Masaya, Nicaragua – Reynaldo Urbina rides his motorbike around the streets of Masaya, Nicaragua, with agility, despite having only one arm. Nearly seven years ago, at the height of a US- supported coup attempt against Nicaragua’s left-wing Sandinista government, Urbina was one of those guarding the city’s municipal warehouse when it was attacked by around 200 armed protestors. Warned of the impending attack, the guards had been ordered to hide their weapons and not resist capture, to minimize casualties.
One of scores of violent barricades, or tranques, created around Nicaragua during the 2018 coup attempt
MASAYA, NICARAGUA – Reynaldo Urbina rides his motorbike around the streets of Masaya, Nicaragua, with agility, despite having only one arm. Nearly seven years ago, at the height of a US- supported coup attempt against Nicaragua’s left-wing Sandinista government, Urbina was one of those guarding the city’s municipal warehouse when it was attacked by around 200 armed protestors. Warned of the impending attack, the guards had been ordered to hide their weapons and not resist capture, to minimize casualties.
But Urbina was suspected of knowing the whereabouts of the city’s mayor, whom the hooligans sought to assassinate, so they threw him to the ground and smashed his left arm with a rifle butt until it was practically destroyed. Urbina escaped, but his arm could not be saved, and was later amputated.
Reynaldo Urbina (left) lost his left arm after being tortured by US-backed opposition gangs
When a team was sent by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to Nicaragua to collect evidence on human rights abuses a few weeks later, Urbina was among those offered by the government as a witness. But the team refused to meet him.
The UN’s 40-page report, issued in August 2018, devotes just five paragraphs to violence by anti-government factions; the rest blames the government and its supporters for practically every other violent incident, including many (like an arson attack on a pro-Sandinista radio station) that were clearly part of the coup attempt.
Some time after the coup attempt, Nicaragua’s then vice-minister for foreign affairs, Valdrack Jaentschke, described an exchange with Paulo Abrão, who was the Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The IACHR was another of the bodies which had launched investigations of human rights abuses in 2018. Valdrack had asked Abrão why visiting investigators were not collecting evidence of the severe opposition violence which had taken place. Abrão gave two reasons: that human rights abuses can only be carried out by the state, and that violence by civil society groups is just “common criminality” and therefore not within the investigators’ mandate.
This February 28 this year, when the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) held a session on human rights in Nicaragua, a key witness who played a leading role in the coup against Nicaragua’s elected Sandinista government appeared by video to deliver a denunciation of his enemies in Managua.
He was Felix Maradiaga, a US government-sponsored regime change operative who was one of the main organizers of the coup attempt. As The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal reported, Maradiaga’s IEEPP think tank had been funded with hundreds of thousands of dollars in support from the National Endowment for Democracy, the regime change arm of the US government.
In June 2018, the Nicaraguan police charged Maradiaga with overseeing an organized criminal network that murdered several people. Relieved of this charge in a post-coup amnesty in 2019, he was arrested again, this time for treason, in 2021. Released again – this time into exile in the United States – Maradiaga was awarded a major prize from the UNHRC in 2023 as a “human rights defender.”
Blinken is defending the hooligans & oligarchs the US pays to carry out attacks on the Nicaraguan people.
Here’s Felix Maradiaga – recipient of huge US grants – with armed goons of the Viper criminal network that terrorized Managua during the 2018 coup: pic.twitter.com/uqigHnYqTuhttps://t.co/DK8Y9eVX5E
Maradiaga’s most recent UNHRC appearance was hosted by by UN Watch, an Israeli regime cutout which maintains a constant presence in Geneva, relentlessly attacking the UN to shield Israel’s system of apartheid. But what interest would an Israel lobby outfit have in backing Nicaragua’s opposition? The motive clearly relates to the Sandinista government’s longstanding support for Palestinian self-determination, a stance which led it to sever diplomatic ties with Israel and bring legal action against Germany in 2024 for assisting Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip. (All of Nicaragua’s top opposition figures are vehemently pro-Israel).
A day before Maradiaga’s appearance, Nicaragua’s government issued a statement accusing the UNHRC of being “a platform for those who are attempting to destabilize Nicaragua and are the perpetrators of numerous murders, abductions, and violations of human rights of the Nicaraguan people.” It went on to announce its “irrevocable” withdrawal from the multilateral body.
Nicaragua’s patience had run out. Not only was the UNHRC platforming Maradiaga, but they had published a new report on alleged “human rights violations.” The report comes from the so-called “Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaraguan” (GHREN) set up by the UNHRC in 2022. It supposedly describes human rights in Nicaragua in the period from 2018 onwards, but to anyone who lives in the country (as I do) and witnessed the violent coup attempt that took place in April-July that year, it is an extraordinarily partial and biased document.
The most egregious bias is the report’s treatment of opposition figures like Maradiaga as victims, not perpetrators. It is true that there have been arrests, imprisonments and the expulsion from the country (with US agreement and facilitation) of many of those arrested. But the GHREN appears never to have asked if they might be guilty of criminal acts. The new report refers disparagingly to government statements “alleging” that 2018’s events were an attempted coup. Instead, according to the GHREN, “legitimate protests” took place and were subject to a “violent and disproportionate crackdown.”
