Human Toll Of Violence In Central African Republic Documented

Human rights researchers based at the University of California, Berkeley, have canvassed nearly 2,000 households in the Central African Republic, carefully documenting the devastating human impact of violence in the country.

Interviewers spent an hour or more each with 1,879 adults, gathering information about their exposure to violence, sense of security, physical well-being and mental health. The numbers are striking:

Mortality rates averaged 4.9 deaths per 1,000 people per month,

81 percent fled their homes since 2002

67 percent threatened with death

11 percent were abducted

16 percent coerced to work with armed groups

Most of respondents reported witnessing traumatic events and thereafter experiencing symptoms consistent with depression and anxiety.

The researchers seek to inform aid programs, security sector reforms to protect civilians, and accountability processes.

Yet in the midst of this devastation, the researchers found reason to be hopeful.

In “Building Peace, Seeking Justice,” they report that most respondents — 61 percent — consider the conflict to be predominantly political. “It’s not a conflict among the people,” said Vinck. “It’s a conflict among political factions fighting for power, but that can be more straightforward to resolve. It’s possible for the international community to put enough tension and pressure on the political groups to help to bring more security to the population. Once security is achieved, there is an urgent need to develop services outside of the capital city.”

94% of the respondents said they plan to vote in the next presidential elections, and most felt confident that they would be able to vote freely.

Reference: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100803174902.htm

 

 

Possible Crimes against Humanity by Burmese Military in Chin State, Burma

The health impacts of human rights violations in Chin State are substantial and the indirect health outcomes of human rights violations probably dwarf the mortality from direct killings, according to a study by Richard Sollom from Physicians for Human Rights, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

Burma has been left poor and devastated due to military ruthless actions–confiscates land unlawfully, demands forced labour, and uses violence making Burma one of the poorest in the world.

The authors carried used a multi-stage household cluster sampling design to interview to access health and human rights in Chin State, where multiple reports of human rights abuses have been documented.

The findings show that 91.9% of the 621 households interviewed reported at least one episode of a household member being forced to work in the preceding 12 months coupled with beatings or torture (14.8 of households), religious or ethnic persecutions (14.1% of households) and detention or imprisonment (5.9% of households).

More than half the households were forced to give up food out of fear of violence and a statistical analysis indicated that the prevalence of household hunger was 3.56 times higher in households that had experienced food-related human rights violations than in households that had not experienced such violations.

The authors conclude: “Widespread reporting of rights abuses in Chin State against a civilian population by government forces may amount to crimes against humanity, though such a determination would have to be made by a U.N. commission of inquiry or the International Criminal Court.”

Reference: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110208171438.htm

 

Things Get Worse for Immigrants Seeking Asylum in the US.

Things are getting worse by day for immigrants as their efforts to obtain asylum have been turned to an unnecessarily impossible affair by the Trump administration. The truth is that by so doing these people’s human rights are being terribly violated in what seems like a deliberate measure to make the legal process unbearable.

It is openly evident that the borders have a human right crisis which has no doubt been internally designed by the administration.

Following some research done by the New York Times, it was discovered that not once has the American officials falsely told people that it was impossible for them to seek asylum even at ports designated for entry. This is not only a violation of the States law but also a violation of international law.

The unbearably slow application process and the extremely discouraging administrative measures have made the situation unarguably unfair for the families stuck there waiting to make asylum applications as well as for those children that came unaccompanied. The process is terribly incapacitating even for those allowed entry.

For instance, last autumn thousands of immigrant kids were locked up together in Texas in a tent city where they stayed for months while being supervised by unvetted staff members rather than having them reunited with their waiting families and sponsors.

It is unfortunate that the administration is more absorbed with building a separating wall that will cause more division while it should be looking at ways to make the immigration and asylum policies fair and favorable.

 

References

Chinese Lawyers have their Human Rights Greatly Violated.

Just a few weeks after China decided to wage war against lawyers in July 2015, 300 lawyers, advocates and legal assistants who support the rule of law found themselves on the government’s wrong side. Among them was the renown Wang Quanzhang, who since August 2015 was put in secret detention incommunicado for 3 1/2 years, until December last year when he was taken to court for a trial. Sadly, early this year, the court sent him to jail for a 4 ½ years imprisonment with charges of subversion.

As it is already known, President Xi Jinping has been using this as a way of repressing those in the Communist Party. Strong measures to investigate the rivals have been put in place among them being social media censorship. The Muslims have not been spared either and in their confinements, they have been forced to go through “re-education.” It is in this hustle of the president trying to consolidate power, that the lawyers defending religious believers and human right activists or expose corrupt local authorities have become a target.

While a number of lawyers have faced a few weeks detainment, five lawyers among them Wang have had to serve a jail term. Wang’s case may have, however, delayed because of his refusal to confess to having had a plot against the government, even after being subjected to physical torture.

