    During the Reunion with Mother Earth: Global reflections for the defense of Pachamama, the Plurinational State of Bolivia assumed the commitment to lead, in coordination with all the peoples of the South, a global action in this matter and requested the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), António Guterres, to urgently convene an Earth Assembly to “continue developing the cosmobiocentric paradigm, not anthropocentric, within the framework of multilateralism.”

    Representing the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the People’s Power Minister for Foreign Relations, Jorge Arreaza, focused his speech on the failure of the savage capitalist system, which has turned nature into merchandise and under which there is no way to comply with the goals of humanity…

    The post Bolivia Proposes To The UN To Urgently Convene An Earth Assembly appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Papuan protest outside UN after Anari gagged for second time

    Papuan protesters outside the United Nations headquarters yesterday after John Anari was gagged again from making a full statement at the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues. Image: Screenshot from the WPLO YouTube channel

    COMMENT: By Andrew Johnson

    Gagged again! West Papuan Liberation Organisation (WPLO) representative John Anari was allowed to introduce himself at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues yesterday – and that was the end of his message.

    The second he began saying what the United Nations does NOT want the public to hear, his feed was silenced!

    Officials claimed he had used up his two minutes for the forum (UNPFII). Anari says he was shut down early.

    No doubt the UNPFII will claim it was a lucky gremlin, but John’s video feed was up and working and only went silent as he called attention to the United Nations own responsibility for the ongoing oppression, deaths, and looting of West Papua for these past 59 years!

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Papuan protest outside UN after Anari gagged for second time

    Papuan protesters outside the United Nations headquarters yesterday after John Anari was gagged again from making a full statement at the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues. Image: Screenshot from the WPLO YouTube channel

    COMMENT: By Andrew Johnson

    Gagged again! West Papuan Liberation Organisation (WPLO) representative John Anari was allowed to introduce himself at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues yesterday – and that was the end of his message.

    The second he began saying what the United Nations does NOT want the public to hear, his feed was silenced!

    Officials claimed he had used up his two minutes for the forum (UNPFII). Anari says he was shut down early.

    No doubt the UNPFII will claim it was a lucky gremlin, but John’s video feed was up and working and only went silent as he called attention to the United Nations own responsibility for the ongoing oppression, deaths, and looting of West Papua for these past 59 years!

    Print Friendly, PDF & Email

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • World On The Verge Of Climate Crisis ‘Abyss’

    Time is fast running out to tackle the climate crisis, a United Nations report has warned, with the COVID-19 pandemic having failed to put the brakes on “relentless” climate change.

    In a “double blow” to millions hit by the extreme climate events, lockdown restrictions linked to the global coronavirus pandemic also delayed crucial assistance in some regions, said the report by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

    The UN stressed that the year 2021 must be the year of action for protecting people against the “disastrous” effects of climate change.

    The call comes ahead of US President Joe Biden’s climate summit on Thursday and Friday.

    Forty world leaders have been invited to attend Biden’s virtual talks aimed at galvanising efforts by the major economies to tackle the climate crisis.

    The post World On The Verge Of Climate Crisis ‘Abyss’ appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • ‘People Are Not Starving, They Are Being Starved’

    Over international 250 organizations are demanding urgent action from global governments to address the hunger and famine faced by hundreds of millions—a crisis the groups said is driven largely by policy choices including ignored appeals for a global ceasefire and humanitarian funding.

    “These people are not starving, they are being starved,” the groups wrote in an open letter released Tuesday.

    Referencing the countries where they operate—Yemen, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, DRC, Honduras, Venezuela, Nigeria, Haiti, CAR, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Sudan where they operate—the groups said, “These girls and boys, men and women, are being starved by conflict and violence; by inequality; by the impacts of climate change; by the loss of land, jobs, or prospects; by a fight against Covid-19 that has left them even further behind.”

    The post ‘People Are Not Starving, They Are Being Starved’ appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • ‘Gagged’ West Papuan envoy to raise self-determination issue again at UN

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    A West Papuan envoy who was gagged while addressing the United Nations Permanent  Forum on Indigenous Issues two years ago is due to speak again today.

    For six years, John Anari, leader of the West Papua Liberation Organisation (WPLO) and an “ambassador” of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), has been appealing to the forum to push for the Indonesian-ruled Melanesian region to be put back on the UN Trusteeship Council.

    He is speaking for the two groups combined as the West Papua Indigenous Organisation (WPIO), or Organisasi Pribumi Papua Barat.

    West Papua letter to UN John Anari 22042021
    West Papuan envoy John Anari’s petitioning letter to the UN Secretary-General. Image: PMC screenshot

    “I believe West Papua has been a UN Trust Territory since 1962 when the
    General Assembly authorised [the] United Nations and Indonesia’s administration of West Papua,” he is expected to say in his short decaration.

