A female activist holding a placard stands amongst men during a protest against family violence near the parliament and government palace in Beirut May 29, 2011. (File photo: Reuters) On February 23rd, 2 weeks ago, a woman was brutally assaulted by her ex-husband. The extreme violence inflicted on her generated brief outrage on social media and will quickly be forgotten to everyone but her. The form of violence she was subjected to is so common and pervasive that it has become normal; an expected part of our everyday lives and news cycles—and for too many, part and parcel of being a woman. In 2018, it was estimated that one in three married women in Lebanon experienced violence from their male relatives. Since then, this number has surged, compounded by Lebanon’s health, economic, social and political crises. Fifty-three per cent of organisations in Lebanon who help sexual and gender-based violence survivors report receiving a significantly higher number of calls during lockdown periods, identifying household confinement and economic hardship as the primary causes. This is unfortunately part of a global trend, and Sweden is no exception. This violence has significant consequences on women and their families, and on societies as a whole. And when this violence takes place during lockdowns, other household members—children, notably—are more likely to witnesses it, normalize it and can grow up to be violent themselves. Yet, despite the increase in violence against women in Lebanon over the last year, we have heard no calls to action and no emergency committees formed. That this violence occurs most commonly in the home—the one place women are told they are the safest—pushes it out of public view and justifies it as a private matter, to be handled privately. Moreover, it takes place in a context in which wale-dominated power structures underpin the economy, the political system and social customs. Lebanon’s 15 personal status laws entrench this by, amongst other things, recognising a husband’s right to obtain his ‘marital rights’ without consent, while masculine identities characterized by power, control and militarism are often celebrated, and kindness and empathy, cooperation, and compromise, are often viewed as signs of weakness. Consequently, violence against women is at best brushed aside as an individual tragedy, and at worst, justified as legitimate and acceptable. After decades of advocacy, Lebanon introduced Law 293 in 2014 on combating domestic, and amended the law this last December. While gaps remain, the law is an important step forward in demanding accountability for violence against women. Yet, violence against women continues to take place with extensive impunity across the country, ensuring a clear message for its perpetrators: this crime will go unpunished. This is a national emergency that demands urgent, sustained action. This International Women’s Day we honor the work carried out by women’s rights and feminist civil society organizations in Lebanon over the last year to expose and combat this shadow pandemic. We are inspired by the women and men throughout Lebanon that are working tirelessly in their communities to rebuild Lebanon in a way that embeds equality between men and women. The UN and partners like Sweden have an important responsibility to strengthen and enhance their work. We call for their efforts to be matched with urgent action from the highest levels. As a first step, Lebanon must recognize the severity of this problem and enact an emergency response plan to address violence against women and girls. This must be followed with funding, policies, campaigning and political will to end this scourge. As matters of priority, the national 1745 hotline and forensic medical examinations must be made free of charge, so that financial means do not constitute a barrier to saving lives. Lebanon’s judicial structures must hold perpetrators to account and uphold the dignity and rights of survivors and all current judicial protection orders should be unilaterally extended until periods of lockdown are over. This is in addition to increasing the capacity of shelters in the country to protect and support women and their children who are in danger. Violence against women is still seen by too many as acceptable and too often normalized. But it is far from normal – we must stop letting it be. 2021 Copyright © UN Women

Published by BBC on February 8, 2021. Demonstrations like this one on Friday in the capital, Dakar, began on Wednesday. (EPA / BBC) A top Senegalese official whose job is to settle conflicts has said the country is on a dangerous precipice after four days of protests left at least five young people dead. Alioune Badara Cissé, known as the mediator of the republic, urged the authorities to stop threats and intimidation against protesters. He also called for those on the streets to act peacefully and stop looting. The unrest was triggered by the arrest of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko. Mr Sonko appeared in court on Friday accused of disrupting public order. He also faces a rape allegation. He denies the allegations and his supporters say the accusations are politically motivated. The protests have also been fuelled by economic inequalities and concerns over young people's standard of living. In a press conference on Sunday, Mr Cissé said the authorities "need to pause and speak with our youth" and warned that "we are on the verge of an apocalypse". His statement came a day after a teenager in the southern city of Diaobe became the fifth person known to have died in clashes with security forces in various parts of the country. But the respected mediator is warning of much more turmoil ahead unless the government acts fast to address the deepening poverty and lack of job prospects for the youth, says BBC World Service Africa Editor Will Ross. On Friday, following violence in the capital, Dakar, and elsewhere, Interior Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome vowed to use "all the means necessary for a return to order". Speaking on national TV, Mr Diome accused Mr Sonko of "issuing calls to violence". The opposition alliance known as the Movement to Defend Democracy (M2D), which is behind the demonstrations, has announced three further days of protests starting on Monday. The West African regional group Ecowas has condemned the violence and called on "all parties to exercise restraint and remain calm" - adding that the authorities should "take the necessary measures to ease tensions and guarantee the freedom to demonstrate peacefully". Mr Sonko, 46, was accused of rape in February. Following an investigation he was arrested on Wednesday and taken to court accompanied by a group of supporters. Police said they then arrested him for disrupting public order when he refused to change his route to the court. Mr Sonko says the allegations of rape are fabricated. He accuses President Macky Sall of trying to remove potential opponents ahead of the 2024 election. Two other opposition leaders were excluded from the 2019 election after being convicted on charges which they say were politically motivated. There are reports that Mr Sall may seek to change the constitution to allow him to run for a third term. Mr Sonko - who is particularly popular with young Senegalese - is the president's only remaining serious challenger, says BBC Afrique's Ndèye Khady Lo in Dakar. In 2014 he founded his own political party, Pastef-Les Patriotes, and came third in the 2019 presidential election with 15% of the vote. © 2021 BBC.