Yet as The Grayzone reported back in 2019, the real story was very different. Of the official death toll of 253, just 31 were known supporters of the opposition, 48 were probable or actual Sandinista supporters, 22 were police and the majority (152) were members of the public, many of them attacked at armed opposition roadblocks. Simply by omitting the facts that 22 police officers were killed, some after being tortured, and that over 400 police were injured, the GHREN reveals an extraordinary bias which invalidates its report.
The GHREN members are fully aware of the real story, but they simply choose to ignore it. They quite deliberately feed Washington’s narrative, repeated by its allies and by the corporate media, that what happened in 2018 was a series of peaceful protests, not a violent coup attempt that endangered thousands of Nicaraguans and hit the livelihoods of millions.
Their first, 300-page report in March 2023 also made little reference to opposition violence, and as result it was strongly criticized in a letter to the UNHRC, organized by the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition and signed by many prominent human rights experts and by 119 organizations and 573 individuals, and accompanied by a detailed critique of the report. A separate document analyzed their error-strewn case study of Masaya, where I live, referring them to overlooked crimes such as the torture of Reynaldo Urbina. Neither the letter nor the accompanying evidence received any response, but it can be assumed that the “experts” are at least aware of that they were sent.
When the GHREN produced a second report, in March 2024, another letter of protest was submitted, again receiving no response. This was also signed by human rights experts and a large number of organizations and individuals. It was sent personally to the president of the UNHRC by Alfred de Zayas, Professor of International Law in Geneva and a former UN Independent Expert. According to de Zayas, the report was “methodologically flawed, biased and should never have been published.”
When there was again no response, a third letter was sent in September 2024, urging the UNHRC to close down the GHREN on the grounds that its reports are incompatible with UN and UNHRC resolutions, do not meet the assignment they were given, and ignored legitimate and detailed evidence submitted. Not surprisingly, there was no reply.
The intention to ignore these criticisms could hardly be more obvious, despite the GHREN’s claim to exercise “independence, impartiality, objectivity, transparency, integrity.” Or, as the letter from Nicaragua’s foreign minister puts it, the UNHRC (in publishing the GHREN’s work) “violates its own regulations.”
This is part of a well-established pattern, referred to by Cuban and Venezuelan officials at the UNHRC’s recent session as well as those from Nicaragua, in which the council listens to and records only one side of the story when investigating human rights “violations” by Washington’s enemies. In his book on “the human rights industry,” de Zayas specifically accuses the GHREN of being set up for the purpose of “naming and shaming” the Nicaraguan government, not for objective investigation.
Instead of answering criticisms, the GHREN cynically repeats an accusation made in its previous reports, that Nicaraguan authorities were given the chance to respond to its allegations but failed to do so. Had they investigated Nicaragua’s reticence, they might have uncovered the Urbina case and several others where the government tried and failed to engage with such exercises.
Notable among these was the visit in 2018 by an earlier “interdisciplinary group of independent experts” whose similarly error-strewn report, about that year’s violent “Mothers’ Day march,” also showed overwhelming partiality and anti-government bias. Soon after this visit the government made the understandable decision to refuse cooperation with future investigations by multilateral bodies, and later to deny them permission even to enter the country. Its recent withdrawal from the UNHRC itself was a logical last step.
From Washington’s viewpoint, the GHREN’s new report could hardly have been better timed. Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio had already branded Nicaragua’s government (along with those of Cuba and Venezuela) as “enemies of humanity.” Not only does the report bolster this view, but it even advocates the tightening of sanctions on Nicaragua that Rubio is known to be contemplating.
The GHREN specifically calls for Nicaragua to be penalized under the regional trade treaty, known as CAFTA, which enables Nicaragua to trade with its Central American neighbors and the US on favorable terms, and is of massive importance for the country’s economy and hence for Nicaraguan livelihoods. The GHREN’s recommendation is in direct conflict with one of the UNHRC’s own resolutions: UNHRC Resolution 48/5 in 2021 states that such sanctions (“unilateral coercive measures”) violate international law and human rights. Rubio said in Costa Rica on February 4 that the trade treaty’s purpose was to “reward democracy.” Visiting Central America’s right-wing governments to drum up support for tightened sanctions, he claimed that Nicaragua “…is not a democracy. It does not function as a democracy.”
The GHREN’s report, issued just three weeks after Rubio’s visit, suggests that penalties could be applied under CAFTA’s “democratic clause.” Yet the trade treaty does not have such a clause; it only has a passing reference, in its preamble, to “sustaining the rule of law and democracy.” An impartial group of “experts” in international law, such as the GHREN, ought to be aware of the need for precision in their recommendations, and certainly should avoid calling for actions that would be in breach of international law.
