The Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, in a YouTube video in January 2022. © YouTube screen capture/Toomaj Salehi "Salehi's death sentence was overturned," the rapper's lawyer Amir Raisian said in a post on X, adding that the supreme court had ordered a retrial. In April, an Iranian sentenced Salehi to death on the capital offence of "corruption on earth", Raisian said at the time. The rapper was also found guilty of "assistance in sedition, assembly and collusion, propaganda against the state and calling for riots", the lawyer said. Salehi, 33, was arrested in October 2022 after publicly backing demonstrations which had erupted a month earlier, triggered by Amini's death in police custody. Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, had been detained by the morality police in Tehran over an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's strict dress rules for women. "The Supreme Court prevented an irreparable judicial error," Raisian said, adding that the court also ruled that Salehi's "previous sentence (6 years and three months) was also without compliance with the rules of a multiplicity of crimes." The months-long protests sparked by Amini's death saw hundreds of people killed, including dozens of security personnel. Thousands were arrested as authorities moved to quell what they branded foreign-instigated "riots". In January, another singer, Mehdi Yarrahi who criticised the headscarf requirement for women was sentenced to a total of two years and eight months in prison on multiple charges, which would have been served concurrently. The court later changed Yarrahi's sentence to home confinement due to his health issues. Nine men have been executed in protest-related cases involving killings and other violence against security forces. Covering the neck and head has been compulsory for women in Iran since 1983, following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Since the protests, women have been increasingly flouting the strict dress code but Iranian police have in recent months toughened controls on women who ignore the rules. Iranian media has in recent weeks reported that police in the capital have launched a campaign codenamed "Noor", the Persian word for light, in their efforts to double down on those who break the dress code. In an effort to tackle those breaking hijab laws, the authorities have also shut down cafes and restaurants where the wearing of the hijab was not respected. The country's parliament has also approved a draft "Chastity and Hijab" law that seeks to toughen penalties on women not adhering to the dress rules. © 2024 Copyright France 24

Turkish voters living in Germany take pictures of themselves in front of Turkish flags outside a polling station set up in the Grugahalle hall in Essen, western Germany, on May 23, 2023, ahead of Turkey's first runoff election to take place on May 28, 2023. Ina FASSBENDER / AFP Followers of the faith-based Gülen movement and supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are the primary targets of Turkish intelligence agents in Germany, Turkish Minute reported, citing a report from the German interior ministry. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) released its 2023 report on Wednesday, announced by German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and BfV President Thomas Haldenwang at a news conference in Berlin. The report released by the BfV, whose main tasks are to monitor and analyze anti-constitutional activities by right and left-wing extremists and extremist foreigners in Germany and to prevent espionage by other countries, described Turkey’s intelligence services, without naming the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), as having a central place in the Turkish state apparatus. “The primary target of intelligence is organizations that Turkey classifies as extremist or terrorist, such as the movement of the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen. This includes, above all, the ‘Kurdistan Workers’ Party’ [PKK], which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the USA,” the report said. The Turkish government accuses the Gülen movement, inspired by Muslim preacher Gülen, of masterminding a failed coup attempt in 2016 and labels it as a “terrorist organization,” although the movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity. Since 2016, Turkey has arrested tens of thousands of people suspected to have links to the faith-based group, while thousands of Gülen followers have fled Turkey and sought refuge in Europe and other countries in order to avoid the government-led crackdown. For years, Turkey has repeatedly urged the German authorities to take action against Gülen supporters who sought asylum in the country. Unlike the PKK, the Gülen movement is not recognized as a terrorist organization by the West. According to the report, the Turkish intelligence services have the opportunity to covertly gather information on their targets due to the sizable Turkish community and numerous Turkish organizations and institutions as well as the large number of diplomatic missions in the country. The Turkish population in Germany, estimated at more than 3 million, is one of the largest and most influential immigrant groups in the country. The report also talked about numerous arrests and detentions as well as entry and exit bans for travelers to Turkey from Germany, saying they demonstrate the high level of interest Turkish state authorities have in criminal prosecution. “The focus is on actual or alleged activities of these people for organizations classified as terrorists in Turkey, such as the PKK or the Gülen movement,” the report said, adding that the activities of these people that are protected by laws in Germany are subjected to criminal prosecution in Turkey, resulting in the arrest or travel bans on people who have contacts with such organizations. “Germany remains one of the primary targets for Turkish intelligence services. They are continuing their intelligence activities at a high level. It is also to be expected that the influence activities of Turkish state or government-related organizations will continue in Germany,” the report said. Since the coup attempt, the MİT has been involved in the abduction of dozens of people from various countries due to their alleged links to the Gülen movement, drawing the condemnation of international rights groups. © Copyright 2017, All Rights Reserved / Stockholm Center for Freedom

Human Rights Watch June 20, 2024 The African Union logo outside the AU headquarters building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. © 2021 REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri The AU should roll out a civilian protection mission in Sudan and ensure a probe of atrocities. The AU should take concrete action to halt atrocities in Sudan AU Leaders Meeting(Nairobi) – The African Union (AU) should work with the United Nations to deploy a civilian protection mission to address ongoing atrocities across Sudan, notably in Darfur, and act to ensure strong human rights investigations, Human Rights Watch said today. The AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) member states meeting on June 21, 2024, should commit to concrete steps to keep civilians safe and ensure accountability as the risk of further atrocities against civilians in El Fasher, North Darfur’s capital, and other conflict-affected areas of the country keep rising. “The AU Peace and Security Council’s recent request for actions by other AU bodies is a long-awaited positive step to addressing one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises,” said Allan Ngari, Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “At its next meeting, the Peace and Security Council should spell out what urgent steps it plans to take to ensure the deployment of a United Nations-backed civilian protection mission and to support investigations by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.” The June 21 heads-of-state meeting takes place as the devastating war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allies has now gone unabated for 14 months. Both parties have been responsible for serious international humanitarian law violations, including obstruction of aid and sexual abuse. In addition, the RSF and allied forces have carried out deliberate attacks on civilians which amount to crimes against humanity and widespread war crimes against the ethnic Massalit and other non-Arab communities in West Darfur state. As the conflict rages, civilians in other parts of the country are also facing widespread violations. On June 5, an RSF attack on a village in Central Sudan reportedly killed dozens of people, including children. Approximately 10 million people have been displaced due to the conflict, according to the UN. On May 21, the Peace and Security Council requested that the High-Level Panel on the Resolution of the Conflict in Sudan collaborate with the new AU special envoy for the prevention of genocide, H.E. Adama Dieng, to develop a strategy to stop atrocities and protect civilians. It also expressed grave concern over events in El Fasher, sounding the alarm about the “imminent danger that the escalating conflict poses to civilians, including the increasing likelihood of grave atrocities.” It called on warring parties to lift the siege on the city and guarantee humanitarian access. At its June 21 meeting, the Peace and Security Council should follow up on requests to and commitments by AU entities. Additionally, it should commit to regular meetings on the situation in Sudan to ensure a prompt development and rollout of a civilian protection plan and investigations by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), a quasi-judicial mechanism tasked with promoting and protecting human and collective rights in Africa. The council should prioritize engagement with the UN secretary-general, in accordance with the June 13 UN Security Council resolution 2736 on Sudan, which requested that he, in “consultation” with “regional stakeholders … make further recommendations for the protection of civilians in Sudan.” Given the scale and nature of the abuses in Darfur, the AU should urgently work with the UN to deploy a civilian protection mission, Human Rights Watch said. Such a mission should be mandated to protect civilians, monitor human rights and international humanitarian law violations, including obstruction of humanitarian aid, and facilitate the safe return of displaced people. The mission should also include a robust and mobile policing unit to focus on locations where civilians are most at risk of deliberate attacks, including in Darfur. At a June 14 meeting, the Peace and Security Council discussed avenues for funding protection of civilians efforts under the yet-to-be-utilized facility created by UN Security Council resolution 2719, which allows the UN to consider requests from the AU to cover up to 75 percent of an AU-led peace support operation’s annual budget on a case-by-case basis. UN Security Council resolution 2736, which demands that the RSF halt the siege on El Fasher and that all parties ensure civilians are protected, should be translated into immediate concrete collaborative actions with the AU, including supporting the deployment of a civilian protection mission. The Peace and Security Council also requested the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to investigate the human rights situation in El Fasher and other areas of Darfur and to propose recommendations to pursue accountability. The ACHPR should urgently act on this and set up an investigation team with the necessary and relevant expertise. The conflict in Sudan has triggered one of the world’s worst displacement crises and has witnessed widespread sexual and gender-based violence. The ACHPR mandate-holders on refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and migrants in Africa and the rights of women in Africa should bring their thematic expertise to investigation efforts. The Peace and Security Council and other AU organs should give the investigation team significant financial and high-level political backing to ensure it has the resources and legitimacy to speak authoritatively on the human rights situation in Sudan, Human Rights Watch said. The AU and international partners should also publicly support the African Commission’s investigations in Sudan and press Sudanese authorities, warring parties, and neighboring countries’ governments to allow investigators to work freely. Copyright 2024 Human Rights Watch

