The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has highlighted the ongoing crisis occurring in Tigray, starting that there is no where on earth where "people are more at risk".

At a press conference in Geneva on Wednesday, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus implicitly addressed those concerns. He said such was the scale of the crisis, it would be a dereliction of his professional duty not to speak out.

The UN has been unable to get emergency food supplies into Tigray since mid-December. And while in recent weeks medical supplies have started to trickle in, after a six-month hiatus, the WHO and doctors on the ground have said the amount arriving is nowhere near enough to meet the needs of the population. Often there is not enough fuel to get supplies to where they need to go. The fighting has displaced more than 2 million people across Tigray and driven hundreds of thousands into famine-like conditions.

Last year the UN Human Rights Council voted to establish an international probe to investigate atrocities committed by both sides of the conflict in Ethiopia and prosecute those responsible.

The resolution highlighted the atrocities which included "unlawful killings and extrajudicial executions, including wilful killings on the basis of ethnicity, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of civilians and captured combatants, arbitrary detentions, abductions and enforced disappearances, and widespread sexual- and gender-based violence against women, girls, men and boys, including rape committed by all parties to the conflict". 

Staff at Tigray's biggest hospital told the Guardian earlier this month that patients were dying due to a lack of medical supplies. There was no treatment available for  46,000 people with HIV.

"And the programme has been abandoned. People with tuberculosis, hypertension, diabetes and cancer are also not being treated, and may have died," Tedros added. 

Read more at the Guardian. 

Lithuania has reportedly cancelled the delivery of more than 400,000 doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to Bangladesh, citing Dhaka’s refusal to vote in favour of a resolution at the United Nations General Assembly condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

According to reports, Rasa Jakilaitiene, a spokeswoman for Lithuania’s prime minister said the shipment of 444,600 doses which was agreed upon just last week, was now cancelled.

Bangladesh was one of 35 countries that abstained from voting on the UN resolution against Russia, including Sri Lanka.

Read more here. 

See how members of the UN General Assembly voted on the resolution below.

Several senior Ukrainian officials, including president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, have claimed Russian actions verged on "genocide" with proceedings underway at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN, told the UN General Assembly that Russia had "come to deprive Ukraine of the very right to exist. They have come to resolve the Ukrainian issue, as their propagandists claimed".

“it's already clear that the goal of Russia is not an occupation only, it is genocide," Kyslytsya added.

"This is terror,” said Zelenskiy in a video message earlier this week. “They are going to bomb our Ukrainian cities even more, they are going to kill our children even more subtly. This is the evil that has come to our land and must be destroyed."

"Russia's criminal actions against Ukraine bear signs of genocide," he added.

At the ICJ, Ukraine filed documents last week, accusing Russia of “planning acts of genocide in Ukraine” and of intentionally killing Ukrainians, as well as trashing Russia’s own claim of genocide.

Read more from the Wall Street Journal here.

Foreign secretary Lizz Truss has said she would "absolutely" support individual Brits going to fight Russian forces in Ukraine. 

Following an announcement made by Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, who pledged to arm the country's international "friends" who chose to travel to Ukraine to fight alongside them.

Lizz Truss was asked whether she would support the call during an appearance on the BBC's Sunday Morning programme.

She said, "I do support that. Of course, that is something that people can make their own decisions about." 

The cabinet minister added, 

“The people of Ukraine are fighting for freedom and democracy — not just for Ukraine, but for the whole of Europe because that is what President Putin is challenging....Absolutely if people want to support that struggle, I would support them doing that”.

The Ukrainian Foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, tweeted calling on foreigners willing to defend Ukraine to contact their respective diplomatic missions and join the "international Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine". 

Foreigners willing to defend Ukraine and world order as part of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, I invite you to contact foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine in your respective countries. Together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin, too.