Published by France 24 on March 3, 2021. Rwandan citizens at a Umuganda service, a monthly community service that forms part of the country's peacebuilding efforts. (Megan Specia / The New York Times) They grew up bearing the stigma of "children of torturers", shunned by their own communities, locked in a quest for identity that decades later remains without an end. Nearly 27 years have passed since the genocide in Rwanda, but the children born of rape perpetrated during the country's torment are still struggling with trauma, even as the country works towards national reconciliation. "In my heart I have many scars," said Patrick, 26. "I don't know who my father is and my future will always be complicated because I don't know my past." Over 100 days in 1994, around 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate members of the Hutu majority were murdered, in a campaign orchestrated and amplified by the extremist Hutu government. A quarter of a million women were raped under a systematic campaign carried out by Hutu government soldiers and their allied militia, the Interahamwe -- and sometimes by local men, even neighbours. From this unspeakable violence, an estimated several thousand children were born. They were doomed to shame in a country where not knowing one's paternal lineage is deemed a dishonour. Patrick, who asked that his real name not be used, spoke to AFP from Nyanza, a town in southern Rwanda where he is studying accountancy. He often broke down as he recalled how he seldom mixed with other children at school. The burden and social isolation, he said, was such that he had twice tried to commit suicide -- once at the age of 11 and again at 22. "Up until a few years ago, society could not accept who I am because of my history," he said. "On the Tutsi side and the Hutu side, too, they didn't care about me." Fear of rejection According to UN figures, at least 250,000 women were raped during that period. Historians say many were kept as sex slaves and some were intentionally infected with HIV. Many have never told their children they were born of rape or shared their ordeal with the men they later married, out of fear of being rejected. But several recently agreed to speak to AFP at their home or on the sidelines of a workshop in the central town of Muhanga organised by a therapist, Emilienne Mukansoro. They spoke on condition of anonymity. Mukansoro, 53, who lost her father, eight siblings and other family members during the genocide, has been working for 18 years with rape victims. Since 2012, she has voluntarily overseen nine therapy groups across the country. Many of the women in these groups were raped and/or mutilated in front of loved ones or their community. "Rape was used as a means to demean and exterminate the Tutsi community," historian Helene Dumas told AFP. "By targeting these women's bodies, those behind the genocide sought to impose a radical breakdown of parentage so that no woman would give birth to a Tutsi child. "These were ideological rapes that were part of the genocidal campaign," she added. She pointed to the 2011 conviction by an international tribunal of Pauline Nyiramasuhuko -- who was minister for family welfare and the advancement of women in 1994 -- for her role in the genocide and incitement to rape Tutsi women and girls. "Up until today, the existence of these children born of rape is intricately linked to what happened to their mothers," Dumas said. "That's what makes this genocide never-ending." 'Son of a murderer' Patrick's mother, Honorine, said she was held prisoner for four days with several other women during the genocide by a group of Hutu extremists who would rape their captives after their daily campaign of slaughter. "They would say they wanted dessert... and the dessert was me, given that I was the youngest," said the 48-year-old, tears streaming down her face. Once the militiamen fled, Honorine said she tried to get back to her family in the north of the country and was raped once again during her trek. That is when she got pregnant. Despite living in denial of the pregnancy and having suicidal thoughts, she managed to raise her son, though she said she showed him no love and up until today feels guilty and blames herself for his ill-being. She subsequently married but her husband rejected Patrick, referring to him as "the son of a murderer." Hers is a story repeated among rape victims following the genocide that left Rwanda in tatters, with little attention initially given to women dealing with their trauma. But in recent years, associations grouping survivors and non-governmental organisations have been conducting crucial work to help the women process and come to terms with their grief. 'Worst of human tragedies' "This has helped a country in ruins and a society stunned by the worst of human tragedies to continue to live together," said Godelieve Mukasarasi, 64, the founder of an NGO called Sevota. Contrary to children who were orphaned, those born of rape in the small, mountainous, East African country were not recognised as survivors of the genocide. In the aftermath, they received no specific support. Naphtal Ahishakiye, executive secretary of Ibuka, an umbrella organisation of survivors and associations fighting the legacy of the genocide, said the children did nevertheless receive indirect help through their mothers, who were given assistance from a special fund set up after the massacres. The women who were raped, for the most part, hailed from modest families that worked the land. Shocked and weakened by their ordeal, many were left to fend for themselves after losing the men in their family or being shunned by their community or loved ones. Several of those interviewed by AFP recounted the struggle they faced in raising their children and paying for their education while dealing with their trauma. Martha, 