Category: Legal Rights

The U.N.’s top human rights official, Volker Türk, appealed Friday for $452 million to fund the critical work of the high commissioner’s office in protecting and defending human rights throughout the world this year.

The high commissioner’s office is the guardian and defender of human rights. It is the global watchdog of abuse and violence. As such, it puts the spotlight on violators of human rights to pressure a change in bad behavior.

In his appeal to donors, human rights chief Volker Türk noted there can be no durable peace nor sustainable development without human rights. He said it was important to bring human rights to life in every part of the world to achieve stability and attain justice.

“We need to insist on action–globally, regionally, and domestically—so that we address inequalities, that we strengthen social protections, that we eliminate discrimination in whatever form, and other root causes of conflict, and that we address environmental crises and misery,” said Türk.

The high commissioner’s office has a difficult task. There are many egregious human rights crises that need to be addressed. They include Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the deadly protests in Iran, the continued internment of more than a million Muslim Uyghurs in so-called reeducation camps in China’s Xinjiang region, and the Islamist insurgency in Africa’s Sahel region.

Türk emphasized protecting human rights is essential in combatting these ills. He said human rights are at the core of the United Nations charter and guide the world body’s principles and purposes.

“We know that now more than ever, we need human rights to keep the world stable and provide us a roadmap for a better future as part of the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human rights) 75 initiative and beyond,” said Türk.

This year is the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or UDHR. High Commissioner Türk said he plans to use the anniversary to bring the words of that seminal document to life.

He is urging donors to support his appeal for funding so his office can strengthen its ability to provide a better future for all.

Source: Voice of America

Five more people in the Netherlands have been registered as suspects in the criminal investigation against an Eritrean human smuggler, the public prosecutor revealed in court in Zwolle on Tuesday. The Eritrean man allegedly led a notorious human smuggling gang that smuggled thousands of Africans to Europe.

Amaneul W. (39), also known as Tewelde G., was allegedly also sentenced to 18 years in prison in Ethiopia in 2020. The gang, which he allegedly led with Kidane, who was arrested in Sudan on January 1, operated very violently, according to the Public Prosecution Service (OM). Sources said that the gang gunned down 15 migrants in a hospital in a Libyan town after they broke out of a makeshift prison there, the prosecutor said.

The OM will summon the five people in the Netherlands that are now suspects in this case. They are accused of involvement in extortion here. According to the prosecutor, asylum seekers held in the Libyan town of Bani Walid were forced to call relatives in the Netherlands and were tortured while they were on the line. The Dutch family members were forced to transfer money to the people smugglers to stop the torture, according to the OM.

Co-defendant Kidane is currently in custody in the United Arab Emirates. The OM will request his extradition. “There was already an arrest warrant from the Netherlands against him,” the prosecutor said. The OM wants to try both main suspects at the same time.

According to lawyer Richard van der Weide, who is representing Amaneul W., his client says he is not the person the OM is after in this case. “He keeps saying, I’m not that W.” The suspect mentioned a different name in the hearing. “I have never used violence against anyone,” he said in court. The man only had the equivalent of 34.90 euros on him at his arrest. “If my client is this Mr. W., then he should be a millionaire. Where is all that money?” the lawyer said.

To confirm the suspect’s identity, the OM asked the Netherlands Forensics Institute (NFI) to compare the suspect’s face and voice to images of W. from Bani Walid.

Lawyer Van der Weide also raised doubts about whether a Dutch court had jurisdiction to try an Eritrean man who allegedly committed crimes outside the European Union. The Zwolle court believes it can handle this case for the time being. The next introductory hearing will happen on April 6.

Source: Dehai Eritrea Online

A Prague court on Monday acquitted former Prime Minister Andrej Babis of fraud charges in a $2 million case involving European Union subsidies.

A prosecutor requested a three-year suspended sentence and a fine of $440,000 for the populist billionaire. The prosecution still can appeal.

Babis pleaded not guilty and repeatedly said the charges against him were politically motivated.

