Reema Omer | DAWN IT has been more than 10 years since Pakistan ratified the ICCPR and the Convention against Torture, and even longer since it became party to other core UN human rights treaties such as CEDAW and ICESCR. By becoming party to these treaties, Pakistan undertook an obligation that binds all branches of the state to promote, respect, protect and fulfil human rights. However, there still remains confusion regarding Pakistan’s commitment to the international human rights regime and the relevance of international human rights standards in guiding the country’s laws, policies and jurisprudence. Such lack of clarity is most pronounced in the conduct of government as well as jurisprudence of courts. Pakistan is at present a member of the UN Human Rights Council. In its pledge in support of its candidacy for the UNHRC, Pakistan expressed its “enduring commitment to the international human rights system” and said it “considers human rights as the bedrock of peaceful, inclusive and prosperous societies”. Read: US report highlights serious rights violations in India and Pakistan In sharp contrast to Pakistan’s lofty claims before international forums, international human rights largely remain a maligned concept domestically and the government actively resists any scrutiny of Pakistan’s human rights record. Government officials continue to call human rights standards alien to Pakistan’s ground realities. Top government officials continue to call human rights standards alien to Pakistan’s ground realities, and appeals to assess Pakistan’s laws and policies against international human rights standards are shut down as promotion of ‘foreign’ or ‘Western’ interests. Prime Minister Imran Khan too has on multiple occasions questioned the role of human rights organisations, including HRCP, for promoting a ‘foreign agenda’ to defame Pakistan. A number of UN special rapporteurs, including SRs on human rights and counterterrorism, torture and freedom of religion or belief have requested Pakistan to extend invitations to undertake country visits to assess the situation of human rights in the country. The government, however, has failed to invite them. We should also recall that when the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances visited Pakistan in 2012, a number of government representatives called it an infringement of Pakistan’s sovereignty and an attempt to make Pakistan a ‘banana republic’. Such dangerous and ill-informed rhetoric not only seeks to delegitimise the ideal of human rights, it also vilifies human rights defenders and puts them at risk for doing their job of advocating for the promotion of rights in the country. The public disavowal of international human rights law and the work of human rights defenders also contradicts the Government’s own conduct and performance on international cooperation. For example, the government frequently collaborates with the UN on human rights programmes and provides trainings to its officials on Pakistan’s human rights obligations. In addition, it reports to a number of UN bodies on the implementation of treaties, and every four years under the Universal Periodic Review, responds to concerns about its human rights situation raised by other UN member states. International human rights norms have also at times led to legislative reform. In recent years, for example, parliament has passed a number of laws including those that address sexual violence and the rights of transgender people to fulfil its obligations under international law. These examples don’t sit well with the idea of inter­national human rights law being a ‘foreign agenda’ and groups working in this area being ‘foreign agents’. This contradictory approach on international human rights law can also be seen in Pakistan’s jurisprudence. In a number of cases, the high courts and Supreme Court have interpreted constitutional provisions related to the right of freedom of movement, life and dignity, liberty and political association, among others, in light of international standards, and have observed that Pakistan was “bound to follow” international law in view of the “commitments it had made to the international community”. In 2013, for example, the Supreme Court delivered an important judgement on enforced disappearances and held courts could interpret fundamental rights provisions in the Constitution in light of international treaties even if Pakistan had not ratified them “to achieve the ends of justice”. Earlier this year, the Lahore High Court referred to provisions of human rights treaties ratified by Pakistan as “obligations” on the Government in a judgement regarding the legality of the use of “virginity tests” as evidence in rape cases. The court ruled that such tests are discriminatory and violate the right to life and dignity, basing much of its reasoning on international standards. Other judgements too have considered international human rights standards as authoritative guidelines for courts. Last year, the Islamabad High Court relied heavily on international law and standards, including the ICCPR and the recently revised UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela Rules) to give directions to the authorities regarding the rights of detainees. The court held “it is settled law that a ratified convention or treaty can be relied upon as long as it is not in conflict with the law enacted in Pakistan”. However, judgements like these are still not the norm, and courts can often be dismissive of arguments that rely on international human rights law. In its majority judgement on the lawfulness of military trials of terrorism suspects, the Supreme Court dismissed arguments based on international human rights law and stated “it is for the federal government to ensure that the course of action undertaken by them does not offend against the public international law or any international commitment made by the state”. The jurisprudential inconsistency indicates that the application of international human rights law in courts appears largely dependent on the worldview of individual judges and the sensitivity of the issues in a particular case. Clarity on the nature of such obligations and how they interplay with Pakistan’s domestic legal system is still lacking. Such mixed signalling and lack of ownership of international human rights, along with resistance to scrutiny of human rights compliance by the state, partly explain why these norms — many of which constitute hard law — have still not taken root in the country. It is time that all branches of the state end their doublespeak on human rights and adopt a clear public position recognising their legitimacy and significance — it is only then that human rights discourse can truly flourish and improve the lives of the people of Pakistan. The writer is a legal adviser for the International Commission of Jurists. reema.omer@icj.org Twitter: reema_omer Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2021 See article here.

A former leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda, who himself had been abducted by the rebel group as a child, was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday. © ICC-CPI | Ugandan Dominic Ongwen, a former LRA child soldier, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Dominic Ongwen, 45, was found guilty of 61 charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including rape, murder and sexual enslavement, committed in Northern Uganda between July 2002 and 31 December. The UN-backed ICC, based in the Hague, is the world’s first permanent international court to prosecute some of the most heinous of crimes, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. In summarizing the decision to sentence Ongwen, Presiding Judge Bertram Schmitt highlighted the unique nature of the case. Victim and perpetrator “The Chamber is confronted in the present case with a unique situation. It is confronted with a perpetrator who willfully and lucidly brought tremendous suffering upon his victims”, he said. “However, it is also confronted with a perpetrator who himself had previously endured extreme suffering himself at the hands of the group, of which he later became a prominent member and leader.” Judge Smith said the Chamber decided to give certain weight in mitigation to the circumstances of Mr Ongwen's childhood, abduction by the LRA at a very young age, and his early stay with the group. The LRA was formed in the 1980s by Joseph Kony, a self-styled prophet who has long been sought for war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Children forced to kill The group launched its insurgency in northern Uganda, attacking camps hosting internally displaced people, eventually spreading to countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. It is estimated that as many as 25,000 children were abducted and forced to fight in the hostilities, or to serve as labourers. As an LRA brigade commander, Mr. Ongwen sanctioned the killing of large numbers of civilians, forced marriage, sexual slavery and the recruitment of child soldiers, among other grave crimes. He had been detained at the ICC, which is located in The Hague, in the Netherlands, since January 2015, and was found guilty in February. The detention period will be deducted from his overall prison sentence. The ICC also issued an order for submissions on reparations to his victims. Inputs from parties to the case are due by 6 September of this year, while those from “interested persons or organisations, particularly with local expertise” are due by 7 July 2021. © 2021 UN News Resources from the International Criminal Court For further information on this case, please click here Questions and Answers on the sentence: English; Français Audio-visual materials: Sentence in the Ongwen case, full hearing, 6 May 2021 YouTube (for viewing): English; Acholi; French Video (MPEG-4) for download: English; Acholi; French Audio (MPEG-3) for download: English; Acholi; French

This image from an April 18, 2021 news report by Myawaddy TV shows people who security forces said they detained in a weapons raid a day earlier in the Yankin township of Yangon, Myanmar. At least 3,500 people have been detained since the military seized power in the country in February 2021, more than three-quarters of whom are male, according to an analysis of data collected by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors deaths and arrests. Of the 419 men whose ages were recorded in the group’s database, nearly two-thirds are under age 30, and 78 are teenagers. (Myawaddy TV via AP) Myanmar’s security forces moved in and the street lamps went black. In house after house, people shut off their lights. Darkness swallowed the block. Huddled inside her home  in this neighborhood of Yangon, 19-year-old Shwe dared to peek out her window into the inky night. A flashlight shone back, and a man’s voice ordered her not to look. Two gunshots rang out. Then a man’s scream: “HELP!” When the military’s trucks finally rolled away, Shwe and her family emerged to look for her 15-year-old brother, worried about frequent abductions by security forces. “I could feel my blood thumping,” she says. “I had a feeling that he might be taken.” Across the country, Myanmar’s security forces are arresting and forcibly disappearing thousands of people, especially boys and young men, in a sweeping bid to break the back of a three-month uprising against a military takeover. In most cases, the families of those taken do not know where they are, according to an Associated Press analysis of more than 3,500 arrests since February. UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, is aware of around 1,000 cases of children or young people who have been arbitrarily arrested and detained, many without access to lawyers or their families. Though it is difficult to get exact data, UNICEF says the majority are boys. It is a technique the military has long used to instill fear and to crush pro-democracy movements. The boys and young men are taken from homes, businesses and streets, under the cover of night and sometimes in the brightness of day. Some end up dead. Many are imprisoned and sometimes tortured. Many more are missing. “We’ve definitely moved into a situation of mass enforced disappearances,” says Matthew Smith, cofounder of the human rights group Fortify Rights, which has collected evidence of detainees being killed in custody. “We’re documenting and seeing widespread and systematic arbitrary arrests.” The AP is withholding Shwe’s full name, along with those of several others, to protect them from retaliation by the military. The autobody shop in Shwe’s neighborhood was a regular hangout for local boys. On the night of March 21, her brother had gone there to chill out like he usually did. As Shwe approached the shop, she saw it had been ransacked. Frantic, she and her father scoured the building for any sign of their beloved boy. But he was gone, and the floor was covered in blood. ___ Ever since the military seized control in February, the conflict in Myanmar has become increasingly bloody. Security forces have killed more than 700 people, including a boy as young as 9. In the