46, who lives in Muhanga, was rejected by her brothers after giving birth to a girl in 1995. She said she was raped over several days during the genocide by militiamen who found her and several other women hiding in a forest. "I won't waste my time on you," she recalled one of her brothers -- who fought with the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front which ended the genocide -- bitterly saying, on learning she was pregnant. "Even if you die, I wouldn't waste time burying you." Her brothers, she said, had planned to kill the baby at birth, but they never carried through with their pledge and left her destitute and in poor health. When AFP met Martha in December at her modest home surrounded by banana and eucalyptus trees, her 26-year-old daughter Diana was helping her 15-year-old stepbrother with homework. The teen was born after Martha's wedding to a Hutu man. Diana was nine years old when she began asking questions about the circumstances of her birth, said Martha, who appeared frail in her long dress and a scarf covering her hair. "I told her at the time 'you have no father, he is dead'," she recalled. But thanks to therapy, Martha said she was finally able to look at herself "as a human being" and has managed to tell her daughter the truth about how she was conceived through violence. "That's all, we never spoke about it again," Diana whispered softly. "I must come to terms with the fact that my father was a torturer and killer," added the slender young woman with a beautiful face and almond-shaped eyes. She said she considers her mother "very courageous" after having heard stories of women undergoing abortions or abandoning their babies born of rape after the genocide. But dealing with her own trauma on learning how she was conceived has been challenging. For years, Diana said, she blamed herself for the breakup of her mother and uncles. Today, however, she knows "she is innocent" of wrongdoing and has connected with her cousins through a WhatsApp group she initiated. Though her uncles refuse to let the children see each other, she hopes that time will help mend their relationship. Open wound For some of the children born of rape, the pain they "inherit" from their mothers is unbearable and cutting all ties is often the only way out, Mukansoro said. That was the case for Paradine, 57, who spoke with AFP during one of the therapy workshops in Muhanga. Despite her hardened face, she had a melancholic gaze as she told her story to the group. Her daughter has shut her out for three years. Paradine said she went to visit her daughter recently when she gave birth to her first child but "she wouldn't let me hold the baby" -- a disclosure that made the other women in the group gasp in sorrow. "She accused me of giving birth to her, even though she was unwanted, of not having an identity and for growing up without a father," said Paradine. She said although she had managed to overcome her rape ordeal and had raised her daughter on her own, being rejected by her child had plunged her once more into depression. "The wound is always there and it's like it's still bleeding," she said. In a poor neighbourhood of Muhanga, the mood is heavy at the home of 53-year-old Greta, who still needs daily tranquilisers nearly 27 years after her ordeal. She was a newlywed and pregnant with her first child when she lost the baby and was severely burned after her house caught fire at the start of the genocide, while her husband was away visiting his family. She said she "lost her mind" for weeks after the tragedy and was subsequently raped but she and her husband decided to keep the baby -- a boy -- and not share their secret with anyone. However in 2010, Callixte learned that the man he had called dad all his life was not his biological father following a heated dispute over the family's struggle to pay his school fees. 'My queen' He said he was in denial at first but has learned to live with the truth thanks to support from the NGO Sevota, which has helped pay for his schooling. "My mother told me that in any case she did not know the identity of her rapist and so I've just had to cope with it," said the tall, young man, whose self-confidence is betrayed by a slight stutter. "It's not a subject open to discussion," he told AFP, adding that still today, only close family and the NGO know he was born of rape. Another challenge facing many young people born of genocidal rape in Rwanda is the question of marriage and relationships. "When you manage to tell someone that you have no origin, they become suspicious," said Diana, who broke up with her last boyfriend two years ago when he learned of her story. "One must confide... but it becomes a problem when you say you are the child of a militiaman," added the young woman, who said she no longer believes in marriage. Ahishakiye, of the Ibuka help group, said it would still take decades to overcome the disastrous consequences of the genocide. "Rwandans are rebuilding unity day by day," he said. "But we must continue to sensitise the population on how to integrate these children born of rape." Callixte feels that ethnicity today should no longer play a role in society. "I am Rwandan, that's all," he said. "When I will meet someone who loves me, that person will not ask me about my ethnicity," he said. Patrick, for his part, said he was working on "accepting" his painful past and was finding it easier to share his story with fellow students and friends. "Slowly, slowly, people are accepting who I am," he said, stressing that there was an ongoing process of "reconciliation" in Rwandan society. His dream? To one day raise a family and make enough money to help his mother. "She is my queen, my everything," he whispered. © 2021 AFP / France 24