He wasn’t present at Prague’s Municipal Court on Monday. His former associate, Jana Nagyova, who signed the subsidy request, was also acquitted.

The ruling is a boost for Babis just days before the first round of the Czech presidential election.

Babis is considered a front-runner in Friday’s election, along with retired army general Petr Pavel, former chairman of NATO’s military committee, and former university rector Danuse Nerudova.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON — Lucy Kassa never expected to be a war correspondent. Working for a Norwegian magazine, the freelance journalist wrote about issues related to development and the economy in Ethiopia.

But then fighting broke out in her home region of Tigray, in Ethiopia’s north.

“I had a different dream for my life. It was never my plan to get into all of this,” she told VOA.

When Lucy began receiving disturbing reports of atrocities in late 2020, she started to document witness and survivor accounts of gang rapes, killings and other human rights abuses.

She was reporting from the capital, Addis Ababa, at the time, and media access to the region was blocked. So, she relied on contacts with old sources in the region, alongside tools such as geolocation to verify accounts.

But, Lucy said, more independent investigations are needed to uncover everything that has happened.

Two years of reporting on the war has taken a toll.

“I have put so much energy into documenting war crimes. I have sacrificed a lot, even I risked my life,” Lucy said.

In 2021, three unidentified armed men forced their way into her home and knocked her to the ground. They questioned her and searched material she had collected for a story. They left with her computer and pictures.

Soon after, Lucy left Ethiopia. She now lives in Europe with the support of an international organization. For safety reasons, she does not share specific details about her life or whereabouts.

“I have security here. The organization here provides me security, but I don’t have a social life with the Eritrean, Ethiopian, and even the Tigrayan community at all,” she said.

Lucy is not alone when it comes to journalists harassed or imprisoned for their coverage of the war in Tigray. Authorities in Ethiopia also blocked internet and mobile phone use in certain regions.

“The situation in Ethiopia is quite horrendous. We are extremely concerned about the safety of journalists,” said Kiran Nazish, founding director of the Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ), in a written response to VOA.

“Over the last year, we have come across multiple journalists sharing stunning stories of censorship, where journalists do not feel free to report without fear of government reprisal,” Nazish said. “Meanwhile, we have witnessed a year where arrests escalated dramatically.”

Often, she said, authorities give no reason for an arrest.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a report in August showing at least 63 journalists detained or briefly held since November 2020 after covering stories about the war or politically sensitive topics.

“Since the civil war [in Ethiopia’s Tigray region] started two years ago, we have had many journalists who have been detained for periods, often without charge,” Angela Quintal, Africa program coordinator at CPJ, told VOA.

VOA contacted the Ethiopian Media Authority, which regulates journalism in the country, and the office of the prime minister for comment. Neither had responded before the time of publication.

Documenting abuses

The work of journalists has been essential in uncovering abuses on all sides of the conflict that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions in Tigray and the Amhara and Afar regions.

A team of United Nations investigators say they found evidence of war crimes committed by Ethiopian federal forces, Tigrayan forces and soldiers from neighboring Eritrea.

The team was denied access to the region, so it collected evidence based on interviews with 185 individuals, including survivors of attacks.

Ethiopia’s government rejected the report for “exceeding its mandate,” The Associated Press reported.

Lucy said a lack of access to conflict areas was used as a way to try to discredit her work or to question the authenticity of the accounts that survivors and witnesses shared with her. But those interviews are etched in her memory, along with the videos and images she has sifted through in the process of verifying accounts.

“To see that humans can do all these things and get away with it creates some kind of hopelessness in you,” Lucy said. “I was asking myself what’s the point of this? What’s the point of me being consumed in this work if it’s not going to bring anything?”

But Lucy’s work, including how rape was weaponized, has been recognized internationally.

More recently, she received the Magnitsky Award for investigative journalism. The human rights awards are named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in pre-trial detention in a Moscow prison after working to expose government corruption.

Catherine Belton, a journalist who for several years was Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times, called Lucy “a true journalistic hero.”