While the lawyers’ crackdown has attracted much international attention, the US government has remained silent over China’s violation of human rights, the whole time. However, Wang’s imprisonment has provoked Trumps administration to talk of the worsening situation for human rights, and call for the release of Wang.

 

References

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/chinas-attack-on-human-rights-and-the-rule-of-law-continues/2019/01/31/305067ee-2410-11e9-90cd-dedb0c92dc17_story.html?utm_term=.90d702df496a

Rights Groups Demand Access to Saudi Detainees

On Friday, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called on Saudi Arabia to give them access to detainees. This comes a day after the British government threatened to publish their own report detailing human rights violation in the kingdom should they not be granted access.

The rights groups called on the kingdom to let independent monitors have access to tortured human rights activists and also prominent persons who were detained amidst anti-corruption campaigns.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has come under global criticism for its human rights violation and its role in the Yemen War. This comes in the wake of the killing of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman critic Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last year.

On Thursday, United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions told Reuters news agency that she would be traveling to Turkey to helm an inquiry into the matter next week.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has denied ordering the killing of the journalist. Meanwhile, he is pushing for reforms that will revamp the kingdom’s economy and society. However, these reforms have been marred with continued arrests of dissents.

In its defense, the kingdom has denied having political prisons and torturing detainees. Political parties and public protests are banned in the Gulf Arab state. In a statement, officials said that it was paramount to keep an eye on activists to ensure social stability.

Amnesty has however said that it has documented at least 10 cases of torture and abuse. Lynn Maalouf, Middle East research director for Amnesty said that women detainees were tortured in the first three months.

HRW said that independent monitors should be given access to prominent figures who were detained in November 2017 on Prince’s orders.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/rights-groups-call-access-saudi-detainees-190125063657149.html

 

 

Japan Ought to Support Vietnamese Human Rights Activists

It is not an unusual scene for Vietnamese activists to be beaten and detained by authorities. Such is the case for Nguyen Chi Tuyen. In 2015, as he dropped his son at elementary school in Hanoi, he was attacked and beaten by masked men and left unconscious.

The attack on dissidents is on the rise in Vietnam as the government cracks its whip on public dissidents. Last year, the police arrested dozens of demonstrators who were protesting against a draft law for long-term leases in special economic zones.

Meanwhile, celebrities have also not been left behind. Award-winning singer Do Nguyen Mai Khoi, has had her concerts canceled since 2016. Additionally, she has been evicted and detained for her anti-government lyrics.

To the global eye, Vietnam is a peaceful, lively and welcoming country. However, this is far from the truth. Less visible are the instances where Vietnamese are robbed of the freedom to speech, association, and worship among others.

In the meantime, the government has introduced a new law on cybercrime to keep of government critics. The law gives the government unfettered access to public data. In fact, days after it took effect the government accused Facebook of allowing users to post anti-government comments.

Despite this unwavering human rights violations, the Japanese government remains silent. Vietnamese human rights activists expressed their shock and disappointment saying that the Japanese government is only interested in the relationship with the Vietnamese government and not with the people.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshiko Abe visited Vietnam earlier this month and talked about the deepening bilateral relationship but failed to mention about human rights violation. She neither requested the release of political prisoners.

The Japanese government fears Vietnam will lean of China should it criticize human rights violation in the one-party country.

To this end, the Japanese government ought to discuss human rights with the Vietnamese government. This would not only encourage the human rights activists but the entire Vietnam population.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/japan-stand-vietnamese-human-rights-activists-190124122657849.html

 

 

China on a Hotspot for Arbitrary and Secret Detention Cases

A country that systematically denounces the rights of its citizens and disregards international norms should make people get worried because such abuses may increase as time goes by. It has been the case in China whereby several reports of Human Rights violation has taken place through them detaining some citizens as well as those of other countries.

Chrystia Freeland, the foreign minister of Canada, has called the detention of two citizens, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor to be worrying. However, such incidences are all too familiar in China. Other detention cases have been seen in the same country such as that of Canadian Kevin Garratt, Peter Humphrey, Taiwanese Lee Ming-che and Sweden’s Gui Minhai. In the past years, China has institutionalized secret detentions and have faced little international consequences.

China carries out this sort of detentions with some of the detainees being granted consular access. Consular access means a limitation of one visit, for instance, a one lawyer visit. It is seen as a procedure to safeguard against abuse in custody. In the case of Kovrig and Spavor, they have been granted consular access with Kovrig being denied access to a lawyer.

In the system of arbitrary and secret detention, China denies the detainees fundamental rights. This includes things such as residential surveillance in some designated areas (RSDL) which is seen to be an abusive provision within the country’s Criminal Procedure Law. The Law gives rise to the RSDL which in turn endangers national security.

