• Detroit seeks to countersue Black Lives Matter activists for 'civil conspiracy'

    File photograph: Black Lives Matter protests in Washington DC, 2020. (Joe Flood)

    The city of Detroit announced last month that it is countersuing Black Lives Matter protestors after a group of organizers sued the local government in late August. 

    After protests across the USA and around the world over the killing of George Floyd police in May, activists in Detroit sued the local government for how the police reacted to the demonstrations. Alleging that Detroit cops “repeatedly responded with violence” and asking the federal judge to bar the police from using tools of “excessive force” like chemical weapons or rubber bullets in the future. 

    The city has now filed a countersuit in response, alleging a “civil conspiracy” and claiming the protests in the city “have repeatedly turned violent, endangering the lives of police and the public.” Activists were also blamed for “defamation” of the mayor and the police, contending that the city should be awarded damages. 

    Protestors are enlisting the support of national legal groups and seeking the backing of the Detroit city council, in the hope of cutting off the financing of the city’s lawsuit.

    “These attacks against us are a way of attempting to minimize our ability to go on the offensive and call for transparency and accountability,” said Tristan Taylor, a protest leader in the city. “This is just a way of saying to people, ‘This is not a place where you can raise your voice.”

    “Chief Craig has really dug in his heels,” Taylor told NPR, referring to Detroit Police Department head Chief James Craig. “[He is] determined not only to rule over a department that can act with impunity but seeks to silence dissent about those very actions.”

    The city has cited four protests that occurred this year where injuries to police officers were inflicted including “cracked vertebrae, lacerations, and concussions,” according to the report. However, the documents provide no details on how each injury occurred and whom among the protestors caused the injuries. Likewise, the filings also claim protestors were “destroying and defacing public property,” but only acknowledge a shattered window on a police car on an unspecified date and a spray-painted statue of a slaveowner. 

    The city goes on to claim that Nakia Wallace, leader of the Detroit Will Breath organization, “falsely characterized [Detroit police] officers” by posting on Twitter about the “murderous and brutal nature of the Detroit Police Department.” The city’s complaint also accuses the organization of peddling a “false narrative to rile the public” about the fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Hakim Littleton in July, noting that body and dashcam footage released the day of the killing “shows the man fire a gun at an officer before police shot him” without appropriately acknowledging that the police landed most of their shots on Littleton, including one to the head after tackling him to the ground, according to video evidence. 

    The protestors’ complaint, however, includes extensive details on the violent actions of Detroit police officers.

    Detroit City Council Member Raquel Castañeda-López told The Intercept, “The claims in the countersuit are ludicrous. If we as a city begin countersuing residents for protesting, it’s setting the first stone on the path of making it even more legally permissible to violate people’s First Amendment rights.” 

    Legal advocates agree with Castañeda-López’s position. The American Civil Liberties Union described Detroit’s counterclaim as “dangerous” and “chilling,” noting that it can be applied to impose “ruinous liability on generations of civil rights protestors.”

    Read more from The Intercept here and NPR here.

     

  • Over 100 British MPs and Lords ‘horrified’ at India’s brutal response to Indian farmer’s protest

    Punjab Haryana border near Ambala

    A cross-party statement by over 100 British MPs and peers in the House of Lords has condemned the ‘brute force’ the Indian government has used in responding to ‘hundreds of thousands of peacefully protesting farmers’.

    The statement raises concerns over police brutality noting that there is video footage of “water cannon, tear gas and brute force’ being used against peaceful demonstrators. These protesters have gained international support from across the Indian diaspora but particularly the Punjabi and Sikh communities.

    The authors also highlight the failure of British Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, to raise concern over the situation despite assurances that he would. Raab had previously met with the Indian Prime Minister in Delhi in December.

    They further note the Prime Minister’s misunderstanding of the issue as during Prime Minister Questions on Wednesday 9 December, he referred to Pakistan and the need for “those two Governments” to settle these matters. As the statement notes, the issue of new agricultural legislation does not involve Pakistan.