“She’s one of the bravest journalists I’ve ever met,” Belton said in a speech during the award presentation.

Lucy said she was in a dark place when the award was announced. She still has trouble accepting recognition.

“I was terribly depressed by the pressures from all sides. I was so frustrated by the fact that there’s no accountability to the war crimes committed by all sides,” she told VOA. “I remember talking to a father who had a good life [prior to the war] and that he couldn’t feed his baby anymore because he was out of work.”

People find it hard to ask for help, she said. “They don’t want to say, ‘I didn’t eat food,’ or they don’t want to say that I’m hungry. And that breaks my heart.”

Lucy hopes her work will eventually pave the way to justice for the subjects of her reporting.

“As a journalist, all I care about is finding evidence and verifying the accounts. But I’m also a human being. As a human being, you expect some kind of justice,” Lucy said.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON — As Ethiopians around the world anxiously watch to see if a fragile peace agreement will hold, a group of people from the diaspora gathered at VOA headquarters in Washington for a town hall discussion.

The “Ethiopia: Paths to Peace” televised event brought together activists, scholars and others from multiple ethnic groups for a rare opportunity to speak about the two years of conflict that has torn the country apart.

Participants said frank discussions like this are badly needed.

“To move forward beyond ethnic divisions, it is important to debate and negotiate to get clarity,” said panelist Etana Habte, an Ethiopian scholar specializing in the political history of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. “The problem in the country isn’t something that started in a day or two. A problem that was caused in a day can be solved in a day. The problems in this country date back 150 years.”

Speaking for women

Meaza Gebremedhin, a Tigrayan activist, researcher and human rights advocate, was one of the panelists. Since the outbreak of war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, she has organized protests and has spoken about atrocities in her home country.

She has received death threats, and someone even pulled a gun at her during a rally in Los Angeles, but she says it pales in comparison to the horrors that have occurred in Tigray.

“We didn’t just hear about how bad the war is, we lived it,” she said.

Meaza had been active in advocating for women’s rights and against rape before the war, but she said sexual violence was weaponized during the conflict. In Tigray, she said, rape by men in military uniforms was committed as a brutal form of ethnic cleansing.

“The attacks against women were to eliminate them so their wombs won’t give birth to another Tigrayan, so she can’t continue producing the next generation,” Meaza said. “So, I speak louder because the attacks on women [in Tigray] isn’t just because of their gender but also their identity.”

Human rights organizations join in Meaza’s concern. In September, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Ethiopia concluded that Ethiopian forces along with their allies from the Amhara region and neighboring Eritrean forces used “sexual slavery” against Tigrayan women and girls.

Tigrayan forces, the U.N. report added, “committed war crimes and human rights abuses” in areas they occupied in the Amhara and Afar regions during the course of the war, “including large-scale killings” of civilians and “rape and sexual violence.”

Acknowledging suffering

On November 2, the Ethiopian federal government signed a peace agreement with the leadership in the Tigray region in Pretoria, South Africa, days before the war marked its second anniversary.

Panelists, however, believe there is still a long road ahead to establish a durable peace. Henok Abebe, a member of the Ethiopian diaspora who specialized in human rights law, said the country finds itself in a precarious situation.

Tigray suffered immensely, Henok said, but in order to move forward, the country must also acknowledge the damage done in the Afar and Amhara regions.

The war in Tigray “is a double-edged sword” he said. “If one Tigrayan is killed, Ethiopia suffers and if another soldier is killed, it is Ethiopia that is hurt. If we take any route, it is Ethiopia that is slaughtered,” he added.

He said although the war was avoidable it is now time to abandon the idea that a certain ethnic group is only bearing the brunt and understand that the country as a whole is suffering. “We need to show humanity beyond ethnicity, language, or identity.”

Henok said the use of “coded words” such as genocide isn’t going to invite dialogue between the people and should be avoided.

“Yes, there was destruction because of war but when we use such terms, we are gravitating it. We should ask was there an intention to eliminate the people as people? It is difficult to imply the intention. But that doesn’t mean attacks and suffering didn’t happen,” he said.