    “I believe there is a moral and legal obligation for news of the authorisation, General Assembly resolution 1752 (XVII), to be placed on the agenda of the United Nations Trusteeship Council so that the Council can then ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its advisory opinion on the proper status of West Papua in relation to the Charter of the United Nations.

    John Anari West Papua in NY
    West Papuan envoy John Anari and the Morning Star in Times Square, New York. Image: FB screenshot

    “To restore United Nations awareness of the sovereign and human rights of our people, for
    six years I have been asking this Permanent Forum [UNPFII] to advise the Economic and Social Council that it can and should place the missing agenda item on the agenda of the Trusteeship Council.

    “Not only has this forum failed to relay our request, two years ago the moderator attempted to stop my reiteration of our request. This year I am also petitioning the Secretary-General to put news of the United Nations subjugation of West Papua on the agenda of the Trusteeship Council.

    “If this forum will not relay our request, I ask you to explain to the international news media why this forum has not told the Economic and Social Council about General Assembly resolution 1752 under which West Papua is still suffering foreign administration and looting.”

    The petition has been presented to the Secretary-General, António Guterres.

     

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • ‘Gagged’ West Papuan envoy to raise self-determination issue again at UN

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    A West Papuan envoy who was gagged while addressing the United Nations Permanent  Forum on Indigenous Issues two years ago is due to speak again today.

    For six years, John Anari, leader of the West Papua Liberation Organisation (WPLO) and an “ambassador” of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), has been appealing to the forum to push for the Indonesian-ruled Melanesian region to be put back on the Trusteeship Council.

    He is speaking for the two groups combined as the West Papua Indigenous Organisation (WPIO), or Organisasi Pribumi Papua Barat.

    West Papuan envoy John Anari’s petitioning letter to the UN Secretary-General. Image: PMC screenshot

    “I believe West Papua has been a UN Trust Territory since 1962 when the
    General Assembly authorised [the] United Nations and Indonesia’s administration of West Papua,” he is expected to say in his short decaration.

    “I believe there is a moral and legal obligation for news of the authorisation, General Assembly resolution 1752 (XVII), to be placed on the agenda of the United Nations Trusteeship Council so that the Council can then ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its advisory opinion on the proper status of West Papua in relation to the Charter of the United Nations.

    John Anari West Papua in NY
    West Papuan envoy John Anari and the Morning Star in Times Square, New York. Image: FB screenshot

    “To restore United Nations awareness of the sovereign and human rights of our people, for
    six years I have been asking this Permanent Forum [PFII] to advise the Economic and Social Council that it can and should place the missing agenda item on the agenda of the Trusteeship Council.

    “Not only has this forum failed to relay our request, two years ago the moderator attempted to stop my reiteration of our request. This year I am also petitioning the Secretary-General to put news of the United Nations subjugation of West Papua on the agenda of the Trusteeship Council.

    “If this forum will not relay our request, I ask you to explain to the international news media why this forum has not told the Economic and Social Council about General Assembly resolution 1752 under which West Papua is still suffering foreign administration and looting.”

    The petition has been presented to the Secretary-General, António Guterres.

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Israel Settler Violence Against Palestinians Rising Drastically

    UN human rights experts have warned that violent attacks against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, including physical assaults and property demolitions carried out by Israeli settlers, have increased drastically in recent months.

    More than 210 violent incidents by settlers were recorded during the first three months of 2021, including one Palestinian death, the report said.

    In all of 2020, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) documented 771 incidents of settler violence, which caused injuries to 133 Palestinians, mostly in the areas of Hebron, Jerusalem, Nablus and Ramallah.

    They also documented deliberate damage caused to 9,646 trees and 184 vehicles.

    The post Israel Settler Violence Against Palestinians Rising Drastically appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • UN urges Australia to act quickly to bring stranded Australians home

    The human rights committee’s request, as it hears two cases about citizens’ ‘right to return’, should be a wake-up call for the government, advocates say

    A United Nations request that Australia promptly allow the return of two citizens from the United States should be “a wake-up call” for the government, according to a group campaigning to help thousands of stranded Australians.

    The UN human rights committee is considering separate complaints from two Australians, Jason George, who lives in New Jersey, and Alex, who lives in Hawaii and did not want his surname used, about the impact of Australia’s strict caps on international arrivals.

    Related: ‘Prepare for the worst’: Australian Olympians await Covid-19 vaccine

    The UN Human Rights Committee has accepted our submissions that the petitioners would suffer “irreparable harm” if not permitted to return home and ordered their “immediate” repatriation to Australia. @FreeandOpenAust pic.twitter.com/CuA2gFoQHn

    Related: Vaccine chart toppers: what Australia can learn from world’s best rollouts

    Continue reading…

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

  • Denis Halliday: A Voice Of Reason In An Insane World

    Denis Halliday is an exceptional figure in the world of diplomacy. In 1998, after a 34-year career with the United Nations—including as an Assistant Secretary-General and the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq—he resigned when the UN Security Council refused to lift sanctions against Iraq. 