Clearly the GHREN has no such inhibitions. It has provided Rubio with a recommendation that he can use to damage Nicaragua’s economy and harm its working people. Members of Nicaragua’s elite classes, like Felix Maradiaga, will continue to have a voice at international forums; ordinary Nicaraguans whose human rights were permanently damaged in 2018, like Reynaldo Urbina, remain invisible.
The UN’s food agency has warned that it will run out of supplies to help feed Palestinians in Gaza in just two weeks if Israel continues its total blockade of food and other necessities, putting the lives of millions of Palestinians at risk. The World Food Programme has said that it only has enough supplies to keep its kitchens and bakeries in Gaza open for the next couple of weeks…
What began as one northern California activist’s idea to up the ante on pressure against local congressmen who support Israel’s assault on Gaza has turned into a plan to air the issue in the international arena.
Retired high school history teacher Seth Donnelly, a resident of Boyes Hot Springs in Sonoma County, California, said he was fed up with his Congress member Mike Thompson, who refused to respond to phone calls, emails, and protests demanding that he stop funding Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
“I even invited him to speak before a student human rights group at Rancho Cotate High School,” Donnelly said, referring to the school where he taught until recently.
Volker Türk alarmed at growing power of ‘unelected tech oligarchs’ and warns gender equality is being rolled back
The UN human rights chief has warned of a “fundamental shift” in the US and sounded the alarm over the growing power of “unelected tech oligarchs”, in a stinging rebuke of Washington weeks into Donald Trump’s presidency.
Volker Türk said there had been bipartisan support for human rights in the US for decades but said he was “now deeply worried by the fundamental shift in direction that is taking place domestically and internationally”.
The Nicaraguan government announced its withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) in protest against the falsehoods and slanders against the country perpetrated at the institution.
In a statement issued on Thursday, February 27, the Nicaraguan authorities stated that the UNHRC has become a platform for those who are attempting to destabilize Nicaragua and are the perpetrators of numerous murders, abductions, and violations of human rights of the Nicaraguan people.
The statement further stressed that the report against the Nicaraguan authorities by the self-styled group of “experts” is evidence of the double standards and politicization of the multilateral mechanisms where human rights are being weaponized.
The COP16 UN Biodiversity Conference in Rome has ended with a plan for nations to contribute $200 billion a year for the protection of the planet’s biodiversity by 2030, but critics say it’s not enough.
The countries came to an agreement on how to contribute the funds. The accord also includes a plan for raising $20 billion annually to finance conservation in developing nations starting this year, with the amount rising to $30 billion a year by 2030, reported The Associated Press.
Following hours of tense discussions, delegates at the conference applauded when the deal was finally reached.
Healthcare workers are protected under international law yet hundreds were detained during the war. Now, some of Gaza’s most senior doctors have spoken of the violence and abuse they say they faced
Dr Issam Abu Ajwa was in the middle of performing emergency surgery on a patient with a severe abdominal injury at al-Ahli Arab hospital in central Gaza when thesoldiers came for him.
“I asked them what they were doing coming into the operating theatre,” he says.“One of the soldiers pointed at me and said: ‘Are you Dr Issam Abu Ajwa?’ I said: ‘Yes, that’s me.’ And then the beating began.”
The U.K. government must lead on a joint statement addressing Egypt’s human rights crisis, according to a February 19 letter sent by the Committee to Protect Journalists and 24 other press freedom and human rights organizations to U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy ahead of the 58th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council.
The letter raised concerns over Egypt’s worsening human rights situation, where authorities continue to suppress dissent, restrict civil society, and arbitrarily arrest thousands, including journalists. The letter highlighted Egyptian-British blogger Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who has still not been released, even after completing his unjust five-year prison sentence in September 2024.
The signatories emphasized that a U.K.-led joint statement would send a strong message to Egyptian authorities about the urgency of Alaa’s release and the broader need to address Egypt’s deepening repression.
DRC prime minister tells human rights council fighting has left about 450,000 without shetler after camps destroyed
About 7,000 people have died in fighting in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since Rwanda-backed M23 rebels started renewed advances in January, the prime minister has said.
At a high-level meeting of the UN’s human rights council in Geneva on Monday, Judith Suminwa Tuluka also said the war had left about 450,000 people without shelter after the destruction of 90 displacement camps.
“Our office has confirmed cases of summary execution of children by M23 after they entered the city of Bukavu last week. We are also aware that children were in possession of weapons,” Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN’s Office of the high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR), said on Tuesday.
officials are targeting programs for women’s and children’s rights within the United Nations, demanding that they end any supposed emphasis on “gender ideology” or diversity, equity and inclusion as they work to combat human rights violations and uplift violently oppressed populations. Last Friday, U.S. officials offered amendments to routine UNICEF program documents, forcing a vote on…
A so-called “ceasefire” has done nothing to halt the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. Israel’s government is escalating policies that jeopardize the very lives of Palestinian children, and powerful nations are complicit through their silence or direct endorsement. Even now, terror and bloodshed continue in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while the U.S. administration signals tacit support for what amounts to ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
Under the Biden administration, sanctions were imposed on extremist Israeli settlers—17 individuals and 16 entities over 11 months—to curb violence against Palestinians.