meantime, the faces of the missing have flooded the Internet in growing numbers. Online videos show soldiers and police beating and kicking young men as they’re shoved into vans, even forcing captives to crawl on all fours and hop like frogs. Recently, photos of young people detained by security forces also have begun circulating online and on military-controlled Myawaddy TV, their faces bloodied, with clear markings of beatings and possible torture. The military’s openness in broadcasting such photos and brutalizing people in daylight is one more sign that its goal is to intimidate. At least 3,500 people have been detained since the military takeover began, more than three-quarters of whom are male, according to an analysis of data collected by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors deaths and arrests. Of the 419 men whose ages were recorded in the group’s database, nearly two-thirds are under age 30, and 78 are teenagers. Nearly 2,700 of the detainees are being held at undisclosed locations, according to an AAPP spokesman. The group says its numbers are likely an undercount. “The military are trying to turn civilians, striking workers, and children into enemies,” says Ko Bo Kyi, AAPP’s joint secretary. “They think if they can kill off the boys and young men, then they can kill off the revolution.” After receiving questions from The Associated Press, the military, known as the Tatmadaw, called a Zoom press conference, during which it dubbed the AAPP a “baseless organization,” suggested its data was inaccurate, and denied security forces are targeting young men. “The security forces are not arresting based on genders and ages,” said Capt. Aye Thazin Myint, a military spokeswoman. “They are only detaining anyone who is rioting, protesting, causing unrest, or any actions along those lines.” Some of those snatched by security forces were protesting. Some have links to the military’s rival political party, most notably Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the elected government that the military toppled and is now under house arrest. Others are taken for no discernable reason. They are typically charged with Section 505(A) of the Penal Code, which, in part, criminalizes comments that “cause fear” or spread “false news.” Both the military and police — who fall under the Tatmadaw’s command via the Ministry of Home Affairs — have been involved in the arrests and disappearances, sometimes working in tandem, according to interviews with detainees and families. Experts believe that suggests a coordinated strategy. “The Myanmar police force and the Tatmadaw moved in in a very deliberate way, in a coordinated way, in similar ways, in disparate locations, which to us would indicate that they were working according to orders,” says Smith of Fortify Rights. “It would appear as though there was ... some national level communication and coordination taking place.” Manny Maung, a Myanmar researcher for Human Rights Watch, says one woman she spoke with described being viciously beaten by police until what looked like a senior military official told them to stop. “They’re definitely following orders from military officials,” Maung says. “And whether they’re coordinating — they’re certainly turning up to places together.” So desperate for information are the loved ones of the lost that some families have resorted to a grim experiment: They send food into the prisons and hope if it isn’t sent back out, that means their relatives are still inside. Myanmar human rights activist Wai Hnin Pwint Thon is intimately acquainted with the Tatmadaw’s tactics. Her father, famed political activist Mya Aye, was arrested during a 1988 uprising against military rule, and the family waited months before they learned he was in prison. He was arrested again on the first day of this year’s military takeover. For two months, the military gave Wai Hnin Pwint Thon’s family no information on his whereabouts. On April 1, the family learned he was being held at Yangon’s notorious Insein prison. “I can’t imagine families of young people who are 19, 20, 21, in prison… We are this worried and we’re used to this situation,” she says. “I’m trying to hold onto hope, but the situation is getting worse every day.” ___ Mee, a 27-year-old villager in the northern region of Mandalay, watched as children on motorbikes raced past her house toward the woods. Not long after, the village elders arrived with a dire warning: All the boys must leave and get somewhere safe. The soldiers might be coming. Just two hours later, Mee says, the elders asked the girls to hide, too. The military’s scare tactics have proven enormously effective. In villages and cities across the country, residents regularly take turns holding night watches, banging pots and pans or yelling to neighbors from the street if soldiers or police are spotted. “I am more afraid of being arrested than getting shot,” says one 29-year-old man who was arrested, beaten and later released, and who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retribution. “I have a chance of dying on the spot with just one shot. But being arrested, I am afraid that they would torture me.” Fearing for her life on that March afternoon, Mee and hundreds of fellow villagers fled to pineapple farms in the surrounding hills. When she arrived, she saw scores of people from other villages hiding in the forest. That night, as mosquitos swarmed and sounds from the forest haunted them, the women stayed inside a small bamboo tent while the boys took turns standing guard. No one slept. Mee was terrified but not surprised. Many of the villagers had run from the military and hidden in the woods before. “It’s heartbreaking,” she says. For decades, the Tatmadaw has used arbitrary arrests, disappearances, forced labor and other abuses to crush pro-democracy movements and suppress minorities, including its notoriously brutal 2017 campaign of persecution against Rohingya Muslims. “Sometimes communities are asked to provide a number of young men on a ‘voluntary’ basis; sometimes they are taken,” Laetitia van den Assum, a former diplomat and a member of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, said in an e-mail. Arbitrary arrests continue across the country daily. Just two weeks earlier, a few minutes away from Mee’s village, 24-year-old philosophy student Ko Ko was walking home from a protest with a friend when they were arrested. His parents learned of their imprisonment from friends of friends, not officials. More than a month later, his parents still haven’t heard from their only son, says Han, a neighbor. He’s part of an unlucky cohort: at least 44 people taken from the town are yet to be released, Han says. While many of the young men in Mee’s village returned home after two nights in the pineapple fields, some continue to sleep there. Mee has since gone back to her village. Whenever she sees a soldier, she runs. But her fear has largely given way to fury. “I was angry that night, and I am still angry,” she says. “It’s so frustrating that the people who are supposed to be protecting our lives, our safety, our livelihoods and our homes are the people who are chasing us and killing us. … We are helpless.” ___ The glass was shattering, and there was nowhere left for the 21-year-old university student to run. The soldiers were smashing through the front doors of the house in Mandalay. The chaos of such raids is usually followed by a sinister silence, with the families of the taken rarely hearing from officials. But the accounts of some survivors who dare to speak about their ordeals help fill the void of what often happens next. The student, who asked that his name be withheld out of fear of retaliation, had taken refuge in the house along with around 100 others after security forces stormed a rally they were attending. The soldiers had thrown tear gas at them, forcing them to flee. Now he and a half dozen others were cornered in a bathroom on the home’s second level. Downstairs, the security forces used a slingshot and the butt of a gun to break through the doors. The soldiers began beating the boys they found inside, so viciously that a few of their heads cracked open. They urinated on one young man. The student watched as the glass above the bathroom door imploded. “They are here!” the soldiers yelled, then burst in, guns drawn. He bowed his head, since anyone who looked at the soldiers was kicked. The soldiers kicked him anyway, twice in the waist, and hit him twice in the head. As he was marched down the stairs, he saw a soldier with a gun standing on nearly every step. He and around 30 other young men were arrested and ushered into a prison van. Both the military and police were there. The soldiers threatened to burn the van and tauntingly offered the detainees juice before throwing it at them. When they arrived at the prison, the young man saw 400 to 500 people in the temporary holding area. The next day, he was charged with Section 505(A) of the penal code. He and around 50 others spent nine days jammed into one room. There were only two toilets. They were allowed out of the cell twice a day to clean themselves. The same water was used for showering, drinking, washing dishes and using the toilet. When the young man learned he was being transferred to the main prison, he wanted to cry. A few days before his arrest, he had been looking at missing persons posts on social media. Now he realized most of those people were probably in prison like him. The young man had good reason to be frightened. “People are disappearing and turning up dead,” says Maung, of Human Rights Watch. “We have had primary reports, also, of torture while they’re in custody.” The group found that some people detained inside Insein prison were subjected to beatings, stress positions and severe interrogation tactics, up until March 4, Maung says. After that, guards began taking prisoners to second locations and torturing them, then returning them to Insein. In Mandalay, the young man’s family was sick with worry. Some of his friends told them he had been arrested; the authorities never called them. His family sent food into the prison for him. But even when it wasn’t returned, they couldn’t be sure he was inside. They heard reports about protesters being tortured. His sisters cried constantly. Thirteen days after his arrest, the young man was allowed ten minutes to speak with his sister. A week later, an official ordered him to pack his things. In shock, he realized he was being released. There was no time to say goodbye to his friends. The officials took videos and photos of him and around 20 others, and told them to sign statements promising they wouldn’t break the law again. Then they were set free. He didn’t feel lucky — he felt horrible. He didn’t understand why he’d been singled out for release while his friends were still stuck inside. “None of us really feel safe living our normal lives now. For me now, I have reservations walking alone outside even in my neighborhood,” he says. “And also, I feel worried to see the parents of my friends in the neighborhood, because I am out — and their children are not.” ___ Back in Yangon, Shwe stared at the puddles of blood on the floor of the shop where her baby brother had been. It looked as if the security forces had half-heartedly tried to wash it away, but red pools remained. Maybe the blood wasn’t his, she told herself. Shwe’s brother and three other young men from the shop had been hauled away. Neighbors told the family that both police and soldiers were there. The neighbors said the security forces may have targeted the boys because they spotted someone inside the shop with a steel dart slingshot. At 2 a.m., a police officer called to say Shwe’s brother was at a military hospital and had been shot in the hand. They later learned security forces had shot another young man’s finger during the raid. Shwe says her family told the police that her brother was underage. The officer, she says, reassured them that because he was a minor, he probably wouldn’t be charged. Around 7 a.m., the family went to the hospital to bring him food. But their pleas to see him were rejected. Shwe and her family were later told that he was being moved to a prison hospital. Then, on the night of March 27, came the news that stunned them: Her brother and the three others had been charged with possession of weapons, and sentenced to three years in prison. They were allowed one brief phone call with him when he was first in the hospital, and nothing since. Shwe remembers hearing her brother tell their anguished mother, “Thar ah sin pyay tal.” I am OK. Shwe has no idea if that is still true. She worries for her brother, a quiet boy who loves playing games. She worries, too, for their mother, who cries and cries, and for their father, who aches for his only son. For now, they can do little more than wait and hope: That he won’t be beaten. That he will get a pardon. That the people of Myanmar will soon feel safe again. “Even though we are all in distress, we try to look on the bright side that at least we know where he is,” she says. “We are lucky that he was only abducted.” © copyright 2021 The Associated Press.