    Whilst a planned visit in January has been cancelled, the statement notes that the Prime Minister intends to meet with his Indian counterpart soon. The statement further calls on the Prime Minister to confirm that he will raise the issue so that a “speedy resolution to the current deadlock” can be achieved as well as for the safeguarding of citizens democratic rights in India.

    Indian farmers primarily from the Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh regions of India have continued to protest against new farming regulations introduced in India which they fear will deregulate crop pricing and leave them vulnerable to corporate exploitation.  

    Read the full statement here and a full list of the signatories here.

  • British banks loaned $60m to company with links to Myanmar's military

    British banks have come under pressure from human rights groups after it was reported that more than $60 million has been lent to a company part-owned and used by the Myanmar military, as it carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims.

    Justice for Myanmar (JFM), a campaign organisation, found that HSBC and Standard Chartered made the loans to Vietnamese telecom company Viettel – a company part owned by and used by Myanmar’s military – even as it stood accused of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity.

    Viettel is a major investor in Mytel, a Myanmar mobile network that has close ties to the country’s military. The firm upgraded Myanmar’s military infrastructure, including a fibre-optic network and the construction of network towers in bases, and lists Maj. Gen. Thaw Lwin, a director of the Directorate of Signals in the Myanmar military, as a director of the company.

    JFM found that HSBC loaned $40m (£29.7m) to Viettel Global JSC between 2016 and 2020, while Standard Chartered’s UK arm loaned just over $20m (£14.8m) over the same period and questioned whether the banks may have breached EU restrictions on Myanmar.

    "Myanmar’s civilian government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, is also playing a role in facilitating the military’s tech modernisation," JFM added. 

    "The military’s role in Mytel must be investigated and where misappropriation and corruption are discovered, those involved must be charged in accordance with civilian and international law... The Myanmar military leadership operates like a cartel that is driven by a motive for power and profit."

    “The report sets out very well the position of Mytel in relation to the Myanmar military and the position of Viettel in relation to Mytel,” said Christopher Sidoti, a former member of the UN Human Rights Council’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar.

    “The facts establish that Mytel plays a vital role for the military and that Viettel makes Mytel possible.”

    “HSBC and Standard Chartered should be transparent and show exactly how they monitor and prevent their loans from financing human rights abuses,” Yadanar Maung, a spokesman for JFM told The Guardian.

    In response to the criticism, HSBC meanwhile claimed it “complies with sanctions, laws and regulations in all the jurisdictions in which we operate and strongly supports observance of international human rights principles as they apply to business”.  Standard Chartered declined to comment.

    See the full text of the report from JFM here.

    See more from The Guardian here.

     

  • Trump supporters storm Capitol building

    The photo above is by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

    Trump supporters have stormed the Capitol to prevent Congress from confirming the victory of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.

    Lawmakers have been rushed out of the building following the breach. It came as the representatives debated a move by Republicans to overturn November’s election results.

    Reporters noted that protesters have clashed with officers and demonstrators have occupied the second-floor lobby just outside the Senate chambers.

    Republican representative of Illinois, Adam Kinzinger, has described the incident as an attempted coup.

    The current figure of injuries is unknown, but one woman has been shot inside the Capitol by law enforcement. The police have been seen to use what appears to be flash-bang grenades. Protesters were seen carrying confederate flags.

    President Trump has tweeted asking for his supporters to be peaceful:

     

    US election results

    The announcement follows weeks of President Trump attempting to contest the results which delivered a decisive victory to President-elect Biden, who gained 306 votes to 232.

    Today has also seen the election of senator Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first black senator, in the state of Georgia. The second election between Jon Ossoff and David Perdue is still to close to call but Ossoff appears to be leading.

