The “Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on State and Environmental Violence in West Papua” took place last month at Queen Mary University of London.

A panel of tribunal experts heard evidence from numerous international NGOs and local civil society organisations as well as testimonies from individuals who have witnessed human rights violations and environmental destruction.

The Tribunal stated that the Indonesian state has forcibly taken Indigenous Papuan lands through racial discrimination, leading to cultural loss and violent repression, including unlawful detention, extrajudicial killings, displacement, and environmental degradation. It urged the international community, particularly the UN, to respond urgently to the situation in Papua.

The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) is a public opinion tribunal based on the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples (Algiers, 1976) and on all the instruments of  international law; the various chapters of the PPT have sought to struggle against impunity and to promote respect for human rights, access to justice and the re-appropriation of the human rights instruments; the PPT is able to adjudicate flagrant, systemic and systematic violations of the rights  of peoples;

It combined legal scholars, right-defending NGOs, and West Papuans in exile, with eye-witnesses from West Papua connecting via online calls. These tribunals examine international law, but cannot enforce their judgement. The Indonesian state is accused of the following, 

The Indonesian state is accused of taking the ancestral land of the Indigenous Papuan people against their will, employing racial discrimination which leads to the loss of culture, traditions and Indigenous knowledge, erases their history and subsumes them into the Indonesian national narrative. 

The Indonesian state is accused of violent repression, including unlawful detention, extra-judicial killing, and population displacement in West Papua as a means of furthering industrial development.

The Indonesian state is accused of organised environmental degradation, including the destruction of eco-systems, contamination of land, the poisoning of rivers and their tributaries and of providing the permits, concessions and legal structure of non-compliance for national and foreign companies to invest in West Papua in a way that encourages environmental degradation.

The Indonesian state is accused of colluding with national and foreign companies to cause environmental degradation, population displacement and sustain violent repression in West Papua.

The panel of experts comprised of Teresa Almeida Cravo (Portugal), Donna Andrews (South Africa), Daniel Feierstein (Argentina), Marina Forti (Italy), Larry Lohmann (UK), Nello Rossi (Italy), and Solomon Yeo (Solomon Islands), according to the website of Queen Mary University of London, 

The territory of West Papua refers to the Western half of the island of New Guinea, partitioned as a result of European colonial settlement. West Papuans, an Indigenous Melanesian people, have been engaged in a struggle for their right to self-determination since colonisation by the Netherlands in 1898.

Responding to the final statement of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Papua in London, Amnesty International Indonesia’s executive director Usman Hamid said:

“The final statement truly mirrors the deteriorating developments in Papua. Their historic findings signal the depth of human rights violations and environmental destruction in the region.

“The tribunal is a great start to paving the way to justice in Papua and we hope that it serves as an opportunity for the international community to stand in solidarity with the people of Papua, to acknowledge their suffering and to support their fight for human rights.

“The Indonesian authorities have continuously failed to end the conflict that keeps claiming more civilian lives in the region. It is therefore essential for authorities to evaluate its military operations and business activities by corporate actors to ensure the recovery and the protection of human rights in Papua.

“This arduous path of justice for Papuans must end. It is high time for the international community to call on the Indonesian authorities to end the long-established violence.”

Read more here and here

Two Israeli strikes killed more than 20 people in separate parts of Gaza on Tuesday, one of which targeted a United Nations school turned shelter.

Palestinian paramedics evacuated at least five killed and eight wounded at the school building, in Nuseirat, in central Gaza, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society emergency service.

It was the sixth site that had been a U.N.-run educational institution in Gaza to be hit in just 10 days, according to UNRWA, the agency for assisting Palestinian refugees. Last Tuesday, at least 27 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike near the entrance to a U.N. school used as a shelter on the outskirts of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.

17 people were killed on Tuesday in a separate Israeli strike in Mawasi, a coastal area that Israel has designated a safer zone, the Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement.

Since Oct. 7, Israeli aircraft have struck 37,000 targets in Gaza, laying waste to wide swaths of the enclave’s cities and towns, the military said on Tuesday. More than 38,000 people have been killed in the enclave during the Israeli military campaign against Hamas, now in its 10th month, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Read more here

Narendra Modi received Russia’s highest civilian award for “exceptional service” in promoting bilateral ties on Tuesday, as both states look to strengthen military cooperation and deepen economic ties. 