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 27, 2022

Dmitry Peskov,  according to Interfax news agency told a press briefing 

"Statements were various representatives at various levels on possible altercations or even collisions and clashes between Nato and Russia. We believe that such statements are absolutely unacceptable. I would not call the authors of these statements by name, although it was the British Foreign minister."

The Kremlin spokesperson alluded that President Vladimir Putin had placed Russia's nuclear deterrence forces on high alert after the statement from the UK's foreign secretary Liz Truss. 

Read more here and here.

International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan on Friday expressed his concern over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and said his court may investigate possible war crimes in the country. 

Khan who is currently on a mission In Bangladesh said in his statement,

" My Office may exercise its jurisdiction over and investigate any act of genocide, crime against humanity or war crime committed within the territory of Ukraine"

Following a declaration lodged on 8 September 2015, a year after the Maidan revolution in Ukraine. The then Ukrainian foreign secretary accepted the jurisdiction of the ICC over Ukraine for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed on its territory since February 2014.

In December 2020, the office of the prosecutor announced it had reason to believe war crimes and other crimes were committed during the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The preliminary examination was closed, but a formal request to judges to open a full investigation has not been filed yet. Judges must agree before an investigation can be opened.

Khan continued in his statement by noting,

"Any person who commits such crimes, including by ordering, inciting, or contributing in another manner to the commission of these crimes, may be liable to prosecution before the Court, with full respect for the principle of complementarity. It is imperative that all parties to the conflict respect their obligations under international humanitarian law."

In his statement, Khan touched upon queries relating to amendments to the Rome Statute with respect to the crime of aggression, which came into force in 2018, and the application of those amendments to the present situation in Ukraine. 

He noted,

"Given that neither Ukraine nor the Russian Federation are State Parties to the Rome Statute, the Court cannot exercise jurisdiction over this alleged crime in this situation."

Read more at Reuters and the Full ICC statement here

_{Pul-e-Charki Prison, Kabul, January 2012}

A 76-year-old Afghan man, Abdul Razaq Arief, accused of abusing political prisoners in the 1980s, is currently on trial at The Hague district court. 

The Dutch court is trying Arief for war crimes, citing his role as commander and head of Political Affairs at the notorious Pul-e-Charkhi prison from 1983 - 1990 in Kabul. 

Reportedly, opponents of Afghanistan's Soviet-backed regime were "held without fair trial in appalling conditions," in which prisoners had "no shower, no soap, no heating, [and] no warm water." 

One witness detailed that prisoners were regularly tortured, "sometimes through electrocution, beatings or having their fingernails pulled out — and held in cramped and unsanitary conditions."

Arief stands charged with being an accessory to inhumane treatment and deprivation of liberty. If convicted, he faces a sentence of 20 years to life. 

"We think it's very important that these war crimes — the most serious crimes existing — are eventually prosecuted no matter how long ago they were committed," prosecutor Mirijian Blom stated. 

Arief told judges that this was a case of mistaken identity. The detainee, brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair, stated, "I am not the person you are looking for… I don't remember anything, not even my own name."

However, prosecutors are "convinced" they have the right person. They began investigating the case in 2012 after blogs tipped them off that Arief was living in the Netherlands under a false name. Since then, prosecutors and police have spoken to 25 witnesses worldwide. 

The father of four moved to the Netherlands as a refugee in 2001 and was later arrested in his home in 2019. He has been jailed ever since. 

Arief is tried under "universal jurisdiction." This is not the first time Dutch courts have tried war crimes committed in Afghanistan. In 2008, two high-ranking Afghanistan military intelligence service officers were found guilty of torture.

Read more here. 

_{Tigray's People's Liberation Front (TPLF) flag hoisted alongside Ethiopia's national flag - February 2015}

In a damning report by Al Jazeera, reporters uncovered a series of incidents where Ethiopian security officers have been extorting and abusing Tigrayan civilians detained without charge. 