    Halliday saw at first hand the devastating impact of this policy that had led to the deaths of over 500,000 children under the age of five and hundreds of thousands more older children and adults, and he called the sanctions a genocide against the people of Iraq.

    Since 1998, Denis has been a powerful voice for peace and for human rights around the world. He sailed in the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza in 2010, when 10 of his companions on a Turkish ship were shot and killed in an attack by the Israeli armed forces.

    The post Denis Halliday: A Voice Of Reason In An Insane World appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Australia should target Myanmar ‘gang leader’ for sanctions, UN expert says

    Exclusive: special rapporteur Tom Andrews says crimes against humanity are happening ‘before our very eyes’ and calls for urgent action against military junta

    A top United Nations expert is in direct talks with the Australian government about how to expand sanctions against Myanmar’s military regime, and warned that crimes against humanity are being “committed before our very eyes”.

    Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, told Guardian Australia the government should target the commander-in-chief, whom he described as “the gang leader” responsible for mass atrocities, and should link additional sanctions with those imposed by other countries.

    Related: Doctors under fire as Myanmar military targets efforts to aid injured protesters

    This is widespread. It’s systematic. It is clearly … crimes against humanity being committed before our very eyes

    Related: Is Myanmar the new Syria? Rising violence threatens a repeat tragedy

    Continue reading…

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

  • Denmark strips Syrian refugees of residency permits and says it is safe to go home

    Government denies renewal of temporary residency status from about 189 Syrians

    Denmark has become the first European country to revoke the residency permits of Syrian refugees, insisting that some parts of the war-torn country are safe to return to.

    At least 189 Syrians have had applications for renewal of temporary residency status denied since last summer, a move the Danish authorities said was justified because of a report that found the security situation in some parts of Syria had “improved significantly”.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Yazidi women fail in claim for compensation in Australia for actions of Isis fighter Khaled Sharrouf

    Women’s lawyers say they are considering going to UN bodies after the high court turned down their appeal

    Five Yazidi women who say they were held as slaves by the notorious Australian terrorist Khaled Sharrouf have failed in a high court bid for compensation.

    Lawyers for the women have told the Guardian they are now considering lodging a complaint with United Nations bodies focusing on “Australia’s duty to provide an effective remedy” for survivors of sexual violence and slavery.

    Related: After Isis, Yazidi women forced to leave their children behind

    Continue reading…

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

  • A Summary of ADHRB’s Engagement at HRC46

    In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 46th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) was held virtually between 22 February and 23 March 2021. Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) welcomed the 46th session as an opportunity to draw attention to the deteriorating human rights condition in Bahrain and the Gulf states, especially amidst the fatal pandemic. During the 46th session, ADHRB submitted four written statements to the Council denouncing humanitarian abuses in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. ADHRB also delivered seven virtual oral interventions condemning the human rights abuses in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, and calling on the council to hold their governments accountable for their actions.

    Concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen as well as the involvement of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), ADHRB submitted a written statement to the HRC during its 46th session. In the statement, ADHRB expressed its concerns about the “ongoing famine, COVID-19 pandemic, economic crisis, and outbreak of cholera in Yemen”. ADHRB expressed its concern about the violations of international humanitarian law committed by the Saudi-UAE led coalition. ADHRB urged the governments of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to “halt all airstrikes until an international, independent and impartial commission can investigate all the allegations of attacks against civilians” and work to end the conflict through a political settlement. ADHRB also urged the two governments to ensure the provision of clean water, fuel, and other “life-saving imports”. On 16 March, ADHRB delivered a virtual oral intervention under item 4 condemning the Coalition blockade on basic necessities, which caused malnutrition diseases that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths in Yemen, and calling for a recommendation to the Security Council to transfer these crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity to the International Criminal Court (ICC). On 19 March, ADHRB also delivered another virtual oral intervention under item 9 denouncing the mobility restrictions and discriminatory arbitrary detentions by the coalition.

    Additionally, ADHRB submitted a written statement denouncing the ongoing climate violations committed by the government of Bahrain, highlighting their dangerous impact on the local environment and the population. However, despite recognizing the environmental hazards caused by rapid urbanization and climate change, the Bahraini Government continues to persecute environmental human rights defenders. In the statement, ADHRB urged the government of Bahrain to drop all charges against all environmental human rights defenders, and to advance environmental policies like developing an extensive public transportation infrastructure and promoting the use of electric cars to reduce carbon emissions.

