human rights – European Affairs Magazine

Iraq: ISIS attack on SDF and fleeing civilians kills over 30

3 Maggio 2017 BreakingNews @en di

ISIS attack in an area held by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria killed at least 32 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The attack on Rajm al-Salibi, the location of a checkpoint and refugee camp near the border with Iraq, led to fierce clashes, injuring dozens, the Britain-based war monitor said. The SDF has been battling ISIS since dawn in nearby areas of Hasaka province, which Kurdish forces largely control. An adviser to the SDF, Nasser Haj Mansour, confirmed that several civilians had died, including people fleeing ISIS in Syria’s Deir al-Zor and in Iraq. The SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, has seized large swathes of northern Syria from Islamic State in a campaign to drive the jihadist group out of Raqqa city, its base of operations in Syria. This week, the SDF said it captured most of the strategic town of Tabqa, 40 km (25 miles) west of Raqqa along the Euphrates. The SDF said fighting continued on Tuesday to capture the last few districts of Tabqa as well as an adjacent dam, Syria’s largest.

NCHR calls for review of preventive detention period in Egypt

28 Aprile 2017 BreakingNews @en di

New doubts in front of Human Right respect in Egypt according to international organisation. The National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) has called for a review of the preventive detention period, which can last up to over two years in Egypt — in violation of the law which specifies that suspects may only remain in remand for a three-month period. NCHR expressed its preoccupation in front of several cases of detention of innocent, whose have been detained for years in Egypt prisons. Especially in prisons which are reaching 300% of occupation. Overcrowding reached 400 percent in preventive detention cells and 160 percent in prisons, according to relative estimates reported by former interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim. Secretary General of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, Alaa Shalaby, said the organization’s annual report warned of the danger of expanding the preventive detention period and called for urgent action in this regard.

Erdoğan: Turkey won’t wait at Europe’s door forever

27 Aprile 2017 BreakingNews @en di

Turkey will not wait at Europe’s door forever and is ready to walk away from EU accession talks if rising Islamophobia and hostility from some member states persist, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told Reuters in a wide-ranging interview on April 25.Speaking at his presidential palace less than two weeks after scoring a tight victory in an April 16 referendum on constitutional amendments, Erdoğan said a decision by a leading European human rights body to put Turkey back on a watch list was “entirely political” and that Ankara did not recognize the move. The Strasbourg-based Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said it put Turkey back on review over its wave of arrests since the July 2016 coup attempt, rights violations and concerns about Erdoğan’s increased grip on power.

UN Security Council Discusses the Libyan Crisis

21 Aprile 2017 BreakingNews @en di

Widespread conflicts could return to Libya, yet the Libyan agreement could be amended to overcome the current political impasse, according to the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. UN SecretaryGeneral recalled the importance to reach, as soon as possible, an agreement to stop current Libyan evolution toward an other civil war. UNSMIL responsable (United Nations Support in Libya), Martin Kobler, suggested the UN increases its support to the security, economy and political process in the country as means to put an end to the Libyan crisis. He also recalled that a large part of Libyans still support LPA (Libyan Political Agreement) signed on December 2015. Guterres urged Libyan political fractions to find a consensus to stabilize the country, he also evoked his worries about Human Rights in the coutnry.

The European Court of Human Rights has decided to give priority to Turkish daily Cumhuriyet case

14 Aprile 2017 BreakingNews @en di

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has decided to prioritize the case of the jailed journalists and executives of Turkish daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, stating that it will investigate the case “as soon as possible”. Previously, the court had made the same decision about jailed Turkish journalists Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan, Atilla Taş and Murat Aksoy. The indictment into daily Cumhuriyet columnists and executives was completed on April 4, nearly five months after the investigation was launched, with the prosecutor seeking jail sentences for all 19 suspects.