Group of Democratic senators introducing legislation that would suspend certain US assistance. The Guardian | Nina Lakhani February 23, 2021, 11:46am ET Juan Orlando Hernández, center, speaks as the national police chief, Orbin Galo, and the armed forces chief, Tito Livio Moreno, listen at the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa, on 16 February. Photograph: Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images A group of influential Democratic senators are introducing legislation which would sanction the president of Honduras – an alleged drug trafficker and key US ally – and cut off financial aid and ammunition sales to the country’s security forces which are implicated in widespread human rights abuses and criminal activities. The Honduras Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Act, co-sponsored by Senators Jeff Merkley, Bernie Sanders, Patrick Leahy, Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren, Dick Durbin, Sheldon Whitehouse and Chris Van Hollen, would suspend certain US assistance to the Central American country until corruption and human rights violations are no longer systemic, and the perpetrators of these crimes start facing justice. Joe Biden has vowed to tackle the root causes of migration from Central America’s northern triangle – Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador – the most violent region in the world outside an official war zone, which accounts for most migrants and refugees seeking safety and economic opportunities in the US. This bill makes clear that tackling migration from Honduras will be impossible if the US continues to prop up the president, Juan Orlando Hernández, and the security forces. It lays bare the violence and abuses perpetrated since the 2009 military-backed coup, as a result of widespread collusion between government officials, state and private security forces, organized crime and business leaders. It also catalogues the systematic use of force against civilians, a clampdown on the freedom of speech and protest, and targeted attacks such as arbitrary arrests, assassinations, forced disappearances and fabricated criminal charges against human rights and environmental defenders, political opponents and journalists. In the past year alone, at least 34,000 citizens have been detained for violating curfew and lockdown restrictions including nurse Kelya Martinez, who earlier this month was killed in police custody. “The United States cannot remain silent in the face of deeply alarming corruption and human rights abuses being committed at the highest levels of the Honduran government,” said Merkley, who serves on the Senate foreign relations committee. “A failure to hold President Hernández, national officials and the police and military accountable for these crimes will fuel widespread poverty and violence and force more families to flee their communities in search of safety.” This is the first time the Senate has proposed legislation which could genuinely threaten the post-coup regime, which has used drug money, stolen public funds and fraud to maintain its grip on power with few consequences from the international community. Hernández, who has been identified as a co-conspirator in three major drug trafficking and corruption cases brought by New York prosecutors, would be investigated under the Kingpin Act to determine whether he is a designated narcotics trafficker – a criminal status given to drug bosses like Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Hernández has repeatedly denied any links to drug trafficking including prior knowledge about his younger brother’s cocaine and arms deals for which he was convicted in New York last year. The bill also details Hernández’s role in the demise of the rule of law in the country: as a congressman, he supported the 2009 coup, and later created the militarized police force which is implicated in extrajudicial killings, oversaw a purge of the judiciary and pushed through unconstitutional reforms in order to stay in power and shield corrupt officials from prosecution. Hernández, who has so far enjoyed a close relationship with key military and political leaders, would have his US visa revoked and assets frozen as part of the proposed sanctions. The bill would also ban the export of munitions including teargas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, water cannons, handcuffs, stun guns, Tasers and semi-automatic firearms until the security forces manage 12 months without committing human rights violations. Financial assistance including equipment and training would also be suspended, though waivers in the national interest would remain possible. The US would also vote against multilateral development bank loans to the security forces. “This legislation is designed to send a clear message to Biden that it will be impossible to tackle the root causes of migration without getting rid of Hernández and withdrawing support from the security forces which have a long track record of corruption, organised crime and repression,” said Dana Frank, professor of history at the University of California and author of The Long Honduran Night: Resistance, Terror, and the United States in the Aftermath of the Coup In order for the restrictions to be lifted, Honduran authorities would need to demonstrate that it had pursued all legal avenues to prosecute those who ordered, carried out and covered up high-profile crimes including the assassination of indigenous environmentalist Berta Cáceres, the killing of more than 100 campesinos in the Bajo Aguán, the extrajudicial killings of anti-election fraud protesters, and the forced disappearance of Afro-indigenous Garifuna land defenders. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