    Concerned about the condition of political prisoners in Bahrain during the COVID-19 pandemic, ADHRB issued a written statement denouncing the lack of sanitation and medical care, in violation of the Mandela rules (United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners) and international humanitarian law. In the statement, ADHRB provided several recommendations including urging the Government of Bahrain to “drop all charges against human rights defenders” detained for their activism, ensure “the provision of adequate and necessary medical care for all prisoners”, and “end the culture of impunity in Bahrain”. On March 10, ADHRB also delivered a virtual oral intervention under item 3, raising concerns about the repression human rights and civil society activists face in Bahrain under the newly appointed Prime Minister Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa. On 16 March ADHRB delivered two virtual oral interventions at 46th session under item 4, condemning the growing culture of impunity among officials in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and calling on the Council to adapt human rights membership standards to block governments that engage in systematic human rights violations. On 19 March, another virtual oral intervention was delivered by ADHRB under item 8, calling on the Council to hold the government of Bahrain accountable for violating human rights and respect the Bahraini people’s needs to achieve democracy. Accordingly, on 19 March, ADHRB also delivered a virtual oral intervention reiterating the Bahraini people’s right to political self-determination and condemning the dictatorship of Al-Khalifa.

    ADHRB also submitted a written statement concerning the detention of Women’s Rights defenders in Saudi Arabia. ADHRB denounced the prison authorities’ failure to provide basic medical care to inmates. ADHRB called upon the Government of Saudi Arabia to release and drop all charges against imprisoned Women’s Rights defenders. ADHRB also urged the Government of Saudi Arabia to “abolish the male guardianship system”.

    In line with the 46th session’s activities, on 17 March, ADHRB organized a virtual seminar titled “Patterns of Torture in Bahrain: Perpetrators must Face Justice” in collaboration with the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Bahrain Center for Human Rights, and International Federation for Human Rights, highlighting the joint report they released about the patterns of torture in Bahrain. In the virtual seminar, the speakers reiterated the importance of accountability in ending the culture of impunity in Bahrain, recommended the establishment of a permanent OHCHR country office in Bahrain, and called for the investigation of the crimes documented in the report, and other crimes against humanity perpetrated in the country.

    By participating effectively at the UNHCR 46th session, ADHRB managed to address the most severe human rights violations in the Gulf states and call on their governments to uphold the principles of human rights.

     

    The post A Summary of ADHRB’s Engagement at HRC46 appeared first on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

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

  • Network In Defense Of Humanity Rejects Aggressions By Armed Groups

    The Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity, in view of the confrontations that began on March 21 between the Bolivarian National Armed Forces and irregular armed groups in La Victoria, Apure State, near the Colombian border, declares:

    -It is an insistently repeated historical fact that irregular armed groups from Colombia, sometimes with the complicit tolerance, sometimes with the connivance, and sometimes with the declared support of the government of that country, crossing into Venezuela’s borders to commit common crimes and destabilize the legitimate government.

    -We are listing here some regrettable examples of these intrusions including the invasion of a force of a thousand Colombians with false Venezuelan flags across the Táchira border under…

    The post Network In Defense Of Humanity Rejects Aggressions By Armed Groups appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • April-May 2021 Deadlines – Calls for Inputs by UN Human Rights Mechanisms

    The following UN Human Rights Mechanisms have issued calls for inputs with deadlines in April and May 2021 and law professors whose research and scholarship touches on these topics may be interested in submission: Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of…

    This post was originally published on Human Rights at Home Blog.

  • Myanmar coup: Kevin Rudd joins calls for UN security council intervention

    Former Australian PM says world ‘radically underestimating’ how quickly junta violence could deteriorate to tens of thousands of deaths and a refugee crisis

    The world is “radically underestimating” how badly the situation in Myanmar could deteriorate, with the prospect of thousands of deaths and an exodus of refugees, the former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has warned.

    Rudd raised the alarm as he called for an urgent meeting of the UN security council, arguing the international community had a “responsibility to protect” the people of Myanmar from “mass atrocities” by the country’s military.

    Related: Myanmar coup: Australia urged to give Hawke government-style amnesty to students

    Related: ‘Garbage strike’ and candle-lit vigils as Myanmar death toll passes 500

    Continue reading…

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

  • New Global Alliance Defends UN Charter

    A new alliance  called the “Groups of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations” has formed in a clear act of resistance to the unilateral and aggressive policies of the United States and its junior partners. Representatives of the alliance reside fully in the Global South. Nations spearheading the initiative include the DPRK, Iran, Algeria, Angola, Belarus, Bolivia, Cambodia, Cuba, Eritrea, Laos, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent, and the Grenadines, Syria, Venezuela, and Palestine in addition to the largest of the developing countries, Russia and China.

    The post New Global Alliance Defends UN Charter appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • The Nakba of Sheikh Jarrah: How Israel Uses ‘the Law’ to Ethnically Cleanse East Jerusalem

    A Palestinian man, Atef Yousef Hanaysha, was killed by Israeli occupation forces on March 19 during a weekly protest against illegal Israeli settlement expansion in Beit Dajan, near Nablus, in the northern West Bank.