By Lauren Smith and Tahnee Jash June 18, 2024 Michael, Rose and Orlyn at the graveside of their mother, Constance Watcho.(Four Corners: David Maguire) For years, Darumbal and South Sea Islander woman Amy McQuire has sat in courtrooms listening to the harrowing stories of families crying out for answers about loved ones who have vanished from their lives – some as young as four years old. "If you go to any Aboriginal community, you'll hear stories like this where their loved ones have been killed and there hasn't been a follow through," the post-doctoral Indigenous fellow at the Queensland University of Technology said. Triggered by stories like this, almost two years ago, a Senate inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children was established after Yamatji-Noongar woman and Greens senator Dorinda Cox brought a motion to parliament. Senator Dorinda Cox brought the motion establishing the inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children. (ABC Pilbara: Amelia Searson) After 87 submissions and many traumatic stories shared by First Nations advocates and families across five states and territories, the last hearing was held in Melbourne on Tuesday. Dr McQuire said the scale of the issue was "huge" and must be addressed at a systemic level. "What's happening with these specific cases of women disappearing is that they are seen as isolated cases, so you don't see the patterns," she said. She said there needed to be more honest discussions about the violence First Nations women and children were experiencing. "Violence is only spoken about in one way and it's always black-on-black violence and black men being perpetrators, but when [Aboriginal people] speak about violence, it's very different." "There has to be a national movement to understand what's happening, but it has to be led by Aboriginal families in memory of their loved ones." Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up 20 per cent of homicide victims in Australia, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology, despite representing only 3.8 per cent of the population. Almost a fifth of those victims are children. And First Nations women are 33 times more likely to be hospitalised and six times more likely to die due to family violence in comparison to non-Indigenous women. Families of missing women and children search for answers It was only two weeks ago that the Queensland deputy state coroner said it "may never be known" how 36-year-old Brisbane mother Constance Watcho died. Her body was found in a sports bag at the bottom of a popular walking track in Kangaroo Point. She had been missing for 10 months and when her family reported her missing in 2018, the local police marked her case as "medium risk". After the deputy state coroner handed down her findings, Mervyn Riley — a spokesperson for Ms Watcho's family — said the family was feeling "total devastation". "[The coroner] could not give us a definitive answer for these children who are going to suffer for the rest of their lives of not knowing," he said. 'Deeply shocking' treatment by police Greens senator and police justice spokesperson David Shoebridge is on the committee for the inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children. He said of all the evidence he heard, what was presented by police was "the most harrowing". He described the "seeming indifference" many police displayed towards First Nations women and children. David Shoebridge says he was shocked by the evidence he heard during the inquiry. (AAP: Bianca De Marchi) "I think some of that was deeply shocking," Senator Shoebridge said. WA Police failed to appear before the Senate inquiry. It later submitted a statement saying it had enacted a number of changes to "improve the response, investigation and outcomes for family violence victims" and to "build and maintain trusting relationships with Aboriginal people". 'Comprehensive investigation' needed to bring change Giving evidence at the final hearing yesterday was Antoinette Gentile, a Wollithiga woman and the acting CEO of Djirra — a community organisation that provides legal support to Aboriginal people experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence in Victoria. She hopes the inquiry will lead to change and she is calling for a more wide-ranging investigation that will create genuine impact. "A more comprehensive investigation is needed in the form of a royal commission to sufficiently address and understand this critical and complex issue," she said. "Some services have chosen not to participate in this inquiry. A royal commission would compel them to do so and provide a more thorough investigation." Attendees lay flowers on the Alice Springs Court lawns during a 2022 vigil for a woman and her child killed in a family violence incident. (ABC News: Xavier Martin) She shared evidence of police "minimising violence, not believing them, and refusing to take statements, telling women that, 'The violence isn't that bad so why bother [reporting it].'" Ms Gentile said with a lack of data reporting on this issue, only part of the story was told when it came to missing and murdered First Nations women and children. "More than 90 per cent of family and sexual violence goes unreported," she said. "We also know that two out of three women accessing Djirra's legal service and 72 per cent of women accessing our individual support service had a non-Aboriginal male partner in 2023." While the inquiry has concluded, Dr McQuire says the "fight will continue". "Aboriginal women have been speaking on this for a very long time and have never been listened to," she said. "Going through this process continually and not having an outcome can be very traumatising for families to sit through," she said. "I have limited hope in inquiries … but we'll have to see what response they come out with." A final report with the committee's findings and recommendations will be handed down on June 30. © 2024 ABC

By Paul Kirby Alexei Navalny was Russia's most prominent opposition leader of recent times. Kirill Kudryavtsev/ AFP. Russia's most significant opposition leader for the past decade, Alexei Navalny, has died in an Arctic Circle jail, the prison service has said. President Vladimir Putin's most vociferous critic, he was serving 19 years on extremism charges that were widely seen as politically motivated. Navalny was moved to one of Russia's toughest penal colonies late last year. His wife Yulia has appealed to the international community "to help punish this regime". One of his closest allies, Anti-Corruption Foundation chief Ivan Zhdanov, said it was "highly likely" Navalny had been killed and that a "murder had actually happened". The prison service in Russia's Yamalo-Nenets district where Navalny was being held said he had "felt unwell" after a walk on Friday. He had "almost immediately lost consciousness", it said in a statement, adding that an emergency medical team had immediately been called and tried to resuscitate him but without success. "The emergency doctors declared the prisoner dead. Cause of death is being established." Hours later, a steady stream of Muscovites laid flowers at a monument to victims of political repression opposite the Lubyanka, once home to Russia's notorious KGB spy service. Despite warnings not to take part in protests, Muscovites laid flowers on Friday at the Solovetsky stone. Credit: BBC. Prosecutors warned Russians not to join any mass protests and several people were detained both in central Moscow and in other cities including St Petersburg, Murmansk and Nizhny-Novgorod. Navalny, 47, was last seen only one day before his death, looking well and laughing during a court hearing via video link. Yulia Navalnaya took to the stage at the Munich Security conference on the verge of tears, with a warning that the news had only come from unreliable state sources. "But if it's true, I know Putin, all his allies, all his friends, all his government know they will be held responsible for what they've done... and this day will come sooner than you think." Navalny's last Instagram post to his wife two days ago said there were thousands of kilometres between them "but I feel that you are near every second". He leaves two children, Dasha, who is studying in the US and Zakhar, who is still at school. His mother Lyudmila Navalnaya was quoted as saying: "I don't want to hear any condolences. We saw him in prison on the 12th [February], in a meeting. He was alive, healthy and happy." Navalny's close aide Leonid Volkov cautioned that there was no way to confirm what had happened but said the prison authorities' statement amounted to a confession that they had killed him. Alexei Navalny was seen on Thursday during a court hearing via video link. Credit: @TEAMNAVALNY There was minimal coverage on Russia's state TV channels, although one report by RT suggested Navalny had suffered a blood clot. That was ridiculed by Moscow specialist Alexander Polupan, who had treated Navalny in the past. He said that kind of diagnosis could only be made from a post-mortem examination. Within minutes of Navalny's death being announced by the prison service, the international community hailed the courage of Vladimir Putin's biggest domestic adversary. France said he had paid with his life for resisting Russian "oppression", while Norway's foreign minister said Russian authorities bore a great responsibility for his death. US President Joe Biden said if the reports were true, then Vladimir Putin was responsible: "What has happened is yet more proof of Putin's brutality." Mr Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said merely that Navalny's death had been "reported to the president", who was on a visit to the city of Chelyabinsk. "Medics must somehow figure this out," Mr Peskov said. UK Foreign Minister David Cameron said "no-one should be in any doubt about the dreadful nature of Putin's regime in Russia after what has just happened". Most of the Russian president's critics have fled Russia, but Alexei Navalny returned in January 2021, after months of medical treatment. In August 2020 he was poisoned at the end of a trip to Siberia with a Novichok nerve agent. His team succeeded in flying him out to Germany for specialist treatment and on his return to Moscow he was immediately taken into custody. He had been accompanied on the flight from Germany by his wife Yulia Navalnaya, embracing her at passport control before being led away. He would never leave jail again in the next 37 months. Yulia Navalnaya last saw her husband at liberty at Moscow airport in January 2021. Credit: Reuters Another of his closest aides, Maria Pevchikh, said it was clear how important Navalny had been: "What a gigantic responsibility weighs on us... to continue his work with dignity... and to always remain as brave and as courageous as him." Navalny, who was 47, had long sought to challenge Vladimir Putin at the ballot box, but he was barred from running in the 2018 presidential election. Next month, Russia's leader will stand unchallenged by any meaningful opposition. Anti-war candidate Boris Nadezhdin was banned from standing in the election because of supposed irregularities found in the thousands of signatures submitted in support of his candidacy. Navalny, whose opposition began in the form of an anti-corruption campaign, is the latest in a string of prominent Russian figures who have died while challenging Vladimir Putin's rule. Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on a Moscow bridge a stone's throw from the Kremlin in 2015, and Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in August 2023 in an unexplained plane crash weeks after leading his mercenaries in an armed mutiny. Yet Navalny repeatedly laughed off his friends' concerns for his health. He was moved from a penal colony east of Moscow in December and was not seen for weeks until he reappeared in a penal colony in the Arctic town of Kharp. Navalny said he had been taken on a 20-day trip around Russia, telling reporters during a court appearance by video that his conditions were "much better" than in his previous penal colony in Vladimir. However, he was repeatedly punished by his prisons with solitary confinement. His spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said last month he had spent more than 280 days in isolation. Navalny had not been due to leave prison until his 70s, because of his most recent conviction for extremism last August. It was his third jail sentence and supporters accused the Kremlin of trying to silence him for good. Russian human rights activist and journalist Eva Merkacheva said on Friday that he had been placed in solitary confinement at least 27 times, saying it "could not but play a role" in his death. In such extreme conditions doctors knew that such punishment was very harmful to the human body, so under the law no-one could be given more than 15 days in isolation, she said. © 2024 BBC.