Since an influx of arbitrary arrests last year, Ethiopian security forces, including "prison wardens, government prosecutors and officials from the attorney general's offices have demanded exorbitant bribes for release."

One Tigrayan detainee, held for seven months until his family ultimately paid for his freedom, told Al Jazeera; "We have become a commodity in prison… they slap a price on you. Then your loved ones have to find the money and buy your freedom."

Some relatives of prisoners told Al Jazeera that Ethiopian security officers demanded up to 500,000 Ethiopian birrs (or $10,000). However, with an average annual income of less than $1,000, many impoverished families cannot pay the hefty price. 

Some families have reported that security officials have demanded payment to secure drinking water, food, and medicine and even allow detainees to use the shower and toilets without the promise of release.

Tigrayan detainees told Al Jazeera they were only given "two pieces of bread to eat a day." The detainees who did not pay these erratic fees were eating "without ever washing their hands, even after toilet use."

The conflict between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray's People's Liberation Front (TPLF) began in November 2020 after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military offensive against the TPLF. The conflict has killed thousands and left hundreds of thousands facing famine-like conditions. 

As the internecine conflict ravaged the second most populous African country, massacres, rapes and deliberate starvation became commonplace. Tigrayans have been persecuted as the fragile ethnic harmony of the country crumbled, and public mood became more polarised.

In January, a Human Rights Watch report revealed that thousands of Tigrayan migrant workers in Saudi Arabia who were deported to Ethiopia have been locked up in detention camps and forcibly disappeared.

In December of 2021, the UN Human Rights Council voted to establish an international probe to investigate atrocities committed by both sides of the conflict in Ethiopia and prosecute those responsible.

Read more here. 

In the aftermath of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, both the UEFA Champions League and Formula 1 have cancelled scheduled sporting events in Russia.

European football's governing body held an emergency meeting earlier this morning and announced that the 2022 Champions League final will be played in Paris, instead of St Petersburg on 28 May.

"Together with the French government, Uefa will fully support multi-stakeholder efforts to ensure the provision of rescue for football players and their families in Ukraine who face dire human suffering, destruction and displacement," said UEFA in an announcement.

Russian Football Union (RFU) president Alexander Dyukov slammed the move, stating that it was “dictated by political reasons”. “The RFU has always adhered to the principle of 'sport is out of politics'," he added.

Despite his remarks, the move comes on the back of a host of other sporting bodies cutting ties with Russia.

Also earlier today Formula 1 announced “it is impossible to hold the Russian Grand Prix in the current circumstances” and would be moving this year’s race.

A host of other sporting teams, from Manchester United to Formula 1’s Haas racing team – which is sponsored by the father of one of its drivers – have cut ties to Russian companies.

Read more from the BBC here.

In a statement released earlier this month, five UN Special Rapporteurs highlighted the "appalling and pervasive culture of impunity in Bangladesh," over the failure of Bangladeshi authorities to ensure justice for two journalists killed ten years ago.

Journalists, Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi, were killed in 2021, yet no one has been charged with their death. Sagar and Runi were stabbed to death in their own home, in front of their 5-year-old son. 

"When crimes against journalists go unpunished, they embolden the perpetrators and encourage more attacks, threats and killings with the intention of intimidating the media into silence. We see those deeply worrying signs in Bangladesh," the special rapporteurs stated. 

Sarowar and Runi were about to publish a piece detailing the corruption in Bangladesh's energy sector just before they were brutally murdered.

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), a unit of the Bangladesh police, took the case in 2012. However, even after the Bangladesh High Court ordered for the 84th time they publish their findings, they still have not done so. 

"Journalism should not carry the inherent risk of being attacked, intimidated or killed with impunity but unfortunately that is the current reality for many journalists, human rights defenders and other members of civil society in Bangladesh," stated the UN Special Rapporteurs.

In 2012, the UN sent a letter to the government of Bangladesh detailing several journalists, including Runi and Sarwar, yet received no response back. 