But Etana said there is a need for accountability, including examining how the federal government allowed troops from neighboring Eritrea to enter the country and occupy large areas while allegedly committing war crimes. There is also a need for a truthful account and acknowledgment of what occurred during the war, he said.

“When churches and mosques are bombarded, when foreign troops are invited into the country and there are mass killings, if that is not the intention, then what is it? Is it an error?” he asked. “If we begin with such denials, it is wrong. We need to acknowledge what happened first.”

Constitutional reform

Some in attendance said structural reforms are needed for Ethiopia to remain united as a country. Its 1995 constitution uses a system known as “ethnic federalism” that divided the country into regions based on ethnicity. Critics have blamed the system for exacerbating ethnic divisions and conflict.

Derese Getachew, an associate professor of sociology at Iona College, New Rochelle, New York, pointed to continuing power struggles between ethnicities and calls to divide the country as hanging over the peace process, threatening a return to war. He stressed the importance of reform at a constitutional level.

“There are those organized under different ethnic groups, including the demand for secession, and it is such friction that led us to a state of war to begin with,” he said. “Therefore, such disagreements need to be resolved for a truthful solution.” He said the current constitution didn’t come through a legitimate process in which the people’s voice was included.

Alemayehu Fentaw, an Ethiopian lawyer specializing in conflict resolution said the fact that the cease-fire has stopped the bloodshed is a big achievement and the opening of humanitarian corridors is a promising sign.

The war in Tigray has displaced thousands, causing a shortage of food, medication and access to basic care for millions of people living in the region. An estimated 5.2 million people are in urgent need of food assistance, the United Nations World Food Program says.

Another panelist, Alemayehu Biru, a political philosophy professor who taught at Addis Ababa University and now teaches in Virginia, said the parties must take advantage of the cease-fire to lay the foundation for lasting peace.

“The peace agreement is a ‘negative peace’ because violence has stopped but to go further, the opportunity of a cease-fire is important and gleaning from conflicts in other parts of Africa to understand the logical pattern of war and address the core issues of how the war started,” he said, adding that there is potential for war to relapse because of a disagreement between the elite.

Derese said true healing must begin with empathy across ethnic lines.

“What surprises me is that as much as some people are dedicated to their own side and ethnicity, why is it difficult to empathize with those who they live side-by-side when they are suffering?” he said. “When are we going to cut the cycle of never-ending crimes and continuous feelings of being attacked and build a country that is enough for all of us and stands for justice, equality and democracy? When are we going to be human?”

Source: Voice of America

Criminalization of journalism is on the rise around the globe with a record 363 journalists jailed, according to data published Wednesday.

In its annual census of journalists jailed in retaliation for their work, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) recorded its highest tally since it began compiling data in 1992. The 363 in jail as of midnight December 1 mark a 20% increase from last year, according to the report.

“Imprisonment is the most extreme manifestation of this trend, but it is not the only thing,” Carlos Martinez de la Serna, program director at CPJ, told VOA as he discussed the rise in arrests and attacks on media.

“Vaguely worded legislature” and new laws banning “fake news” have made journalism a punishable offense in some countries, while spyware and criminal defamation cases are used to silence and intimidate journalists, CPJ found.

The world’s top jailer this year was Iran with 62 journalists behind bars, 24 of whom are women. The majority were arrested for covering the ongoing protests that began in late-September after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died while in state custody.

Iranian authorities have detained 71 journalists since protests began, but some of those were later released.

Journalists are among an estimated 18,000 citizens arrested during protests across Iran, according to numbers from the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a non-governmental organization in Iran.

“We have journalists [in Iran] who are bearing witness, who are exposing [the protests], and who are critical in making sure there are records of the event,” de la Serna told VOA.

Among the women arrested in Iran are Niloofar Hamedi of the Shargh newspaper, and Elahe Mohammadi from the Hammihan newspaper. Hamedi was the first to report on Amini’s death, while Mohammadi covered her funeral.