The bloodshed in Enga Province, which has been plagued by violence between tribal groups, left at least 26 people dead, according to the authorities. Papua New Guinea tribal violence. Credit: International Committee of the Red Cross By Natasha Frost Published Feb. 18, 2024 More than two dozen people were killed in a gunfight on Sunday in the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea, where deadly violence between more than a dozen tribal groups has been escalating. The precise cause of the latest episode remained unclear. “What I’ve been briefed on thus far is that a situation occurred in the early hours of yesterday, Sunday the 18th, in Enga where a gun battle between warring tribes ensued,” David Manning, the police chief of Papua New Guinea, told reporters, referring to Enga Province. Officials initially reported a death toll of more than 50, but that number was revised down to 26, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “These tribesmen have been killed all over the countryside, all over the bush,” George Kakas, the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary acting superintendent, told the broadcaster. “Police and defense forces have had to go in to do their best to quell the situation at their own risk.” The police did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bodies were found across a field, along roads and near a river, Mr. Kakas said. Video footage and photos shared on social media, whose authenticity could not immediately be confirmed, showed dozens of bodies piled onto the back of an open truck. The police said as many as 17 tribes were involved in the clashes. A mobile police squad has been sent to the area, Mr. Manning said. Only men are believed to have been killed, and there is some evidence that some of the fighters may have been hired for their services, said Serhan Aktoprak, the local head of the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations agency. “The actual fighters are reported to be hired men from different parts of the province,” he said. “There are mercenaries who offer their services, using sophisticated firearms in exchange for money. For them, it doesn’t matter whom they serve, as long as they are paid.” Estimates vary, but at least 10 million people are believed to live in Papua New Guinea, which is mostly rural and larger than California, with roughly 85 percent of the population living outside of urban centers. It is rich with mineral resources but remains impoverished. Culturally, it is extremely diverse; more than 300 tribes are spread across the country and the bordering Indonesian regions of Papua and West Papua, according to Survival, a group that advocates for Indigenous rights. More than 800 languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea. “From the outside, it will look like they’re one country,” Elizabeth Kopel, a researcher at the Papua New Guinean National Research Institute, said during a panel discussion organized by the United States Institute of Peace about tribal violence in October. “But we really struggle with trying to live with each other, understand each other, given all the different diversities.” Tensions have for several years been rising in the highlands, including Enga Province, where the recent deaths occurred. “This sort of situation has been just becoming increasingly more severe for many years now,” said Michael Main, a researcher at the Australian National University. He added: “It’s been going on for so long that you have an entire generation that’s growing up deeply, deeply traumatized. This level of violence has become normalized.” Limited water and other resources, as well as disagreements over private land, have long set off tensions, said Mr. Aktoprak. “The main factors that lead to horrifying incidents such as this actually have been around for generations,” he said. The death toll has been rising in recent years as tribespeople have moved from using traditional weapons to high-powered firearms including semiautomatic guns that are mostly brought in from overseas. “Previously, tribal fighting would involve spears and bows and arrows, leading to deaths but less casualties,” said Peter Murorera, also of the United Nations’ migration agency. The Papua New Guinean defense force “acknowledges that it’s basically outgunned,” Dr. Main said. The issues in the highlands date back many years and are highly localized and often very personal, often relating to longstanding grievances over land or politics. That is complicated further by a young population that is undereducated and underemployed, with young people denied an education because they are forced to flee the fighting, in turn resulting in mass displacement of thousands of individuals. “You’ve got people fighting for economic resources, whether it’s ownership of land on which a development project is located, or coffee plantations,” Dr. Kopel said in her remarks last year. She added: “The law doesn’t intervene quickly enough, then people resort to taking the law into their own hands, and sometimes fights are instigated by law enforcement agencies.” At least 150 people were killed in clashes in 2023, and last year, the authorities put Enga Province on a three-month lockdown to contain the unrest. Peter Ipatas, Enga’s governor, called on Australia last year to help security forces in Papua New Guinea contain the violence. “We do not have the capacity to fix this,” he told the newspaper The Australian. “The level of violence and, basically, the harm that is done to people is going out of control,” said Mr. Aktoprak of the U.N. “It is something they cannot themselves solve through the traditional and customary means of intervention and mediating efforts.” Last year, Australia agreed to expand support and training for Papua New Guinea’s police under a security agreement. Speaking to the ABC on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia hinted that more assistance to Papua New Guinea could be forthcoming. “We remain available to provide whatever support we can in a practical way to help our friends in PNG,” he said. © 2024 The New York Times Company

By Grace Condon and Frankie Condon Genocide Watch February 4, 2024 The UN estimates there are 1.7 million displaced people in Gaza, many of whom have fled the fighting around Khan Younis and are now in Rafah, which Israel has now begun to invade. Source: Reuters The 7 October assault by Hamas on Israel enacted long-established genocidal intent by Hamas against the people of Israel. Under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter every state has the right to defend itself against attack and to protect its people against the threat of genocide. However, crimes against humanity and genocide undertaken by one organization or state should never be used by another state or organization as justification for retaliatory crimes against humanity, war crimes, and acts of genocide. We note Israel’s asymmetrical warfare in Gaza. Israel has committed multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity. Its warfare has also included many acts of genocide. Israel launched its first strikes against Gaza on 27 October 2023. Prior to its first assault, Israeli Defense Forces called for over a million Palestinians in northern Gaza to evacuate to the south within 24 hours. Electricity had been cut, making electronic communications difficult across Gaza. Humanitarian aid organizations argued that the timeline was too short for so many civilians to be moved away from the field of war. The Israeli Defense Forces then released a second message to Gazans stating: "Urgent warning! To the residents of Gaza: your presence to the North of Wadi Gaza is putting your lives at risk. Anyone who chooses not to evacuate from the North of the Gaza Strip to the South of the Gaza Strip may be identified as a partner in a terrorist organization." Since Israel’s invasion began, humanitarian organizations and the world press have reported the widespread bombing of civilian targets, including but not limited to apartment complexes, mosques, roads used by civilians to escape the fighting, and hospitals. At this writing, over 1.7 million people in Gaza have been displaced since October 7. Over 26,000 civilians have been killed. According to the United Nations, of the civilians killed over ten thousand (41%) are children and over 6500 (25%) are women. At least 200 medics and more than 135 UN staff have been killed. None of these dead could possibly be considered combatants. How much "collateral damage" justifies killing so many children? When is "collateral damage" so disproportionate that it makes thousands of children orphans? The World Health Organization has issued dire warnings about the threat of epidemics as displaced Palestinians are crowded together in tents and makeshift shelters without sanitation facilities and clean water. The WHO has called for orders of protection of humanitarian personnel following detentions of medical personnel at Israeli checkpoints. Genocide Watch bases its analyses of genocides on our understanding that genocide is a process that unfolds in stages. Each stage is, itself, a process, and the progression of stages may be non-linear and recursive. That is, stages of genocide may overlap, occur simultaneously, or repeat. The stages of genocide defined and elaborated by Genocide Watch President, Dr. Gregory Stanton, are described more fully on the Genocide Watch website. Israel has long made a practice of classification and discrimination against Palestinians. With regard to classification which involves the denial of citizenship and the rights and protections attending citizenship, Haaretz reported in 2022, that since 2002 the Israeli Ministry of Population and Immigration Authority has made the application for