New Zealand should be robust in its response to the “unacceptable” situation in Gaza but it must also back its allies against threats by the US President, says an international relations academic.
Otago University professor of international relations Robert Patman said the rest of the world also “should stop tip-toeing” around President Donald Trump and must stand up to any threats he makes against allies, no matter how outlandish they seem.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters told RNZ that New Zealand would not comment on the plan until it was clear exactly what was meant, but said New Zealand continued to support a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.
Dr Patman said the president’s plan was “truly shocking and absolutely appalling” in light of the devastation in Gaza in the last 15 months.
It was not only “tone deaf” but also dangerous, he added, with the proposal amounting to “the most powerful country in the world — the US — dismantling an international rules=based system that [it] has done so much to establish”.
“This was an extraordinary proposal which I think is reckless and dangerous because it certainly doesn’t help the immediate situation. It probably plays into the hands of extremists in the region.
“There is a view at the moment that we must all tiptoe round Mr Trump in order not to upset him, while he’s completely free to make outrageous suggestions which endanger people’s lives.”
Professor Robert Patman . . . Trump’s plan for Gaza “truly shocking and absolutely appalling”. Image: RNZ
Winston Peters’ careful position on a potential US takeover of Gaza was “a fair response . . . but the Luxon-led government must be clear the current situation is unacceptable” and oppose protectionism, he said.
“[The government ] wants a solution in the Middle East which recognises both the Israeli desire for security but also recognises the political right to self determination of the Palestinian people — in other words the right to have a state of their own.”
New Zealand should also speak out against Trump’s threats to annex Canada, “our very close ally”, he said.
He was “not suggesting New Zealand be provocative but it must be robust”, Dr Patman said.
Greens also respond to Trump actions The Green Party said President Trump had been explicit in his intention to take over Gaza, and New Zealand needed to make its position crystal clear too.
Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the Prime Minister needed to stand up and condemn the plan as “reprehensible”.
“President Trump’s comments have been pretty clear to anybody who is able to read or to listen to them, about his intention to forcibly displace, or to see displaced, about 1.8 million Gazans from their own land, who have already been made refugees in their own land.”
France, Spain, Ireland, Brazil and other countries had been “unequivocal” in their condemnation of Trump’s plan, and NZ’s Foreign Affairs Minister should be too, she added.
“New Zealanders value justice and they value peace, and they want to see our leadership represent that, on the international stage. So [these were] really disappointing and unfortunately unclear comments from our Deputy Prime Minister.”
Yesterday Foreign Minister Winston Peters told RNZ that New Zealand still supported a two-state solution, but said he would not comment on Trump’s Gaza plan until officials could grasp exactly what this meant.
Dozens of countries have expressed “unwavering support” for the ICC in a joint statement, after the US President imposed sanctions on its staff.
The 125-member ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression against the territory of member states or by their nationals.
The United States, China, Russia and Israel are not members.
Trump has accused the court of improperly targeting the US and its ally, Israel.
Neither New Zealand nor Australia had joined the statement, but in a statement to RNZ the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had always supported the ICC’s role in upholding international law and a rules-based system.
University of Victoria law professor Alberto Costi said currently New Zealand is at little risk of sanctions and there’s no need for a stronger approach.
“At this stage there is no reason to be stronger. New Zealand is perceived as a state that believes in a rules-based order and is supportive of the work of the ICC.
“So there’s not much need to go further but it’s a space to watch in the future, should these sanctions become a reality.
“But as far as New Zealand is concerned, at the moment there is no need to antagonise anyone at this stage.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry has filed a complaint against Israel to the UN Security Council (UNSC) over its constant violations of the ceasefire that was reached at the end of last year.
Lebanon expressed its rejection of “systematic Israeli attacks and violations” and Israel’s removal of the signs on the withdrawal line in southern Lebanon, in the complaint filed on 4 February.
Beirut also demanded that the UNSC issue a firm and clear position on Israel’s continuous violations and oblige it to respect the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
The complaint called on the Security Council to back support for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and UNIFIL forces “to guarantee the protection of the Lebanese sovereignty and the safety of the Lebanese citizens.”
A defiant Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) national chair, John Minto, has appealed to Aotearoa New Zealand to stand with the “majority of humanity” in the world and condemn genocide in Gaza.
Minto has called on Foreign Minister Winston Peters to “ignore the bullying” from pro-Israel Texas Senator Ted Cruz and have the courage to stop welcoming Israeli solders to New Zealand.
Peters has claimed Israeli media stories that New Zealand has stopped Israeli military visiting New Zealand are “fake news”.
Senator Cruz had quoted Israeli daily Ha’aretz in a tweet which said “It’s difficult to treat New Zealand as a normal ally within the American alliance system, when they denigrate and punish Israeli citizens for defending themselves”.
The Times of Israel had also reported this week that Israelis entering New Zealand were required to detail their military service.
US Senator Ted Cruz . . . “It’s difficult to treat New Zealand as a normal ally within the American alliance system.” Image: TDB
Minto responded in a statement saying that Peters “should not buckle” to a Trump-supporting senator who fully backed Israel’s genocide.
