17-year old Climate change activist, Greta Thunberg, given a prestigious human rights award and promptly pledged the one million Euro prize to various groups fighting the climate crisis.

Thunberg was awarded the first Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, a Portuguese human rights award, “aimed to recognise people, groups of people and/or organisations from all over the world whose contributions to mitigation and adaptation to climate change stand out for its novelty, innovation and impact.”

She announced on her social media, that all the prize money will be donated to those “who are working to help people on the frontlines affected by the climate crisis and the ecological crisis, especially in the Global South.”

The first organization to receive funding was SOS Amazonia, an organization helping to end the COVID-19 outbreak in the Amazon, particularly among indigenous communities.

Why was Thunberg awarded the Prestigious Prize?

Since gaining global recognition for starting a protest outside the Swedish parliament in 2018, Thunberg has become a figurehead of school strikes for children internationally.

Jorge Sampaio, chair of the prize jury said she was awarded the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity for the way “she has been able to mobilise younger generations for the cause of climate change.” He goes on to say, “her tenacious struggle to alter a status quo that persists, makes her one of the most remarkable figures of our days.”

This is the largest prize won to date by the Swedish Activist, who has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize, nominated Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 2019, won Amnesty International's top human rights prize and the Swedish Right Livelihood Award.

Read more from the BBC, Euro News, CNBC and CTV News

^{File photograph: Xinjiang (Evgeni Zotov)}

The United States placed new sanctions on 11 Chinese companies, citing involvement or complicity in human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims and other marginalised groups.

Not only do the sanctions place restrictions on the companies’ access to US goods, but the move puts pressure on international companies like Apple, Google, and Ralph Lauren, to sever ties with now-sanctioned suppliers. 

Many of the companies sanctioned were named in a report on forced labour earlier this year, which estimated that “more than 80,000 Uighurs were transferred out of Xinjiang to work in factories across China between 2017 and 2019, and some of them were sent directly from detention camps”.

While nine of the companies were described as participating in these types of forced labour practices, two were sanctioned for conducting “genetic analyses targeted at Muslim minority groups from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.”

“Beijing actively promotes the reprehensible practice of forced labour and abusive DNA collection and analysis schemes to repress its citizens,” said Wilbur Ross, the  US secretary of commerce. “This action will ensure that our goods and technologies are not used in the Chinese Communist Party’s despicable offensive against defenseless Muslim minority populations.”

The US has previously sanctioned almost forty companies for similar human rights violations in Xinjiang and recently placed sanctions on Chinese officials for the same reason. In 2019, over 20 countries at the UN Human Rights Council signed a joint letter urging China to end mass detention in Xinjiang.

Read the US Department of Commerce press release here.

On Monday, the visit of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia to Catalonia, the northeastern region of Spain, as a part of the nationwide royal tour to boost morale during the coronavirus pandemic, was met with the protest of hundreds of Catalan independence supporters.

What had initially been planned for the previous week, covering several towns and Barcelona, was postponed, and curbed to a short visit to the Royal Monastery of Poblet due to recent surges in Covid-19 cases in the region.

Allegations of money laundering

 This visit also comes after the recent shocking allegations of money laundering having been carried out by the Felipe’s father, former King Juan Carlos I, who abdicated himself in 2014.

The media have accused the former King, of hiding millions of euros untaxed in offshore accounts in Switzerland. These reports of corruption and money laundering are currently being investigated by the Spanish Supreme Court and Swiss courts are also considering legal inquiries.

Furthermore, an investigation has been launched into allegations of illegal commissions from Saudi Arabia in connection to a high-speed rail project. Juan Carlos and his lawyers are yet to comment on these allegations. In his efforts to distance himself from the scandals surrounding his father, Felipe has renounced any inheritance that he could receive from his father in mid-March, depriving him of his annual stipend.

Catalonian independence protests

Catalonia, home to 7.5 million, has long been divided between those in support of Spanish unity and separatists. The tensions came to a crisis in late 2017 when 90% of Catalan voters supported independence in a referendum held by the autonomous Catalan government. The referendum was declared illegal by the Spanish constitutional court, resulting in police violence against voters and prosecution of top elected officials and activists.

Protesters carried inverted photos of the King captioned “Catalonia doesn’t have a king” during a march organised by ANC, the region’s largest pro-independence civil society group. Police blocked activists from the main road to Monastery however some attempted to access via nearby vineyards.