citizenship in Israel increasingly difficult for Palestinians. Only 38% of the 16,573 applications for Israeli citizenship by Palestinians during the last two decades have been approved. Although 39% of the population of Jerusalem were Palestinian in 2022, only 5% of those were Israeli citizens. The Israeli Ministry of Population reports some of the most common reasons for denial: failure to demonstrate primary residence and employment in Jerusalem; lack of fluency in Hebrew; refusal to renounce citizenship in Jordan; criminal records; security concerns. Refusal of citizenship for Palestinians living in Israel means that they are not permitted to vote, ensuring political disempowerment. Palestinians without citizenship cannot obtain passports and are denied certain jobs. Adi Lustigman, a lawyer representing Palestinians seeking Israeli citizenship, says noncitizenship denies Palestinians in Israel the security that accompanies citizenship. "In a world of nation-states. there is no protection for human rights and no personal security without citizenship.” In February of 2022, Amnesty International issued a report charging Israel with maintaining an apartheid system against Palestinians. Amnesty International found that Israel has intentionally created a system of domination and oppression that includes “territorial fragmentation; segregation and control; dispossession of land and property; and denial of economic and social rights.” Such practices combine classification and discrimination to create a hierarchical system of oppression like the apartheid system in South Africa or the old segregation system in the southern United States. Political rhetoric by Israeli government and military leaders has crossed the line from expression of righteous anger to the rhetoric of dehumanization and polarization. Since the 7 October assault by Hamas on Israel, Israel’s political leaders and Israeli Defense Forces have repeatedly used dehumanizing and polarizing language to refer to Palestinians. Israel's President, Isaac Herzog, stated that “an entire nation out there is responsible” for the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.” “The ‘rhetoric’ about innocent civilians is ‘absolutely not true.’ The Peoples Dispatch quotes Israel's Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, referring to Palestinians as “human animals,” and boasting of having “released all the restraints” on Israeli forces. Minister Gallant asserted, "we will eliminate everything’ in Gaza.” The Israeli army’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Major General Ghassan Alian said that “human animals must be treated as such.” Dehumanizing language is often used to justify war crimes and genocide. The People’s Dispatch quotes Israeli army spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, proudly announcing the dropping of “thousands of tons of munitions” on Gaza in the first days of the war. He asserted, “We’re focused on what causes maximum damage, rather than ‘accuracy'." Major General Alian informed Gazans that “there will be no electricity and no water, there will be only destruction.” The Peoples Dispatch reported that in late October, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared Palestinians “with the biblical enemy of the Jews, the Amalekites." Netanyahu quoted from 1 Samuel 15:3, in which Samuel tells King Saul, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'I will punish what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way, when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.’” In 1 Samuel 33, after Israel has slaughtered all the Amalekites, Samuel himself summoned Agag, the Amalekite king. Samuel then personally "hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal." This Biblical passage is a divine order to commit genocide. That the President of Israel invoked this divine mandate for genocide is evidence of his genocidal intent to destroy in part the Palestinian people of Gaza. The historical parallel is precise: Palestinians in Gaza live in nearly the same area as the ancient Amalekites. The preparation stage of genocide involves both militarization and indoctrination of citizens with fear of the threatening group. Four wars by its neighbors since 1948, all aimed at annihilating Israel, have required Israel to maintain its military in a state of constant alert. Israelis are justifiably fearful of the genocidal intentions of Hamas, as proven by its 7 October attack. Political rhetoric by Israeli government and military leaders is now aimed at generalizing fear of Hamas to a fear of the Palestinian people as a whole. Israel's deployment of its Defense Forces in Gaza and in “police actions” in the occupied West Bank portend a bleak future for Palestinians. Israel's protection of Israeli settlers' confiscation of Palestinian land, and the IDF's toleration of settler assaults on Palestinian families in the West Bank are reminiscent of the forced deportations of Indigenous populations in the U.S., Australia, Armenia, Myanmar, Bosnia, Darfur, and Artsakh. The Palestinian people in Gaza now suffer persecution at the hands of the Israeli Defense Forces. Israel has long tolerated and actively encouraged the illegal expropriation of Palestinian lands by settlers in the West Bank. Israel now seems intent on forcing Gazans into smaller and smaller enclaves in tent cities in Gaza without clean water, food, fuel, or healthcare. Famine and disease are spreading, with children, women, and the elderly suffering the greatest danger. Palestinian men and boys have been rounded up, stripped of their clothing, marched through the streets, and imprisoned without charge. Survivors of a December round up report being blindfolded and tortured before being released without explanation. Israel’s political leaders, including Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vehemently deny any violations of international law, asserting that the war by Israel must continue until Hamas is totally defeated. The Israeli military regularly releases videos of Hamas-built tunnels as justification for their ongoing operations in Gaza. These are the signs of the genocidal process in Israel's war in Gaza: Israel's leaders persist in conflating all Palestinian people with Hamas. [classification]; Israel’s leaders incite genocide against Palestinians by dehumanizing Palestinians as “human animals” and by summoning Biblical justification for genocide [dehumanization, polarization]; Israel collectively punishes all Gazans for the actions of Hamas. Israel’s leaders deny that there are any innocent civilians in Gaza. This falsehood denies any duty to obey the laws of war, which require avoidance of attacks on civilians. [dehumanization, polarization]; This collective punishment is used to justify the bombing and killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian women, children, and noncombatants, including at least 85 journalists [persecution, extermination]; Israel has forcibly displaced 1.7 million Gazans from their homes into tent cities [persecution]; Israel bombs and assaults hospitals where wounded civilians seek medical care and shelter [persecution, extermination]; Israel bombs Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza [persecution, extermination]; Israel bombs and attacks areas in Gaza to which it has directed civilians for their “safety” [persecution, extermination]; Israel bombs “escape routes” it has designated for Palestinians fleeing Israeli attacks [persecution, extermination]; Israel's blockade and siege of Gaza is producing widespread famine [persecution, extermination]. Together, these actions demonstrate intent to commit genocide, the intentional destruction in part of the Palestinian people of Gaza. Until the Israeli invasion of Gaza ends with a permanent ceasefire, Israel will continue to commit four of the acts of genocide enumerated in Article 2 of the Genocide Convention: Israel's carpet bombing of Gaza, including of so-called "escape corridors," and "safe areas" to which it has directed Gazans, is intentionally killing members of the Palestinian ethnic and national group. Israel's displacement of 1.7 million Gazans and its blockade of food, water, fuel, and healthcare is causing serious bodily and mental harm to members of the Palestinian ethnic and national group. Israel's blockade of food, water, and fuel, its destruction of eighty percent of Gaza's homes, and its destruction of all but seven of Gaza's hospitals is deliberately inflicting on the Palestinian group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. Israel's bombing has destroyed most of the hospitals of Gaza where Palestinian mothers could safely give birth to their babies, thus imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group. There is a growing consensus among international lawyers that Israel is perpetrating a genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza. A United Nations panel held by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) recently concluded with a determination that Israel’s war against Gaza is genocidal by intent. We urge: an immediate, permanent ceasefire, release of all hostages held by Hamas, lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza, deployment of United Nations peacekeeping troops to Gaza, Arab and Palestinian recognition of the legitimacy of the State of Israel, U.N. and international support for a sustainable diplomatic resolution to the conflict. The need for these actions grows increasingly urgent with each passing day as political instability grows across the Middle East.  The U.N., U.S., Israel, Arab League, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, European Union, NATO, and other powers must not allow this crisis to widen into a regional or international war.