H.E. Cardinal Pietro Parolin Palazzo Apostolico Vaticano Secretary of State of the Holy See 00120 Via del Pellegrino Citta del Vaticano 4 March 2021 Your Eminence, As members of Iraqi civil society and international NGOs, we welcome the apostolic visit by His Holiness Pope Francis to Iraq in March 2021. At this critical moment in the country’s history, the visit represents an important opportunity to promote peace and tolerance by bringing together ethno-religious communities and inspiring collective action to prevent further atrocities of the kind that has caused so much suffering for generations. Over many centuries the rich tapestry of ethno-religious communities in the region has been woven in largely peaceful conditions, but in more recent times minority groups have faced increasing levels of persecution and violent attacks based on religious beliefs. Ongoing genocides have forced communities to flee their ancestral homelands, unravelling the ties that bind people together in this cradle of civilisation. The misuse of Sharia Law led to the institutionalized marginalization of non-Muslim minorities in Iraq, exacerbated by Saddam Hussein’s attempts to change the demography of the Iraqi state. The 2003 US-led intervention severely destabilized inter-communal relations, resulting in state collapse, sectarian warfare, and the proliferation of extremist ideologies and armed groups. The Christian population has been reduced to a mere 300,000 today. Other minority communities such as Yazidis, Sabean-Mandaeans, Turkmen, Kak’ais, and Shabaks have faced existential threats in recent years. From August 2014, the terrorist group Da’esh, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), exploited the lack of religious freedoms to launch a genocidal campaign against ethno-religious minorities in Iraq. The targeted violence sought to erase the presence of religious minorities in Iraq altogether, and particularly of the Yazidis, decried by ISIS as devil-worshippers. ISIS executed those who refused religious conversion, and destroyed countless shrines, churches, temples, and other cultural sites. The threat of future atrocities from Da’esh remains clear and present despite the terrorist group’s territorial defeat. We continue to see hate speech against minorities promulgated by extremist clerics across Iraq, and intolerance remains deep-rooted because of a lack of education on other religions and human rights. Recent demographic changes in the Nineveh plains have been accompanied by the increased presence of militia groups in the region. The inadequacy of basic services and infrastructure alongside the ongoing security threat leaves communities with a sense of hopelessness and despair. We welcome the efforts already taken to safeguard religious freedom in Iraq, such as the Interfaith Statement on the Victims of ISIL endorsed by religious leaders from theChristian, Sunni, Shia, and Yazidi communities, and supported by UNITAD and the UN Office on Genocide Prevention. However, without justice and accountability for past atrocities, religious communities will continue to face persecution and the threat of repeated violence. The visit of His Holiness Pope Francis to Iraq is an ideal opportunity to promote cooperation and unity of purpose among the Government of Iraq, the Kurdish Regional Government, religious leaders, and the wider international community in order to comprehensively address the needs of affected communities. We recommend that these stakeholders take the following steps: To provides reparations for survivors of the genocide by Da’esh and adopt legislation that delivers justice for victims. To put in place security and political arrangements that will protect ethno-religious communities in their historical homelands from future atrocities and demographic changes. In addition to reconstructing destroyed areas in Sinjar, Tel Afar and the Nineveh Plains, basic services and livelihood opportunities must be provided to encourage communities to return to their homes. To provide psychosocial therapy support for survivors, particularly women and children, to assist in social reintegration. To change laws that affect the religion and dignity of religious minorities, such as Article 26 of the unified national card Law No. 3 of 2016. To promote religious education across Iraq by means of cultural events and activities that inform the population about minority communities; integrate education about religious minorities in the Iraqi school curriculum to combat misinformation. For the United Nations to facilitate a follow-up conference to broaden the endorsement for the Interfaith Statement by other religious communities. Sincerely, The Undersigned: 1. Air Bridge Iraq - Luftbrücke Irak 2. American Islamic Congress 3. Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect 4. Assyrian Policy Institute 5. CAPNI Organization 6. Center for Justice and Accountability 7. Civil Development Organization 8. Coalition for Genocide Response 9. CSW 10. Darfur Women Action Group 11. EMMA Organization for Human Development 12. European Federation for Freedom or Belief 13. European Interreligious Forum for Religious Freedom 14. Eyzidi Organization for Documentation 15. Eziden Weltweit e. V. 16. Freedom House 17. Free Yezidi Foundation 18. Genocide Watch 19. Hammurabi Human Rights Organization 20. Harikar 21. Hawar.help 22. International Christian Foundation for Democracy 23. International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect 24. Iraqi Institution for Development 25. Jiyan Foundation for Human Rights 26. Joint Help for Kurdistan 27. Masarat 28. Middle East Concern 29. Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies 30. Mosaic Middle East 31. Nadia’s Initiative 32. Observer Human Rights Center 33. PAX 34. Project Abraham 35. Religious Freedom Institute 36. Refcemi 37. Shlomo Organization for Documentation 38. Springs of Hope Foundation 39. Soteria International 40. TAJDID Iraq Foundation for Economic Development 41. Tuly NGO for Turkmen Affairs 42. Turkmen Rescue Foundation 43. World Federalist Movement/Institute for Global Policy 44. Voice of Ezidis 45. Yazda 46. Yazidi Legal Network

