February 07, 2025 No comments
International Criminal Court condemns US sanctions move
INTERNATIONAL, 7 February 2025 Law and Crime Prevention - The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday condemned an executive order signed by United States President Donald Trump imposing punitive sanctions, countering that the order sought to “harm its independent and impartial judicial work.” The court was established by the Rome Statute, negotiated within the UN – but it is a fully independent court set up to try the gravest crimes, including crimes against humanity. Read our explainer here. Thursday’s executive order said the US government would “impose tangible and significant consequences” on ICC officials who work on investigations that threaten national security of the US and allies – including Israel. Arrest warrants The directive follows the decision by ICC judges to issue arrest warrants in November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...
Read moreFebruary 07, 2025 No comments
Palestinians’ rights matter, says UNRWA chief
INTERNATIONAL, 7 February 2025 Humanitarian Aid - The head of UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA underscored its commitment to assist a population whose rights “continue to be violated”. In a social media post on Friday, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that “people in Gaza have undergone systematic dehumanization” since the war there began. He emphasized that “Palestinians do matter, including those in Gaza. Their rights, lives and futures matter,” noting that “human rights cannot be applied selectively.” His comments come in the wake of United States President Donald Trump’s proposal made earlier this week that the US should seize control of Gaza and permanently displace the entire Palestinian population – a move which the UN Secretary-General said would be an act of “ethnic cleansing.” Two-State solution In his statement, Mr. Lazzarini quoted UN...
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US aid funding cuts put HIV prevention at risk, warns UNAIDS
INTERNATIONAL, 7 February 2025 Humanitarian Aid - The US pause in foreign assistance funding has created “confusion” in the vital work of community HIV prevention, despite a waiver issued for HIV/AIDS programmes, the UN agency to combat the still deadly disease said on Friday. The waiver allows the continuation or resumption of “life-saving humanitarian assistance” including HIV treatment. That means 20 million people living with HIV and whose medication is funded by the US can continue to receive treatment. “That’s 20 million out of the 30 million people living with HIV in the world,” said Christine Stegling, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS, at scheduled press briefing in Geneva. Although it is expected that governments around the world will respond to the US announcement by supporting existing medication plans, “what we're...
Read moreFebruary 07, 2025 No comments
DR Congo: Rights chief warns crisis could worsen, without international action
INTERNATIONAL, 7 February 2025 Peace and Security - UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Friday expressed profound concerns at the ongoing violent escalation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) caused by the ongoing Rwanda-backed M23 offensive. “If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come, for the people of the eastern DRC, but also beyond the country’s borders,” he told a Special Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Since 26 January, nearly 3,000 people have been killed and 2,880 injured in attacks by the M23 and their allies “with heavy weapons used in populated areas, and intense fighting against the armed forces of the DRC and their allies”, the High Commissioner said, as UN Member States weighed setting up a fact-finding mission to investigate extreme...
Read moreFebruary 06, 2025 No comments
Syria: Assad’s armed forces must face accountability, says rights probe
INTERNATIONAL, 6 February 2025 Human Rights - Widespread pillaging and the destruction of property in Syria by all parties to the conflict have largely gone unpunished and likely amount to war crimes, top independent rights investigators reporting to the Human Rights Council maintained on Thursday. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria’s latest report follows the lightning operation led by mainly Hayat-Tahrir al-Sham fighters that toppled President Bashar al-Assad last December, ending the 13-year war that decimated the country and destabilised the entire region. The violence is believed to have killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians and uprooted 15 million, the report’s authors said. They noted that various armed groups – including former government troops and opposition fighters – carried out widescale damage to and pillaged Syrian...
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