    Kelli Ward, who chairs the Arizona Republican Party, supported by a far-right group of Republicans has attempted to petition Supreme Court Samuel Alito to grant Vice President Mike Pence the power to reject state electors.

    Read more from the New York Times

  • Australian Human Rights Commission expresses 'grave concern' for immigration detainees

    The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has outlined “grave” concern over the government’s handling of people held in Australia’s immigration detention facilities, as it published a report looking into the immigration detention network last month.

    The AHRC found that people were being detained for long periods of time – “orders of magnitude greater than any comparable jurisdiction” – with limited access to communal facilities and healthcare.

    “The Government should act urgently to reduce the total number of people in immigration detention,” said Edward Santow, Human Rights Commissioner. “Over a significant period of time, the Commission has identified many individuals for whom closed detention was not justified.”

    The report was based on interviews with 280 detainees and inspections of facilities across Australia. According to the commission, as of September 2020, there were 1,534 people in detention.

    Amongst them are the Tamil "Biloela family", escaping persecution from Sri Lanka. The report highlighted the plight of the family, with Santow stating “the Commission remains concerned that a small number of children remain detained, most notably two very young children on Christmas Island”.

    Priya and Nades Murugappan who came with separate asylum claims in 2012 and 2013 were detained alongside their daughters Kopica and Tharnicca after their four-year bridging visa expired in 2018.

    “Throughout 2019, the average period that an individual was held in immigration detention was close to or just above 500 days,” added Santow. “By the middle of this year, it was 553 days. Most recently, in September 2020, it had reached 581 days—the highest ever recorded.”

    “As a liberal democracy, Australia takes its human rights obligations seriously. This means we should confront a difficult truth: we can and we must do better to protect the human rights of people subject to immigration detention.”

    The AHRC made a total of 44 recommendations to the Australian government. Australia rejected 26 of them.

    See the full text of the report here.

    Also see more from SBS here.

    See more on the Tamil family from Biloela below.

  • Palestinians excluded from Israel's vaccination drive

    As Israel spearheads a massively successful vaccination drive against the coronavirus, reports reveal that the Palestinian population residing in the occupied West Bank and Hamas-ruled Gaza strip is deliberately being left out of the programme by the Israeli government. 

    Israel has vaccinated over 10% of its 9 million population leading the entire globe in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. But, the coalition government of the right-wing Likud party and the centre-right Blue and White Party headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has prioritized inoculating Jewish Israelis over Palestinians who populate the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

    Even though batches of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are being transported to the occupied West Bank, the authorities are reported to be inoculating only the Jewish settler community leaving the Palestinians in the lurch. A report in the Guardian said, "they (the vaccines) are only distributed to Jewish settlers, and not the roughly 2.7 million Palestinians living around them who may have to wait for weeks or months.”

    The plight of the Palestinians is worsened by the fact that the Palestinian Authority (PA), which enjoys limited autonomy in the occupied areas, is not negotiating with the Israeli government regarding the distribution of vaccines. PA President Mahmoud Abbas cut off ties with Israel in early 2020 which continues to hamper coordination between the government and the Authority at a time of dire crisis.  

    Despite the severing of ties, however, the ultimate responsibility for the health and well-being of the Palestinian community might lie with the Israeli government. Gisha, a human rights activist told The Guardian that weak cooperation between the government and PA “does not absolve Israel from its ultimate responsibility toward Palestinians under occupation”. 

    The PA is seeking to obtain supplies of the vaccine through a World Health Organization (WHO) scheme called Covax, but it is suggested that vaccines through that programme might take until mid-2021 to be available for distribution. Meanwhile, Israeli officials suggest that they might provide Palestinians with ‘surplus vaccines’ that remain after they have vaccinated the country’s Jewish population. 

    The Israeli government may be contravening international law as this move overtly disfavours the rights of the occupied populations. A collective of human rights groups released a joint statement in December 2020 that said:

    “Article 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention specifically provides that an occupier has the duty of ensuring “the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics”. This duty includes providing support for the purchase and distribution of vaccines to the Palestinian population under its control.”   