Mr Modi's two-day visit - his first to the Kremlin since 2019 - coincides with a Nato summit in Washington, where the 2022 invasion will be a major theme.

India, a key global economy, has close ties with both Russia and the US and its partners and officials in Delhi are playing down questions over the timing of Mr Modi's trip. They say the annual summit is part of a long-standing strategic partnership and its scheduling has nothing to do with the Nato summit.

Mr Modi landed on Monday, just hours after Russian bombing killed at least 41 people in Ukraine, including at a children's hospital in Kyiv, sparking a global outcry.

“It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day,” Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote on X.

The Indian leader said he had discussed Ukraine with Mr. Putin at his residence, agreeing on the need for peace as soon as possible.

“Any person who believes in humanity feels pain when people die, and especially when innocent children die,” Mr. Modi said Tuesday, a possible implicit reference to the hospital attack. “When we feel such pain, the heart simply explodes, and I had the opportunity to talk about these issues with you yesterday

The state visit offered still more evidence that Mr. Putin has managed to avoid the pariah status Western leaders tried to force on him after the invasion. Mr. Putin has maintained a robust diplomatic schedule holding two meetings with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in two months, along with meeting the leaders of Vietnam, Hungary, Belarus and the nations of Central Asia,

 Indian officials said that the two countries had struck various agreements to strengthen economic ties, with the goal of reaching $100 billion in bilateral trade by 2030.

Russia and India also said they would strengthen their military cooperation, including manufacturing more weapon spare parts and units in India. They pledged to continue developing national payment systems, which allow Russia to conduct trade outside U.S. dollars and away from platforms impacted by Western sanctions.

Mr. Modi, who said he had met Mr. Putin 17 times over the course of the past decade, invited Mr. Putin to visit India next year.

“Russia is India’s true friend,” Mr. Modi said at a meeting with members of the Indian community in Moscow, according to the Russian state news agency Tass.

Read more here 

Turkey has begun mediating talks between Somalia and Ethiopia over a port deal Addis Ababa signed with the breakaway region of Somaliland earlier this year. 

The relationship between Somalia and Ethiopia became strained in January when Ethiopia agreed to lease 20 km of coastline from Somaliland, in exchange for recognition of its independence.

Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan hosted Ethiopian Foreign Minister Taye Atske Selassie, and Somali Foreign Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi on Monday. 

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said that the three signed a joint statement following “candid, cordial, and forward-looking” talks on their differences.

The statement said that the Somali and Ethiopian ministers are committed to a peaceful resolution of their differences. Both ministers agreed to hold another round of talks in Ankara on 2 September. 

Read more on Reuters. 

A senior Bolivian general was arrested after armoured vehicles rammed the doors of the government palace in La Paz on Wednesay in what President Luis Arce called an attempted coup.

Forces led by army chief General Juan Jose Zuniga appeared to take control of Mr Arce’s government as they vowed to “restore democracy” but the president vowed to hold firm and swiftly named a new military commander, who immediately ordered the troops to stand down.

“What was this group’s goal? The goal was to overturn the democratically elected authority,” Mr del Castillo told journalists in announcing the arrests.

The apparent coup attempt came after the South American nation of 12m people faced months of tensions between Mr Arce and his one-time ally, former leftist president Evo Morales, over control of the ruling party.

The Bolivian Attorney General’s Office said Friday that Zúñiga had been ordered into pretrial detention for six months.

Zúñiga has also been charged by the Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office with terrorism and armed uprising, his lawyer Steven Orellana said.

Fredy Mamani, former deputy foreign minister of Bolivia and an ally of Morales and Arce, told CNN that despite the “undemocratic” nature of “the tanks, the uniformed soldiers and taking the square… it is essential to highlight that the Bolivian people are united in the face of any coup d’etat.”

But echoing Zúñiga’s comments, an opposition MP accused the government of staging the coup in a bid to rally support.

“What happened today in Bolivia is a really bizarre situation,” Andrea Barrientos, a Senator for the opposition Civic Community party, told the BBC. “We can confirm that this was a self-coup, organized by Luis Arce’s government.”

News of the attempted coup was roundly condemned by international and regional leaders, including Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña, Mexico’s president, and the European Union.

Read more here

The UK-based rights group, Burmese Rohingya Organization UK (BROUK) has warned in a new report that the 600,000 Muslim Rohingya remaining in Rakhine State have been subject to an “intensifying genocide” since the armed conflict between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army (AA) resumed last October. 