    Although tragic, the above news reads like a routine item from occupied Palestine, where shooting and killing unarmed protesters is part of the daily reality. However, this is not true. Since right-wing Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced, in September 2019, his intentions to formally and illegally annex nearly a third of the occupied Palestinian West Bank, tensions have remained high.

    The killing of Hanaysha is only the tip of the iceberg. In occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a massive battle is already underway. On one side, Israeli soldiers, army bulldozers and illegal armed Jewish settlers are carrying out daily missions of evicting Palestinian families, displacing farmers, burning orchards, demolishing homes and confiscating land. On the other side, Palestinian civilians, often disorganized, unprotected and leaderless, are fighting back.

    The territorial boundaries of this battle are largely located in occupied East Jerusalem and in the so-called ‘Area C’ of the West Bank – nearly 60% of the total size of the occupied West Bank – which is under complete and direct Israeli military control. No other place represents the perfect microcosm of this uneven war like that of the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem.

    On March 10, fourteen Palestinian and Arab organizations issued a ‘joint urgent appeal to the United Nations Special Procedures on forced evictions in East Jerusalem’ to stop the Israeli evictions in the area. Successive decisions by Israeli courts have paved the way for the Israeli army and police to evict 15 Palestinian families – 37 households of around 195 people – in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni area in Sheikh Jarrah and Batn Al-Hawa neighborhood in the town of Silwan.

    These imminent evictions are not the first, nor will they be the last. Israel occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem in June 1967 and formally, though illegally, annexed it in 1980. Since then, the Israeli government has vehemently rejected international criticism of the Israeli occupation, dubbing, instead, Jerusalem as the “eternal and undivided capital of Israel”.

    To ensure its annexation of the city is irreversible, the Israeli government approved the Master Plan 2000, a massive scheme that was undertaken by Israel to rearrange the boundaries of the city in such a way that it would ensure permanent demographic majority for Israeli Jews at the expense of the city’s native inhabitants. The Master Plan was no more than a blueprint for a state-sponsored ethnic cleansing campaign, which saw the destruction of thousands of Palestinian homes and the subsequent eviction of numerous families.

    While news headlines occasionally present the habitual evictions of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan and other parts of East Jerusalem as if a matter that involves counterclaims by Palestinian residents and Jewish settlers, the story is, in fact, a wider representation of Palestine’s modern history.

    Indeed, the innocent families which are now facing “the imminent risk of forced eviction” are re-living their ancestral nightmare of the Nakba – the ethnic cleansing of historic Palestine in 1948.

    Two years after the native inhabitants of historic Palestine were dispossessed of their homes and lands and ethnically cleansed altogether, Israel enacted the so-called Absentees’ Property Law of 1950.

    The law, which, of course, has no legal or moral validity, simply granted the properties of Palestinians who were evicted or fled the war to the State, to do with it as it pleases. Since those ‘absentee’ Palestinians were not allowed to exercise their right of return, as stipulated by international law, the Israeli law was a state-sanctioned wholesale theft. It ultimately aimed at achieving two objectives: one, to ensure Palestinian refugees do not return or attempt to claim their stolen properties in Palestine and, two, to give Israel a legal cover for permanently confiscating Palestinian lands and homes.

    The Israeli military occupation of the remainder of historic Palestine in 1967 necessitated, from an Israeli colonial perspective, the creation of fresh laws that would allow the State and the illegal settlement enterprise to claim yet more Palestinian properties. This took place in 1970 in the form of the Legal and Administrative Matters Law. According to the new legal framework, only Israeli Jews were allowed to claim lost land and property in Palestinian areas.

    Much of the evictions in East Jerusalem take place within the context of these three interconnected and strange legal arguments: the Absentees’ Law, the Legal and Administrative Matters Law and the Master Plan 2000. Understood together, one is easily able to decipher the nature of the Israeli colonial scheme in East Jerusalem, where Israeli individuals, in coordination with settler organizations, work together to fulfill the vision of the State.

    In their joint appeal, Palestinian human rights organizations describe the flow of how eviction orders, issued by Israeli courts, culminate into the construction of illegal Jewish settlements. Confiscated Palestinian properties are usually transferred to a branch within the Israeli Ministry of Justice called the Israeli Custodian General. The latter holds on to these properties until they are claimed by Israeli Jews, in accordance with the 1970 Law. Once Israeli courts honor Israeli Jewish individuals’ legal claims to the confiscated Palestinian lands, these individuals often transfer their ownership rights or management to settler organizations. In no time, the latter organizations utilize the newly-acquired property to expand existing settlements or to start new ones.

    While the Israeli State claims to play an impartial role in this scheme, it is actually the facilitator of the entire process. The final outcome manifests in the ever-predictable scene, where an Israeli flag is triumphantly hoisted over a Palestinian home and a Palestinian family is assigned an UN-supplied tent and a few blankets.