Three female judges in Guatemala have emerged as critical figures in the fight for the rule of law in a justice system seen as under attack by powerful interests Guatemala Women of Courage (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) The Independent Three female judges in Guatemala have emerged as critical figures in the fight for the rule of law in a justice system seen as under attack by powerful interests. Judges Erika Aifán, Gloria Porras and Yassmín Barrios Aguilar have all decided high-profile cases, drawing harassment, attacks and many attempts to remove them from the bench. The Inter-American Court on Human Rights has ordered special protection for all three. The work of individual judges has only become more important since the 2019 demise of the United Nations-backed anti-corruption mission that supported the dismantling of major corruption networks and important prosecutions. On Monday, Erika Aifán, a judge from Guatemala’s High-Risk Criminal Court, was awarded the U.S. State Department’s International Women of Courage Award. “Despite the strong opposition she has faced throughout her tenure, Judge Aifan has become an icon in Guatemala in the fight against corruption, efforts to increase transparency, and actions to improve independence in the justice sector,” the U.S. government said in a statement. But it has come at a cost. Aifán has had complaints filed against her for her decisions 22 times. She decides cases involving powerful businessmen and politicians, corrupt judges, as well drug traffickers. “I’m a human being and I can make mistakes, but I try to give my best effort and do the best I can because I know that this position represents the voice of many women and that hope for change for a better country,” Aifán said. One high-profile case in Aifán’s court against businessman and political Gustavo Alejos has drawn constant harassment for the judge. Among other things, he is charged with trying to manipulate the selection of judges for the Supreme Court Two workers in her court have even been reported for taking or losing pieces of evidence apparently in order to disrupt the proceedings. But rather than being sanctioned, the two court workers were promoted by the Supreme Court. Gloria Porras just won re-election for another five-year term on Guatemala’s highest court, the Constitutional Court. She has already served a decade on the court, where she is currently its president. She has had 60 complaints filed against her and has faced 13 requests to lift her immunity so she could be prosecuted. “In spite of the attempts to damage my independence, I feel free to look for, analyze and resolve the cases,” Porras said. “The decisions taken in a verdict cannot be criminalized.” Among her decisions, Porras voted to stop a proposal by Congress to reform Guatemala’s national reconciliation law that sought to provide amnesty for crimes against humanity. She also voted to block a proposed law that would have left the prosecutor’s office out of cases and allowed judges to negotiate charges directly with the accused. The costs to Aifán and Porras go beyond harassment. Both have had to hire lawyers and devote time to defending themselves from attempts to remove them. Claudia Escobar, a former appellate court judge in Guatemala, knows the sacrifice the judges are making. Without support from the Supreme Court when she was attacked, she had to leave Guatemala in 2015. “I admire those judge a lot, the personal cost they assume and that they do it with principles,” she said. “The rule of law has been deteriorating.” In 2001, one day before Barrios was to start the trial of three soldiers accused of the 1998 murder of Bishop Juan José Gerardi, two grenades were tossed at her house. No one was wounded. More than a decade later, Barrios decided the genocide case of dictator Efraín Ríos Montt. Her ruling lasted 10 days before it was overturned by a higher court that included some magistrates sympathetic to Ríos Montt. Since that case judicial authorities simply don’t send Barrios cases, even though she is still a judge. Ovidio Orellana, president of Guatemala’s Bar Association, said these “judges are an example ... they can’t give in to any pressure or attack in the form or way they decide, but rather maintain the calling of a judge and adjust to the legal mandate.” The judges’ critics suggest they aren’t following the law. José Quezada, a former president of the Supreme Court, now a lawyer representing corporations, said politics enters their decisions. “They don’t apply the law as they should and less so the Constitution,” he said of Aifán and Porras, mentioning illegal campaign finance cases that have gone before Aifán. Escobar, the former judge, said the lives of those three is a sample of what judges go through in Guatemala. “Emotionally, it has a lot of value for them to continue their work despite the attacks,” she said. “I’m sure that the majority of judges are honest people who want to do their work well, but sometimes it’s easier to look the other way because the risks are there and are evident,” she said. See article here. © 2021 The Independent

