Russia shuts down Human Rights Watch office
8/4/2022: Russia has cancelled the registration of Human Rights Watch, along with Amnesty International and 13 other offices of foreign NGOs. Russia has also adopted laws that criminalize independent war reporting, the latest in 10 years of repressive measures aimed to decimate civil society.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Poland has worked a refugee miracle
6/4/2022: About one in 10 people in Poland is now Ukrainian. In six weeks, 2.5 million Ukrainians (along with thousands of pets) have arrived in the country. As war grinds on, some fear the ‘full’ sign must go up soon.
Source: The Guardian
UN and its leadership challenged by Russia’s status
8/4/2022: The UN General Assembly has effectively excluded a state on three occasions: Cambodia in 1997, Yugoslavia in 1992 and South Africa in 1974. Expulsion of Russia is much more difficult because it has veto rights in the Security Council.
Source: Inter Press Service
Worrying insights from assessment of water security in Africa
6/4/2022: Only 29 African countries have made progress in water security over the past three to five years. Twenty-five have made none. The UN’s concept of water security encompasses various criteria and more effort is needed to establish global standards for data and assessment.
Source: The Conversation
UN General Assembly suspends Russia from Human Rights Council
7/4/2022: The resolution received a two-thirds majority of those voting in the 193-member Assembly. Under the 2006 resolution that established the Council, the General Assembly can suspend a country from membership if it commits gross and systematic violations of human rights.
Source: UN News
Sharing cross-border water resources: Cooperation or conflict?
6/4/2022: From the Euphrates to the Mekong, dams that ensure one country's water supply risk leaving others parched. With 40% of the global population dependent on rivers that cross international borders, climate change is aggravating tensions.
Source: DW
Crimes against humanity in Western Tigray Zone
6/4/2022: Amhara regional security forces and civilian authorities in Ethiopia’s Western Tigray Zone have committed widespread abuses against Tigrayans since November 2020 that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to a report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Ethiopian authorities have severely restricted access and independent scrutiny of the region.
Source: Human Rights Watch
What can the UN do to stop the war?
5/4/2022: The current war in Ukraine, following the Russian invasion, has sparked all sorts of questions about the United Nations, particularly the role of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Secretary-General. The UN Charter informs answers to five key questions.
Source: UN News
Sudanese militia leader to go on trial at the ICC
6/4/2022: A senior commander of the notorious Janjaweed militia will become the first person to go on trial at the International Criminal Court for atrocities in Darfur. Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, 72, faces 31 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in 2003-04. Former president Omar al-Bashir and three others are still being sought by the ICC.
Source: The East African
Bangladesh shuts largest private school in Rohingya camps
28/3/2022: Bangladesh has been sheltering about 850,000 Rohingya refugees from neighbouring Myanmar since a military offensive in 2017. Closure of the school is a further blow to the educational prospects of thousands of children stuck in the camps.
Source: CNA