    While the above picture can be dismissed by some as another routine, common occurrence, the situation in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem has become extremely volatile. Palestinians feel that they have nothing more to lose and Netanyahu’s government is more emboldened than ever. The killing of Atef Hanaysha, and others like him, is only the beginning of that imminent, widespread confrontation.

    This article was posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2021 at 8:23pm and is filed under Annexation, Apartheid, Benjamin Netanyahu, Evictions, Human Rights, Hypocrisy, Israel/Palestine, Israeli Defence Force (IDF), Justice, Land Theft, Murder, Occupation, Property Rights, United Nations, Violence, Zionism.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Nakba of Sheikh Jarrah: How Israel Uses ‘the Law’ to Ethnically Cleanse East Jerusalem

    A Palestinian man, Atef Yousef Hanaysha, was killed by Israeli occupation forces on March 19 during a weekly protest against illegal Israeli settlement expansion in Beit Dajan, near Nablus, in the northern West Bank.

    Although tragic, the above news reads like a routine item from occupied Palestine, where shooting and killing unarmed protesters is part of the daily reality. However, this is not true. Since right-wing Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced, in September 2019, his intentions to formally and illegally annex nearly a third of the occupied Palestinian West Bank, tensions have remained high.

    The killing of Hanaysha is only the tip of the iceberg. In occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a massive battle is already underway. On one side, Israeli soldiers, army bulldozers and illegal armed Jewish settlers are carrying out daily missions of evicting Palestinian families, displacing farmers, burning orchards, demolishing homes and confiscating land. On the other side, Palestinian civilians, often disorganized, unprotected and leaderless, are fighting back.

    The territorial boundaries of this battle are largely located in occupied East Jerusalem and in the so-called ‘Area C’ of the West Bank – nearly 60% of the total size of the occupied West Bank – which is under complete and direct Israeli military control. No other place represents the perfect microcosm of this uneven war like that of the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem.

    On March 10, fourteen Palestinian and Arab organizations issued a ‘joint urgent appeal to the United Nations Special Procedures on forced evictions in East Jerusalem’ to stop the Israeli evictions in the area. Successive decisions by Israeli courts have paved the way for the Israeli army and police to evict 15 Palestinian families – 37 households of around 195 people – in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni area in Sheikh Jarrah and Batn Al-Hawa neighborhood in the town of Silwan.

    These imminent evictions are not the first, nor will they be the last. Israel occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem in June 1967 and formally, though illegally, annexed it in 1980. Since then, the Israeli government has vehemently rejected international criticism of the Israeli occupation, dubbing, instead, Jerusalem as the “eternal and undivided capital of Israel”.

    To ensure its annexation of the city is irreversible, the Israeli government approved the Master Plan 2000, a massive scheme that was undertaken by Israel to rearrange the boundaries of the city in such a way that it would ensure permanent demographic majority for Israeli Jews at the expense of the city’s native inhabitants. The Master Plan was no more than a blueprint for a state-sponsored ethnic cleansing campaign, which saw the destruction of thousands of Palestinian homes and the subsequent eviction of numerous families.

    While news headlines occasionally present the habitual evictions of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan and other parts of East Jerusalem as if a matter that involves counterclaims by Palestinian residents and Jewish settlers, the story is, in fact, a wider representation of Palestine’s modern history.

    Indeed, the innocent families which are now facing “the imminent risk of forced eviction” are re-living their ancestral nightmare of the Nakba – the ethnic cleansing of historic Palestine in 1948.

    Two years after the native inhabitants of historic Palestine were dispossessed of their homes and lands and ethnically cleansed altogether, Israel enacted the so-called Absentees’ Property Law of 1950.

    The law, which, of course, has no legal or moral validity, simply granted the properties of Palestinians who were evicted or fled the war to the State, to do with it as it pleases. Since those ‘absentee’ Palestinians were not allowed to exercise their right of return, as stipulated by international law, the Israeli law was a state-sanctioned wholesale theft. It ultimately aimed at achieving two objectives: one, to ensure Palestinian refugees do not return or attempt to claim their stolen properties in Palestine and, two, to give Israel a legal cover for permanently confiscating Palestinian lands and homes.

    The Israeli military occupation of the remainder of historic Palestine in 1967 necessitated, from an Israeli colonial perspective, the creation of fresh laws that would allow the State and the illegal settlement enterprise to claim yet more Palestinian properties. This took place in 1970 in the form of the Legal and Administrative Matters Law. According to the new legal framework, only Israeli Jews were allowed to claim lost land and property in Palestinian areas.

    Much of the evictions in East Jerusalem take place within the context of these three interconnected and strange legal arguments: the Absentees’ Law, the Legal and Administrative Matters Law and the Master Plan 2000. Understood together, one is easily able to decipher the nature of the Israeli colonial scheme in East Jerusalem, where Israeli individuals, in coordination with settler organizations, work together to fulfill the vision of the State.