Iran slams extension of EU sanctions by another year

13 Aprile 2017 BreakingNews @en di

The EU has proven that it has no realistic and true understanding of the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran”, Qassemi said in a statement in response to the EU move to extend its sanctions against Iran until April 2018 over alleged claims of “serious human rights violations”. “The Islamic Republic of Iran condemns the repetitive and improper trend of double-standard and politically-motivated approaches and instrumental use of human rights by the EU, including the extension of unilateral sanctions under the pretext of human rights violations (in Iran), which is a failed and ineffective policy”, he noted. In a statement on Tuesday, the 28-member bloc extended by a year its travel ban and an asset freeze on 82 Iranian people and one entity, as well as a ban on exports to Iran of equipment for monitoring telecommunications and other gear, according to Reuters. It added that the blacklisted names would be published on Wednesday in the EU’s Official Journal. The EU imposed the restrictions on Iran for the first time in 2011.

Recent terrorist attacks in Egypt create a threat for Human Rights in the country

11 Aprile 2017 BreakingNews @en di

Recent terrorist attacks in Egypt, and the state of emergency’s answer is creating a threat for Human Rights in the country. Indeed, emergency measures included in a declaration of a state of emergency by President Abdelfattah al-Sissi in the aftermath of three deplorable church bombings in Egypt will do little to resolve the root causes of sectarian attacks against Copts in Egypt and are likely to lead to a further deterioration in human rights, Amnesty International said today. The NGO told that Egyptian Human Rights was
reduced before the state of emergency, so the application of these new measures, could reduce, again, human rights in the country. They recalled also the state of emergency pronunced by former president Mubarak, which facilitated systematic violations and gave Egypt’s security forces the power to detain thousands of people for years in administrative detention without respecting procedural guarantees intended to ensure fair administration of justice. It’s also linked to the law n°98, voted in 2015 which regulates the state of emergency,
but give a lot of power to Egyptian president to reduce freedoms in the country.

UNSC won't focus on Israel and Palestinian conflict under Nikki Haley Presidency

5 Aprile 2017 BreakingNews @en di

For the first time in years, the United Nations Security Council will not focus its monthly open Middle East debate on Israel and the Palestinians, at least under the month-long presidency of US Ambassador Nikki Haley. The president of the Security Council, said that he would like to implement measures for peacekeeping reforms and broader human rights issues, despite the opposition of some member states. She intends to have the April 20 debate revolve around such issues as Iran’s support for terrorism, the Syrian crisis, Hezbollah and Hamas among others, Haley said on Monday. So much has been put toward Israel and the Palestinian Authority and not enough has been put toward some of these other issues. That is our goal for the Middle East open debate.

Dozens persons killed in air raid on Al Raqqah school by the US-led anti-ISIS coalition

23 Marzo 2017 BreakingNews @en di

Dozens of displaced persons have been killed in an air raid allegedly carried out by the US-led anti-ISIS coalition on a school where they were sheltering in the ISIS-controlled Al-Raqqah province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Wednesday. It reported that at least 33 people were killed in the bombardment by warplanes believed to belong to the International Coalition, carried out in the city of Mansura in western Al-Raqqah province on Tuesday night. SOHR activists said that 33 bodies being pulled out of the rubble of the school before members of ISIS arrived to drive civilians away.

The United Nations Human Rights Council: resolution for boycott of Israeli settlements

20 Marzo 2017 BreakingNews @en di

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday is set to debate a resolution demanding that the international community boycott Israeli settlements. We have the fifth resolution condemning Israel for human rights violations in the Golan Heights is also expected to be approved. By resolution adopted by CDU, five of these are against Israel. The resolutions call on Israel to end settlement activity and demand that Israel fully withdraw to the pre-1967 borders. The problematic activity includes “financial transactions, investments, purchases, procurements, loans, the provision of services, as well as other economic and financial activities in or benefiting Israeli settlements”, the resolution states. Israel isn’t a member of UNHRC but is engaged with the council. It is expected to boycott Monday’s day long debate.