A rights group said the activists were killed in coordinated raids in four provinces. An official confirmed that nine people were dead. The New York Times | Jason Gutierrez March 7, 2021, 8:15 a.m. ET Activists in Manila protested against President Rodrigo Duterte’s government last month.Credit...Mark R Cristino/EPA, via Shutterstock MANILA — A left-leaning human rights organization accused the Philippine security forces of killing nine activists on Sunday in coordinated raids in four provinces. Cristina Palabay, the leader of the rights group, Karapatan, said the raids were carried out at the activists’ homes and offices. Two of the victims, a couple, were killed as their 10-year-old son hid under a bed, she said. A government spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment, but a security official confirmed that nine people had been killed in raids carried out jointly by the military and the Philippine National Police. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter. The Philippine outlet GMA News said a police spokesman, Lt. Col. Chitadel Gaoiran, had confirmed the deaths. Ms. Palabay said the killings had occurred in the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Rizal, all in the southern part of Luzon Island, near Manila. She said the activists who were killed had worked for a variety of organizations, including a group that works on behalf of Philippine fishermen and another that campaigned for the rights of the urban poor. "Nothing could be more apt than calling this day a ‘Bloody Sunday,’” Ms. Palabay said in a statement. She said the killings were part of a “murderous campaign of state terror” by the government of President Rodrigo Duterte to stifle legitimate dissent, and she urged the country’s independent Commission on Human Rights to investigate the raids. Three activists were arrested in the raids, including a paralegal who worked for Karapatan, Ms. Palabay said. Mr. Duterte and other prominent Philippine officials, including military and police commanders, have accused Karapatan and other leftist groups of having ties to a long-running communist insurgency in the country. Karapatan and similar groups have denied being involved with violence. Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said his organization was “seriously concerned” about the reports of the raids, which he said were “clearly” part of the government’s counterinsurgency campaign against the communist rebels. “The fundamental problem is this campaign no longer makes any distinction between armed rebels and noncombatant activists, labor leaders and rights defenders,” Mr. Robertson said in a statement. On Friday, two days before the raids, Mr. Duterte urged Philippine security forces to kill communists in battle. “I’ve told the military and the police that if they find themselves in an armed encounter with the communist rebels, kill them, make sure you really kill them, and finish them off if they are alive,” he said. The Communist Party of the Philippines issued a statement urging its armed wing, the New People’s Army, which has been waging an insurgency since 1969, to “punish the perpetrators and masterminds” behind the reported raids. See article here. © 2021 The New York Times

The EU’s most powerful member can’t signal virtue over Western Sahara while doing business with Rabat. Relations between Morocco and Germany, its seventh-largest trading partner, have turned acrimonious. The details of the latest diplomatic spat are murky, but so far it’s been reported that Morocco is either suspending ties with the German government or freezing out the German embassy. Neither side has yet provided clarity on the contretemps. Morocco was upset last year at being left out of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s guest list for an international conference on the Libyan civil war. Rabat was also outraged by a recent report on German state TV about alleged human rights abuses in Morocco. But the most likely cause for the latest snub is Germany’s stance on the status of Western Sahara, a disputed region along the Atlantic coast southwest of Morocco. The precipitating event was President Donald Trump’s decision late last year to recognize Morocco’s claim to the mineral-rich region. (It was a reward for Rabat’s diplomatic opening to Israel.) The European Union pushed back on this move, citing a longstanding United Nations consensus that the people of Western Sahara, known as Saharawis, have a right to self-determination. Germany took the lead for the Europeans and raised the matter with the UN Security Council, where it called on the U.S. to “act within the framework of international law.” No major power has followed Trump in validating the Moroccan claim, but Rabat seems to have decided to single out Germany to display its dissatisfaction. In so doing, it has exposed Europe’s hypocrisy: Members of the EU invoke international law to signal virtue over self-determination for Western Sahara, even as they disregard their own laws to expand economic ties with Morocco. Rich in phosphates, Western Sahara was a colony of Spain until 1975, when Madrid’s withdrawal was swiftly followed by a joint Moroccan-Mauritanian invasion. The UN has been trying to organize a referendum for the Saharawis, but it has been hampered by the conflict between Morocco and an independent movement led by a group known as the Polisario Front. Keen to preserve its status as Morocco’s largest trading partner, the EU is happy to look the other way as European companies do business in Western Sahara, especially in phosphates, fishing, and more recently green energy. This, despite several decisions by the European Court of Justice that EU trade deals with Morocco did not apply to Western Sahara, since the consent of the Saharawis had not been obtained. As recently as 2018, the ECJ ruled that an EU-Morocco fishing agreement was only valid “in so far as it is not applicable to Western Sahara and to its adjacent waters.” The EU response was to dispatch a European Parliament fact-finding mission to “consult” with some Saharawi groups approved by Morocco, and claim that their consent was sufficient to satisfy the standard set by the court. This sleight of hand let the EU claim that the agreements with Morocco allow it to exploit Western Sahara’s resources without implying “any form of recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara.” This may explain why Germany thought it could get away with some cheap virtue-signaling in response to the Trump decision, while a unit of Siemens AG could celebrate a large order of wind turbines “in the South of Morocco” — a euphemism for Western Sahara. But Rabat is no longer satisfied with such tawdry displays of diplomatic legerdemain. Morocco is taking its Trump card of American endorsement and calling Germany’s bluff. The stakes have changed for the EU as a whole. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Access the full article here. Bloomberg © 2021