United Nations Security Council | April 28, 2021 With Violence Flaring across Syria, Chief United Nations Mediator Calls for ‘New Means’ of International Discussion, as Security Council Explores Options (Edlib Media Center via Associated Press) Emergency Relief Coordinator Warns that Halting Cross-Border Deliveries in North-West Will Sever ‘Lifeline to Millions’ A flare up of violence in Syria could trigger a rapid deterioration of the situation amid efforts to overcome a stalemate in constitutional talks ahead of general elections in May, the senior United Nations mediator warned the Security Council today during a videoconference meeting. Geir O. Pedersen, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria, sounded a warning to all parties to prioritize the search for a settlement to the decade-long conflict. Providing an overview of the Secretary-General’s latest report (document S/2021/390), he raised concerns about a significant escalation in the north-west. From a recent air strike on Syria by Israel to fresh attacks by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh), a steady rise in hostilities, kidnappings and troop movements bring the spectre of imminent escalation. He said a nationwide ceasefire outlined in resolution 2254 (2015) is essential, as is a cooperative approach to eradicating listed terrorist groups. Recent developments include a meeting in Geneva of the Syrian Women’s Advisory Board, where members voiced fears over Syria’s permanent division, alongside hope for a renewal of the political process. Persistent challenges include the destitution facing the Syrian people after a decade of conflict, corruption and mismanagement, war economies, Lebanon’s financial collapse, the pandemic, sanctions and fuel shortages. He appealed for continued donor support to the response plan and shared calls by the United Nations Civil Society Support Room for humanitarian and livelihoods programmes, and the application of all humanitarian exceptions to sanctions regimes. Stressing the importance of unblocking progress on detainees, abductees and missing persons, he said that as long as this file remains largely frozen, many Syrians will be unable to even begin to think about moving on, and the country’s social fabric cannot be restored. He called on the Government — and all other Syrian parties — to carry out unilateral releases of detainees and abductees and undertake meaningful actions on missing persons. “If this highly internationalized conflict is to move towards resolution, we need a more constructive and comprehensive international diplomacy on Syria to try to unlock progress step for step,” he insisted. A new means of international discussion or a new format could bring stakeholders with something to add to the table. Exploratory consultations could help test the possibilities and bridge the mistrust hindering progress. “We must begin to lay the groundwork for such an effort,” he said. Stressing that the United Nations is not involved in the 26 May presidential election, he said it was called under the auspices of the current Constitution and is not part of the political process established by resolution 2254 (2015), which mandates the Organization to facilitate a political process that culminates in the holding of free and fair elections, in accordance with a new constitution and the highest international standards of transparency and accountability. He then drew attention to the Syrian-led and Syrian-owned Constitutional Committee, established by an agreement between the Government and the Syrian Negotiations Commission, and facilitated by the United Nations. Appealing to the Co-Chairs and members to respect the Terms of Reference and adhere to the Code of Conduct in public statements, he said a newly discussed proposal, if implemented, would help the Committee to gradually advance its work. “We cannot get there all in one go, but there are steps that could be taken to generate some movement, and it requires constructive international diplomacy to identify and implement them,” he said. “I am open to any suggestions or advice, but I see no other path than this to help the Syrian people to navigate out of their terrible crisis and towards a better future that meets their legitimate aspirations and restores Syria’s sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity.” Turning to the pandemic, Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said COVID-19 testing across Syria is so limited that it only shows “the very tip of the iceberg”, but all signs point to the virus accelerating rapidly. The number of new cases recorded by the Ministry of Health in March was double the figure for February, and hospitals in Damascus are full. While the United Nations is providing personal protection equipment and training for medical workers and supporting the rollout of vaccination campaigns, he noted that doses supplied through the COVID‑19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Facility will cover 20 per cent of the population. Although not nearly enough, it is a vital first step in protecting medical workers and those most vulnerable. On the economic crisis, he cited volatility in the exchange rate in April, though it strengthened to around 3,400 Syrian pounds to the United States dollar on the informal market, from its lowest point of 4,700 to the dollar in March. Food prices overall remain at historic levels, with subsidized bread prices doubled this month in Al Hassakeh. More than half of Syrian households are reporting insufficient or insufficiently nutritious food. “That’s an increase of over 70 per cent compared to last year,” he said, while fuel shortages forced the cancellation of several humanitarian field missions. Addressing violence across the country, he condemned the killing of two more aid workers — volunteers for national non-Governmental organization Al Bir and Al Ehsan Ras Al Ain, who died in a 17 April attack near Deir ez-Zor. “Humanitarian workers in Syria deliver life-saving aid under the most challenging circumstances and at great personal risk,” he stressed. “They must be protected.” The organization is also monitoring tensions in and around Qamishli and Al Hassakeh cities, where clashes killed three civilians and displaced 15,000 people. Along with insecurity at al Hol camp, “we are seeing a collective failure to protect women and children” he said, with tens of thousands of children growing up in desperate conditions there and elsewhere. He urged relevant Member States to rapidly and safely allow for the voluntary repatriation of their nationals in line with international law and standards. He went on to stress that the Alouk water station has again been interrupted for the past two weeks, impacting nearly half a million people in Al Hassakeh. Across the north-west, millions of people live along the border in an active war zone, dependent on aid delivered from Turkey. As the operation reaches 2.4 million people every month, “a failure to extend the cross-border authorization would sever this lifeline,” he assured. In the north-east, 25 trucks containing food rations have been stuck outside Qamishli since 23 April due to violence. And while the United Nations has scaled up cross-line deliveries, “needs continue to outstrip our ability to respond”, particularly since the removal of Al Yarubiyah as an authorized border crossing in January 2020. Conditions at Rukban refugee camp meanwhile remain dire, with no cross-line assistance delivered to its 12,000 people since September 2019. Although the United States and European Union have assured that their sanctions do not ban the flow of humanitarian supplies to Syria, he pointed out that more than half of the international Damascus-based non-governmental organizations have reported serious banking issues in 2021. And despite the $4.4 billion pledged at the fifth Brussels Conference in March, much more is needed in order for humanitarian organizations to meet the needs of 12.3 million Syrians this year. In the ensuing debate, some delegates welcomed the forthcoming presidential election, while others objected to its planned conduct in May under the current Constitution, arguing that the decision defies the political process by preventing millions of Syrians displaced or living as refugees from voting or running as candidates. Speakers roundly welcomed the COVAX vaccine deliveries and called for all steps to be taken to advance a political solution to end the conflict. The representative of Ireland, speaking also for Norway, said that 9 in 10 Syrians now live in poverty, with 60 per cent of the population at risk of going hungry this year, representing the worst numbers in the history of the conflict at a time when COVID-19 is exacerbating the situation. Condemning reports of grave violations against children and recent violence against humanitarian workers, she expressed strong support for all efforts to ensure aid reaches the growing numbers of those in need in north-west Syria, where 3.4 million people — 21 per cent more than in 2020 — require assistance. Expressing support for all efforts to put in place a cross-line support mission to north-west Syria, she called on all parties to engage constructively and in a spirit of compromise to ensure this important mission can proceed. The United Nations-mandated cross-border operation in the north-west reaches almost 85 per cent of people in need every month. Without this sustained and predictable access, civilian suffering would rise to levels not seen in a decade of conflict, further driving instability in Syria and the region. The immense humanitarian needs clearly demonstrate that Security Council resolution 2533 (2020) must be renewed. Speaking in her national capacity, she noted with regret Syria’s lack of substantive engagement in the work of the Constitutional Committee, which frustrates the possibilities for real progress and falls far short of the legitimate expectations of the people. Highlighting other concerns, she called on all parties to take measures to prevent and end child casualties in the conduct of hostilities, end their recruitment and unconditionally release them from the ranks of all armed groups. Attacks on schools and their use for military purposes are reprehensible and must end, and all parties must remove the obstacles to education in areas under their control. It is past time for the Council to shoulder its responsibility and call on Syrian authorities to engage meaningfully within the Constitutional Committee and a wider political process, she said, as outlined in resolution 2254 (2015). The Council should also demand that authorities comply with their obligations under international law and end their brutal policies, so that the people of Syria can live in freedom and without fear. The representative of the Russian Federation said the Council’s virtual format is unjustifiable, especially when United Nations Headquarters is safe. His delegation held 10 in-person meetings under its 2020 presidency and the General Assembly regularly convenes live sessions. Nothing is stopping the Council from doing the same, he said, urging the current Vietnamese and upcoming Chinese presidencies to hold live meetings. Turning to the situation in Syria, he said worsening humanitarian conditions are linked to sanctions imposed by the collective West, and chronic instability remains tied to occupying and foreign forces, including Israel’s air strikes. The Russian Federation continues to work towards advancing the political process, which must be Syrian-owned without any outside interference, he said, urging actors to refrain from pushing negative narratives ahead of general elections. Raising other concerns, he said the United States claims that Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham — which the Council listed as a terrorist organization — should be supported because it is “the lesser of two evils”. Welcoming COVAX vaccine deliveries, he said Syria is working on this issue as well as granting permission for aid deliveries. Aid supplies currently stuck in warehouses due to fuel shortages can be linked to United States oil extraction activities in occupied Syrian territory. Turning to the fifth Brussels Conference and its call for contributions, he said Syria has not been involved with these matters and typically receives very few contributions. The Russian Federation has recently repatriated children and, given the worsening situation in camps, he called on Council colleagues to ensure decent conditions for their own citizens. Finally, the absence of launching even one humanitarian convoy from Damascus is “open sabotage”, he said, questioning how colleagues can discuss the territorial integrity of Syria in the Council if they do not want to open a corridor. The representative of the United Kingdom welcomed the first delivery of more than 