    It is worried that the government’s distribution of vaccines to its population on the basis of race and ethnicity might eventually lead to the resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. As many Palestinians work in the occupied areas as well as in mainland Israel, the infection rates might soar in the future.  

    Read more from The Guardian

    Read the statement put out by the human rights collective here. 

  • Australia changes anthem to "celebrate" indigenous past

    In reflection of the Australia's grievous history with its Indigenous people, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the country's national anthem would be altered from January 1.

    Australia will no longer be referred to as “young and free” in the anthem. Instead, people will sing “one and free,” in hopes it will create a “spirit of unity” among its inhabitants and acknowledge people who have lived in Australia tens of thousands of years before colonists. 

    Prime Minister Morrison claimed, “it recognizes the distance we have travelled as a nation. It recognizes that our national story is drawn from more than 300 national ancestries and language groups and we are the most successful multicultural nation on earth.”

    While the gesture has been recognised as an important step, the Indigenous peoples of Australia continue to face structural racism and discrimination in criminal justice, education and health.

    Australia's draconian immigration and asylum policies also belie Morrison's claim to successful multiculturalism.  A Tamil family has been detained on Christmas Island for 1000 days in a one-bedroom cabin and continues to face deportation to Sri Lanka despite valid concerns over torture and extra-judicial killings in Sri Lanka. Australia’s Department of Home Affairs has repeatedly maintained the family does not meet the criteria for protected status. 

    Morrison also added that the change to the anthem celebrated the unity Australia saw during the coronavirus pandemic. 

    Australia has been more conscientious of managing disproportionate effects of coronavirus on Indigenous Australians in comparison with the U.S. after Indigenous Australians were devastated by the H1N1 influenza epidemic in 2009. However, these recommendations for immediate action in Indigenous-populated areas were taken because of greater risk factors.  Many Indigenous people live in remote areas and suffer from higher chronic disease rates because of marginalization from health services, food insecurity, and inadequate access to water, sanitation, and housing making social distancing and self-isolation practices more unrealistic.

    Extraordinary efforts taken by First Nations health leaders of Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHOs) have contributed to considerable underrepresentation of Indigenous cases, representing only 0.7% of all cases according to a study published by The Lancet.

     

  • Over 20 killed in a deadly attack in Southern Yemen

    As the newly formed cabinet of Yemen arrived in the Southern City of Aden, an explosion killed at least 22 people and injured over 50.

    Whilst the Prime Minister and his cabinet are reported to be okay, amongst those killed are aid workers and officials. Yemen’s information minister has accused Houthi rebels of being behind this “cowardly terrorist act”.

    The conflict in Yemen, which began in 2015, has resulted in the deaths of more than 110,000 people and has left millions on the brink of famine. 

    Read more from the BBC.

     

  • Karima Baloch, Balochistan activist and Pakistan critique, found dead in Toronto

    Karima Baloch, 37-year-old Balochistan activist and refugee, has been found dead in Canada following her missing disappearance.

    Baloch was the first chair of the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO-Azad), a student organisation advocating for the rights of those in Balochistan and highlighting the ongoing issue of enforced disappearances. In 2016, she was listed by the BBC as one of its 100 most inspiration and influent women for her human rights work.

    Her husband, Hammal Haider, a human rights advocate, has maintained that there are suspicious circumstances behind her death. A month prior to her death, he notes, that he had received multiple threatening messages over social media due to his activism. Baloch had also received numerous threats unknown Pakistani numbers following the abduction of a few Baloch students in late 2017.

    Haider further added:

    “We can’t rule out foul play as she has been under threats. She left Pakistan as her home was raided more than twice. Her uncle was killed. She was threatened to leave activism and political activities, but she did not and fled to Canada.”