The Mulsim Rohingya minority has long suffered persecution at the hands of successive military dictatorships in Myanmar. 

In 2017 a brutal military offensive drove approximately 750,000 Rohingya civilians into Bangladesh. 

An Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (UNFFMM) on Myanmar was established by the UN Human Rights Council in March of 2017. In 2019 the UNFFMM found that “Myanmar had committed four out of the five underlying acts of genocide enumerated in the Genocide Convention”. 

The fact-finding mission concluded that “genocidal intent to destroy the Rohingya people in whole or in part could be inferred from the State’s pattern of conduct”. 

On 23 January 2020, the International Court of Justice ordered provisional measures that require Myanmar to prevent the commission of genocidal acts. 

In its new report, BROUK states that the military has been subjecting Rohingya in areas under their control to a “slow death” by depriving them of resources indispensable for survival. 

The rights group adds that the Myanmar military has been forcibly recruiting Rohingya men and youth. Conscripted Rohingya have been “subjected to forced labour and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, then sent to the frontlines in Rakhine State to be used as cannon fodder”. 

The report which covers the period from 13 November 2023 to 23 May 2024, alleges that the Myanmar military, its proxies, and the Arakan Army have committed “war crimes against Rohingya communities, including murder, torture, cruel treatment, extrajudicial executions, sexual violence, rape, taking hostages, conscripting and using children, pillaging and deliberately attacking civilians”. 

BROUK has warned that the international community could not afford to fail the Rohingya again. The group emphasized that Myanmar has failed to act on the ICJ’s 2020 provisional measures. 

The rights organization has called for an open meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the military’s “repeated breaches” of the ICJ’s orders as well as action to end what it called a “cycle of impunity” in the country. 

Read the full BROUK report here and read more on Al Jazeera. 

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrived in Australia today after he was freed by a United States court in Saipan under a plea deal. 

Assange’s plane landed in Canberra on Wednesday, hours after the 52-year-old pleaded guilty in a court in Saipan to a charge of espionage, related to obtaining and publishing US military secrets.

The Australian had earlier flown into Saipan from the UK on a private aircraft. He walked into the court accompanied by members of his legal team and Australia’s ambassador to the US, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Addressing the court, Assange said he believed the Espionage Act under which he was charged contradicted First Amendment rights in the US Constitution, but that he accepted that encouraging sources to provide classified information for publication could be unlawful

Fidel Narvaez, a former Ecuadorean diplomat who gave Assange political asylum at Ecuador’s embassy in London in 2012, told Al Jazeera that he felt “overwhelmed by joy” that Assange was released.

“I am celebrating, of course,” Narvaez said, adding that Assange has been facing “persecution by the most powerful country in the world” for 14 years, while simultaneously being abandoned by his own country.

Narvaez pointed out that Assange would probably not have taken a guilty plea deal had it been offered to him years ago, noting that this has set a precedent that will discourage others from repeating his actions in the future.

Wikileaks has shed light on the Sri Lankan conflict revealing that British and American officials were aware of the war crimes being committed by the Sri Lanka state during the final stages of the war.

A leaked US Embassy cable says,

There are no examples we know of a regime undertaking wholesale investigations of its own troops or senior officials for war crimes while that regime or government remained in power. In Sri Lanka this is further complicated by the fact that responsibility for many of the alleged crimes rests with the country's senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka.”

See the full text of a US Embassy cable of January 2010, released by Wikileaks to The Guardian newspaper here.

Sri Lanka refuses to accept mediated surrenders or evacuate the wounded

A leaked US Embassy cable says,

Ambassador spoke to Gothabaya Rajapaksa on the morning of May 17 to urge him to allow the ICRC into the conflict zone to mediate a surrender.

Rajapaksa commented, "We're beyond that now".

Ambassador contacted senior GSL officials throughout the day, including Secretary of Defense Gothabaya Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Bogollagama, to urge acceptance of a mediated surrender of the remaining Tigers and maximum restraint on the part of the military to avoid further civilian casualties, particularly after the reports from the Bishop of Mannar of continued high numbers of civilians in the safe zone. 

Rajapaksa refused to accept mediated surrender on the grounds that the fighting was all but over, but said troops had been instructed to accept anyone who wishes to surrender.