Train services in northern Catalonia were also delayed or cancelled due to “acts of vandalism” according to the Spanish operator, ADIF’s twitter. Photos of burning tires and signs depicting a crossed-out crown on railways circulated on messaging apps.

“We want democracy, simply democracy,” said protesting schoolteacher Marcel Barbosa, adding that the king had shown disrespect for Catalans’ demands for independence. “They know they are going to lose and that they will need to leave, that’s why we are not allowed to vote.”

Read more from AP News and BBC News.

^{File photograph: A Gurdwara in Kabul (Wikipedia)}

The Indian government has announced an offer of possible long-term residency for the persecuted Hindu and Sikh community in Afghanistan, following a series of attacks and abductions aimed at the communities in recent years.

“India has decided to facilitate the return of Afghan Hindu and Sikh community members facing security threats in Afghanistan to India,” said an Indian Ministry of External Affairs statement on Saturday. Over 700 Afghan Hindus & Sikhs are reported to be amongst the first to have long-term visas issued by Delhi.

Continuous attacks have contributed to the precipitous decline in the Sikh population in Afghanistan from the hundreds of thousands to less than ten thousand at present. Many have left for India, North America and other countries fleeing persecution and violence.

The protracted American war in Afghanistan waged since 2001 has failed to defeat the Taliban, the Islamist militant group that ruled the country from 1996 to 2001. This war of attrition between American troops and the Taliban has given fertile ground to the proliferation of fundamentalist Islamist groups who have targeted religious minorities in the country. 

Despite India’s offer, many Afghan Sikhs are torn by the prospect of leaving their ancestral homelands and starting lives from scratch in a different country would mean poverty and destitution. Those who have already moved to India are currently facing severe economic strain. The pandemic has exacerbated their plight putting most of them out of jobs. 

“At best, India maybe like a lifeboat — an emergency option for the families who take it, but one that lacks the security of a long-term solution,” the New York Times wrote. 

“I may get killed here because of these threats to Hindus and Sikhs, but in India, I will die from poverty,” said 63-year-old Lala Sher Singh from Kabul.

The move by India to expedite visa processing comes months after the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed late last year. The law offered a pathway to citizenship to five minority religious communities from neighbouring Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Christians. The glaring absence of Muslims in the list set off a maelstrom of protests across the country. 

It must also be noted that whilst the Hindu-nationalist government in India has portrayed itself as the saviour of all Hindus, the CAA left out the Tamil refugees from Eelam who have been seeking asylum in India for over two decades. 

Read more from the New York Times here and The Quint here. 

John Lewis, the venerable congressman of Georgia’s fifth congressional district and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom has died at age 80. Often dubbed “the conscience of the Congress”, Lewis was also a solid component of the Civil Rights Movement. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2019.

Former President Barack Obama and Martin Luther King III were amongst those who expressed their condolences and their gratitude for Lewis.

Obama on Lewis:

“He loved this country so much that he risked his life and his blood so that it might live up to its promises. And through the decades, he not only gave himself to the cause of freedom and justice, but inspired generations that followed to live up to his example.”

Born on 21^st February 1940 in Troy Alabama, Lewis had little interaction with white people due to Troy’s segregated settings. As he grew older, trips into town with his family left him with experiences of racism and segregation. He met Rosa Parks when he was 17, and Martin Luther King Jr when he was 18, describing both individuals as his inspiration “to get into good, necessary trouble.”

As a student, he was very dedicated to the Civil Rights Movement; he arranged sit downs at segregated lunch counters as a form of direct action and took part in civil rights activities as part of the Nashville Student Movement. Despite being arrested and jailed multiples times, Lewis continued to engage in nonviolent protests to desegregate the downtown area of the city. 

In 1961, Lewis became one of the original 13 Freedom Riders – civil rights activists who rode on the interstate buses into the segregated South. This was a direct challenge to the Jim Crow travel laws that remained in force throughout the South, despite the Plessy vs Ferguson principle of separate but equal travel.  His diligence and sheer courage were demonstrated in the South when he and the other Freedom Riders were met with severe violence.

Still, he embarked on another Freedom Ride to Jackson two weeks later.

In a bid to establish more social change representatives, Lewis launched Freedom Schools – free schools for African Americans mostly in the South, encouraging political and educational objectives. He also coordinated some of the voter registration endeavours during the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches.

