Weekly update: 21 November – 27 November 2022
The following media round up on international and foreign policy issues from around the world for the period of 21 November to 27 November 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.
India – 21 November 2022
The Indian government should promptly adopt and act on the recommendations that United Nations member states made at the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review process on 10 November 2022, six international human rights groups said. The recommendations cover a range of key concerns including the protection of minority communities and vulnerable groups, tackling gender-based violence, upholding civil society freedoms, protecting human rights defenders, and ending torture in custody.
Philippines – 21 November 2022
Human Rights Watch said that the Communist New People’s Army (NPA) in the Philippines executed three people in August after unfair trials before so-called People’s Courts. The executions of the men as “counter-revolutionaries,” in trials that violated international humanitarian law, was the latest instance of what the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, calls “revolutionary justice” meted out against “enemies of the people.” The NPA sought to justify the executions, which occurred in the central Philippines province of Negros Occidental, by citing the men’s alleged offences, including spying for the Philippine military and common crimes such as rape. The armed group also said that the allegations against the men were “submitted before the people’s court” and that it held an “in-depth investigation and trial.”
United Kingdom (UK) – 22 November 2022
Lord chancellor Dominic Raab has said he is confident that his Bill of Rights bill will receive overwhelming support when it resumes its passage through parliament. Raab was questioned in the House of Commons this morning on why he was introducing the bill, which will have its second reading 'shortly', given widespread criticism of the measure. He told the House of Commons that there were ‘some well-known differences of opinion, but I will confidently predict that at second reading the Bill of Rights will have overwhelming support in this house’.
Iran – 22 November 2022
Amnesty International said – following a week in which the Iranian security forces shot dead at least 60 protesters, mourners and bystanders, including children – that UN Human Rights Council member states must urgently establish an investigative and accountability mechanism on Iran to address the alarming spike in unlawful killings and other human rights violations.
Israel / Palestine – 23 November 2022
A 16-year-old boy has been killed and 14 other people have been wounded in two suspected bomb attacks at bus stops in Jerusalem, Israeli police say. The explosions happened at two busy areas on the outskirts of the city as people were heading to work. Israeli media said the teenager who died was an Israeli-Canadian religious student named Aryeh Shtsupak. Israel's internal security minister said at one scene that this was "an attack we haven't seen in a long time". The atmosphere in the city feels volatile in a year of intensifying violence: Palestinian gun and knife attacks have targeted Israelis, and Israeli military raids have killed Palestinian gunmen and civilians in the occupied West Bank.
Algeria – 23 November 2022
Amnesty International said that the Algerian authorities must ensure that the investigation into the enforced disappearance for 20 days of activist Abdelhamid Bouziza, is independent, effective and impartial. Judicial authorities in Tlemcen ordered the opening of an investigation in November, however in at least three cases documented by Amnesty International, investigations into human rights violations in Algeria such as the suspicious deaths in custody or torture of activists at the hands of the police have not resulted in justice and reparations for the victims.
Iran – 23 November 2022
An unnamed British-Iranian citizen was arrested in Iran’s Isfahan province for allegedly sharing information with foreign-based news channels, Iranian state media reported. “The Revolutionary Guards’ Intelligence Organisation arrested a British-Iranian citizen who communicated with the BBC and Iran International,” the Islamic Republic of Iran’s News Network said, before adding the person was born in Britain.
Russia / Ukraine – 24 November 2022
Fresh Russian strikes battered Ukraine’s already failing electricity grid, causing blackouts across the country and in neighbouring Moldova, in attacks Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the UN were “an obvious crime against humanity”. Addressing an urgent meeting of the UN security council, Zelenskiy said Ukraine would put forward a resolution condemning “any forms of energy terror”. Referring to Russia’s likely veto, he said, “it’s nonsense that the veto right is secured for the party that wages this war.”
Brazil – 24 November 2022
The head of Brazil’s electoral court has rejected an attempt by outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro’s party to overturn the results of October’s run-off election, which he lost. Alexandre de Moraes, a supreme court justice, also fined the parties in Bolsonaro’s coalition 22.9m reais ($4.3m) for what the court described as bad faith litigation. Bolsonaro had challenged the Brazilian presidential election he lost last month to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, arguing votes from some machines should be invalidated.
International Criminal Court (ICC) – 24 November 2022
The Prosecutor of the ICC, Karim A.A. Khan KC filed a request before Pre-Trial Chamber II of the ICC seeking authorisation to hold a hearing on the confirmation of charges against Joseph Kony in his absence. The investigation into the situation in Uganda was opened in 2004. The arrest warrant against Joseph Kony, the founder and leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, was issued in 2005 for 33 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The allegations against him include murder, cruel treatment, enslavement, rape, and attacks against civilian population. However, this arrest warrant remains unexecuted to this day.
South Sudan – 25 November 2022
An investigation has found that starvation is being used as a weapon of war by South Sudan government forces against their own citizens. Deliberate starvation tactics used by government forces and allied militia, and by opposition forces, are driving civilians out of their homes, exacerbating Africa’s largest refugee crisis. All parties to the conflict have committed widespread human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, said the report by law firm Global Rights Compliance.
Russia – 25 November 2022
Vladimir Putin has met with a handpicked cadre of mothers of soldiers fighting in Ukraine for a carefully staged meeting meant to calm public anger over mobilisation. While dozens of ordinary mothers have gone public saying they were snubbed by the Kremlin, Putin sat down with a former government official, the mother of a senior military and police official from Chechnya, and other women active in pro-war NGOs financed by the state.