250,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX Facility last week, noting her Government has pledged $700 million in support. While more than 50,000 vaccines arrived through the north-west Bab al-Hawa border crossing last week, she expressed concern over the predicted disruption to future deliveries, should the Council fail to renew that mandate. Such a move would contradict the Council’s own ambition, she said, as the life-saving aid includes World Food Programme (WFP) deliveries serving millions of people and facilitates non-governmental organization operations providing protection, health, water and sanitation. Citing the Secretary-General’s warnings, she stressed that even if deployed regularly, cross-line convoys cannot replicate the size and scope of the cross-border operation. On the political track, she noted the core of conflict resolution requires a new Syrian constitution, followed by free and fair elections. However, holding presidential elections in May under the previous constitution runs counter to that process, with millions of Syrians displaced or living as refugees and prevented from voting or running for the office. Referring to “vanity elections”, she urged the regime to focus on actively and genuinely participating in the implementation of resolution 2254 (2015). The representative of Estonia said the spread of COVID-19 in Syria endangers the most vulnerable groups and hampers the humanitarian response. Cross-line aid meanwhile is irregular and unreliable, he added, making cross-border aid deliveries in July “our utmost duty” to ensure the Syrian people will receive necessary food items, medicine and vaccines. The economic situation remains fragile across the country, with corruption, warlordism and intra-communal fighting preventing the safe return of refugees. Weakening neighbouring economies have caused substantial losses for Syria, he said, as Syrian businesses have historically been strongly interlinked with those in Lebanon and elsewhere. Politically, Constitutional Committee talks in Geneva have not produced genuine dialogue, with proposed elections in May further undermining the process. The legitimate claims of the Syrian opposition must be taken into account, with free and fair elections including members of the diaspora. “Anything else would be considered yet another farce,” he said, with the Constitutional Committee continually “under-delivering”. He reiterated calls for an international mechanism to locate missing people or their remains, as well as accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity. All arbitrarily detained people, especially women, children and the elderly, must be released, he stressed. The representative of China said the United Nations should continue its work on a Syrian-owned process, calling on all parties in Syria to engage with the Special Envoy and advance progress in Constitutional Committee meetings. Urging the international community to respect the choice of the Syrian people in forthcoming general elections, he said Council members remain concerned about continued terrorist activities. The international community must enhance the provision of humanitarian relief and address such crises as oil shortages and COVID-19. Expressing support for the COVAX plan, he said China’s vaccine contributions have already arrived in Syria. Regarding sanctions and blockades, he urged States to immediately lift these restrictions, as they are deeply affecting the Syrian people. The United Nations must respect the role of the Government regarding humanitarian relief operations, he said, noting that the World Health Organization (WHO) has delivered much needed supplies. The United Nations convoy, however, has yet to make the trip, he said, wondering about the reason for the delay. China remains committed to advancing the political process and relieving the Syrian people’s suffering. The representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, expressing concern over reports of escalating tensions, voiced support for the Special Envoy’s efforts. Confidence-building measures are vital to the success of the wider political process, and the issue of missing and detained persons should be urgently addressed to foster goodwill. Concerned about Syria’s moribund economy, which has exacerbated the dire humanitarian emergency, she appealed to States to lift all unilateral coercive measures. She expressed support for the cross-border mechanism, which remains a lifeline for millions of Syrians in need. In addition, the pandemic has complicated the humanitarian crisis at camps for internally displaced persons, she said, reminding authorities that activities aimed at maintaining security in such locations must never result in a suspension of humanitarian access or violations of the rights of residents. She urged parties to work together to achieve a sustainable solution to issues related to the Alouk water station, as interruptions cannot continue to deprive services to hundreds of thousands of people. The international community must demonstrate respect for Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, including through the withdrawal of unauthorized foreign forces and regard for the perspectives of the Government in all discussions. The representative of France expressed concern over hostilities across the country and the potential resurgence of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh). As the month of Ramadan has begun, he reiterated the call for a nationwide cessation of hostilities under United Nations supervision. The humanitarian situation is worsening, he stressed, with 12 million Syrians experiencing food insecurity and COVID-19 spreading, with cases in the north-east increasing 57 per cent in one month. He emphasized that the regime’s systematic blockade of aid reveals that there is no alternative to the to cross-border mechanism, which must be renewed for 12 months. Calling for inclusive, free and transparent elections, with participation by the diaspora, he reiterated that France will not recognize the validity of regime elections planned for the end of May. There must also be progress on locating and freeing jailed and missing persons, as “there can be no peace without justice”, he said. The representative of India, noting the involvement of major foreign powers in the conflict, welcomed independent parallel political initiatives, while underscoring the centrality of the political process led by the United Nations, and stressing that the former must feed into the latter. He also expressed concern over increased terrorist activity on Syria’s soil and the fact that mercenaries are finding their way into other conflict zones, including in Africa. Turning to the humanitarian situation, he cited United Nations statistics indicating an estimated half-million deaths, millions of internal and external displacements, collapsed health infrastructure and children deprived of basic education – conditions exacerbated by COVID-19 and a national economic crisis. He called for increased humanitarian assistance to all Syrians without discrimination, politicization or preconditions, and for the international community to address impediments to cross-border and cross-line operations — particularly delays in granting requisite approvals to humanitarian aid convoys. The representative of Norway, pleased that the Women’s Syrian Advisory Board met this week, said that despite a dearth of Constitutional Committee meetings, much work has been done. She expressed support for the Special Envoy’s efforts and urged all parties to work in a constructive way to draft a constitution with a view to finding a political solution to the conflict. A different dynamic must move away from the current stalemate, she said, underlining the tenuous situation on the ground. The ceasefire called for in resolution 2254 (2015) must be heeded, she said, highlighting continued attacks by ISIL/Da’esh. Calling on Syria’s authorities to respect their international legal obligations, she said the inclusion of women in all processes is essential. Turning to forthcoming elections, she said all related elements of resolution 2254 (2015) must be respected. Progress on the situation in Syria is long overdue, she stressed. The representative of Kenya said that foreign interests and geopolitical competition are complicating the situation in Syria, shifting the focus away from people’s suffering. He called on the international community to “speak in one voice in the interest of the Syrian people,” while emphasizing the critical nature of cross-border aid deliveries, which have allowed the United Nations to deploy vaccines derived from the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) initiative through the Bab al-Hawa crossing. Noting, however, that needs exceed the ongoing humanitarian response — particularly as related to water sources at the Alouk water station — he urged the international community to pay special attention to critical infrastructure to alleviate suffering and possible waterborne diseases. Turning to “radicalization within camps”, he emphasized the need to support terrorist disengagement programmes delivered at sufficient scale within such camps and for countries to repatriate their citizens therefrom. The representative of Mexico said regular elections are fundamental to any democracy and should be carried out in Syria according to the highest international standards, under a new constitution and with broad participation, including the diaspora. To that end, the Government and the opposition must participate in constructive constitutional talks. He called for the release of detainees and investigations into the fate of disappeared persons, which could potentially require use of the mechanism cited by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). While the arrival of the first vaccines under the COVAX Facility is an encouraging development, the process requires safe, swift and unhindered humanitarian access. The Council must strengthen and broaden that process, and also renew the cross-border mechanism for another 12 months, or face the failure of vaccine deployment to the north-west and deliveries by WFP. The representative of Tunisia expressed hope for progress on the political track through meetings of the Constitutional Committee, aiming to find points of convergence in accordance with resolution 2254 (2015). With tensions and violence prevalent throughout the country, maintaining a ceasefire is crucial in the short-and long-term. He therefore reiterated the appeal to all parties to de-escalate hostilities in order to improve the humanitarian situation and create a safer, stable and impartial environment. The proliferation of terrorist organizations including ISIL/Da’esh is cause for serious concern, he stressed, requiring coordinated efforts under international law. With the deteriorating internal situation impacting all aspects of life, he called for redoubled efforts “everywhere in the humanitarian sphere”, as well as measures to fight food insecurity and the spread of COVID-19. Cross-line and cross-border aid deliveries are crucial, he stated, calling on parties in the north-west to be flexible in allowing convoys through the contact line. The representative of the United States said the Assad regime has blocked the drafting of a constitution ahead of elections that will be neither free nor fair to the Syrian people. “The election on 26 May will be a sham,” she said, underlining the need for a new constitution and United Nations action to advance the political process. Until such actions are taken, she said: “We will not be fooled”. Moreover, the United States will not support any reconstruction effort that benefits the regime, she clarified, emphasizing that the Syrian people are in distress while the Assad regime runs its “sham elections”. Highlighting the United States recent multi-million-dollar aid contributions, she said the Assad regime continues to hinder aid deliveries, including at two crossing points in north-west Syria. There is no alternative to the scope and scale of the United Nations cross-border mechanism, as one crossing is clearly not enough. Should the United Nations lose access to a cross-border mechanism, the impact of COVID-19 on Syria will go from bad to catastrophic. The Assad regime and the Russian Federation have obstructed United Nations deliveries, she said, voicing support for aid operations and the Syrian people. The representative of Niger echoed the Special Envoy’s frustration over the stalemate, calling for all parties to engage constructively to find a long-term solution to the conflict. Supporting the Special Envoy’s call for additional meetings, he said the work of the Constitutional Committee must go hand-in-hand with other aspects of the crisis, including the end of external interference. Supporting the