In 1963, as a chairman of the SNCC, Lewis was named as one of the “Big Six” leaders who organised the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, along with Martin Luther King Jr, Whitney Young,  A.Philip Randolph, James Farmer and Roy Wilkins. 23 years old at the time, Lewis was the youngest of the six to speak at the March.

The strong principles of nonviolence that he had rooted were evident in his global affairs. He opposed US initiating the 1991 Gulf War, and opposed intervention from Bill Clinton, when Clinton was contemplating invading Haiti. Lewis spoke openly of his support for gay rights and was in favour of the National Health Insurance. In 2002, he sponsored the Peace Tax Fund Bill – a legislation proposed in the US Congress that would permit a form of conscientious objection to military taxation (COMT).

His astounding activism continues to inspire many today, and his legacy is a guideline for generations to come.

The latest UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria has highlighted war crimes committed by all sides during the pro-government force's efforts in Idlib to recapture territory claimed by Houthi rebels, backed by Iran.

According to the Commission’s report, the militant group known as “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” (HTS) engaged in indiscriminate shelling of densely populated civilian areas, in government-held territory.

According to the Commission’s Chair, Paulo Pinheiro;

“Children were shelled at school, parents were shelled at the market, patients were shelled at the hospital…entire families were bombarded even while fleeing […] What is clear from the military campaign is that pro-government forces and UN-designated terrorists flagrantly violated the laws of war and the rights of Syrian civilians.”

Pinheiro further reminds us that the Russian air force and Syrian government army also “carried out air and ground attacks which decimated civilian infrastructure, depopulated towns and villages”. This resulted in hundreds of innocent deaths, reports the commission.

The report notes that November 2019 to June this year, there were 52 attacks by all parties included 17 on hospitals and medical facilities; 14 on schools; 12 on homes and nine on markets.

Read more here from UN News.

Photo of UK Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab,

Tensions between the UK and China rise after UK Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, criticised China over “gross and egregious” human rights abuses against its Uighur Muslim population in Xinjiang and recent crackdowns on protests in Hong Kong.

It is suspected that China has detained nearly a million Uighurs in ‘re-education camps’, believed by some to be concentration camps. China, however, asserts that such claims are “fake accusations” and the mentioned camps exist for perpetrators of terrorism which includes separatist violence in Xinjiang.

In a recent BBC interview, Chinese ambassador, Liu Xiaoming, was shown anonymously posted drone footage that had surfaced amid recent allegations which captured hundreds of blindfolded and shackled men being transported from what is believed to be Xinjiang in August of 2019. In response, Xiaoming stated that “I do not know where you got this videotape - sometimes you have a transfer of prisoners, in any country.”

China also asserts that claims of mass sterilisation of Uighur women through a ‘ruthless’ forced birth control programme is untrue, claiming Chinese government policy to be “strongly opposed to this kind of practice” and that the Uighurs live in “peaceful and harmonious coexistence with other ethnic groups”.

The UK has decided to suspend its extradition treaty in response to the draconian new security law in Hong Kong which threatens Hong Kong’s legal autonomy and seeks to curb anti-government dissent.

There have been growing calls for the UK to impose sanctions on the Chinese officials that have been accused of being responsible. While Raab, has implied that the UK may not take such action, the Chinese ambassador has apprised that any sanctions will be met with a “resolute” response.

Read BBC News, the Guardian.

Photo of  Switzerland's Parliament Building 

A protester set himself on fire on Monday in front of Switzerland’s parliament building, to protest conditions in Bern’s asylum centres.

Protestors demanded equal treatment, the right to work for asylum seekers and the ending of isolation of individuals at refugee centres.

One video ran by a local television channel, showed the man had been engulfed by flames, before running towards the edge of parliament square.

Paramedic and fire services were called to the scene, as several onlookers ran after him to help put out the fire.

The man, who many witnesses said was Iranian and had been denied asylum in Switzerland, did not suffer life-threatening injuries.

 Switzerland’s Controversial Asylum Policy

The protestor was taking part in a demonstration organized by the “Stopp Isolation” group, who believe that new asylum return centres in Bern are like “open prisons, on the edge of society”.

Last Friday, authorities wrote a letter to the Member of “Stopp Isolation” group defending the “democratically legitimate” handling of Asylum centres, sparking the recent demonstration.

However, Switzerland is due to hold a referendum in September on limiting the free movement of people with the European Union.

Read more from Reuters, Swiss Info and, Info Migrants.

Floods in Nepal in 2019

As many as four million people in the Indian state of Assam and neighbouring Nepal have been displaced by severe flooding and at least 189 people have been killed.