    In their joint appeal, Palestinian human rights organizations describe the flow of how eviction orders, issued by Israeli courts, culminate into the construction of illegal Jewish settlements. Confiscated Palestinian properties are usually transferred to a branch within the Israeli Ministry of Justice called the Israeli Custodian General. The latter holds on to these properties until they are claimed by Israeli Jews, in accordance with the 1970 Law. Once Israeli courts honor Israeli Jewish individuals’ legal claims to the confiscated Palestinian lands, these individuals often transfer their ownership rights or management to settler organizations. In no time, the latter organizations utilize the newly-acquired property to expand existing settlements or to start new ones.

    While the Israeli State claims to play an impartial role in this scheme, it is actually the facilitator of the entire process. The final outcome manifests in the ever-predictable scene, where an Israeli flag is triumphantly hoisted over a Palestinian home and a Palestinian family is assigned an UN-supplied tent and a few blankets.

    While the above picture can be dismissed by some as another routine, common occurrence, the situation in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem has become extremely volatile. Palestinians feel that they have nothing more to lose and Netanyahu’s government is more emboldened than ever. The killing of Atef Hanaysha, and others like him, is only the beginning of that imminent, widespread confrontation.

    The post The Nakba of Sheikh Jarrah: How Israel Uses ‘the Law’ to Ethnically Cleanse East Jerusalem first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • UN resolution hailed as ‘crucial turning point’ for victims of Sri Lanka civil war

    UK-led action ramps up scrutiny of the regime against a backdrop of worsening human rights abuses

    Civil rights groups have welcomed a UK-led UN resolution on Sri Lanka as a “crucial turning point for justice” for victims of the country’s nearly 30-year-long conflict.

    The resolution, which ramps up international monitoring and scrutiny of the country, was passed on Tuesday by the human rights council after the UN high commissioner for human rights warned Sri Lanka could rapidly descend into violence unless decisive international action was taken. Michelle Bachelet expressed alarm over “worrying trends” in the country since President Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office in 2019 and last month told the human rights council the country had “closed the door” on ending impunity for past abuses.

    Related: Sri Lanka at ‘tipping point’ with risk of return to past atrocities, activists warn

    A year on from the start of the world’s biggest health crisis, we now face a human rights pandemic. Covid-19 has exposed the inequalities and fragilities of health and political systems and allowed authoritarian regimes to impose drastic curbs on rights and freedoms, using the virus as a pretext for restricting free speech and stifling dissent.

    Continue reading…

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

  • As the US Launches Its Run for a Seat on the UN Human Rights Council, It Should Seek to Reform Its Own Ambivalence Toward International Human Rights Law

    When the US returned to the UN Human Rights Council as an observer in January 2021, it promptly announced that it would run for a seat on the Council. The Biden administration says it agrees with some criticisms of the Council, but that it will be best positioned to reform the Council when it again has a seat at the table. In remarks to the Human Rights Council earlier this week at the adoption of the US UPR outcome, US Acting Assistant Secretary of State Lisa Peterson acknowledged that the US’ own human rights record is far from perfect, and that “American leadership on human rights must begin at home.” 

    The US should be a full participant in the work of the Human Rights Council, and the Biden administration is correct in recognizing that the US must confront its own human rights failings if it hopes to provide leadership by example at the UN. In earlier posts, The Advocates highlighted some challenging aspects of both the human rights situation in the US and the Biden administration’s responses to UPR recommendations to address them, and there are certainly other specific issues requiring attention. But there are also broader concerns about how the US approaches its international human rights obligations that the Biden administration has, so far, not shown much interest in addressing.   

    Human Rights Treaty Ratification 

    The US was instrumental in the founding of the UN, but is not yet a party to several of its core human rights treaties. In its Human Rights Council presentation, the US discussed several UPR recommendations it received urging it to ratify a number of international human rights treaties. It explained that while the Biden administration supports ratification of additional human rights treaties (specifically naming the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child), ratification requires the affirmative vote of 2/3 of the US Senate. Past US Presidents signed these treaties long ago, but the Senate has failed for decades to ratify them.   Assistant Secretary Peterson’s remarks noted that the administration “will continue to review how we can approach ratification of these treaties.”  

    Not mentioned in the US presentation were rejected UPR recommendations concerning other treaties, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which was also signed but never ratified, and the International Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers or the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR (regarding abolition of the death penalty), which have not ever been signed. The Biden administration apparently has no plans to take action on these  treaties. 