upcoming elections, he remained concerned about violence, targeted attacks against hospitals and worsening conditions in camps. Recognizing the right of the Government to combat terrorism on its territory, he expressed regret that attacks continue to target aid convoys. He called on all actors to ensure that aid supplies reach those in need. Welcoming the start of COVAX vaccine deliveries, he urged the donor community to assist the Syrian people, including by honouring their pledges made at the fifth Brussels Conference. The representative of Viet Nam, Council President for April, spoke in his national capacity, noting that the security situation has been relatively calm since the ceasefire in north-west Syria, but sporadic incidents still cause serious concerns. He called on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and refrain from actions that could lead to further escalation, reminding them of their obligations under international law, international humanitarian law, and resolution 2573 (2021), unanimously adopted on 27 April. The humanitarian situation has shown no sign of recovery, as millions of Syrians still struggle to afford food, fuel and other basic goods amid a severe economic crisis and pandemic. With a worsening COVID-19 situation requiring urgent delivery of vaccines everywhere, he welcomed the recent shipment through the COVAX Facility to Damascus and the north-west, commending the heroic efforts of the United Nations, humanitarian and health care workers on the ground. Still, he stressed that a comprehensive political solution, led and owned by Syrians themselves, in line with resolution 2254 (2015), is the only way forward. The representative of Syria questioned how nine donor conferences on the situation in Syria could have been held while data from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs indicates deteriorating living conditions, declining food security indicators, increasing numbers of people in need of humanitarian aid and persistent suffering among displaced and refugee populations. He attributed this inconsistency to the failure of donors to fulfil their pledges, allocation of the lion’s share of aid to neighbouring countries and regions outside Government control, spending most of the remaining funding on a United Nations office in Gaziantep that has “no function other than diverting attention from the crimes of terrorist organizations”, and the deliberate disregard for the effects of unilateral coercive measures on the Syrian people or the accompanying plunder of national wealth by United States forces occupying the north-east. For its part, Syria continues its constructive engagement with United Nations agencies to “deliver aid to those who deserve it”, he said, but it rejects the cross-border assistance mechanism, which violates Syria’s sovereignty. Blaming “Turkish occupation forces and their affiliated terrorist organizations” for obstructing humanitarian access, he cited as an example their failure to allow the joint convoy to reach Atarib in the north-west. Worse is the Turkish regime’s use of drinking water as a weapon against civilians, deliberately cutting off supply from the Alouk water station to Al-Hasakah for a period of 20 days. He called on the Security Council to exert the necessary political pressure to find a durable solution to these issues. More broadly, the conduct of a presidential election is within the constitutional timeframe, he said, demonstrating Syria’s desire to ensure the regularity of its institutions and determination to thwart “external plots aimed at creating an institutional and constitutional vacuum” and imposing “creative chaos” as an alternative. The representative of Iran expressed concern over reports that certain foreign forces are cooperating with terrorists in camps under their control, calling for increased efforts to uproot terrorists and for the withdrawal of all uninvited foreign forces from Syria. He also rejected any use of counter-terrorism efforts to support separatist tendencies, illegitimate self-rule initiatives or violations of Syria’s sovereignty, condemning United States occupation of and Israeli aggression towards Syria. The refugee crisis meanwhile cannot be overcome with the provision of humanitarian assistance alone. Rather, countries must take practical steps to expedite the return of refugees and internally displaced persons. Further, he called for the immediate removal of sanctions that weaponize food and medicine in flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations and for uninvited foreign forces to stop their “shameful practice” of systematically looting the Syrian people’s much-needed oil. The representative of Turkey recounted his recent visit, along with the President of the General Assembly, to the border town of Hatay, where the United Nations channels cross-border humanitarian aid to millions of people in need. From the Turkish side of the border, he observed the dire humanitarian conditions in overcrowded camps in Syria, where people struggle to survive on aid arriving from Bab al-Hawa border crossing and await vaccination. Some 50,000 vaccines were transferred into the region last week, with 20 per cent of the population in Syria’s north-west region scheduled to receive them. It is simply not possible to replace the “unique and indispensable” United Nations monitoring mechanism. If it stops operating, “we will lose one of the best scrutinized and robust mechanisms in the world,” he insisted. The only way out for 2.7 million internally displaced people will be to escape Syria, creating new migration flows to neighbouring countries and Europe. Despite the Constitutional Committee opening a window of opportunity for a political solution, Syria’s regime continues to block its work with unreasonable requests aimed at undermining the opposition, he said. In addition, elections announced for 26 May do not meet any of the criteria outlined in resolution 2254 (2015). Meanwhile, violence persists, with ceasefire violations and attacks against civilians in Idlib, and the PKK/PYD [Kurdish Workers’ Party/Democratic Union Party] targeting Syrian civilians — and Turkey — from Tel Rifat, Manbij and Ayn Isa. The group has carried out 400 attacks since October 2019, including car bombs. He said it “shamelessly announces these terrorist attacks through its social media accounts” and sets free — for political or financial gain — ISIL/Da’esh members, posing a grave danger to Syria’s neighbours. He said the organization is also responsible for cutting electricity at the Alouk water station in Hasakah, leaving only 3 of its 12 water pumps operational. These unlawful actions place half a million innocent lives at risk and impede efforts to effectively combat the pandemic. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has verified that from 24 February to 23 March, at least 16 civilians were killed and 70 were injured by shelling and airstrikes in the north-west. Noting that the latest report of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Investigation and Identification Team established that Syria’s air force used chlorine in a 4 February 2018 attack against civilians in Saraqib, he said the regime is responsible for at least eight proven chemical weapons attacks. The representative of Syria, taking the floor a second time, said it was regrettable that discussions in the Council continue amid such hostility and provocation. Some of the statements made today help no one, he stated, and certainly not the Syrian people. Responding to the “arrogant and false information” from Turkey’s representative, he said: “We know what is happening” in Iraq, Cyprus and other countries. “We know what happens in Turkish prisons.” Given the suffering of thousands of citizens in Turkey, that delegate is not entitled to lecture others on human rights or believe he has the authority to preach. “You should be ashamed of yourself, sir,” he stated, adding that Turkish authorities are committing crimes in Syria and “have blood on their hands”. Copyright © United Nations 2021

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - One of the key people accused of war crimes and genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s said on Tuesday he would prefer to be tried in front of the International Criminal Court (ICC) rather than what he said were biased Sudanese courts. FILE PHOTO: Sudan's ousted President Omar al-Bashir is seen inside the defendant's cage during his and some of his former allies trial over the 1989 military coup that brought the autocrat to power in 1989, at a courthouse in Khartoum, Sudan September 15, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo Ousted President Omar al-Bashir has for years resisted the ICC warrants against him and four close allies over the conflict in Sudan’s western region that killed an estimated 300,000 people and drove 2.5 million from their homes. They face charges at The Hague of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed by pro-government forces in Darfur beginning in 2002. “An authority with this kind of miserable performance will not be able or willing to carry out justice,” one of the four allies, Ahmed Haroun, said in a statement verified by his family, referring to Sudanese courts. “... And so I state with full confidence that it is better for my case to be argued, if there is a case worth arguing, in front of the International Criminal Court.” Another of Bashir’s allies, Ali Kushayb, surrendered to the ICC in the Central African Republic in June. The ICC issued arrest warrants for Bashir in 2009 and 2010 accusing him of masterminding atrocities in his campaign to crush a revolt in Darfur region. Sudan’s transitional government, formed after an uprising that removed Bashir and sent him, Haroun, and several others to jail in April 2019, has said it will cooperate with the ICC and ICC officials have visited Sudan. But it is not yet clear whether the defendants will be sent to The Hague or tried inside Sudan. There was no immediate statement from Sudan’s public prosecutor. In his statement, Haroun said that he refused to testify as part of a Sudanese investigation into the Darfur conflict, complaining that he had been detained indefinitely and that many judges and prosecutors had been removed by the transitional government. While he described the ICC prosecution as politicised, Haroun said he felt he would be more likely to receive a fair trial in The Hague. Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Nick Macfie © Copyright 2021 Reuters

Fred Hiatt | The Washington Post At first, when a few brave journalists at Radio Free Asia began alerting the world to the terrible events unfolding in western China, China’s Communist rulers denied that anything at all was taking place. Then, when satellite photos and survivor testimony became too overwhelming, the regime admitted that, yes, there are camps. But not concentration camps! Those are … vocational schools! Pay no attention to the barbed wire and guard towers. Now, even as it maintains its increasingly threadbare lies, the regime is intensifying the third phase of genocide denial: attacking the truth-tellers. More than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are being held in China’s brutal camps. Hundreds of mosques and Muslim cemeteries have been destroyed. Muslim women are forcibly sterilized; Uyghur children are taken from their homes and sent to state-run boarding schools. Men can be sent away for wearing a beard or declining to consume pork or alcohol. The Chinese Communists are attempting to wipe out a culture, a way of life, a people. We know this thanks to Radio Free Asia reporter Gulchehra Hoja and her colleagues, to a few dogged academics and to dozens of survivors and exiles who have bravely given testimony. At a news conference this month, the Chinese Foreign Ministry attacked many of those witnesses as liars, criminals, terrorists and persons of “bad morality,” as RFA reported. One of those named as a terrorist was Hoja, 48, who agreed to speak with me Friday. While we were talking, she learned that the regime has listed her father, Abduqeyum Hoja, as a terrorist as well. “He is 80 years old!” she exclaimed. “A retired archaeologist. What kind of terrorist?” For that matter, what kind of terrorist is Hoja? She was the young and popular host of a children’s television program on Xinjiang Television, she told me, when she began to understand the discrimination her people were facing. She visited poor Uyghur children who, even then, had been sent to “mainland China” to be raised away from their culture and religion. “They were separated from their families at such a young age, leading such difficult lives,” she recalled. “I saw desperation in their eyes.” On a trip to Europe, she was able to roam the Internet unfettered for the first time. She heard uncensored news