"At least 15 journalists have been killed in Bangladesh in the past decade," stated the special rapporteurs. "The incidents appear to be rarely investigated or prosecuted. In some cases, local authorities are thought to be directly implicated in the attacks."

"We urge the government to conduct and complete prompt, thorough, independent and effective investigations and bring perpetrators to justice for the murder of Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi and other killings of journalists and human rights defenders in Bangladesh," the OHCHR statement read.

The statement also highlighted the case of the writer Mushtaq Ahmed who died in custody last year. Ahmed was detained under the heavily criticized Digital Security Act after publishing a piece criticizing the government's COVID-19 response. Ahmed was tortured and refused timely and adequate medical care. 

Last month, journalists in Sri Lanka deemed the month "Black January" commemorating the intimidation, murder and enforced disappearance of journalists. They documented the death of 43 journalists, most of which were Tamil. 

Read more here. 

^{Photograph: Kremlin.ru}

Several explosions have been reported across Ukraine, as Russian troops launched offensives across the region in the early hours of this morning.

More than 40 Ukranian troops are reported to have been killed so far.

The move by Russia comes following weeks of growing tensions between Moscow and Kyiv, with Western states recently imposing a range of different sanctions on Russian individuals.

Announcing the “special military operation” earlier this morning, Russian president Vladmir Putin warned that Moscow's response will be "instant" if any other nation attempted to take Russian on.

It comes days after Putin recognised the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states. Earlier in the week, the Russian president claimed that “what is happening in the Donbas today is genocide”.

The latest Russian action has been condemned by Western states.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Putin "has chosen a path of bloodshed and destruction by launching this unprovoked attack".

Germany's economy minister warned Robert Habeck said Europe was awar "that we thought was only to find in history books".

And US President Joe Biden said Putin had "chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering".

Read more from the BBC here and the New York Times here.

Last month, the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution, put forth by Israel and Germany, to “reject and condemn without and reservation any denial of The Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part.” 

The resolution urges member states and social media platforms to “take active measures to combat antisemitism and Holocaust denial or distortion.” 

The resolution was approved by consensus without a vote. However, Israel “disassociated” itself from the resolution. 

The resolution highlights that remembrance “is a key component to the prevention of further acts of genocide.” 

The resolution commends member states which have preserved “Nazi death camps, concentration camps, forced labour camps, killing sites and prisons during the Holocaust.” 

The UN also urges member states to “develop programs to educate future generations and urges social media companies to take active measures to combat antisemitism and Holocaust denial or distortion.” 

The UN General Assembly outlined that Holocaust denial and distortion is defined as;

(1) “Intentional efforts to excuse or minimize the impact of the Holocaust or its principal elements, including collaborators and allies of Nazi Germany.”

(2) “Gross minimization of the number of the victims of the Holocaust in contradiction to reliable sources.”

(3) ”Attempts to blame the Jews for causing their own genocide.”

(4) “Statements that cast the Holocaust as a positive historical event.”

(5) “Attempts to blur the responsibility for the establishment of concentration and death camps devised and operated by Nazi Germany by blaming other nations or ethnic groups.”

Social Media reform

The UN resolution also targeted social media platforms. Israel’s ambassador to the UN and grandson of a holocaust victim, Gilad Erdan, stated that social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, are spreading the “pandemic of distortions and lies” about the Holocaust.

“Social media giants can no longer remain complacent to the hate spread on their platforms” and must take action now, Gildan continued. 

In 2019, Facebook signed an agreement with the World Jewish Congress (WJC) to redirect users searching for information about the Holocaust to this website by the WJC. 

Earlier this month, 63 Tamil Canadian organizations put forth a campaign to protect Bill 104, the Tamil Genocide Education Week Act. The act urges Ontarians to educate themselves about the Tamil genocide and other genocides throughout history. The Tamil organizations created a campaign combatting Tamil Genocide denial and distortion and fights against the constitutional challenges Bill 104 is currently facing. 