    Domestic Implementation of Ratified Treaties 

    It’s equally important to note that the US has long neglected its obligation to implement in domestic law and policy the treaties it has ratified. In some countries, the law allows direct application of a treaty in domestic law once the treaty has been ratified. In others, including the US, that’s not the case. National legislation also must be passed to make the provisions of the treaty applicable in domestic law, so that it can be applied by the courts or government agencies. Without this additional step, which in many areas has not ever been taken, the international treaty obligations of the US can’t be enforced in US courts.  

    The federal government also often takes the position that its hands are tied when it comes to the conduct of states. The truth is that efforts to persuade state governments to comply with international human rights treaty obligations (or even make the states aware of those obligations) have been few and far between. While it examines what it can do to advance the ratification of additional treaties, the Biden administration should also undertake a thorough review of actions it can take to implement and enforce the treaties that are already in place. 

    The International Criminal Court 

    The US has a particularly checkered history with the International Criminal Court. The US participated in the negotiations that led to the founding of the ICC, but joined six other countries (China, Israel, Libya, Qatar and Yemen) in voting against the adoption of the statute at the UN. President Bill Clinton signed the founding treaty, known as the Rome Statute, but never submitted it to the Senate for ratification. President George W. Bush later informed the UN that the US did not intend to ratify it. Since then, US relations with the ICC have varied wildly, from supporting the referral of potential crimes by the UN Security Council and arranging for the surrender of foreign suspects to pressuring other countries to sign treaties agreeing not to surrender US personnel to the court.  

     The Trump administration was actively hostile to the ICC.  President Trump issued an Executive Order imposing sanctions on the ICC, its staff, and anyone who dared to assist it, all in retaliation for the opening of a preliminary inquiry into possible war crimes in Afghanistan. US officials who object to the jurisdiction of the ICC typically claim it infringes on US sovereignty, but that is not true. The Rome Statute very clearly provides that its jurisdiction is secondary. The ICC will step in only when the responsible nation is unable or unwilling to conduct a genuine investigation into war crimes, genocide, or crimes against humanity, and to pursue any prosecutions that arise from that investigation. There is no doubt that the US is fully capable of doing so. If it wishes to lead the world on human rights, it certainly must also be willing. 

    As of now, the Biden administration has unfortunately failed to make any movement toward more positive relations with the ICC. The US rejected UPR recommendations to ratify the Rome Statute, and to cooperate with the ICC regarding the Afghanistan inquiry, stating that while it “shares the goals of the ICC in promoting accountability for the worst crimes known to humanity,” it is not a party to the Rome Statute and has never accepted its jurisdiction over US personnel. Despite numerous UPR recommendations to lift sanctions and at least one lawsuit by human rights defenders threatened with sanctions, the Biden administration has said only that it is thoroughly reviewing the matter. In public statements, it has continued to reject the authority of the ICC to pursue investigations in Afghanistan and in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.  

    As the US pursues its candidacy for a seat on the Human Rights Council and its stated agenda to reform the Council and restore its own place as a global leader on human rights, it has a lot of work to do. High on the list should be to reform its ambivalent approach to its own international human rights obligations and take strong action – both at home and in the international community. 

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    This post was originally published on The Advocates Post.

  • ‘The EU did not rise to the challenge’: UN special rapporteur on Europe’s failure to fill human rights void

    Agnès Callamard, about to start as Amnesty International’s secretary general, paints dire global picture following disdain for human rights of Trump administration, China and Russia

    European leaders failed to fill a vacuum on human rights during the Trump years and adopted policies that violate human rights standards, according to Agnès Callamard, one of the world’s leading authorities on the issue.

    In a wide-ranging interview with the Guardian, the French investigator, who will begin a new role as secretary general of Amnesty International later this month, paints a dire picture of the state of human rights globally, and singles out European leaders for criticism.

    Related: Top Saudi official issued death threat against UN’s Khashoggi investigator

    Related: Agnes Callamard: unflinching UN official taking on Saudi crown prince

    Continue reading…

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

  • News: Is there a New Era For Human Rights on the Horizon?

    JoAnn Kamuf Ward and Jamil Dakwar, Is there a New Era For Human Rights on the Horizon? What We Can Learn from the Biden-Harris Administration’s First UN Appearance, Just Security (March 19, 2021), https://www.justsecurity.org/75429/is-there-a-new-era-for-human-rights-on-the-horizon/ “It’s been a busy week for…

    This post was originally published on Human Rights at Home Blog.

  • The Global Climate Ledger

    The rise of the global middle class threatens to blow up the environmental envelope. Can the link between income and emissions be broken?

    This post was originally published on Dissent MagazineDissent Magazine.

  • Demolition Of Palestinian Houses Continues

    The report published on March 16 revealed that the monthly average of demolition of Palestinian houses by the occupying Israeli authorities has increased by 65% in 2021 as compared to 2020. In the month of February alone, at least 305 Palestinians, including 172 children, lost their homes and were displaced due to demolition of homes by the Israeli authorities.

    The post Demolition Of Palestinian Houses Continues appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.