    This death follows the Sajid Hussain whose body was found in a river in the Swedish city of Uppsala.

    Toronto police have stated that they are investigating Baloch’s death as “a non-criminal death” and that they did not believe there “to be any suspicious circumstances” behind her death.

    Amnesty International has called for an investigation into Baloch’s death stating:

    “The death of activist Karima Baloch in Toronto, Canada is deeply shocking and must be immediately and effectively investigated. The perpetrators must be brought to justice without recourse to the death penalty.”

    Read more from the Guardian

  • Nicaragua passes law that suppresses opposition in 2021 elections
    <p>The Sandinista National Liberation Front, Nicaragua’s ruling party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front, passed a law preventing opposition candidates from running in the 2021 presidential elections.&nbsp;</p> <p>The new law has granted Nicaragua's president Daniel Ortega and his government the power to unilaterally declare citizens “terrorists” or coup-mongers, classify them as “traitors to the homeland,” inhibiting candidates from running in the election.&nbsp;</p> <p>Candidates “who lead or finance a coup…encourage foreign interference, ask for military intervention…propose or plan economic blockades, applaud and champion the imposition of sanctions against Nicaragua or its citizens,” are also banned from running for office.&nbsp;</p> <p>Ortega has already labelled the entire opposition and the leaders of 2018 protests against the regime as "traitors".&nbsp;</p> <p>At least 325 people were killed in anti-government protests in 2018 after security forces violently quelled demonstrations, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Ortega’s concerns include the opposition attempting to launch a coup.&nbsp;</p> <p>Juan Sebastián Chamorro, leader of the opposition coalition Alianza Civica, contended that Ortega was culpable under the new law. He reportedly stated on social media that, “The one who they should apply this law to is Daniel Ortega, for all the human rights violations he has committed and the damage he has done.”</p> <p>In response, the United States imposed sanctions on 27 people close to Ortega and his wife, including Vice President Rosario Murillo and three of her children, all aimed at bringing about free and fair elections and respect basic rights . The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control announced these sanctions against “corrupt financial operations and Ortega regime supporters.”</p> <p>Human Rights Watch (HRW) have called on member states of the Organisation of American states and the European Union to condemn the new legislation as it "threatens Nicarguans' rights to run for office an vote in fair and free elections."&nbsp;</p> <p>The rights group highlighted that Nicaragua has passed several laws in recent months which "seriously restrict rights to freedom of expression and association in&nbsp; the country and could undermine free and fair elections in 2021."</p> <p>The "foreign agents" law passed in October 2020 prevents people or groups that receive funds from abroad from intervening in domestic matters and also prevents them from running for public office.&nbsp;</p> <p>Read more from ABC News <u><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/nicaragua-essentially-ba…">here</a></u> and Human Rights Watch <u><a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/12/22/nicaragua-law-threatens-free-fair-e…">here</a></u>.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>
  • ICC refuses to investigate Chinese mass detention of Uighur Muslims

    The International Criminal Court (ICC) has refused to investigate allegations of genocide committed by China against the Uighur Muslim minority, rejecting complaints filed by two Uighur exile groups, the East Turkistan Government in Exile and the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement.

    The complaint details “a campaign of torture, forced sterilization and mass surveillance against Muslims, among other abuses”. This includes the mass detention of Uighur Muslims, in what the Chinese government claim are “job training centres”.

    There have also been allegations of forced repatriation of thousands of Uighurs through unlawful arrests in or deportation from other countries, including Cambodia and Tajikistan.

    The ICC prosecutor’s office claimed on Monday that there was insufficient evidence to show that Chinese officials had committed crimes over which the court had jurisdiction. The court’s prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda of Gambia, has maintained that the abuses “have been committed solely by nationals of China within the territory of China”.

    “Not all conduct which involves the forcible removal of persons from a location necessarily constitutes the crime of forcible transfer or deportation,” the report said.