Read more here.

American citizen Ross Roggio, 53, has been indicted on two separate charges of torture for the alleged abuse of an employee in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in 2015. 

Roggio living in Pennsylvania, was previously indicted on 37 charges of illegally exporting weapons to Kurdistan. Roggio allegedly worked with Kurdish officials to construct a weapons factory, which produced weapons for Kurdish soldiers. 

However, the additional charges of torture claim that while Roggio was managing a weapons factory, an employee “raised concerns about the weapons project.” Responding to the concerns, Roggio instructed Kurdish soldiers to detain and torture the employee for 39 days. 

According to the indictment, a bag was placed over the employee’s head while he was abducted from his home in 2015. Afterwards, the victim was taken to a military compound in which Roggio directed soldiers to torture and abuse the employee. 

Roggio led multiple interrogation sessions, where he directed Kurdish soldiers to “suffocate the victim with a bag, taser the victim in the groin and other areas of his body, beat the victim with fists and rubber hoses, jump violently on the victim’s chest while wearing military boots, and threaten to cut off one of the victim’s fingers,” the United States Department of Justice stated.

Each of the two torture charges carries a maximum of 20 years in prison. If Roggio is found guilty of all torture and illegal weapons charges, he will face a maximum of 705 years in prison. 

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Roggio is “the second U.S citizen - and the fourth overall - to be charged with violating the torture statute,” which was enacted in 1994. 

FBI Special Agent in Charge Jacqueline Maguire stated, “This defendant leveraged his position and used foreign soldiers in order to intimidate and coerce someone who was a threat to the success of his corrupt scheme.”

The U.S. is “committed to bringing human rights violators to justice.”

In a statement released by the U.S. Department of Justice, FBI Special Agent Maguire stated; “The FBI has a global reach and working in concert with our federal and international partners, will pursue justice for any victim – here or abroad – who suffers at the hands of an American citizen.”

“These charges demonstrate that the Department of Justice will hold U.S. citizens who commit horrendous acts of violence accountable,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

Special Agent in Charge William S. Walker of Homeland Security stated, “This case serves as another reminder that [Homeland Security Investigation dept.] works tirelessly to investigate those who seek to escape justice from crimes they commit overseas.”

Last month, the Tamil Friendship Forum held a virtual event discussing lessons Eelam Tamils could learn from the Kurdish experience. The event included discussions on regional autonomy and genocide prevention.

Read more here and here. 

A former senior Spanish police officer has claimed that Spanish intelligence services knew about the plans of the terror cell responsible for the 2017 Barcelona attacks but failed to act in a bid to destabilise Catalonia before a crucial independence vote.

The government of Catalonia is demanding an investigation after a controversial former police officer claimed that the CNI, Spanish intelligence services, knew about the activities of a terrorist cell ahead of a deadly attack it carried out. which left sixteen people dead and more than a hundred injured.

Fourteen people died on August 17th, 2017, when a van driven by Younes Abouyaaquob deliberately ploughed into pedestrians in central Barcelona. Abouyaaquob stabbed and killed another person soon afterwards and five other members of his jihadist cell ran over and killed a woman in the town of Cambrils, also in Catalonia. All six terrorists were eventually shot dead by police.

The former police officer, José Manuel Villarejo, who is currently on trial for bribery and extortion, appeared to suggest that the CNI intelligence service knew not only about the terrorist cell but also about its plans. He told the high court that the then head of the CNI, Félix Sanz Roldán, made “a serious mistake” with regard to the terrorist cell because “he miscalculated the consequences of causing a bit of a scare in Catalonia”.