A leaked US Embassy cable says,

"Ambassador spoke to Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa to request access for the ICRC to evacuate dead and wounded.  Rajapaksa refused, contending the GSL could manage on its own."

"Ambassador called Basil Rajapaksa to note the reports of many dead and wounded lying in the conflict zone, and again requested access for the ICRC to the area to evacuate the wounded. Basil energetically refused… Rajapaksa noted that the Army was evacuating wounded civilians by air to Anuradhapura and could deal with the current situation by itself."

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has found Russia guilty of committing multiple human rights violations in Ukraine’s occupied Crimea peninsula.

In the case brought against Russia, Ukraine alleges that since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia has committed human rights violations including inhuman or degrading treatment, the prohibition of freedom of religion, and freedom of expression among other rights. 

According to the court, evidence collected from witness testimony and reports from nongovernmental organizations proves Russia to be guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt”.

The ECHR ordered Russia “to take measures as soon as possible for the safe return of relevant prisoners transferred from Crimea to penal facilities located on the territory of the Russian Federation”.

Ukraine has also alleged that Russia has persecuted Ukrainians for their political stance or pro-Kyiv activity. 

Russia has denied accusations that it oppressed political opponents or violated human rights in Crimea. 

Read more on Reuters and Al Jazeera.

The European Council adopted sanctions against six individuals responsible for atrocities in the ongoing conflict in Sudan. 

Fighting continues between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their respective affiliated militias. In response to this the European Council has adopted "restrictive measures" against six individuals responsible for activities "undermining the stability and political transition of Sudan".

On the RSF side, the new listings include Abdulrahman Juma Barakallah, a General commanding the RSF in West Darfur who is responsible for committing atrocities and other abuses, instigating ethnically motivated killings, targeted attacks on human rights activists and defenders, conflict-related sexual violence, and the looting and burning of communities. They also include the RSF’ financial adviser, as well as a prominent tribal leader of the Mahamid clan affiliated with the RSF in West Darfur.

On the SAF side, sanctions target the Director General of Defense Industry System (DIS), a company already sanctioned by the EU, and the Commander of the Sudanese Air Force, El Tahir Mohamed El Awad El Amin, for their responsibility in the indiscriminate aerial bombing of densely populated residential areas since the beginning of the conflict. Ali Ahmed Karti Mohamed, a former Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Government of Omar al-Bashir is also listed.

Those targeted are subject to an asset freeze and a prohibition on the provision of funds or economic resources to them, directly or indirectly. Additionally, they are subject to travel bans in the European Union.

On 22 January 2024, the Council adopted a first set of restrictive measures against six entities of the SAF and the RSF responsible for supporting activities undermining the stability and political transition of Sudan.

 Earlier this year the United Nations appealed for $4.1bn to meet the humanitarian needs of Sudan as the ongoing armed conflict has led to the world's largest displacement crisis with half of the population facing hunger.

Read more at Reuters

On 17 June, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights held a public hearing in which the Ecumenical Foundation for Development and Peace (Fedepaz) joined representatives of victims from the Barrios Alos and La Cantuta cases in requesting the court to halt the proceedings of a pro-impunity bill.

Bill 6951/2023-CR aims to prevent the prosecution, sentencing, or punishment for crimes against humanity or war crimes committed before 1 July 2002.

The bill has been approved in its first vote by Congress and is now awaiting a second legislative vote before being sent to the executive. 

If successful, the bill would promote impunity in all cases from the armed conflict that occurred in Peru between 1980-2000, including the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres. 

Fedepaz spokesperson, David Velazco stated, "The initiative poses a risk to victims' right to justice... the Inter-American Court must adopt provisional measures ordering the Peruvian state to refrain from approving this bill or any similar regulation." 

UN experts have warned that the legislation contravenes international standards on the application of statutes of limitations to atrocity crimes. 

Bill 6951/2024-CR has been promoted by a caucus of far-right politicians and former high-level military officers. 

Spokesperson for the Peruvian Association for Human Rights, Gloria Cano emphasized that if the bill is implemented "it will allow individuals convicted or under investigation for war crimes and crimes against humanity to evade justice."

On 13 June, the Inter-American Court ordered Peru to halt the proceedings of the bill until it had the necessary information to rule on the request for provisional measures, the order remains in effect. 

Read more here and here. 