UN Security Council Adopts Resolution 2736 Calling for Ceasefire in El Fasher* Security Council Reports 13 June, 2024 The UN Security Council adopted resolution 2736 demanding that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a Sudanese paramilitary group, halt the siege of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, and calling for an immediate halt to the fighting and for de-escalation in and around El Fasher. The resolution further demands that all parties to the conflict ensure the protection of civilians, including by allowing civilians wishing to move within and out of El Fasher to safer areas to do so, and recalled that all civilians must be protected in accordance with international law. The resolution was adopted with a vote of 14 in favour and one abstention (Russia).The draft text was proposed by the UK, the penholder on Sudan. Background Sudan continues to grapple with the devastating political, security, and humanitarian consequences of fighting that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan’s military leader and chairperson of the Transitional Sovereign Council, and the RSF, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemeti). As at 17 May, more than 16,650 people had reportedly been killed since the onset of the conflict, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a non-governmental organisation that collects conflict-related data. Since early April, fighting, with a marked intercommunal aspect, has been particularly severe in El Fasher, the only capital in the Darfur region that is not under the RSF’s control. In an 8 June post on X (formerly Twitter), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that since 10 May, at least 192 people had been killed and more than 1,230 have been wounded in El Fasher. Several media outlets in recent weeks have accused the warring parties of indiscriminately killing civilians and damaging civilian infrastructure. On 10 June, MSF announced that it had suspended all activities in El Fasher’s South Hospital after “RSF soldiers stormed the facility, opened fire, and looted it, including stealing an MSF ambulance” on 8 June. According to MSF, this hospital served as the main referral hospital for treating war-wounded people in El Fasher and one of the two hospitals with surgical capacity. (For background and more information, see the brief on Sudan in our June 2024 Monthly Forecast.) Several UN officials have expressed alarm about the continuing violence and resulting grave humanitarian and other consequences, including fragmentation of Darfur along ethnic lines. In a 5 June statement, Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide Alice Wairimu Nderitu noted that, between 1 April and 31 May, nearly 130,000 people are estimated to have been displaced due to fighting in El Fasher. She added that “[i]t is unquestionable that risk factors and indicators for genocide and related crimes are present, and the risks are increasing”. Nderitu also expressed serious concern about reports of ethnically motivated attacks against non-Arab communities in and around El Fasher, including by the RSF and their allied militias, while noting that there had also been reports of retaliatory attacks targeting Arab civilians in the region. Council members have been following closely the developments in North Darfur. They adopted a press statement on 27 April, co-authored by the UK and “A3 plus one” members (Algeria, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Guyana), which expressed concern over the growing tensions and military operations around El Fasher. Since the beginning of April, the Security Council has held three meetings to discuss the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in Sudan, including in El Fasher, most recently on 24 May. (For more information, see our 19 and 28 April as well as 23 May What’s in Blue stories.) Negotiations on the Draft Resolution The UK circulated the initial draft of the resolution to all Council members on 30 May. The penholder apparently discussed the product with Sudan before sharing the text with Council members. After receiving the first round of comments, the UK circulated a revised draft on 7 June, which was open for comments until 11 am on Monday (10 June). Later that day, the penholder circulated a second revised draft, which was put under silence procedure until 12 pm on Tuesday (11 June). It appears that China, Russia, and the “A3 plus one” members broke silence, after which several members submitted comments. Following bilateral consultations with some members, the UK placed a revised draft text in blue yesterday (12 June). It appears that several non-Council regional stakeholders also engaged on the draft text during the negotiations. It seems that Council members recognised the importance of sending a unified and strong message in response to the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in the country. However, during the initial comments period, Russia apparently expressed the view that the proposed draft represented an excessive reaction to the situation in El Fasher and Sudan in general, and instead suggested pursuing a press statement, a product which requires consensus among Council members. Nonetheless, Russia engaged in the negotiations on the draft resolution. In addition to calling for an immediate halt to the fighting and for de-escalation in and around El Fasher, the draft resolution in blue demands that all parties to the conflict ensure the protection of civilians, including by allowing civilians wishing to move within and out of El Fasher to safer areas to do so, and recalling that all civilians must be protected in accordance with international law. It appears that the “A3 plus one” members and Russia proposed including language on other conflict areas, such as El-Obeid in North Kordofan and Kadugli in South Kordofan. The UK sought to keep the focus of the draft resolution on the developments in El Fasher, however, and these proposals were not incorporated in the draft resolution in blue. The initial draft proposed by the penholder apparently called for the withdrawal of fighters from all sides that threaten the safety and security of civilians, with the support of local mediation mechanisms. It seems that Russia expressed reservations about this language, arguing that Sudanese government forces remain responsible for protecting civilians and that the Council should not impede their ability to do so. The penholder subsequently tweaked the language on the matter in the draft resolution in blue, which calls for the withdrawal of all fighters that threaten the safety and security of civilians, with the support of local mediation mechanisms, where appropriate. The draft text in blue also contains language proposed by France, which calls for the parties to withdraw fighters as necessary to enable agricultural activities throughout the planting season to avoid compounding the risk of famine. It seems that one of the difficult aspects of the negotiations pertained to language proposed by the penholder in the initial draft calling on the parties to invite the UN or another neutral actor to monitor and coordinate safe passages for civilians and the withdrawal of fighters, as necessary. The “A3 plus one” members and Russia apparently requested the deletion of this reference. It seems that the US called for retaining the language, arguing that it would allow the UN to provide recommendations on a possible monitoring mechanism. In the subsequent revised draft, the penholder apparently replaced this reference with text requesting the Secretary-General to make further recommendations as necessary for the protection of civilians in Sudan. It seems that this formulation was also unacceptable to some members, including the “A3 plus one” and Russia. In an apparent compromise, the draft resolution in blue requests the Secretary-General, in consultation with the Sudanese authorities and regional stakeholders, to make further recommendations for the protection of civilians in Sudan, building on the existing mediation and good offices mechanisms. Another contentious aspect of the negotiations related to language on humanitarian relief assistance. It seems that Russia opposed any reference that might suggest placing the Sudanese authorities on a par with any other Sudanese entity in addressing humanitarian issues and border control. It apparently argued that any cooperation and coordination on humanitarian assistance should be carried out via channels agreed upon by the Sudanese authorities, stressing that they remain the only entity responsible for aid distribution and relief assistance. However, some other members maintained that the draft text should reference all parties to the conflict to broaden the scope of all actors needed to facilitate humanitarian aid. During the negotiations, China and Russia also apparently suggested replacing the term “Sudanese authorities” with “Sudanese government”; this proposal was not incorporated in the draft resolution in blue, however. During the negotiations, the US apparently also proposed language calling on the Sudanese authorities to re-open the Adre border crossing at the Sudan-Chad border—used by UN humanitarian agencies and their partners for conducting cross-border humanitarian operations. (On 21 February, Sudan announced its decision to suspend cross-border aid delivery through the Adre border crossing, citing concerns about potential weapons transfers into Darfur.) It appears that some members, including China and Russia, expressed reservations about this proposal, stressing the need to respect the sovereignty of the host country in terms of cross-border and cross-line humanitarian access. The penholder incorporated some changes to address the concerns raised by these members. The draft resolution in blue reiterates the Council’s “calls for all parties to work in close partnership with UN agencies and other humanitarian actors to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches those in need, and with the prior agreement and coordination of the Sudanese authorities, calls for them to re-open the Adre border crossing for the delivery of humanitarian assistance”. The draft text in blue further requests that parties to the conflict allow and facilitate the rapid, safe, unhindered and sustained passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need. It notes the measures taken by the Sudanese authorities in this regard and urges their further cooperation. Another issue that required discussion during the negotiations related to a reporting requirement proposed by the penholder. The initial draft text apparently requested the Secretary-General to report on the implementation of the resolution within 30 days of its adoption. It seems that while several Council members supported mandating a reporting requirement, the “A3 plus one” members and Russia opposed supplementary reporting on El Fasher. During the negotiations, the “A3 plus one” members and Russia apparently also proposed language requesting the Secretary-General to include in his regular updates on the situation in Sudan, pursuant to resolution 2715 of 1 December 2023, a section on external interferences and their role in fuelling the conflict in Darfur and other parts of Sudan. In an apparent attempt to address these members’ concerns, the penholder amended the text, as reflected in the draft resolution in blue, to request the Secretary-General to report on the implementation of “all elements” of this