Heavy rainfall over the past week caused riverbeds to burst, triggering mudslides and pushing at least 27,000 people into relief camps. The floods have further submerged cropland and villages.

Assam water resources Minister Keshab Mahanta told Reuters “The flood situation remains critical with most of the rivers flowing menacingly above the danger mark.”

The floods have affected people in 25 of Assam’s 33 districts, but the monsoon season will likely last at least another three months.

Twin Challenges of Flooding and Covid-19

Whilst floods are common in Assam during the Monsoon season; lockdowns have prevented governments from completing pre-monsoon repairs on river embankments.

Local NGOs have been unable to collect inadequate response funding with many reporting a lack of social distancing norms in relief camps.

Many families have already faced months of lost income due to the pandemic and continue to struggle due to the immense damage to agriculture.

Read more from Reuters, the Times of India, and New Humanitarian. 

The mayor of Portland was one of several voices who demanded US President Donald Trump removed federal agents from the city, after videos emerged of camouflaged federal law enforcement officers detaining protestors in unmarked vans, seemingly without cause.

Personal accounts and videos circulating on social media show protesters being taken away in these vans to federal courthouses, with a report from Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) detailing several accounts of protestors being detained without reason or explanation.

Many, including Oregon Governor Kate Brown, see this as an attempt by the Trump administration to test the limits of its executive power. 

Governor Brown’s communications director told the press this was “extraordinarily concerning and a violation of [protesters’] civil liberties and constitutional rights.”

Mayor Ted Wheeler called it an "absolute abuse of federal law enforcement officials".

The Oregon Department of Justice is suing US federal agencies for civil rights abuses related to these arrests and other instances of violence committed by federal agents. Another protester was hospitalised after being shot in the head with an impact munition.

These protests are part of the ongoing response to the brutal murder of George Floyd and related instances of police brutality in the United States. Protesters in Portland have been gathering nightly since May in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

(Photo of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, Credit Arno Mikkor (EU2017EE))

Thousands of Bulgarians continue to gather in the capital, Sofia, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister, Boyko Borissov, upon allegations of high-level corruption.

Protests erupted after heavily-armed raids ordered by the Chief Prosecutor, Ivan Geshev, took place at the President Rumen Radeve office. Radeve is an outspoken critic of the ruling party’s failure to tackle graft in the highest of ranks. Geshev has since ordered the detention of two officials - President Radeve’s secretary and an advisor.

Radeve responded by stating that “the current oligarchic model of power is depleted and rejected by the people”, urging Borissov and his chief prosecutor to resign in order to resolve the crisis.

Demonstrators have also accused both Borrisov and Geshev of corruption and evasion of rule of law and demand their resignation.

At the end of June, photos of Borrisov sleeping beside a gun on his nightstand, and drawers of cash surfaced. Borrisov contended the authenticity of only some of these images and accused PM Radeve of spying on him with drones, however, both parties have refused to do so thus far. Borissov has been in power since 2009, currently in his third term which is scheduled to end in 2021.

In an attempt to extinguish the protests, on Wednesday, Borrisov sacked three prominent members of his cabinet yet protests continued with vigour on Thursday in Sofia, where over 18,000 demonstrated. Protestors blocked traffic, waved flags and chanted “Mafia” and “Resign”, demanding the removal of oligarchy from the government.

According to corruption watchdog, Transparency International’s recent Corruption Perception Index, Bulgaria ranks as the EU’s most corrupt country. The EU’s non-response to the matter has sparked an online movement upheld by frustrated Bulgarians internationally, circulating images of the protest and hashtag “EUAreYouBlind”.

Read more from the Independent and from Euro News here and here.

Photo of Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha

Thousands in Thailand joined in a student-led protest pushing for the government’s resignation, defying a government ban on large gatherings due to Covid-19 concerns.

This demonstration, with an estimated total of 2,500 protestors gathered on Bangkok’s Democracy Monument, has become one of the largest street demonstrations since a 2014 military coup.

The protesters pushed three objectives:

(1) the dissolution of parliament,

(2) the end to harassment of government critics and

(3) amendments to the constitution, which many argue ensured the victory of former Thai Army Chief, Prayuth Chan-o-cha’s, victory in last years elections.

Prayuth Chan-o-cha’s Controversy

As army chief, Prayut Chan-o-cha first took power when he led a coup to overthrow the elected government in 2014. After a widely denounces unfair election in 2019, Chan-o-cha was elected prime minister.

