Weekly update: 17 October – 23 October 2022
The following media round up on international and foreign policy issues from around the world for the period of 10 October to 16 October 2022.
Guernica 37 will provide weekly media updates from the International Criminal Court, European Court of Human Rights, United Nations, European Union and other sources. Should you wish to contribute or submit a media summary, opinion piece or blog, please send to Ned Vucijak at nenadv@guernica37.com for consideration.
Russia – 17 October 2022
Russian-launched “kamikaze drones” attacked Kyiv just days after Russia’s president Vladimir Putin promised there would be “no need for more massive strikes” on Ukraine. Kyiv’s mayor Vitaliy Klitschko confirmed two blasts in the city’s central Shevchenkiv district. Strikes were also reported in Sumy province, in the country’s north-east and in Dnipropetrovsk, in the south-east, where a fire broke out at an energy facility after it was hit by a missile.
Iran – 17 October 2022
Britain has joined France in viewing the Iranian supply of armed drones to Russia for devastating use in Ukraine as a breach of Iran’s obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal. The joint view comes as EU foreign affairs ministers slapped human rights sanctions on the Iranian morality police over their handling of street protests and treatment of women.
United States (US) / Ukraine – 18 October 2022
The US says it agrees with Western allies that Iran's supply of explosive drones to Russia violates UN sanctions. The US agrees with the French and British assessment that the drones violate UN Security Council Resolution 2231, the US State Department said. That resolution, linked to Iran's nuclear accord, bars Iranian transfers of certain military technologies.
European Court of Human Rights – 18 October 2022
In the case of Mørck Jensen v. Denmark, the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been no violation of Article 7 (no punishment without law) of the Convention, and no violation of Article 2 of Protocol No. 4 (freedom of movement). The case concerned a Danish citizen’s conviction for a stay in a conflict zone in an area of Syria where the Danish State had restricted travel. The Court found in particular that the conviction had been in accordance with the relevant law, which had been very clearly drawn up, and it saw no reason not to try and convict the applicant on the law that had been applicable at the time of the offence.
United Kingdom (UK) – 18 October 2022
The judiciary in England and Wales is “institutionally racist”, with more than half of legal professionals surveyed claiming to have witnessed a judge acting in a racially biased way, according to a report. The study by the University of Manchester and barrister Keir Monteith KC found judicial discrimination to be directed particularly towards black court users – from lawyers to witnesses to defendants.
Iraq – 19 October 2022
Some of the attacks by Iranian Revolutionary Guards on Iranian opposition party offices in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in late September struck towns and villages where the parties were not carrying out any military activity, according to local residents, Human Rights Watch said today. According to media reports, the attacks killed at least 16 people, injured dozens more, and displaced hundreds of families. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for the attacks on the offices of Iranian opposition parties, referring to the targets as “terrorist bases.”
Russia – 20 October 2022
Russia has threatened that it will reassess cooperation with the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, if he sends United Nations experts to Ukraine to inspect drones that western powers say were made in Iran and used by Moscow in violation of a UN resolution. Speaking after a closed-door UN security council meeting on Moscow’s use of drones, Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, called on Guterres and his staff to “abstain from engaging in any illegitimate investigation”. He also threatened Russia would withdraw from the grain deal that has allowed Ukrainian grain to be transported out of Black Sea ports.
Ukraine – 21 October 2022
For years the headlines have covered the controversies over advanced Russian air defence systems heading to Iran. But now the arms traffic is very much in the other direction, writes Jonathan Marcus of the Strategy and Security Institute, University of Exeter. Iranian-supplied drones are being used by Moscow to terrorise Ukrainian civilians and to strike at the country's electricity generating and distribution system. Russia's predicament in Ukraine has prompted Moscow to turn to Tehran for stocks of precision-guided weapons. Its own arsenals are fast running out.
United Kingdom (UK) – 21 October 2022
The government has not given up on acceding to the Lugano convention on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments, a justice minister has said. Mike Freer MP, parliamentary under secretary of state for justice stated: “we are trying to re-engage with our European counterparts”. Membership of the convention was formerly through the EU - which last year said it would oppose the UK’s accession in its own right. 'We have not written it off, but I think it will be a slow burn,' Freer conceded.