    Complicity in genocide

    This announcement follows revelations from UN Human Rights Lawyer and whistleblower, Emma Reilly, who has accused high ranking UN Human Rights Council officials of handing over the name of Uighur dissidents who attended the UNHRC sessions directly to the Chinese government.

    This has led to the disappearance of dissents and their family members.

    Read more here: Whistleblower accuses UN of complicity in Uighur genocide

     

    International backlash

    Increasingly China’s mistreatment of Uighur Muslims have come under intense international criticism, with President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s campaign describing the actions in Xinjiang as genocide. This position, Javier C. Hernández notes, has also been adopted by other western leaders.

    Uighur dissidents living in exile have vowed to continue to put pressure on the international community to hold China accountable.

    Sophie Richardson, China director for Human Rights Watch, has stated in response to the ruling by the ICC that it was not a judgement on abuses were taking place.

    “The facts remain: The Chinese government is committing grave violations on a massive scale in Xinjiang, and those responsible should be held to account,” she said.

    This news comes as a new prosecutor to the ICC is to be elected in the coming weeks.

    Read more from the New York Times

  • US sanctions Turkey over the purchase of Russian S-400 missiles

    The US has imposed sanction on a key official in Turkey’s Presidency of Defence Industries, Turkey’s military procurement agency, following the procurement of S-400 defence missiles from Russia.

    The ban targets Ismail Demir, chief of the Presidency of Defence industry, and three other senior Turkish officials. The sanctions will block any assets held by the officials in the US and impose a travel ban on them. There is a further ban on most export licences, loans and credits to the agency.

     

    Turkey warns it will retaliate

    Turkey has responded warning that it “will retaliate in a manner and timing it deems appropriate” and has urged “the US to reconsider this unfair decision”. They further claim that they were forced to purchase the weapons from Russia after the US refused to sell their “Patriot missiles”.

    Russian officials have also spoken out against the US decision.

     

    War Crimes

    In March UN investigators detailed mounting war crimes committed by Turkish and Russian forces. They noted that an estimated one million civilians have been forced to flee Idlib in the northwest of Syria.

    Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish held regions of northern Syria, which are fighting for political autonomy, have been particularly brutal.

    Read more here:She was covered with blood’ – Kurdish family recall Turkish air strike

    The decision comes a month before Joe Biden is set to assume office. The incoming administration has voiced their opposition to Turkey acquiring the S-400 missiles as well as the disunity it may cause in NATO.

     

    Read more from Al Jazeera and the US State Department

  • US recognises Morocco’s claims over West Sahara in exchange for normalised relations with Israel

    The US has become the first country to recognise Morocco’s claims over West Sahara, in exchange, Morocco has become the Arab nation to establish diplomatic ties with Israel since August.

    Morocco has occupied the resource-rich territories of West Sahara since 1975, in defiance of the United Nations and the international community. Democracy Now highlights that during this occupation “thousands have been tortured, imprisoned, killed and disappeared while resisting the Moroccan occupation”.

    Despite this, over 80 countries recognise the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and it has been recognised as a full member of the African Union.

     

    Morocco’s occupation

    Morocco's occupation of Western Sahara can be traced back to October 1975, when both Morocco and Mauritania invaded the region as Spain's imperial presence was leaving. The conflict led to approximately half of the Sahrawi population fleeing to Algeria and triggering a 16 year-war for Sahrawi independence.

    During this conflict, Moroccan forces gained the support of the US in fighting against the Sahrawi liberation movement known as the Polisario Front. Through US support, particularly from weapon manufacturers Northrop and Westinghouse, Morocco established the world’s largest minefield and created the second-long wall on earth.

    This approximately 1,700-mile wall divides the Sahrawis into those who remain under occupation and those who have fled.