resolution within his regular updates pursuant to resolution 2715. The preambular section of the draft resolution in blue includes language voicing alarm over the catastrophic and deteriorating humanitarian situation, including crisis-level or worse acute food insecurity, and the imminent risk of famine, particularly in Darfur. It also expresses grave concern over the spreading violence, including credible reports of ethnically motivated violence, including violence perpetrated by the RSF in and around El Fasher, and in El Geneina in West Darfur state between 24 April and 19 June 2023. Text of UN Security Council Resolution 2736 S/Res/2736 (2024) : https://www.un.org/en/media/accreditation/pdf/SCRes3.pdf United Nations S/RES/2736 (2024) Security Council Distr.: General 13 June 2024 Resolution 2736 (2024) Adopted by the Security Council at its 9655th meeting, on 13 June 2024 The Security Council, Reaffirming all its previous resolutions, presidential statements and press statements concerning the situation in Sudan, and reiterating its strong commitment to the sovereignty, unity, independence, and territorial integrity of Sudan, Expressing deep concern at the outbreak of fighting in El Fasher with the potential for further escalation and the risk of harm to civilians, most of whom need urgent humanitarian assistance and protection, Expressing grave concern over the spreading violence, including credible reports of ethnically motivated violence, including inter alia the violence perpetrated by the Rapid Support Forces in and around El Fasher, and in El Geneina in West Darfur between 24 April and 19 June 2023, condemning the use of all force in populated areas against civilians and critical civilian infrastructure, including attacks on medical and humanitarian facilities, reaffirming the obligations of all parties to the conflict under international humanitarian law, including with regard to respecting and protecting civilians and taking constant care to spare civilian objects including such objects critical to the delivery of essential services to the civilian population, and with regard to refraining from attacking, destroying, removing or rendering useless objects that are indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, as well as respecting and protecting humanitarian personnel and consignments used for humanitarian relief operations, and urging all parties to the conflict to protect civilian infrastructure, which is critical to the delivery of humanitarian aid, including for the provision of essential services in line with resolution 2573 (2021), Expressing alarm at the ongoing reports of violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights, including cases of sexual and gender-based violence, and calling for accountability for such violations, Expressing concern over the catastrophic and deteriorating humanitarian situation, including crisis-level or worse acute food insecurity, and the imminent risk of famine, particularly in Darfur, Noting the need for full, rapid, safe, unhindered and sustained cross-border and cross-line humanitarian assistance into Darfur, and other conflict affected areas, urging the Sudanese authorities to allow and facilitate humanitarian access for UN 2/3 agencies and other humanitarian actors, urging the parties to the conflict to ensure humanitarian assistance safely reaches those in need, and welcoming in this regard the recent commitment by Sudanese authorities to facilitate access, including visa and travel authorizations, Condemning the looting of humanitarian stockpiles, expressing concern at the increasing mobilization of armed groups or militia, and calling on all sides to exercise strict command and control on their forces, Recognizing the importance of de-escalatory measures and the role of local dispute resolution and ceasefire efforts in Darfur, in line with Sudanese -led and Sudanese-owned peacebuilding and peacemaking efforts, and encouraging the parties to the conflict to empower Sudanese elders and community leaders to secure local conflict mitigation and ceasefire arrangements including monitoring, coordination, and liaison mechanisms, 1. Demands that the Rapid Support Forces halt the siege of El Fasher; and calls for an immediate halt to the fighting and for de-escalation in and around El Fasher, and further calls for the withdrawal of all fighters that threaten the safety and security of civilians, with the support of local mediation mechanisms, where appropriate; 2. Demands that all parties to the conflict ensure the protection of civilians, including by allowing civilians wishing to move within and out of El Fasher to safer areas to do so, and recalling that all civilians must be protected in accordance with international law, and requests the Secretary-General, in consultation with the Sudanese authorities and regional stakeholders, to make further recommendations for the protection of civilians in Sudan, building on the existing mediation and good offices mechanisms; 3. Calls for the full implementation of the Jeddah Declaration of Commitment to Protect the Civilians of Sudan, and requests that parties to the conflict allow and facilitate the rapid, safe, unhindered and sustained passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need, including by removing bureaucratic and other impediments, the rapid provision of the required visas and travel authorizations for humanitarian personnel and essential supplies, notes the measures taken by the Sudanese authorities in this regard and urges their further cooperation, reiterates its calls for all parties to work in close partnership with UN agencies and other humanitarian actors to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches those in need and, with the prior agreement and coordination of the Sudanese authorities, calls for them to reopen the Adre border crossing for the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and further calls for the parties to withdraw fighters as necessary to enable agricultural activities throughout the planting season to avoid compounding the risk of famine; 4. Underscores the urgency of addressing the funding shortfall of the Humanitarian Response Plan and the Regional Refugee Response Plan and encourages Member States, international donors and partners to ensure that all pledges are honored in full and in a timely manner, and to step up contributions to enable the scaling-up of humanitarian assistance needed to prevent further deterioration of the humanitarian situation; 5. Demands that all parties to the conflict comply with their obligations under international law, including international human rights law, as applicable, and international humanitarian law including with regard to the conduct of hostilities and 3/3 the protection of civilians and civilian objects, recalling that civilian facilities, including hospitals, medical facilities, schools, places of worship, and facilities of the UN, as well as humanitarian personnel, and UN and associated personnel, includi ng national and locally recruited personnel, as well as medical personnel, and their means of transport, must be respected and protected, in accordance with international humanitarian law; 6. Calls on all Member States to refrain from external interference which seeks to foment conflict and instability and instead to support efforts for a durable peace, and reminds all parties to the conflict and Member States who facilitate the transfers of arms and military material to Darfur of their obligations to comply with the arms embargo measures as stipulated in paragraphs 7 and 8 of resolution 1556 (2004), and reiterates that those who violate the arms embargo may be designated for targeted measures in accordance with paragraph 3 (c) of resolution 1591 (2005); 7. Calls on the parties to the conflict to seek an immediate cessation of hostilities, leading to a sustainable resolution to the conflict, through dialogue, with the continued support of the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy on Sudan Ramtane Lamamra and the African Union High-Level Panel on Sudan; 8. Encourages the coordinated engagement of the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy on Sudan Ramtane Lamamra, with the African Union, the League of Arab States and other key regional actors, to help advance peace and an inclusive and comprehensive Sudanese-led political process, with the full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women, that reflects the aspirations of the Sudanese people; 9. Requests the Secretary-General to report on the implementation of all elements of this resolution within his regular updates as stipulated in resolution 2715 (2023); 10. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter. UK explanation of vote delivered by Ambassador Barbara Woodward, UK Permanent Representative to the UN, following the Security Council adoption of resolution 2736 on El Fasher. The adoption of this resolution sends a clear message: the Council demands that the Rapid Support Forces immediately stop the siege of El Fasher and that all sides step back from the brink.  An attack on the city would be catastrophic for the 1.5 million Sudanese civilians sheltering in the city. We tabled this resolution to help secure a localised ceasefire around El Fasher – and create the wider conditions to support de-escalation across the country and ultimately, save lives.  Civilians need to be allowed to leave the city should they wish, and aid needs to get in. President, the situation in Sudan is desperate and the humanitarian needs of Sudan’s population are severe, particularly across Darfur.  This resolution underlines the need for full, rapid, safe and unhindered cross-border and cross-line humanitarian access. It calls on the Sudanese authorities to increase cooperation with UN agencies and to urgently reopen the Adre border to help facilitate a significant scale-up of humanitarian assistance. And in this regard, the resolution urges the international community to increase their support and fulfil existing pledges. The protection needs in Sudan are alarming. Through this resolution, we request that the Secretary-General provide recommendations on supporting the protection of civilians in Sudan, building on the existing good office’s work, and the vital mandate of his Personal Envoy on Sudan Mr. Lamamra.  Let me take this opportunity to underline the United Kingdom’s full backing of Mr. Lamamra’s mediation efforts and his work to help complement and coordinate regional efforts to restore peace. President, this Council has sent a strong signal to the parties to the conflict today. This brutal and unjust conflict needs to end. Today’s resolution shows the Council remains committed to supporting efforts for peace in Sudan. We look forward to continuing to work across the UN, across the region and with Council members towards this goal. And in that regard, I close by thanking my colleagues, across the Council, for their engagement on this resolution. Published 13 June 2024