“Ted Cruz believes Israel should continue defending land it has stolen from Palestinians. He supports every Israeli war crime. New Zealand must be different,” he said.
Last September, New Zealand voted against the US at the United Nations General Assembly where the country sided with the majority of humanity — 124 votes in favour, 14 against and 43 abstentions — that ruled that Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory was illegal and it should leave within a year.
At the time, Peters declared: “New Zealand’s yes vote is fundamentally a signal of our strong support for international law and the need for a two-state solution.”
‘Different policy position’
“The New Zealand government has a completely different policy position to the US,” said Minto.
“That should be reflected in the actions of the New Zealand government. We must have an immigration ban on Israeli soldiers who have served in the Israeli military since October 2023 as well as a ban on any Israeli who lives in an illegal Israeli settlement on occupied Palestinian land.”
Minto said it was not clear what the current immigration rules were for different entry categories, but it did seem that some longer stay Israeli applicants were required to declare they had not committed human rights violations before they were allowed in.
“That’s what the Australians are doing. It appears ineffective at preventing Israeli troops having ‘genocide holidays’ in Australia – but it’s a start,” he said.
“We’d like to see a broader, effective, and watertight ban on Israeli troops coming here.
“Instead of bowing to US pressure New Zealand should be joining The Hague Group of countries, as proposed by the Palestine Forum of New Zealand, to take decisive action to prevent and punish Israeli war crimes.”
Immigration New Zealand reports that since 7 October 2023 it had approved 809 of 944 applications received from Israeli nationals across both temporary and residence visa applications.
Last December, Middle East Eye reported that at least two IDF soldiers had been denied entry to Australia and applicants were being required to fill out a document regarding their role in war crimes.
Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank just in the first month of 2025, the UN has reported, as Israel has escalated its assault on the region amid its ceasefire in Gaza. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for the occupied Palestinian territories reported on Thursday that, since the beginning of this year…
Implementation of Israel’s ban on the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA will be disastrous, the aid agency’s chief has told the Security Council, saying Israel’s actions jeopardise “any prospect of peace”.
The ban is set to come into force tomorrow after months of an intensified Israeli campaign against UNRWA, which it has claimed supports terrorism without providing evidence.
“In two days, our operations in the occupied Palestinian territory will be crippled,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told the 15-member Security Council.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini . . . “In two days, our operations in the occupied Palestinian territory will be crippled.” Image: UN
“Full implementation of the Knesset legislation will be disastrous.”
Lazzarini also slammed Israel’s “propaganda” campaign against UNRWA, which has seen Tel Aviv invest in billboards in major cities and Google Ads.
“The absurdity of anti-UNRWA propaganda does not diminish the threat it poses to our staff, especially those in the occupied West Bank and in Gaza — where 273of our colleagues have been killed,” he said.
Seven European nations jointly condemn Israel
Seven European Union countries — Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Slovenia, and Spain — have told the UN Security Council they “deeply deplore” Israel’s decision to shut down UNRWA’s operations in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In a joint statement, they condemned Israel’s withdrawal from its 1967 agreement with UNRWA and any efforts to obstruct its UN-mandated work.
The group also called for the suspension of Israeli laws banning the agency, arguing they violate international law and the UN Charter.
The “non-suspenders” – – in #UNSC meeting on #UNRWA:
We deeply deplore the adoption by the Israeli Knesset of legislation aimed at abolishing UNRWA’s activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
UNRWA remains more essential than ever. https://t.co/Ihp5pmdf3zpic.twitter.com/SSBiaYlZAT
However, Israel vowed at the UN to push ahead with the controversial ban.
“UNRWA must cease its operations and evacuate all premises it operates in Jerusalem, including the properties located in Maalot Dafna and Kafr Aqab,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told the council.
“Israel will terminate all collaboration, communication and contact with UNRWA or anyone acting on its behalf,” he said.
UNRWA said operations in the Gaza Strip and West Bank will also suffer. It provides aid, health and education services to millions in the Palestinian territories and neighbouring Arab countries of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
‘Irresponsible’ UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council have described UNRWA as the backbone of the humanitarian aid response in Gaza, which has been decimated by 15 months of Israel’s war on the enclave.
The United States, under new President Donald Trump, supports what it called Israel’s “sovereign right” to close UNRWA’s offices in occupied east Jerusalem, acting US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the Security Council.
Under Trump predecessor Joe Biden, the United States provided military support for Israel’s war, but urged Israel to pause implementation of the law against UNRWA.
“UNRWA exaggerating the effects of the laws and suggesting that they will force the entire humanitarian response to halt is irresponsible and dangerous,” Shea said.
“What is needed is a nuanced discussion about how we can ensure that there is no interruption in the delivery of humanitarian aid and essential services,” she said.
“UNRWA is not and never has been the only option for providing humanitarian assistance in Gaza,” she said.
Other agencies working in Gaza and the West Bank include the children’s organisation UNICEF, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization and the UN Development Programme.