The 2017 attack took place just a few weeks before the Catalan government oversaw a referendum on independence, in defiance of the Spanish courts. Some pro-independence Catalans have maintained ever since that the attack was somehow linked to the Spanish state’s efforts to thwart the independence movement. The referendum held the following month posed the question "Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a republic?". The "Yes" side won, with 2,044,038 (90.18%) voting for independence and 177,547 (7.83%) voting against, on a turnout of 43.03%. The Catalan government estimated that up to 770,000 votes were not cast due to polling stations being closed off during the police crackdown.

It later emerged that the alleged mastermind of the attacks Abdelbaki Es Satty, an imam in the city of Ripoli, was a CNI informant. 

The former commissioner made the remarks whilst in court during a case involving police spying allegations. He stated his claims could be authenticated and called for archives to be released.

“All the evidence is in my archives. I authorise their release...We must think that the citizenry is not a minor and the law of secrets cannot be used to hide everything. It is an obsolete Francoist law from 1968.” Villarejo said.

Catalan President Peres Aragones said on Twitter: “17-A was a barbarity that has marked us forever. And if Villarejo’s words are true, explanations are needed now.

“We know very well how the state sewers work, so we demand that they be investigated in order to clarify the truth."

“I have also asked the legal services of the Generalitat [government] to study these statements and the relevant legal actions that can be taken. For the truth. For the victims, for the Catalans and for all those who are on the side of peace and democracy.”

El 17-A va ser una barbàrie que ens ha marcat per sempre. I si les paraules de Villarejo són certes, calen explicacions ja. Coneixem bé com funcionen les clavegueres de l’Estat, per això exigim que s’investigui per tal d'esclarir la veritat.

— Pere Aragonès i Garcia (@perearagones) January 11, 2022

In 2019, the Catalan city of Barcelona called for an investigation into the genocide of Tamils by Sri Lanka, and to recognise the rights of the Tamil people to an independent homeland, Tamil Eelam.

In a resolution voted by the city’s municipal council on January 25, representatives denounced systematic violations against the rights of Tamils, urged the recognition of Tamil sovereignty and called for an end to the Sri Lankan military’s occupation of the Tamil homeland.

Read more here: Barcelona calls for investigation into genocide of Tamils and recognition of Tamil Eelam 

Read more at The National and The IrishTimes

Five former Guatemalan paramilitaries are currently on trial for the rape of 36 Indigenous Mayan women during the 1980s. 

Indigenous people were often targeted and harassed by the military government for allegedly backing the left-wing guerrillas during the conflict that took place between 1960 and 1996. In 2018, the five former paramilitaries were arrested along with three others. However, the case was dismissed and the magistrate released them. One died before being released. After authorities re-captured the remaining ex-paramilitaries, two were acquitted.

According to prosecutors, victims were as young as twelve years old when the abuse began and were alleged to have taken place around the small town of Rabinal, north of the capital of Guatemala City where a mass gravesite was discovered with over 3,000 bodies.

Lawyer, Lucia Xiloj said that many Mayan women “were raped after the (forced) disappearance of their husbands” by paramilitaries and soldiers.

"Today is a historic day not just for the Achi women of Rabinal (in Baja Verapaz), but also for the thousands of women who were victims of sexual violence in the armed conflict," Virginia Valencia, who is representing five of the 36 alleged victims, said. 

The government military stand accused of numerous atrocities during the conflict, including the death and or disappearance of 200,000 civilians in the 36-year civil war. According to The Guardian, more than 100,000 women had been raped during the 36-year long conflict. This is not the first trial of this nature to take place in Guatemala. In 2016, a Guatemalan court sentenced two former members of the military to 360 years in jail for the murder, rape and sexual enslavement of indigenous women. according to The Guardian, more than 100,000 women had been raped during the 36-year long conflict.

For the first time in 2016, rape was considered to be a weapon of war and was identified as a deliberate military strategy; where soldiers had acted upon direct commands from government officials to kill local women’s husbands and later force them into sex slavery. Many other countries including Sri Lanka, Bosnia, and Rwanda have used sexual violence as a strategy during armed conflicts. 

Read more here and here.