Author: Jurist

Oceania
TPNPB-OPM

Fighting threatens indigenous civilians in West Papua

Escalating violence in Indonesia’s West Papua region is threatening the security of the largely indigenous population amid intensified clashes between Indonesian security forces and separatist rebels, Human Rights Watch warned. Military operations in the densely forested Central Highlands have resulted in the deaths and injuries of dozens of civilians due to drone strikes and the indiscriminate use of explosive munitions, forcing thousands of indigenous Papuans to flee their homes. (Photo: TPNPB-OPM via Tempo)

Watching the Shadows
guantanamo

Trump plans transfer of thousands of migrants to Gitmo

President Donald Trump’s administration plans to increase the number of undocumented migrants being transferred to the US Naval facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to government documents obtained by the Washington Post. The documents state that 9,000 undocumented immigrants are currently being vetted for transfer to Guantánamo, with the first transfers to begin this week. (Photo: Spc. Cody Black/WikiMedia via Jurist)

North America
National Guard

California sues Trump admin over National Guard deployment

California filed suit against the Trump administration, asserting that its activation and deployment of the state National Guard to quell protests in Los Angeles is unconstitutional. The suit asks the US District Court for the Northern District of California to halt President Donald Trump’s “unlawful militarization” of Los Angeles. Calling Trump’s actions an abuse of power that needs to be ended, Gov. Gavin Newsom further described the administration’s move as “an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.” (Photo: US Northern Command via Wikimedia Commons)

Watching the Shadows
ICC

State Department imposes sanctions on ICC judges

The US Department of State imposed sanctions on on four individuals serving as judges on the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their involvement with the ICC’s investigations into the US and Israel. The sanctions were imposed pursuant to Executive Order No. 14,203, “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court,” which President Donald Trump signed in February in response to the ICC’s warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. The stated purpose of the order was to underline the position that the US and Israel are not within the jurisdiction of the ICC under the Rome Statute, and therefore any investigation into the actions of the two countries is invalid. (Photo: OSeveno/WikiMedia)

Watching the Shadows
travel ban

Trump issues new ‘travel ban’ proclamation

President Donald Trump issued a proclamation implementing a nearly full travel ban on nationals from a dozen countries, severely restricting potential entry into the United States. The proclamation is based on an executive order issued on Trump’s first day in office that laid the foundation for the administration to enact extensive immigration controls. Commentators have harshly criticized the ban, pointing out that it disproportionately affects Muslim-majority and African countries. Amnesty International’s secretary general Agnes Callamard lambasted Trump for the action, calling it “discriminatory, racist and downright cruel.” The restrictions bear a striking resemblance to Trump’s 2017 travel ban, which blocked travel to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries. (Photo: Minneapolis protest of 2018 Supreme Court decision upholding Trump’s first travel ban. Credit: Fibonacci Blue/Flickr)

Palestine
Gaza

UNRWA urges Israel to lift Gaza aid blockade

Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief & Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini urged Israel to lift the aid blockade in Gaza, charging that under Israeli military control “aid distribution has become a death trap.” The UNRWA head asserted that aid distribution in Gaza can only be effectively achieved through the United Nations. He demanded that Israel allow the UN to manage a safe and at-scale delivery of aid in Gaza, calling this “the only way to avert mass starvation including among 1 million children.” (Photo: hosny salah from Pixabay)

Europe
Ukraine

UN inquiry sees Russian ‘crimes against humanity’ in Ukraine —again

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine published a report declaring Russian drone attacks on civilians in Kherson oblast to be war crimes and crimes against humanity. The commission found that roughly 150 Ukrainian civilians have been killed over the past year as a result of the systematic Russian drone attacks. In addition to direct casualties from the attacks, the report cites cases of civilian deaths due to the inability of ambulances to reach victims following drone strikes. Video evidence supports the claim that Russian forces have targeted ambulances—both while assisting injured civilians, and while parked outside hospitals. (Map: PCL)

Europe
Yabloko

Russian activists arrested for letter-writing

Police in Yekaterinburg stormed an event hosted by Russian pro-democratic opposition party Yabloko (Apple), aimed at supporting political prisoners. Authorities detained 10 attendees, with charges against them now pending at the prosecutor’s office. The raid targeted the first of a planned series of “evenings of letters,” where attendees can carry out correspondence with imprisoned individuals. According to Yabloko, a total of 952  Russians are currently imprisoned because of their political beliefs or affiliations. (Photo: Yabloko)

Africa
Mali

Mali: mass execution of Fulani detainees

Human Rights Watch called on the government of Mali to “credibly and independently” investigate the apparent extrajudicial execution of 22 men who were detained by the army in the town of Diafarabé, in the central Mopti region. The victims were ethnic Fulani men  who were trading at the town’s cattle market. Witnesses from the town believe soldiers targeted local Fulani men on suspicion of collaborating with fighters of Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen (JNIM), who have a strong presence in the region. (Map: PCL)

Africa
Masra

Demand release of detained Chad opposition leader

Human Rights Watch announced that former Chadian prime minister and opposition leader Succès Masra was arrested at his residence in the capital N’Djamena, urging authorities to immediately release him unless they can substantiate the charges against him. Masra is the head of Chad’s main opposition party, Les Transformateurs. His arrest followed intercommunal violence in Logone Occidental province that left at least 42 people dead. According to the public prosecutor, Masra is accused of inciting the violence through social media posts. While clashes between herders and farmers are common in southern Chad, intercommunal violence has become more acute over the past several years due to aridification of the region. Les Transformateurs described Masra’s arrest as an abduction, stating that it was carried out “outside any known judicial procedures and in blatant violation of the civil and political rights guaranteed by the constitution.” (Photo: VOA/André Kodmadjingar via Wikimedia Commons)

Africa
Cameroon

Cameroon: peace activist sentenced to life term

Amnesty International condemned the life sentence handed down by a military court in Cameroon against activist Abdu Karim Ali, calling it an “affront to justice” and demanding his immediate and unconditional release. According to Amnesty, Ali was arrested without a warrant and arbitrarily detained after he produced a video exposing torture carried out by the leader of a pro-government militia in Cameroon’s conflicted Southwest Region. Cameroon’s Southwest and Northwest regions have been experiencing an armed conflict since 2016 in what is known as the Anglophone crisis. Demonstrations for greater linguistic rights in the Anglophone regions were met with repression by the Francophone central authorities, leading to an initiative to secede from Cameroon as the “Federal Republic of Ambazonia.” Ali had advocated for a Swiss-led mediation process to resolve the conflict. (Map: TNH)

Palestine
Gaza Strip

UN experts urge humanitarian ‘intervention’ in Gaza

United Nations human rights experts urged that the international community must act immediately to end the intensifying violence in Gaza. The experts stated that since the end of the two-month ceasefire in March, Israel has launched yet harsher attacks on the population in Gaza: “Escalating atrocities in Gaza present an urgent moral crossroads and States must act now to end the violence or bear witness to the annihilation of the Palestinian population in Gaza—an outcome with irreversible consequences for our shared humanity and multilateral order… The world is watching. Will Member States live up to their obligations and intervene to stop the slaughter, hunger, and disease, and other war crimes and crimes against humanity that are perpetrated daily in complete impunity?” (WAFA via WikimediaCommons)