    In 1991, the UN-supported a ceasefire and vowed that the Sahrawi would be able to hold a referendum on self-determination, organised by peacekeepers known as MINURSO. Morocco has consistently blocked such a referendum and the U.N. Security Council has refused to implement its own referendum plan or allow MINURSO to monitor the human rights situation in the territory.

     

    International Backlash

    The Trump administration’s decision to unilaterally accept Morocco’s claim over the territories has been widely condemned with the Spanish government maintaining that the US cannot impose a solution which bypasses the UN.

    Bassam as-Salhi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s executive committee, responded to the deal stating that it was ““unacceptable and increases Israel’s belligerence and its denial of the Palestinian people’s rights”.

    Whilst the White House has maintained that “independent Sahrawi state is not a realistic option for resolving the conflict”, Stephen Zunes, Professor of International Politics at the University San Francisco, questions if a Joe Biden administration would be able to reverse the decision.

    “The question is what Biden is going to do because Biden could reverse the annexation — recognition of the annexation with a stroke of a pen. But he’d be under a lot of pressure because then Morocco could use this as an excuse to nullify their recognition of Israel. So, Biden is going to be in a lot of pressure by pro-Israel groups not to rescind Trump’s order”.

    Read more from Democracy Now and The Guardian

  • UK and US impose sanctions on 31 human rights violators

    Marking International Human Rights Day, the US and UK announced a new round of sanctions targeting 31 human rights violators from across the globe.

    This is the third announcement of sanctions under the UK’s sanctions regime and includes travel bans and asset freezes for human rights violators from Russia, Venezuela, Gambia, and Pakistan. The US sanctions targeted officials from China, El Salvador, Haiti, Liberia, Jamaica, Kyrgyz Republic, and Russia.  

    Included in the sanctions were former Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh, and Ahmad Anwar Khan, the former Senior Superintendent of Police in Malir District, a district in southern Pakistan. This was due to “historic human rights violations including extrajudicial killings of protestors and minority groups”.

    The UK also imposed travel bans and asset freezes on three individuals and the Terek Special Rapid Response Unit responsible for torture and other human rights violations against LGBT people in Chechnya.

    Senior officials of the Venezuelan government have also been placed under a sanction, following what the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) describe as a deeply flawed National Assembly elections on 6 December.

    UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has stated that the purpose of these sanctions is to “send a clear message to human rights violators that the UK will hold them to account”.

    He further stressed that a “Global Britain will stand up for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law as a force for good in the world”.

    The sanctions regime, he added, “showcases [Britain’s] commitment to the rules-based international system and to standing up for victims of human rights violations and abuses around the world”.

    Read more from the US State Department and the UK FCDO

  • Over 70 Nigerian farmers killed by Boko Haram
    <p>More than 70 farmers from Zabarmari, a village in north-eastern Nigeria, after the Islamist militant group, known as Boko Haram, accused the farmers of betraying them.</p> <p>On 28 November, 50 farmers were approached by Boko Haram militants and led to the nearby village of Koshebe. Presuming that they protected under the peace deal, they were slaughtered en masse in a building. When 20 more villagers went in search for these farmers they were also killed.</p> <p>Ismail Alfa and Ruth Maclean, writing in the New York Times, notes that Nigeria’s military has largely retreated from the area, leaving the region largely under the control of Boko Haram. They further state that these villagers find themselves in a Catch-22 situation.</p> <p>“If they report the militants to the Nigerian authorities, they risk gruesome reprisals by Boko Haram, a group known for abducting schoolgirls and killing tens of thousands of people. If they stay silent, they risk the wrath of the Nigerian military, which has been accused of routinely shooting villagers dead and burning their houses down during raids, as well as detaining people for years in inhumane conditions”.</p> <p>In 2015 Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS however a year later the organisation fractured with several militants forming their own organisation known as the Islamic State West Africa Province, which gained the support of ISIS. It is this faction that claimed responsibility for the attack.</p> <p>Read more from the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/10/world/africa/nigeria-boko-haram.html">New York Times.</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
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