A street of Mariupol during siege of the city in the course of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

A recent analysis submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC) accuses Russia of engaging in a "deliberate pattern" of starvation tactics during the 85-day siege of Mariupol in early 2022. 

The analysis which was submitted to the ICC by the human rights organization, Global Rights Compliance (GRC), said Russian forces "systemically attacked objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population."

An estimated 22,000 people were killed during the siege of Mariupol. Civilians did not have access to water, electricity, or gas.

Partner at GRC, Catriona Murdoch stated that the goal of the research was "to see if there was a broader narrative" that amounted to a deliberate denial of food and other amenities necessary for life by the Russian military.

Starvation of civilians as a military tactic is a war crime under the ICC's founding Rome Statute. 

GRC legal experts worked alongside defense intelligence specialists and open source investigators to analyse images and reports from officials and eyewitnesses, and satellite images from the siege of Mariupol.

Head of the war crimes unit in Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office, Yuriy Belousov, stated that the Mariupol report is part of the national prosecution's current case files. 

Read more here and here. 

French President Emmanuel Macron has suspended controversial voting reforms in New Caledonia after an outbreak of deadly unrest in the French island territory. 

The unrest which flared up in New Caledonia on 13 May led to the deaths of 9 people. 

“The constitutional bill regarding New Caledonia… I have decided to suspend,” Macron said on Wednesday. 

He continued, “We cannot leave ambiguity during this period. It must be suspended to give full strength to dialogue on the ground and the return to order.”

The controversial voting reform would change existing conditions which prevented one-fifth of the population from voting in provincial elections. 

The 1998 Noumea Accord restricts the electorate for local elections to those residing on the island before 1998 and their descendants who have maintained continuous residence on the territory for at least 10 years. The voting restrictions were implemented to ensure the island territory's indigenous population would have increased political power.

Indigenous Kanak people constitute about 41% of the population. The voting reform would have given voting rights to tens of thousands of non-indigenous residents, a move that indigenous Kanaks feared would marginalize them and their push for independence. 

Both France’s National Assembly and the Senate approved the reform, however, it was waiting on the constitutional congress of both houses to become part of the basic law.

Upon the announcement that Macaron would dissolve parliament and call a snap election, the congress can not be held by the deadline of 30 June. 

As a result, independence movements in New Caledonia have already characterized the voting reform as dead. The Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) said, “We can all agree that the European elections saw off the constitutional bill. This should be a time for rebuilding peace and social ties.”

Read more here. 

In a statement released last week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed deep concern over the escalating violence in Myanmar.

UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that the Secretary-General “calls on all parties to the conflict to exercise maximum restraint, prioritize protection of civilians in accordance with international humanitarian law, and prevent further incitement of communal tension and violence.”

Myanmar’s Rakhine State has seen an increase in violence between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army. 

Reports show that many of the attacks have repeatedly targeted the minority Muslim Rohingya community.

The Muslim Rohingya community has been denied full citizenship despite being based in Rakhine State for multiple generations. 

Data from the UN refugee agency has revealed that over 200,000 people from the Muslim Rohingya community have been displaced by escalating violence. 

Previously, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported cases of forced disappearances and “shooting at unarmed fleeing villagers.”

Dujarric emphasized that the ongoing persecution of the Muslim Rohingya community “underlines the need for protection of all communities.”

Read more here

Narendra Modi has been sworn in as India's prime minister for a third term in a ceremony held at the presidential palace in Delhi.

Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party lost its parliamentary majority, dealing an unexpected blow to the prime minister and forcing him to negotiate with coalition partners to return to power. With all votes counted early on Wednesday morning, it was clear that the landslide for the BJP predicted in polls had not materialised and instead there had been a pushback against the strongman prime minister and his Hindu nationalist politics in swathes of the country. The party lost 62 seats, bringing its total down to 240, below the 272 required for a parliamentary majority.

Heads of state from neighbouring countries, including the prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, and the Sri Lankan president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, flew in to attend Modi’s swearing in ceremony. President of Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu; Vice-President of Seychelles, Ahmed Afif; Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, Prime Minister of Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’; and Prime Minister of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay, had also accepted the invitation to attend. Also in attendance were two of India’s richest industrialists, Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, who are seen to enjoy a close relationship with Modi,

Modi, 73, is only the second Indian leader to win a third consecutive term after the country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

Read more here