on the congressionally sponsored Radio Free Asia. She came to believe that, to practice honest journalism, she would have to leave China. In October 2001 she landed at Dulles International Airport, and the next day she went to work for RFA. Almost immediately the authorities forced her father to retire and confiscated his passport. Hoja has not been allowed to see her parents since, and in recent years, she could rarely talk with them. China has constructed the world’s most technologically advanced, stifling surveillance-state in western China. All calls and movements are monitored. When Hoja became one of the first people to testify in Congress about the crimes against humanity underway in her homeland, her mother and 23 other relatives were incarcerated. Her brother, younger by a year and a half, was sentenced to three years. All communication with family ceased. So it came as both a shock and a relief when Chinese officials produced a video of her mother and brother earlier this month. “We are living pretty well,” her mother says. “We enjoy freedom of religion and belief,” her brother says, and then goes on to criticize his sister’s “wrong” beliefs. Hoja surmised that her brother has only recently been released, because his hair is still so short. Neither her brother nor her mother is speaking naturally, she said. “To see your parent in a propaganda video, it’s a horrible thing,” she said. “But still, compared to my colleagues, I am the luckiest one, because I know they are alive.” It has been so long, she said, and her mother has endured so much that her face is "not recognizable.” “But I can feel her love, we have a special connection, no one can stop a connection between a mother and a daughter.” More than a half-dozen journalists at Radio Free Asia have had relatives locked up or disappeared as punishment for their journalism. Thanks to a devastating account by Raffi Khatchadourian in the New Yorker this month, no one can doubt what kind of hell they disappear into when they are taken to the camps. Yet Hoja and her colleagues continue to report because, she told me, “20 million of our people are voiceless over there, and every day under attack.” The question is whether the rest of us — our democratic governments, our companies doing business in western China, our Beijing 2022 Olympic athletes and sponsors — will honor the sacrifice of the truth-tellers and their families. “We need real action,” Hoja said. “We need real protection.” © Fred Hiatt for The Washington Post, 2021

Instability has plagued Libya since the Arab Spring, allied invasion, and subsequent ousting of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. Libya is host to over 570,000 migrants and refugees, mostly from Africa, located in urban centers along the Mediterranean, and an additional 278,000 displaced persons. 1.3 million Libyans are in need of humanitarian assistance. Between April-June 2020, the U.N. reported at least 102 civilian deaths and 254 civilians injured, which constitutes a 172% increase compared with January-March 2020. General Khalifa Haftar’s forces are culpable for the vast majority of these civilian casualties. In 2014, ISIS seized strategic cities such as Sirte and Derna, located less than 200 miles from Greece. ISIS was driven out by 2016. Libya is split in half. East and Central Libya are controlled by General Khalifa Haftar's Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF), formerly the Libyan National Army (LNA), based in Tobruk. It is supported by Russia, Egypt and the UAE. Eric Prince of Blackwater infamy also sent mercenaries to support Haftar. Western Libya is controlled by the Government of National Accord based in Tripoli, supported by Turkey. In 2020, the U.N. reported 20,000 foreign mercenaries from Russia, Syria, Turkey, the U.S., and other countries. Use of mercenaries violates a U.N. Security Council imposed arms embargo. The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), a political not a military mission, negotiated the Libyan Political Agreement in December 2015, which has finally resulted in a ceasefire in October 2020. U.N.-backed national elections are planned for December 2021, but the Libyan civil war is far from over. According to the International Criminal Court (ICC)'s prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, the LAAF and GNA have committed war crimes. She cited attacks on civilians. There has been an increase in hate speech in print, radio and social media which she says, “foments conditions in which mass atrocity crimes can occur.” More than 2,300 refugees and migrants are currently held in detention centers run by the GNA’s Interior Ministry where they face extortion, torture, rape, beatings, forced labor, no sanitation, lack of food, and human trafficking. After GNA troops recaptured territory previously occupied by the LAAF (LNA), 300 bodies, including those of women and children, were found in mass graves around Tarhunah and Tripoli. The U.N. has established a fact-finding mission to investigate these killings. Human Rights Watch has accused GNA-affiliated groups of committing extra-judicial killings and other grave human rights violations around Tarhunah. Libya is a tragic case of a failed state. It was abandoned by Western powers that invoked the "Responsibility to Protect," but that had neither the political will nor the comprehension of the complexity of Libyan politics to carry out the rebuilding of Libyan society that the R2P doctrine requires. Genocide Watch considers Libya to be at Stage 7: Preparation. Increased use of hate speech and the discovery of mass graves near Tarhunah demonstrate the deadly risks civilians face as a result of the ongoing civil war. Impunity for war crimes is total. Without a concerted national and international effort to hold perpetrators accountable, the cycle of impunity will continue. Further mass atrocities are inevitable. Genocide Watch recommends: · The EU should end its support of the Libyan Coast Guard, which forcibly turns back refugees and migrants attempting to escape to Europe. It imprisons them in squalid detention centers, where they are vulnerable to militias and human traffickers. Instead of pushing back refugees and migrants, the EU should revive its search-and-rescue operations and resettle refugees in Europe. · The U.N. Security Council should enforce the U.N. arms embargo on Libya and demand the withdrawal of all foreign mercenaries. Nations supporting him should pressure Haftar to cooperate with the U.N. fact-finding mission investigating the mass graves found around Tarhunah. The Security Council should demand compliance with the outstanding warrants for fugitives from the ICC.

The Turkish government, as well as human rights activists and ethnic Armenians, had a muted response to the news, describing the move as largely symbolic. By Katie Rogers and Carlotta Gall April 24, 2021Updated 12:39 p.m. ET WASHINGTON — President Biden on Saturday recognized the mass killings of Armenians more than a century ago as genocide, signaling a willingness to test an increasingly frayed relationship with Turkey, long a key regional ally and an important partner within NATO. “Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring,” Mr. Biden said in a statement issued on the 106th anniversary of a brutal campaign by the former Ottoman Empire that killed 1.5 million people. “And we remember so that we remain ever vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms.” The declaration by Mr. Biden reflected his administration’s commitment to human rights, a pillar of its foreign policy. It is also a break from Mr. Biden’s predecessors, who were reluctant to anger a country of strategic importance and were wary of driving its leadership toward American adversaries like Russia or Iran. The Turkish government, as well as human rights activists and ethnic Armenians, gave a muted response to the news, which leaked days in advance, describing the move as largely symbolic. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has repeatedly denied that the killings amounted to genocide, had lobbied hard to prevent the announcement, mounting a conference and media campaigns before the anniversary on Saturday. But when Mr. Biden spoke with Mr. Erdogan on Friday, the pair had agreed only to an “effective management of disagreements,” according to a summary of the conversation provided by the White House. A statement from the Turkish presidency said both leaders agreed on the “importance of working together.” The two are scheduled to meet at a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in June. During their call, Mr. Biden told Mr. Erdogan directly that he would be declaring the massacre an act of genocide, according to a person familiar with the discussion who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose details of the conversation. “We affirm the history,” Mr. Biden said in his statement on Saturday. “We do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated.” Since taking office, Mr. Biden has kept Mr. Erdogan at a distance, calling other world leaders — and leaving his Turkish counterpart, who enjoyed a friendly relationship with President Donald J. Trump, waiting for months. After news broke on Thursday of the impending announcement, Mr. Erdogan said in a statement that Turkey would “defend the truth against the lie of the so-called ‘Armenian genocide.’” Mr. Erdogan is widely expected to use the designation to whip up support at home, where he has increasingly adopted a nationalist-Islamist stance to retain his voter base. But political analysts said he was likely to tread carefully with the United States. Relations between the countries have reached their lowest point in decades, as Mr. Erdogan has turned increasingly combative in his dealings with Washington, particularly after a failed coup in 2016. Mr. Erdogan has blamed the bid to oust him from power on a Turkish cleric living in self-imposed exile in rural Pennsylvania, and by extension on the United States. Tensions escalated with Turkey’s deal to buy a missile system from Russia in 2017, which prompted the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Turkey in December. Syria, too, has been a flash point. Mr. Erdogan has bitterly criticized the United States military’s support of Kurdish forces in Syria that are affiliated with a group that has waged a decades-long insurgency against Turkey, and his own operations there have further tested the Atlantic alliance. Mr. Erdogan sees Turkey, a country of 80 million and a member of the Group of 20, as a regional power that deserves greater respect on the world stage. That view has fueled a greater geopolitical assertiveness demonstrated in military interventions in Syria, Libya, Iraq and Azerbaijan and in exploration for energy in contested waters in the eastern Mediterranean last year. European leaders and members of the Biden administration advocate continued engagement with Mr. Erdogan’s government because Turkey houses millions of Syrian refugees who might otherwise head to Europe. They also point to Turkey’s support for Ukraine and Afghanistan, where it will maintain a small force to train Afghan army and police personnel as the United States and other coalition troops withdraw by Sept. 11. The White House’s sustained silence toward Mr. Erdogan had been seen as a sign that Mr. Biden did not view Turkey as a priority and intended to manage the relationship at lower levels of the administration. “They don’t want to have a conflict with him, but they don’t want to be too cozy with him either,” said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, the director of the Ankara office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Mr. Erdogan would also not seek to damage relations further over the genocide designation, said Asli Aydintasbas, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. By one count, at least 29 other countries have taken similar steps. “In the past, Turkey used to issue all types of threats, but lately the policy toward genocide recognition from allies has been to shrug it off,” she said. “They will issue denouncements, but not go so far as to create a crisis.” Mr. Unluhisarcikli, like other analysts and human rights defenders, questioned the timing and purpose of the announcement. “At a time such as this, when the U.S.-Turkey relationship is very vulnerable, it will be more difficult to absorb the shock,” he said. “The Turkish government will feel obliged to respond in ways that are consequential for the U.S. and for U.S.