Who fills the gap? But the UN has repeatedly said there is no alternative to UNRWA and that it would be Israel’s responsibility to replace its services. Israel, whose creation in 1948 was preceded by the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland during the Nakba, rejected that it was responsible for replacing UNRWA’s services.
“Since October 2023, we have delivered two-thirds of all food assistance, provided shelter to over a million displaced persons and vaccinated a quarter of a million children against polio,” Lazzarini told the Security Council.
“Since the ceasefire began, UNRWA has brought in 60 percent of the food entering Gaza, reaching more than half a million people. We conduct some 17,000 medical consultations every day,” he said.
Israel has long been critical of UNRWA, claiming that the agency’s staff took part in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel. The UN has said nine UNRWA staff may have been involved and were fired.
The UN has vowed to investigate all accusations and repeatedly asked Israel for evidence, which it says has not been provided.
Lazzarini also said today that UNRWA had been the target of a “fierce disinformation campaign” to “portray the agency as a terrorist organisation”.
In one of his first executive orders after taking office, President Trump ordered the United States to withdraw from the U.N.’s World Health Organization, putting numerous WHO programs at risk, including efforts to tackle tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University, says the move is a “grave mistake for American national interests and our…
Palestinians and aid groups in Gaza are returning to areas made inaccessible by Israel’s siege only to find that entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble, with even basic infrastructure like wells for water destroyed by Israel’s carpet bombing campaign. “We have been driving for the last 10 minutes here in Jabalia [refugee] camp, and I haven’t seen a single building standing…
Human rights experts are warning that Israel’s ban on Palestinians’ main humanitarian aid agency will remove the “backbone” of the entire aid operation in Gaza and beyond when it goes into effect next week, threatening to prolong or worsen the humanitarian catastrophe Israel has created. In a research brief published by Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) on Wednesday…
The United Nations tasked with providing humanitarian aid to the besieged people of Gaza — and the only one that can do it on a large scale — says it is ready to provide assistance in the wake of the ceasefire tomorrow but is worried about the impact of being “outlawed” by Israel.
A spokesperson, Tamara Alrifai, for the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said: “We’re extremely eager to see the humanitarian part of the ceasefire, actioned as of tomorrow morning.”
However, Alrifai also told Al Jazeera that UNRWA was “extremely worried” that if UNRWA was prevented from being able to work “then the glue that brings together the entire complex humanitarian operation might not be able to function”.
In October, Israel passed a law banning UNRWA from operating on Israeli territory and areas under Israel’s control. The ban is set to take effect next month.
Alrifai said UNRWA was continuing to work in Gaza, with UNRWA staff managing shelters and distributing food.
“Not only is UNRWA the backbone of the humanitarian response with our shelters, our people, our personnel, our trucks and our warehouses . . . but the minute the ceasefire kicks in, it is of utmost priority to bring over 600,000 children back to some form of learning,” she added.
Another aid agency, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said that while the ceasefire deal was a “relief”, it was coming too late and political leaders had “failed” the people of Gaza.
“Searching for bodies’
“For more than 15 months, hospital rooms have been filled with patients with severed limbs and other life-altering trauma, caused by strikes, and distressed people searching for the bodies of their family members,” MSF said in a statement.
Lazzarini: Can UNRWA survive Israel’s attacks? Video: Al Jazeera
The agency, which said eight of its workers had been killed since the start of the war, described humanitarian needs in the besieged and bombarded territory as having reached “catastrophic levels”.
“The Israeli government, Hamas, and world leaders have tragically failed the people of Gaza, by not agreeing and imposing a sustained ceasefire sooner,” it said.
“The relief that this ceasefire brings is far from enough for people to rebuild their lives, reclaim their dignity and to mourn for those killed and all that’s been lost.”
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry in Gaza has released its latest daily casualties update from Israeli attacks, indicating that the number of people killed since the start of the war had risen by 23 to 46,899 in the latest 24-hour reporting period.
Another 83 people were wounded over the same period, bringing the total to 110,725.
‘In Gaza, only UNRWA has the infrastructure to distribute aid to scale, such as vehicles, warehouses, distribution centres and staff. However, Israeli authorities are making this extremely difficult,’ writes Chris Gunness.
In the last week of January, two Knesset bills ending Israel’s “cooperation” with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) are scheduled to come into force.
If they do, UNRWA’s activities in the territory of the state of Israel would be illegal under Israeli law and any Israeli official or institution engaging with the agency would be breaking the law.
In a letter to the president of the General Assembly in October, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, revealed he had written to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging his government to take the necessary steps to avoid the legislation being implemented.
He also expressed concern that these laws would harm UNRWA’s ability to deliver life-saving services in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
This provoked a detailed response from Israel’s UN Ambassador in New York, Danny Dannon, who responded laying out Israel’s strategic planning pursuant to the Knesset bills.
UNRWA to be expelled from Jerusalem Much about Israel’s strategy was already known, for example its plan to eliminate UNRWA in Gaza and deliver services through a combination of other UN agencies, such as the World Food Programme (WFP) along with the Israeli military and private sector companies.