Both were detained in late September and are being held in Evin prison. They have been charged with “propaganda against the system and conspiracy to act against national security” — charges that could result in the death penalty.

Female journalists under arrest are at greater risk of abusive practices, said Kiran Nazish, founding director of The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ).

Her organization has spoken with lawyers for both male and female journalists in Iran who described the treatment of those in custody, including police and security guards sexually assaulting women.

Media arrests have turned Iran into “a black hole of sorts,” Nazish said via email. Information is dwindling as it becomes more dangerous for journalists and activists to get information out of the country.

She said the CFWIJ has heard from many reporters in Iran, though, that journalism is not a job, it is a duty.

VOA reached out to Iran’s mission at the U.N. for comment but did not receive a response.

Censorship and surveillance

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, which uses a different methodology to CPJ in documenting cases, also registered record highs of both jailings and killings in 2022.

Among those imprisoned are freelancers who contributed to VOA, including two reporters in Vietnam and Sithu Aung Myint, who is serving three sentences totaling 12 years for his coverage of opposition to the military rule in Myanmar.

“Despite the questionable charges brought against these three individuals and the threats that our journalists face in Vietnam, Myanmar and the many other places where press freedom is in short supply, VOA remains committed to delivering accurate and objective news,” a spokesperson for VOA public affairs said in a statement.

Asia as a continent had the highest number of journalists imprisoned — 119 this year. China, which topped CPJ’s annual list over the past three years, was pushed into second place after Iran this year. Beijing is detaining 43 journalists.

“It’s important to know the numbers in China are extremely hard to confirm, so we can assume that there are probably many cases that we don’t know about,” said de la Serna. CPJ cites media censorship and citizen surveillance as factors that make it difficult to gather information about arrests.

China’s embassy did not immediately respond to VOA’s request for comment.

Myanmar, a country that had zero journalists behind bars in 2020, ranked in the top three for the second consecutive year with 42 imprisoned, up from 26 last year.

The junta has repeatedly said it doesn’t jail reporters for their work. But dozens of journalists have been arrested since the military coup in February 2021. Most are sentenced under amended laws against incitement and false news.

De la Serna said it’s not only the numbers that tell the story, but it’s also important to look at context and case-by-case specifics to gauge the impact of arrests on independent media within a country.

In Eritrea, for example, all 16 journalists on record have been imprisoned since the early 2000s. The journalists are denied access to family and lawyers, and they have been held for decades without trial, CPJ has found.

In Guatemala, a single journalist remains behind bars. De la Serna said the arrest is a high-profile case meant to send a message to others ahead of next year’s election.

José Rubén Zamora, founder and president of the newspaper el Periódico, reported on alleged corruption involving the country’s president and attorney general. Zamora has been charged with money laundering, blackmail, and influence peddling.

Another alarming trend is the number of ethnic minorities imprisoned. In Turkey — fourth on this year’s census with 40 behind bars — authorities detained 25 Kurdish journalists, most on terror-related charges.

CPJ’s Turkish representative, Ozgur Ogret, told VOA that operations in Ankara and the city of Diyarbakir contributed to the country more than doubling from 18 journalists in jail in 2021 to 40 this year.

“These two investigations were almost as extensive as the operations carried out against the Kurdish press … in the early 2010s,” Ogret noted. “There are concerns [in Diyarbakir] that the operations will continue during the election.”

He added that those detained in June are still awaiting indictments.

Turkey’s embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

In Iran, nine of those arrested are Kurdish. All three of the journalists imprisoned in Iraq are from the northern Kurdistan region.

Journalists from VOA’s sister networks, including contributors to Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Belarus, are among those behind bars.

“Reporting the news is not a crime,” said USAGM CEO Amanda Bennett. The number of journalists behind bars “represents an indictment of the governments responsible for these cruelties,” Bennett said in a statement to VOA. “These wrongs underscore the true power that unbiased news and information hold over the regimes who seek to hide it.”

Source: Voice of America