The RSDL intention is merely a system for national security crimes that are vague whereby all procedural safeguards can be turned down on national security grounds. Denial of rights in China is more of a rule than an exception creating an international blowback especially in the cases of arbitrary imprisonment of the Uighurs and Kazakhs in Xinjiang.

Reference

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/04/china-thinks-it-can-arbitrarily-detain-anyone-it-is-time-for-change

 

Marise Payne Calls For the Release of Footballer Hakeem Al-Araibi

Significant concerns have been raised concerning the refugee footballer Hakeem Al-Araibi who has been detained in Thailand. The Australian’s foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne has been calling for Al-Araibi’s release while in a bilateral meeting in Bangkok. Payne raised the issues of two refugees who were being detained in Thailand during these meetings.

Payne displayed concerns on the detention of the footballer and the potential return of Al-Araibi to Bahrain. She added that the footballer was detained by Thai officials due to some erroneous Interpol red notice over vandalism convictions. She said that the footballer had been granted permanent residency in Australia with recognition of his status as a refugee.

At a press conference, the Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human rights and high profile football identities urged the foreign affairs minister to put maximum pressure on Thailand to Release Hakeem Al-Araibi. According to the Australian director of Human Rights Watch, Elaine Pearson, there were a lot of questions for the Thai governments’ decision on Al-Araibi’s case while they also agreed to protect a Saudi woman called Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun.

According to Pearson, the Thai government had a dreadful record when it comes to collaborating with authoritarian regimes to bring back their citizens. He said this while citing the deportation of Uighurs and some Bahraini protestor who had been imprisoned, tortured and beaten.

The world football body FIFA also had a press release saying that the grounds on which Al-Araibi had been detained were not viable. It was later followed by a protest group which urged FIFA to practice their human rights codes as well as asking the UNHCR to push more to free Al-Araibi as they had done for Qunun. They also requested Sheikh Salman to release a public statement in support of Al-Araibi.

Reference

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jan/10/marise-payne-lobbies-thailand-to-release-refugee-footballer-hakeem-al-araibi

 

How the War on Drugs Is One Long Human Rights Violation

For more than 50 years, global policy has been built around creating a “drug-free world.” Now high-ranking public officials at the U.N. are making it a point to speak out against the drug war’s terrible effects.

Health experts describe how the global drug war is the cause of massive human rights violations. From drugs for dealing with chronic pain to users who face extreme social stigma and mass incarceration, the global effort to curb drug use has been a disaster.

The authors underline how much the organization has rethought its approach to drug policy in the 19 years since its Commission on Narcotic Drugs called for a drug-free world. Another author points out that the slogan never made much sense, since the U.N. has long called for easy access to needed medical and scientific drugs.

Basically, the authors argue that the current approach to criminalize drug use has led to mass incarceration, and there prisons are the least likely places to provide needed health care or protect contagious infections.

On the other side, an estimated five billion people live in countries with inadequate access to needed drugs like opioids. While the widespread availability of opioids in the United States has had its own problems, the dangers of inadequate access in the rest of the world makes people live in debilitating pain, or they opt for heroin on the street to substitute for the morphine they can’t get prescribed.

We need a drug policy that’s built on reducing harm instead of criminalizing the use or people will continue to suffer needlessly from the war on drugs.

Reference: https://www.vocativ.com/393689/war-on-drugs-human-rights-violation/index.html

 

Scientists Launch Global Agenda to Curb Social, Human Rights Abuses in Seafood Sector

A new paper calls on marine scientists to focus on social issues such as human rights violations in the seafood industry.

The article is in direct response to investigative reports by the Associated Press, the Guardian, The New York Times and other media outlets that uncovered glaring human rights violations on fishing vessels–slave labor in Southeast Asia

“The scientific community has not kept pace with concerns for social issues in the seafood sector,” said lead author Jack Kittinger, Conservation International’s senior director for global fisheries and aquaculture. “The purpose of this initiative is to ensure that governments, businesses, and nonprofits are working together to improve human rights, equality and food and livelihood security. This is a holistic and comprehensive approach that establishes a global standard to address these social challenges.”

The paper identifies three key principles that together establish a global standard for social responsibility in the seafood sector: protecting human rights, dignity and respecting access to resources; ensuring equality and equitable opportunities to benefit; and improving food and livelihood security.

More than half of the world’s fisheries sector workforce is female, and there are still widespread gender-based disparities in income and working conditions, Allison added.

Seafood is the world’s most internationally traded food commodity. By 2030, the oceans will need to supply more than 150 million metric tons of seafood to meet the demands of a growing population. The paper calls on governments, businesses and the scientific community to take measurable steps to ensure seafood is sourced without harm to the environment and people that work in the seafood industry.

Reference: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170602143822.htm