Dannon made clear that the occupying authorities plan to take over UNRWA facilities in Jerusalem.
According to UNRWA’s website, these include 10 schools, three primary health clinics and a training centre. Students would likely be sent to Israeli schools for the Palestinian population of occupied East Jerusalem, whose curricula have been subject to “Judaisistation” in contravention of Israel’s international humanitarian law obligations to the occupied population.
There is also a major question mark over UNRWA’s massive headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah.
The UNRWA compound, which contains several huge warehouses for humanitarian goods, has been subjected to arson attacks in recent months, which forced it to shut down.
Nonetheless, it seems UNRWA’s Jerusalem HQ may be shut down in the face of Israeli threats, violence and pressure. Staff are being told to relocate to offices in Amman as a result of a performance review and UNRWA says its Jerusalem HQ was only ever temporary.
But a recent communication from UNRWA to its donors makes clear that the agency is ceding to Israeli intimidation: “While the review of HQ functions has been underway for a number of years, the review and decision has been fast-tracked as a result of the administrative and operational challenges experienced by the agency throughout 2024, including visa issuance, visa duration and lack of issuing diplomatic ID cards.
“These challenges have inhibited our effectiveness to work as a Headquarters in Jerusalem.”
De facto annexation If UNRWA is expelled from East Jerusalem, this would have potentially devastating impact on over 63,000 Palestinian refugees who depend on its services.
Moreover, it would have profound political significance, particularly for the global Islamic community because it would set the seal on Israel’s illegal annexation of Jerusalem, home to Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest shrine in Islam.
It would also be a violation of the ruling last July by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) demanding that the occupation ends.
The annexation of Jerusalem as the “eternal and undivided capital of the Jewish state” which began with the occupation in 1967, would become another illegal fact on the ground.
Crucially, Jerusalem will have been unilaterally removed from whatever is left of the Middle East Peace Process.
Arab governments, particularly Saudi Arabia and Jordan, must therefore act now, and decisively, to save their holy city. The loss of Jerusalem will undoubtedly provoke a violent reaction among Palestinians and likely lead to calls for jihad more widely. In the context of an explosive Middle East this can only engender further destabilising tensions for governments in the region.
I therefore call on Saudi Arabia to make the scrapping of the Knesset legislation a precondition in the normalisation negotiations with Israel. The Saudi administration must make this clear to Netanyahu and insist that for Muslims, Jerusalem is sacrosanct, and that the expulsion of UNRWA is a step too far.
The Trump transition team has already been warned of the looming catastrophe if Israel is allowed to destroy UNRWA’s operations, and I urge Arab leaders to insist with their Saudi interlocutors that the regional fallout from this feature prominently in the normalisation talks.
Lack of contingency planning Meanwhile, the senior UN leadership has adopted the position that the responsibility to deliver aid is Israel’s as the occupying power. To the consternation of UNRWA staffers, substantive inter-agency discussions across the humanitarian system about a UN-led day-after plan have effectively been banned.
For Palestinians against whom a genocide is being committed, this feels like abandonment and betrayal — a sense compounded by suspicions that UNRWA international staff may be forced to leave Gaza at a time of mass starvation.
Similar conclusions were reached by Dr Lex Takkenberg, senior advisor with Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD), and other researchers who have just completed an as yet unpublished assessment of the implications of Israel’s ban on UNRWA, based on interviews with a large number of UNRWA staff and other experts.
Their study confirms that with the lack of contingency planning, the suffering of the Palestinian population, particularly in Gaza, will increase dramatically, as the backbone of the humanitarian operation crumbles without an alternative structure in place.
Contrary to UNRWA, Israel has been doing a great deal of contingency planning with non-UNRWA agencies such as WFP, which are under strong US pressure to take over aid imports from UNRWA. As a result, the amount of aid taken into Gaza by UNRWA has reduced significantly.
In Gaza, only UNRWA has the infrastructure to distribute aid to scale, such as vehicles, warehouses, distribution centres and staff.
However, Israeli authorities are making this extremely difficult. They claim to be “deconflicting” aid deliveries, but according to UN sources there is clear evidence that Israeli soldiers are firing on vehicles and allowing criminal gangs to plunder convoys with impunity.
Thus Israeli officials are able to say to journalists whom they have barred from seeing the truth in Gaza, that they are allowing in all the aid Gaza needs, but that UNRWA is unfit for purpose. This lie has gone unchallenged in the international media.
Further implications According to Takkenberg, “Mr Guterres’s strategy of calling on Israel as the occupying power to deliver aid has backfired and is inflicting untold suffering on the Palestinians.
“The strategy also feels misplaced, given that Israel is accused of genocide in the UN’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, and is facing expulsion from the UN General Assembly”.
He adds that Israel “has exploited the UN’s strategy as part of its campaign of starvation and genocide.”
In the face of this, I call on the Secretary-General to mobilise the UN system. He has said repeatedly that UNRWA is the backbone of the UN’s humanitarian strategy, that the agency is indispensable and key to regional stability.