Chan-o-cha’s campaign pushed a vision of traditional Thai culture and loyalty to King Vajiralongkorn. His deeply conservative views and leadership has often angered the more progressive elements in Thai society, with many protesting his unfairly appointed leadership.

When asked about past demonstrations Chan-o-cha told Time Magazine, “We have been rather lenient. If we allowed them to demonstrate freely, it might become too difficult to move forward to democracy.”

Several cabinet members have resigned on Thursday over internal disputes, while under Chan-o-cha’s leadership.

Covid-19 Impact on Protest

Protests against Chan-o-cha’s government had been quickly increasing but slowed down when emergency law was invoked over coronavirus concerns.

These social distancing and quarantine measures have helped limit the spread of the virus; however, many say the government continues to use these measures as a political weapon.

Police were on standby and set up barriers around the monument to prevent crowds gathering. Police loudspeakers also repeated warnings that the protest was considered an illegal gathering.

Read more the Guardian, the Times and, Reuters.

Former Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, defended Kashmiris’ to self-determination during the 15^th EU-India Summit and accused Europe of holding a “double standard”.

Puigdemont, who is also a member of the European Parliament, told The News that human rights could not be defined without the fundamental principles of a right to self-determination. He maintains that democracy forms the basis of human rights and that this was a cornerstone of self-determination.

The Catalan leader, who is currently living in exile in Belgium due to his role in Catalan’s failed independence referendum, further accused Europe of holding “a double standard on human rights”.

"If the right to self-determination is recognised as a right in any kind of negotiation, only then will it be possible to protect the concept of the right to self-determination," Puigdemont stated.

Abdul Majid Tramboo, leader of the Organisation of Kashmir Coalition (OKC), has responded to the 15^th EU-India Summit, claiming that the conclusions were “regrettable”  as European leaders did not raise the issue of human rights as strongly as they expected them to.

Kashmir Council-Europe (KC-EU) Chairperson Ali Raza Syed has also accused the EU of holding “double standards”.

MEP, Manuela Ripa, who is set to replace Germany's Dr Klaus Buchner, claimed that she had sympathy for the Kashmiri people who have been waiting for a referendum in Europe on their right to self-determination.

Whilst she claimed that she would try to bring parties together on this issue, she added that she knows India has a strong stance on this and that she did not want a referendum.

Read more from The News

Responding to the United State’s condemnation of China’s new security laws, China has condemned the “gangster logic” of US President Donald J Trump.

Beijing’s Liaison Office stated on the matter:

“Unreasonable meddling and shameless threats by the United States are typical gangster logic and bullying behaviour,”

They further warned that any move to end Hong Kong’s special status under U.S. law, as Trump had ordered, would threaten US interests whilst having limited impact on Hong Kong.

The US has responded to the situation in China by imposing a new set of sanctions on the country. Similarly, the UK has responded by offering citizenship to the territory’s residents after Beijing passed a new highly criticised national security law.

The national security law

The new national security law includes 66 articles and harsh penalties, which cover a wide range of alleged offences including on “secession” and “terrorism”. Other articles give Chinese mainland security operatives the right to investigate cases that are vaguely described as "complex", "serious" or “difficult”, as well as trials being held in secret, without a jury, and without guaranteeing bail. 

Critics of the law fear that it will erode the freedom enjoyed by those in Hong Kong and were promised to citizens when the land was returned to China in 1997.

The democratic will of Hong Kong

This week, pro-Hong Kong activists held an unofficial “primary” election which was seen as a protest against the measure. The vote was organised so as to help pick candidates for a Sept. 6 election for the 70-seat Legislative Council. However, Beijing has since warned that such a primary would be a violation of the new law.

On Wednesday, former Hong Kong lawmaker, Au Nok-hin, pulled out of organised the weekend vote due to pressure from Beijing.

Another organiser, Andrew Chiu, had pulled out stating in a Facebook post:

“After carefully considering different views ... I would like to withdraw from the coordination work”.

These withdrawals follow the arrest of a 17-year-old for unlawful assembly and a 19-year-old man for obstructing police on 1 July.

According to Reuters, “the 19-year-old tried to help the 17-year-old escape arrest by a policeman who was stabbed in the skirmish. The man accused of stabbing the officer was caught at the airport that night”.

The police have since arrested seven people for assisting him.

Read more from Reuters