-Turkey relationship.” The Turkish public will see it as evidence of American double standards, and anti-Western forces in Turkey will use it to incite fury, he said. Both opposition and pro-government leaders attacked the expected designation. “This is an improper, unfair stance,” said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the largest opposition party, the Republican People’s Party. Dogu Perincek, the leader of the ultranationalist Patriotic Party, in an open letter to Mr. Biden, questioned his authority to issue such a declaration. “As is known, the genocide against the Jews was adjudicated at an authorized court,” he wrote, “but regarding the 1915 incidents, there is no judicial ruling.” The killings of Armenians occurred at the end of World War I during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of modern Turkey. Worried that the Christian Armenian population would align with Russia, a primary enemy of the Ottoman Turks, officials ordered mass deportations in what many historians consider the first genocide of the 20th century: Nearly 1.5 million Armenians were killed, some in massacres by soldiers and the police, others in forced exoduses to the Syrian desert that left them starved to death. Turkey has acknowledged that widespread atrocities occurred during that period, but its leaders have adamantly denied that the killings were genocide. In the days leading up to Mr. Biden’s announcement, Armenians and human rights activists in Turkey expressed caution, partly because of years of political seesawing over the issue. “Personally, it is not going to make me excited,” Yetvart Danzikyan, the editor in chief of Agos, an Armenian-Turkish weekly newspaper in Istanbul, said, pointing to a statement President Ronald Reagan issued in 1981 about the Holocaust that mentioned the “genocide of the Armenians” in passing. Murat Celikkan, a journalist and longtime human rights activist, said the declaration would be good for American-Armenian citizens, but he did not expect it to change attitudes in Turkey or encourage reconciliation between Turks and Armenians. “It did not change with more than 20 countries officially recognizing it, including Germany,” he said. In the United States, some Armenian activists welcomed the declaration as a step forward. “The denial of the genocide has been such a painful chapter,” said Bryan Ardouny, the executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America. “This is a really critical moment in the arc of history, in defense of human rights.” The designation will bring an end to a longstanding denial of the slaughter, he said. “The president is standing firmly against basically a century of denial and is charting a new course,” he said. © 2021 The New York Times Company

Chevron, the United States’ second-largest oil and gas producer, has a long history of investing heavily in Washington influence. Credit...Jonathan Bachman/Reuters The oil company is arguing against efforts to restrict its involvement in a gas operation in Myanmar that provides funding for the junta there. The Myanmar military’s coup and brutal crackdown on dissent have left it with few allies in the West. But one of the most sophisticated corporate lobbying operations in Washington has mobilized to head off intensifying pressure on the Biden administration to impose broad sanctions against the state-owned oil and gas company helping to finance the junta. Chevron has dispatched lobbyists — including some former federal government officials, one of whom appears to have left the State Department just last month — to agencies including the State Department and key congressional offices to warn against any sanctions that might disrupt its operations in Myanmar, according to four people familiar with the lobbying. The California-based oil and gas giant says sanctions could endanger the long-term viability of a big Myanmar gas field in which it is a partner, risk worsening a humanitarian crisis for people who rely on the operation for power and expose the company’s employees to criminal charges. Chevron, the second-largest oil and gas producer in the United States, has a longstanding relationship with Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, or MOGE, a state-owned company that is closely connected to the military generals who seized power from elected leaders on Feb. 1. Since then, the military has killed an estimated 740 citizens of Myanmar and detained thousands more. Influential Democrats, diplomats and human rights activists are increasingly pressing the administration to impose sanctions on the state-owned company, which a United Nations human rights investigator told Congress last month “is now effectively controlled by a murderous criminal enterprise.” One of the military’s largest sources of revenue, bankrolling up to 70 percent of its operations in years past, according to analysts, is a gas field known as Yadana. The field has been operated since the 1990s by the French energy company Total S.A. in partnership with a Thai-owned oil and gas company, Myanmar’s state-owned company and Chevron. This year, Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise is expected to collect at least $536 million worth of gas and revenue from the operation of the Yadana field, according to estimates by EarthRights International, a nonprofit group that has analyzed Myanmar’s gas revenues based on publicly available information. Additionally, Chevron and its partners in the Yadana project pay taxes to the government in Naypyidaw to be able to operate in Myanmar — at least $120 million in 2018, according to EarthRights, which supports the sanctions and which joined dozens of human rights organizations last month in urging Chevron to withhold payments to Myanmar’s state-owned oil and gas company. After taxes and other payments to the Myanmar government, Chevron has been netting annual profits of $100 million to $150 million from its stake in Yadana and a pipeline company that transports the gas from Myanmar to Thailand, experts at EarthRights estimated. “This is a huge source of hassle-free cash that the regime gets right now,” said Marco Simons, the general counsel for EarthRights, who has tracked gas revenues in Myanmar for more than a decade. In one of its first major foreign policy declarations, the Biden administration in early February swiftly declared the military takeover a coup d’état, prompting restrictions on American aid and setting in motion about a half-dozen rounds of sanctions so far against the junta’s leaders, army units, and gemstone companies and other state-owned financial enterprises. The administration announced additional sanctions on Wednesday against Myanmar’s state-owned timber and pearl industries, whose exports generate what a senior Treasury Department official called “significant funding” for the military. Now President Biden and top officials at the State and Treasury Departments are facing mounting calls from congressional Democrats, the United Nations and human rights groups to levy sanctions that could restrict or cut off the ability of Chevron and other Western companies to continue doing business with Myanmar’s state-owned energy company. The Treasury Department declined to comment on Chevron’s lobbying or the possibility of new sanctions targeting Myanmar’s oil and gas sector. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who led the overthrow of Myanmar’s civilian government, during an Armed Forces Day parade last month. Credit...EPA, via Shutterstock State Department officials also would not discuss any prospective sanctions. A department statement said the Biden administration “will continue to use all available tools to make clear to the military that it will pay a serious price for its actions and must reverse course.” Last month, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, without naming names, pressured private corporations to rethink providing support for Myanmar’s military after the coup. “Some countries and some companies in various parts of the world have significant investments in enterprises that support the Burmese military,” Mr. Blinken said in releasing the State Department’s annual report on human rights abuses worldwide. “They should be looking at those investments and reconsidering them as a means of denying the military the financial support it needs to sustain itself against the will of the people.” Braden Reddall, a spokesman for Chevron, said in a statement that “we condemn the human rights abuses in Myanmar and we support the people of the country on their journey to a modern, peaceful and prosperous democracy.” Mr. Reddall said Chevron is “a nonoperating partner” in the Yadana field through an affiliate, which he said does not control direct payments to Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, other than income taxes. “If we do not pay our taxes, we stand in breach of contract, which could put employees at undue risk of criminal charges,” he said. He suggested that there could be other negative side effects from sanctions for people in the region, including the disruption of energy supplies. Gas from Yadana accounts for about 8 percent of the electricity in Thailand and around half of all electricity in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, Mr. Reddall said, adding that the energy “is crucial for homes, schools, hospitals” and communication. Yadana, he said, is “a mature field that requires ongoing maintenance to maintain safety and future production.” If the field were to be shut down for an extended period, he said, it “could adversely affect its future production potential.” Mr. Reddall said Chevron has not had any contact with the new military government and has “had no discussions with MOGE on the potential for sanctions.” He declined to discuss Chevron’s lobbying activities other than to say that the company “complies with all laws and regulations wherever we operate.” Chevron has long history of investing heavily in Washington influence. Kelley Eckels Currie, a former top State Department official, said Chevron “lobbied very hard” to omit Myanmar’s state-owned oil and gas company from the last major push to clamp down on the country’s military, a 2007 bill that targeted the country’s lucrative gem industry. “Chevron was all over the Hill, the State Department and Treasury,” said Ms. Currie, who at the time was working for the under secretary of state for global affairs and democracy. The oil and gas sector was omitted from the bill as Chevron wished. In the first three months of the year, Chevron spent $2.17 million on lobbying, according to a congressional disclosure it filed on Tuesday. It listed several in-house lobbyists who previously worked in Congress and the executive branch, and indicated that the company lobbied the State Department, the National Security Council, the Commerce Department and Congress on “Myanmar energy and investment issues.” The influential lobbying firm Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas indicated in a separate filing that it was paid $80,000 by Chevron partly to “monitor all sanctions affecting the oil and gas industry.” The firm did not respond to questions about whether that included Myanmar. Chevron’s lobbying push has unsettled State Department officials in particular, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Their irritation has been exacerbated in the last several weeks by one of Chevron’s lobbyists, Craig L. Hall, who indicated in an online biography that he retired from the department last month after two decades as a career diplomat, including working on policy for Southeast Asia. Three people familiar with his efforts said he has been reaching out to his former colleagues to discuss Myanmar. Without naming names, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken pressured private corporations to rethink providing support for Myanmar’s military after the coup. Credit...Pool photo by Mandel Ngan The Biden administration has established rules to restrict corporations, lobbying firms and foreign countries from enlisting former government officials to influence their old colleagues — an example of the revolving door that watchdogs denounce as monetizing public service and giving too much clout to special interests. But Mr. Hall and the other Chevron lobbyists appear to be abiding by the letter of the rules, which cover only political appointees and certain high-ranking career officials. Mr. Hall did not respond to messages sent through his Chevron email and LinkedIn account, and other attempts to contact him for comment were unsuccessful. Chevron’s lobbying against oil and gas sanctions is particularly notable because Myanmar’s military government has little presence of its own in Washington. The lone registered lobbyist for the new government is an enigmatic Montreal-based former arms dealer named Ari Ben-Menashe, who has registered to represent a number of authoritarian rulers. He was dismissed as a fabulist in a congressional report in the 1990s, and the extent of his ties to the junta in Myanmar is unclear. But since registering with the Justice Department last month as a lobbyist for Myanmar’s military government, he has been credited with helping to free an Associated Press reporter imprisoned by the junta and with arranging access to Myanmar for other journalists. Mr. Ben-Menashe said Chevron’s lobbying against prospective sanctions aligns with the interests of the Myanmar government and its state-owned oil and gas company, which he said “are supporting Chevron and its efforts,” though he declined to elaborate. (Mr. Reddall said that Chevron has had “no relationship” or contact with Mr. Ben-Menashe.) He said payments from Chevron and other multinational oil producers are “pretty important” to the Myanmar government, “because they don’t have that many revenue streams right now.” And Mr. Ben-Menashe suggested that sanctions against Myanmar’s oil and gas company could compel it to seek out Chinese partners to replace Chevron and Total, driving Myanmar closer to China. A growing number of civil society organizations have called for sanctions against Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, as has Thomas H. Andrews, the United Nations envoy for human rights in Myanmar. Mr. Andrews testified last month to a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee that the Biden administration “must sanction” MOGE and other state-owned entities “to meaningfully degrade the junta’s sources of revenue.” Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat who sits on the subcommittee to which Mr. Andrews testified, is planning to send a letter along with other senators to Mr. Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen suggesting that if they do not penalize the company, Myanmar’s military government will be able to withstand pressure from other sanctions. In a statement to The New York Times, Mr. Merkley urged the administration “to cut off revenue” to MOGE and to instead require Chevron and the other oil and gas companies doing business in Myanmar to “pay revenue into a trust which can be held for a democratically elected Myanmar government or used for humanitarian purposes.” Ken Vogel covers the confluence of money, politics and influence from Washington. He is also the author of “Big Money: 2.5 Billion Dollars, One Suspicious Vehicle, and a Pimp — on the Trail of the Ultra-Rich Hijacking American Politics.” @kenvogel • Facebook Lara Jakes is a diplomatic correspondent based in the Washington bureau of The New York Times. Over the past two decades, Ms. Jakes has reported and edited from more than 40 countries and covered war and sectarian fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, the West Bank and Northern Ireland. @jakesNYT A version of this article appears in print on April 23, 2021, Section A, Page 15 of the New York edition with the headline: Lobbying Drive Started By Chevron to Head Off Sanctions on Myanmar. Copyright 2021 The New York Times Company

To view all presentations at the conference click here "Ethnic Cleansing" is a term for Genocide Denial by Dr. Gregory Stanton & Jennifer Kirby-McLemore

The discovery of natural gas reserves in Qatar in 1939 transformed its economy. Gas revenues funded ambitious projects, such as hosting the 2022 Football World Cup. Qatari citizens have become some of the wealthiest people in the world. However, noncitizens make up ninety percent of Qatar’s population. Noncitizens have no political rights. Noncitizens have limited civil rights and economic opportunities. Two million of these noncitizens are migrant workers. The Kafala, or sponsorship, system is notorious for facilitating exploitation and abuse. It gives employers total power over a migrant workers’ immigration status. Domestic workers, who are mostly women, are often isolated in the private homes of their employers. They work long hours with no breaks, and they are sometimes victims of physical or sexual abuse. Migrant workers fear retribution by employers if they report mistreatment. Reprisals may include physical abuse, withheld wages, or deportation. Migrant workers face structural racial discrimination. U.N. Special Rapporteur Professor E. Tendayi Achiume found that there is a de facto caste system in which “European, North American, Australian, and Arab nationalities systematically enjoy greater human rights protections than South Asian and sub-Saharan nationalities.” This affects the types of jobs migrant workers are offered and the salaries they earn. The U.N. raised these concerns in light of the 2022 Football World Cup preparations, for which Qatar hired two million migrant workers, mostly from south Asia and east and west Africa. Qatar made significant labor reforms in 2020, including establishing a minimum wage for all workers and allowing migrant workers to switch jobs without the permission of their original employer. Though such measures would effectively end the Kafala system, they have not been fully implemented or enforced. In February 2021 the Shura Council recommended stripping migrant workers of many of the rights provided in the 2020 reforms. Though the United States has praised Qatar for its efforts to promote tolerance and diversity, the Anti-Defamation League found that anti-Semitism is still taught in Qatari schools. Qatar stopped teaching The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in 2017, but government-published textbooks still include anti-Semitic tropes accusing Jews of lust for power, greed, and perpetration of the blood libel. A survey of 200 textbooks found no mentions of the Holocaust. The official curriculum also denies the existence of Israel and calls on Muslims to take “every effort to liberate Palestine from the Occupation.” Genocide Watch considers Qatar to be at Stage 3: Discrimination and Stage 4: Dehumanization. Genocide Watch recommends: · The Qatari government should enforce the implementation of the 2020 labor reforms to ensure the end of the Kafala system. The Shura Council's recommendations to strip workers of their rights should be rejected. · The Qatari government should adopt and enforce legislation to address the structural racial discrimination faced by migrant workers. It should include the legal definition of racial discrimination in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. · The U.S., E.U., U.N., and corporate investors should demand that Qatar eliminate all anti-Semitic, anti-Israel teachings in its curriculum and textbooks. · Qatar should officially recognize the Holocaust and include genocide education in its schools.

Parliament will not debate motion and will instead discuss rights abuses in more general terms. New Zealand’s parliament will not debate a motion that would label the abuses of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, China, as acts of genocide. Parliament opted instead on Tuesday to water down the language, and discuss concerns about human rights abuses in the region in more general terms. It is expected the new motion will pass unanimously on Wednesday. However, it marks no deviation from the country’s current position. The foreign minister, Nanaia Mahuta, had already put out a statement in March, voicing “grave concerns about the growing number of credible reports of severe human rights abuses against ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang”. The ACT party deputy leader and foreign affairs spokesperson, Brooke van Velden, filed the original motion. She said the Labour party, which holds a majority in New Zealand’s parliament, would not support the motion unless “genocide” was removed from its wording. “It’s a sad state of affairs that we’ve needed to soften our language to debate hard issues,” she said in a statement. The New Zealand government has been under increasing pressure both domestically and from international allies to take a stronger stance on the situation in Xinjiang. By refusing to allow the genocide motion to move on to the debate stage, New Zealand’s government has moved out of step with some of its traditional partners, including Britain, Canada and the US. British MPs voted in April to declare China was committing genocide, and Britain and the EU have taken joint action with the US and Canada to impose sanctions on Chinese officials involved in the mass internment of Uyghur Muslims. In April, New Zealand’s stance was strongly criticised during the British parliamentary debate, with the Conservative MP Bob Seely saying the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, was “in a hell of an ethical mess”. On Tuesday, an open letter from Uyghurs in New Zealand called on parliament to declare the situation genocide. “We understand that New Zealand is not a military superpower, or a trade superpower, however, New Zealand is a moral superpower. We can influence the fate of the 20 million Uyghur people suffering back home,” it read. “We are desperate. For those of us in New Zealand, the most painful torture we face is social isolation … our friends, relatives and colleagues back home are either in prisons, concentration camps or subject to omnipresent surveillance and a total lack of freedom.” Evidence has emerged from China of mass internment of the Uyghur minority, as well as forced sterilisation, forced labour, and allegations of mass rape and torture in Xinjiang. Interviews with guards and detainees at the camps in February found “they experienced or saw evidence of an organised system of mass rape, sexual abuse and torture”. Analysis in March by a US-based thinktank, the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, found China had breached every single article of the UN genocide convention in its treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and was committing a genocide. China has strongly denied accusations of human rights abuses. So far, the New Zealand government has been attempting to balance its human rights commitments with the demands of its largest trade partner. Near the end of 2020, the value of exports to China alone surpassed the value of New Zealand’s next four largest trading partners – Australia, the US, UK, and Japan – combined. Trade to China accounts for about a third of New Zealand’s dairy exports, almost 60% of forestry products and more than 40% of meat, according to Stats NZ. The trade minister, Damien O’Connor, put the economic stakes bluntly when approached by reporters as he walked to Labour’s caucus discussion of the “genocide” motion on Tuesday. “Clearly the Chinese government wouldn’t like something like that … I have no doubt it would have some impact [with trade]. That’s hardly rocket science,” O’Connor said, according to a report by Stuff. The opposition leader, Judith Collins, also said New Zealand’s trade relationship with China was the “elephant in the room” in the discussion. “If you’re looking at trade, at the moment, clearly we are [beholden to China] in terms of trade. So 29-30% of our trade goes to China,” she told Stuff. Australia is providing a vision of what a collapse in that trade relationship might look like. Following a diplomatic rift, China has retaliated with tariffs, import restrictions and a warning to its citizens not to travel to Australia. An analysis last year found China’s declared and undeclared sanctions against Australia cost the country around AU$47.7bn (£26.5bn) last year. The New Zealand Green party foreign affairs spokesperson, Golriz Ghahraman, said it was clear the issue of trade and how it could be affected by the genocide label “is a central concern for government”, given the two major parties had both commented on it. She said it should have no bearing on how New Zealand condemned atrocities. “It’s unsettling to know that we’re that open about saying we could prioritise trade over mass torture and death,” Ghahraman said “I’m dismayed that the government – or anyone – would turn their minds to trying to balance our profits as a nation, when we’re talking about the mass torture of a Muslim minority by another government. That is unacceptable as a consideration.” The original motion, with genocide wording, had clear support from two minority parties: ACT and Green. Ghahraman said that while the party supported the original motion, alone it was insufficient. “Seeing strong language like genocide is appropriate – but it has to trigger action,” she said. She said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade had no way to tell whether New Zealand trades in goods produced by the forced labour of Uyghur detainees. “We’re not just talking about a normal trade sanction – we’re talking about literally buying goods that were produced through an atrocity.” On Monday, Ardern said in a speech that New Zealand’s differences with China were becoming “harder to reconcile”. “There are some things on which China and New Zealand do not, cannot, and will not agree,” she said. “This need not derail our relationship, it is simply a reality.” Ardern has declined to reveal whether, in her personal view, the events in Xinjiang constituted genocide. © Tess McClure for The Guardian, 2021