It is time for the UNSG to walk the walk.
He must use his powers under Article 99 of the UN charter, granted precisely for these circumstances, to call the Security Council into emergency session and make his demand that the Knesset legislation must not be implemented the top agenda item. The General Assembly which gives UNRWA its mandate must also be called into session.
Though Guterres faces huge pressure from Israel’s powerful allies, he must stand up on behalf of a people the UN is mandated to protect and double down on those who are complicit in genocide.
The UN’s policy in Gaza along with acceptance of Jerusalem’s annexation with impunity for Israel, has major implications for its credibility and I confidently predict it will lead to further attacks by Israel on other UN agencies, such as the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which has long been an irritant to the Tel Aviv administration.
The de facto annexation of Jerusalem will also see an erosion of the international rule of law.
In its advisory opinion in July last year, the ICJ concluded that Israel is not entitled to exercise sovereign powers in any part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory on account of its occupation. In addition, the expulsion of UNRWA would be in violation of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, which obliges Israel as a signatory, to cooperate with UN Agencies such as UNRWA.
The UN’s historic responsibility to the Palestinians Already, through its attack on UNRWA Israel is attempting unilaterally to remove the Palestinian refugees, their history, their identity and their inalienable right of return from the peace process.
As I have argued many times, this will fail. So must Israel’s unilateral attempt to take Jerusalem off the negotiating table by expelling UNRWA and completing its illegal annexation of the city.
That would see the international community and the UN abandoning its historic responsibilities to the Palestinian people and can only lead to further suffering and instability in a chronically unstable Middle East. The Muslim world must act decisively and swiftly. The clock is ticking.
Chris Gunness served as UNRWA’s Director of Communications and Advocacy from 2007 until 2020. This article was first published in The New Arab.
Posted on 6 January 2025 – Closing date 15 January 2025
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) composed of nearly 200 national human rights organisations from more than 115 countries. FIDH is a nonpartisan, non-sectarian, apolitical, and not for profit organisation. Since 1922, FIDH has been defending all human rights – civil, political, economic, social, and cultural – as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
FIDH are now recruiting : A Delegate to the United Nations (F∕M) – Indefinite-term contract based in FIDH Geneva office
The FIDH’s Delegation in Geneva
Represents FIDH before Geneva-based international organizations and institutions, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR); in particular, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) and the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies;
Organizes the participation of FIDH’s member and partner organizations in the work of UN human rights bodies and mechanisms (support and assistance with regard to the submission of “parallel” or “alternative” reports, lobbying and advocacy, communication, etc.): mainly the UN Human Rights Council (including the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism), treaty monitoring bodies, and special procedures;
Prepares and implements the interventions of lobbying and advocacy at the Human Rights Council, and defines advocacy strategies;Feeds UN human rights protection bodies and mechanisms, in particular UN special procedures and OHCHR’s sections and branches, based on information from FIDH member and partner organizations and develops the strategic analysis of institutional developments and advocacy opportunities;
Relays and reports on activities and events to FIDH’s International Secretariat based in Paris.
Direct superviser : The representative, Head of the FIDH Delegation to the United Nations in Geneva
Applicants should send their CV and a brief cover letter (in English) by email recrutement@fidh.org quoting reference FIDH DELEGATE in the subject line.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk highlighted the critical role of human rights defenders in today’s tumultuous global landscape in a speech on 13 January 2025 to Wilton Park, the executive agency of the United Kingdom’s Foreign office.
For many workers, defending human rights is not just a job, but a calling. As he noted, many “work out of a deep sense of service to others, and a desire to make a meaningful impact.”
From conflict zones to post-war societies, they provide crucial support to detainees and victims of torture, deliver emergency relief, document violations and expose the root causes of conflict.
“Human rights defenders are key to conflict resolution. They are the messengers of dignity, justice and peace,” said Mr. Türk.
However, despite their invaluable work, human rights defenders face “unacceptably high” threats, with some attacks amounting to war crimes.
For journalists and humanitarian workers, being killed, kidnapped, harassed or detained has become an increasingly likely reality.
Women are particularly vulnerable, often targeted by sexual violence, online threats and risks to their family.
Mr. Türk cited the criminalisation of dissent, the forceful suppression of peaceful protests and restrictions on non-governmental organisations as alarming developments.
These events often force human rights defenders to operate in exile, exposing them to new forms of persecution and repression, including online surveillance.
“The full impact of digital technologies on the work and safety of human rights defenders is not yet known,” he warned, underlining the urgency of addressing these modern threats.
Mr. Türk urged governments to take decisive action, including establishing well-resourced national protection systems and supporting civil society networks that provide cross-border protection. He also noted the importance of reacting swiftly to emerging threats.
“The risks of this work must not be shouldered by the defenders alone,” he said, emphasising the need to support NGOs at risk and to push back against the labelling of defenders as terrorists, foreign agents or traitors.
“We must do everything we can to make sure [defenders] can operate safely wherever they are,” he concluded.
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