ICC Prosecutor wants evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Darfur Sudan Tribune June 12, 2024 June 11, 2024 (THE HAGUE) – International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan has initiated a campaign to collect evidence of escalating atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region amid the ongoing war between rival military factions. In a video message, Khan urgently called for cooperation from victim groups, civil society organizations, national authorities, and international partners to provide evidence of crimes against civilians. The ICC, which has been investigating the situation in Darfur since 2005, is prioritizing “the terrible events in West Darfur, including El Geneina, in 2023.” Expressing deep concern over allegations of widespread international crimes in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, and surrounding areas, Khan stated his office is gathering daily information from the region that “appears to reveal an organized, systematic, and profound attack on human dignity.” Evidence collected thus far indicates “credible, repeated, and continuously expanding allegations of attacks against the civilian population, particularly those directed against camps for internally displaced persons,” Khan revealed. He also cited evidence of “widespread and prevalent use of rape and other forms of sexual violence, the shelling of civilian areas, the looting of properties, and attacks against hospitals.” Khan specifically requested video, photographic, or audio material from those on the ground and appealed to civil society, partners, and individuals to share any contacts who might provide testimony, information, or evidence. He also called on national authorities and international partners to share any relevant evidence they have collected. “We are asking national authority counterparts, State parties, and non-State parties alike, to share any evidence or information they are collecting or have available to them in relation to these serious allegations of international crimes that are increasingly emerging and cannot be ignored,” Khan emphasized. Copyright 2023 Sudan Tribune

BY GENOCIDE WATCH July 31, 2023 Genocide Emergency: Sudan First published by Genocide Watch July 31, 2023. Taken down by hackers in October, 2023. Revised and reissued May 31, 2024 Sudanese children fleeing West Darfur into Chad. credit: Reuters According to the U.N. Human Rights Office, in just one massacre, at least 87 people — mostly from the ethnic African Masalit tribe — were killed by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and an affiliated Arab militia. Their bodies were dumped in a grave just outside the West Darfur city of Geneina, the agency said. That estimate of the deaths in Geneina massacres has been revised by Reuters and independent investigators to be at least 28,000 Masalit people murdered in Geneina alone. Conflicts between the Arab dominated Sudanese government and non-Arab ethnic groups have resulted in numerous genocides targeting non-Arab people in Sudan. Genocide became Sudanese state policy when the Arab supremacist Arab Gathering seized power in Khartoum in 1983. Since then, determined to dominate all of Sudan, the Sudanese army and Arab militias have massacred hundreds of thousands of non-Arab people in the Nuba Mountains, Darfur, the Blue Nile,and in South Sudan before South Sudan became independent. Over three million non-Arabs have been displaced. In 2003-2005, government-backed Janjaweed militias carried out systematic killings of non-Arabs and a scorched earth policy in Darfur. They were supported by bombing by the Sudanese Air Force. They forcibly displaced Fur, Massalit, and Zaghawa communities and murdered, looted, and mass raped non-Arab populations in Darfur. Janjaweed militias killed at least 300,000 non-Arab people and forcibly displaced 2.5 million. A joint UN-AU peacekeeping force, UNAMID, was established in 2007 with a mandate to protect civilians. However, UNAMID became an observer mission, rather than a peacekeeping force. It failed to protect the hundreds of thousands of people in Sudanese IDP camps from rapes and murders. The Janjaweed militias became an official government force, renamed the "Rapid Support Forces" (RSF) led by General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeti). Granted jurisdiction by the UN Security Council, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Omar al-Bashir and other leaders of the Darfur genocide for crimes against humanity and war crimes in 2009, and in 2010 for charges of genocide. Bashir appointed these same accused criminals as governors over areas where they committed their crimes. Anti-government protests began in late 2018 and a military coup ousted Omar al-Bashir in 2019.UNAMID withdrew in December 2020. Although a civilian-led democracy was promised following the military coup, another military coup followed in 2021 which removed civilians from government. Generals Burhan and Hemeti shared power over Khartoum. The RSF took control over western Sudan, including Darfur. In December 2022, the civilian opposition, General Burhan, and Hemeti signed a "new framework" which on paper would transition the government to civilian leadership and integrate the RSF into the Sudanese Armed Forces. But Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeti) rejected proposals to integrate his Rapid Support Forces into Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Failure to incorporate the RSF into the military and lack of cooperation between the SAF and the RSF resulted in civil war. Fighting broke out between Hemeti’s RSF and Gen. Burhan’s Sudanese Armed Forces on April 15, 2023. Since then, over 1000 civilians have been killed and more than 4,000 have been wounded in Khartoum and Omdurman, tens of thousands have fled, with over 75,000 internally displaced. Over 100,000 people have fled from Sudan. The RSF now controls most of Khartoum. The massive influx of new refugeesfrom Sudan threatens to overwhelm neighboring countries . Countries including the US, Canada, and France have evacuated their diplomats. Uncertainty exists regarding the location of Bashir. Hospitalsare running out of supplies, and havebeen directly hit by shells and gunfire. They lack electricity and medicines. The director of the UN's World Food Program (WFP) fears the conflict could result in a humanitarian crisis for all of Eastern Africa. The RSF recommenced its attacks on the people of Darfur, especially the Massalit. In Darfur, the Rapid Support Forces have murdered over 30,000 Massalit, raped thousands of women, and driven tens of thousands of Massalit into Chad. Massalit towns have been destroyed, their wells poisoned, their streets strewn with corpses. The RSF has now surrounded El Fashir, a city of 2.5 million, capital of Darfur. Conquest of El Fashir by the RSF would create a humanitarian disaster and increased genocide. Genocide Watch considers Sudan to be at Stage 8: Persecution and Stage 9: Extermination. Genocide Watch recommends: • The UN Security Council should declare the war in Sudan is a threat to international peace and security. • The UNSC should authorize a UN Peacekeeping Force (PKO) under Chapter7 of the UN Charter. • The UNSC should call on African Union and other countries to provide thousands of troops for the PKO. • The UNSC should make the PKO an ordinary expense of the UN, obligating all UN members to pay for it. • The UNSC resolution should refer the situation in all of Sudan to the International Criminal Court. • The PKO mandate should be to end the civil war by diplomacy or force and to protect civilians. • The mandate should include the arrest of both Gen. Burhan and Hemeti if they are charged by the ICC. https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/genocide-emergency-sudan-1

Washington Post June 3, 2024 By David Simon A woman carries aid in sacks at a camp for internally displaced Sudanese people on May 12. (AFP/Getty Images) Genocide looms again in Darfur. Will the world stop it from happening? Sudanese militias are ready to finish what they started decades ago. With the world’s gaze directed elsewhere, the specter of genocide again looms over the Darfur region in western Sudan. The city of El Fasher and its more than 2.5 million residents are in the crosshairs of the military faction known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which controls three of the four main roads leading into the city. Sudan’s government forces (SAF) and several local militias are barely holding on. Sources: Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (damage analysis); Open Street Map Although the siege of El Fasher began in earnest only a short time ago, conditions have been desperate for much longer. In February, international observers estimated that children were dying at a rate of one every two hours in the Zamzam internal displacement camp outside El Fasher. Today, aid is no longer getting through and acute famine appears imminent. The fall of El Fasher would give the RSF near-total control of western Sudan and a significant upper hand in its battle for control of the country. As a result, widespread genocidal violence would likely return to Darfur. RSF leadership includes many Janjaweed fighters who, when they were aligned with the government in the 2000s, attempted a scorched-earth campaign to rid western Sudan of its non-Arab ethnic groups. Back then, The Save Darfur Coalition, an ad hoc coalition of journalists, scholars, students and celebrity activists came together to put pressure on Sudan, its international sponsors and the multinational corporations that did business with them. Although persecution of non-Arabs in Darfur never abated entirely, the coalition achieved some modest successes. In 2004, the African Union sent peacekeepers, who would later be “rehelmeted” as a United Nations force with Security Council authorization. In 2005, the Security Council also referred the case to the International Criminal Court, which would later issue warrants for the arrest of Janjaweed leaders and Sudanese government officials who had abetted the slaughter, including head of state Omar al-Bashir. In 2006, President George W. Bush, who had publicly used the word “genocide” to describe the situation, signed a bill levying sanctions on the Janjaweed and the Bashir regime. A fragile peace ensued that, until last year, seemed to protect the non-Arab populations of Darfur from genocidal persecution. Today, however, the Janjaweed are poised to succeed. If El Fasher falls, they could get the opportunity to complete their genocidal project. A Human Rights Watch report last month described in gruesome detail how, when the RSF overran the city of El Geneina last year, it embarked on a campaign of torture, rape, assassination and massacres of civilians. In October, BBC reporters arrived at similar conclusions regarding the RSF conquest of Nyala. For many of Darfur’s non-Arab citizens, El Fasher is the last refuge. When it falls, it is likely to be brutalized for resisting conquest for more than 20 years. Since securing the roads around El Fasher in April, RSF troops have moved cautiously. Whether because of stiffer resistance than expected or simply because their stranglehold is so secure, they can afford to wait. Weapons and reinforcements for the RSF are arriving, and its besieged opponents have nowhere to turn. Destroyed military vehicles belonging to the defeated Sudanese Armed Forces litter the main street in El Geneina on Feb. 20. (Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi for The Washington Post) The RSF has calculated — up to this point, accurately — that it can afford to wait because the global response has been negligible. This in itself is a tragedy. It represents an abdication of the international community’s responsibility to protect a population under threat. The world must respond urgently, although its options are dwindling by the day. The best course now would be to negotiate a cease-fire, allowing aid to come into the city. It appears, however, that only the United Arab Emirates, known to be the RSF’s major international sponsor, could apply the needed pressure to bring about a pause in fighting. Unfortunately, an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on May 24 yielded no tangible progress on a deal. The only other option is to deploy a U.N.-authorized peacekeeping operation to protect the civilian population. In this case, the United Nations might have to defer to the African Union in the sourcing and organizing of troops, although the United States and European countries should be ready to supply materiel. The operation’s mission would be, first, to prevent direct attacks on civilian populations in El Fasher and its refugee camps and, second, to secure El Fasher’s airport for the delivery of humanitarian assistance. A more permanent solution to the crisis will require the Sudanese people to arrive at a lasting political compromise. That would likely have to be a compromise among the military elites fighting each other in battle, the Khartoum-based civil society groups representing the democratically elected government that was overthrown in 2021, and local ethnic leaders — perhaps to share power, at least initially, but more fundamentally to recognize the citizenship rights and human rights of all Sudanese people. There will also have to be a strategy to pursue accountability for the horrific crimes perpetuated in this conflict. But this can happen only after the RSF’s genocidal intentions are thwarted. Deploying an international peacekeeping force is the most extreme measure in the atrocity-prevention tool kit. Pulling one together will not be easy, especially given all the other crises roiling the globe right now. But the world’s dithering for this long has left Sudan facing resumed genocide, with no other options to prevent it David Simon is director of Yale University’s Genocide Studies Program and a senior lecturer at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs. Copyright 2024 David Simon and the Washington Post

By Gerry Shih and Anant Gupta People line up to cast their vote in the sixth round of polling in India’s national election in New Delhi on Saturday. (Altaf Qadri/AP) SURAT, India — As India wraps up a seven-week-long marathon election, reports of irregularities have reached a level not seen in decades. Across the country, supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have been accused by their opponents of working with local authorities to suppress turnout among voters or to remove opposition candidates from the ballot altogether. In the ancient diamond trading hub of Surat, the election ended before it began. After all eight opposition candidates dropped out under questionable circumstances, local officials declared a winner by default: the candidate from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP. Independent political analysts say there is no evidence to indicate systemic vote-rigging, and if Modi is declared the winner Tuesday as expected, his victory would be legitimate. But in the world’s largest democracy, the rash of irregularities at the local level — and the brazenness of several incidents publicized by BJP supporters themselves — have alarmed political observers who say India’s ruling party is increasingly wielding state power to tilt the democratic playing field in its favor. During its previous decade in power, the Modi government has cracked down on critical media outlets, shut down nonprofits, and squeezed opposition politicians by targeting them for criminal investigations and imprisonment, “but the sanctity of elections itself has largely been protected,” said Maya Tudor, a political scientist at Oxford University. Police officers are seen at a polling station during the sixth phase of the general election in Sonipat, in the northern Indian state of Haryana, on Saturday. (Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters) Now, she said, “these are the first signs of the electoral moment itself being called into question.” So far, election officials have ordered partial repolling in at least nine voting districts, including locations where party workers were caught on video casting multiple votes. But India’s Election Commission, led by a three-member panel nominated by the government, has been criticized for leaving many more allegations of irregularities unaddressed. Some of these reports involved classic voter intimidation. In Uttar Pradesh state, for instance, baton-wielding police in recent weeks were filmed beating Muslim voters, who generally vote against the Hindu nationalist BJP, and driving them from polling stations. In the far northeast, voting has been marred by gun-toting militias who seized booths and roughed up party workers, according to eyewitnesses and news reports. Muslims check for their names on voter lists as they arrive to vote in Nahal village, part of India’s Uttar Pradesh state, on April 26. (Altaf Qadri/AP) “There have been clear failures in election management,” said S.Y. Qureshi, India’s chief election commissioner from 2010 to 2012. Qureshi noted that Indian bureaucrats worked hard in the 1990s to curtail widespread violence that often took place on election day targeting voters from lower castes, but he feared similar abuses from decades ago were creeping back. “How can this happen?” he asked angrily. “What action will be taken?” Gopal Krishna Agarwal, a BJP national spokesman, dismissed allegations as campaign rhetoric by the party’s opponents. He said the BJP has never tried to suppress turnout. “These things are for the Election Commission to decide,” Agarwal said. “We believe in our institutions. We believe in and respect the democratic values that have brought us where we are.” At the same time, opposition parties and political analysts have alleged that local BJP officials have tried a new tactic during this election: removing challengers from races altogether. In the central city of Indore, the sole candidate from a major opposition party dropped out hours before the withdrawal deadline and joined the BJP after a local judge brought fresh charges of attempted murder against him as part of a 17-year-old land dispute. In Khajuraho, another central city, the BJP candidate also ran without a major-party rival after election officials disqualified his opponent, citing incomplete paperwork. In Gandhinagar, the seat of the powerful home minister Amit Shah in western India, opposition candidates released teary-eyed videos claiming they had received death threats warning them against running. Adam Ziegfeld, an expert on Indian politics at Temple University, said the use of law enforcement or trumped-up cases came “out of the tool kit of electoral autocrats.” “This is about who gets scared off from running,” Ziegfeld said. “If you look at who [Russian President Vladimir] Putin lets run against him, it’s no wonder he wins.” Supporters of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party distribute sweet drinks outside a polling station on a hot day in Karnal, in the northern state of Haryana, India, on Saturday. (Bhawika Chhabra/Reuters) No contest In Surat, a BJP stronghold in Modi’s home state of Gujarat, opposition candidates began to fall by the wayside in April. One told reporters he was too depressed to campaign. Another cryptically cited “personal reasons” but posed for a photo shaking hands with a BJP leader. Two other candidates’ nomination papers were rejected by local officials. Finally, there was just one contender left challenging the BJP: Pyarelal Bharti, a veteran of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which represents low-caste voters across northern India. Behind the scenes, BJP officials were waging an intense campaign to bribe and pressure each of their rivals, including Bharti, to withdraw before the deadline on April 22, according to local media reports that were corroborated by interviews with opposition leaders. But by April 21, BJP officials still could not locate Bharti. Opposition party leaders had conferred and agreed to whisk Bharti out of Surat to the nearby city of Vadodara, where he could hide beyond the reach of BJP party workers, said local leaders from the BSP and the Congress party. But pressure began to mount before midnight, recalled Satish Sonawane, the BSP party chief in Surat. First, a friend of Sonawane who served in the Surat police called to say that a rich local businessman had offered to pay Sonawane in exchange for revealing Bharti’s whereabouts. “He said they were willing to pay as much as we like,” Sonawane said. “But I told him that I didn’t enter politics for such things.” The next morning, homes in Vadodara belonging to the BSP state leader, Surender Singh Kaloria, were raided by police, who also surrounded the home of Bharti’s son-in-law where the BJP believed Bharti was hiding, said one of Bharti’s associates, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared retribution. By midday, BJP supporters found Bharti and drove him back to Surat. He entered the government office through a back door and withdrew his candidacy shortly before the 3 p.m. deadline, according to BSP leaders, Bharti’s associate and one local journalist. That evening, Bharti left Surat and never came back; his phone has been switched off, and he could not be reached for comment. Manishkumar Rathod, the police inspector who led the raid on Kaloria’s homes, said in a telephone call that Vadodara police had received an anonymous tip that Kaloria was illegally storing alcohol in his home. He denied that his unit tried to locate Bharti or interfere with the election. “I’ve seen money being involved before,” Kaloria said, referring to the tactic of paying rival candidates to drop out. “This was the first time I’ve seen police involved.” A step too far On April 22, with no votes cast or opponents standing, local officials named the BJP candidate, a first-time candidate named Mukesh Dalal, to be the next member of Parliament from Surat. The BJP Gujarat party chief, C.R. Paatil, immediately celebrated on social media, boasting that the BJP had won its first seat even though results were supposed to be announced on June 4. The episode stunned many in India. Even leaders within the BJP’s Delhi headquarters wondered whether the Gujarat party officials went too far, said a senior Gujarat political journalist who covered the saga closely. Paatil, the BJP’s state chief, declined to speak to The Post about the race in Surat. But on the day of the scheduled election, his colleagues at the BJP office in town acknowledged that the incident backfired. The state party was under pressure to demonstrate its strength and deliver high voter turnout. Yet the opposite happened, they said: Many residents in districts neighboring Surat believed their elections were also canceled and didn’t bother to vote. Outside, an uneasy quiet settled. In a working-class neighborhood near the famous diamond polishing center, Bhupendrabhai Brahmbhatt and his daughter-in-law Seema watched boys play cricket in an alley that, on any other election day, would have been teeming with party workers scrambling to mobilize voters. Both said they were longtime BJP supporters but felt a line had been crossed. “How could we change our rulers if no one is competing?” Seema asked. “Our politics have become such,” Bhupendrabhai sighed, “that those who rule by might take all of the gains.” Karishma Mehrotra and Shams Irfan contributed to this report.