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY An entire generation of children has been lost to the conflict in Syria. Today, Syria is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a child. During 10 years of war, close to 600,000 people, including 55,000 children, have been killed. Nearly 12 million people, half the population, have been forced from their homes, displaced inside their own country or across its borders. Children and their families live in constant fear of violence that threatens death or sexual assault, particularly against women and girls. COVID-19 has made this dire situation so much worse, with predictions the pandemic may push Syrians to the brink of mass starvation. This report reveals the devastating economic cost of conflict for Syria, including the impact of violence and forced displacement resulting in limited access to education and healthcare, as well as dire psychosocial effects, on children. The scandalous cost of this conflict over the past decade equals $US 1.2 trillion in lost GDP. Even if the war ended today, by 2035 the economic repercussions of the war would equal an additional $1.4 trillion in today's money. That rises to up to nearly $1.7 trillion if we figure in that children whose education and healthcare have been negatively affected will contribute less to GDP once they are working adults. These new economic findings have been further validated by a World Vision survey of nearly 400 Syrian adolescents and young adults in North West Syria, Lebanon and Jordan revealing the tremendous human costs of conflict. The burden of recovery after a protracted war is inevitably heaviest on those who were children, or were born, during it. By depriving children of education and by damaging their health, the war jeopardises the ability of Syria to recover. More importantly, the impact of war and violence on children’s psychosocial well-being is immense. Children and young people we spoke to are clear on what they want – an end to war in Syria. Syria’s youth want to protect the future of the generation coming after them, which they fear is also on the brink of being lost. They do not want promises, but a concrete and realisable commitment that can help them to restore their country, their lives and their hopes. The findings of our report show that ultimately Syria’s children will bear the cost of conflict in Syria. © 2021 Relief Web

Greek-Cypriots protest in Nicosia, Cyprus. (Credit: Akel) On July 20, 1974, following a coup d'état by the Greek military junta, Turkey invaded Northern Cyprus under the pretext of protecting the island’s Turkish Cypriot minority from extremist Greek nationalists. Turkey cited its role as a guarantor power under the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee. Despite the rapid collapse of the Greek military junta, Turkey launched a second, larger invasion on August 14, 1974, again citing the Treaty of Guarantee. Turkey occupied 37% of Cyprus. The island was de facto partitioned. In November of 1983, the Turkish occupied zone unilaterally declared independence, forming the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). The TRNC lacks international recognition, with the sole exception of Turkey. The TRNC claims legitimate authority in Northern Cyprus. It maintains full diplomatic relations with Turkey, violating UN Security Council Resolution 550, calling on all states to refuse to recognize the TRNC. Between 210,000-272,000 ethnic Greek and Turkish Cypriots – nearly a quarter of the one million total inhabitants of Cyprus – have been internally displaced since 1974. The situation is the longest-standing case of internal displacement in Europe. Severe limitations are imposed on the movements of the Greek and Maronite minorities that remain in Turkish occupied Northern Cyprus. Many properties have been looted and repossessed. Extensive destruction of cultural heritage and religious sites, as well as looting of archaeological excavations and illegal exportation of objects continue in Northern Cyprus. Turkey is in violation of Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention through its transfer and resettlement of 150,000-160,000 settlers from mainland Turkey. The United Nations and the Council of Europe have condemned this process as a deliberate attempt to alter the demographic character of the island, shift the balance of power in the occupied region, and prejudice resolution of the Cyprus conflict. Turkey has created a potentially irreversible fait accompli. Turkey’s colonization of the occupied area infringes upon the property rights of displaced Greek Cypriots, whose properties are now occupied by Turkish settlers. It also dilutes the voting power of the original Turkish Cypriots, who now constitute less than half of the Turkish population of Northern Cyprus. Over 57,000 unemployed Turkish Cypriots have emigrated from Northern Cyprus. In May and October of 2019, Turkey dispatched drill ships and military vessels to Cyprus’s territorial waters in areas where the Greek Republic of Cyprus had granted exploration rights to international oil companies. In October 2020, Northern Cyprus reopened the town of Varosha, violating UNSC resolutions 550 and 789, and ignoring condemnation by the European Parliament. The election of Ankara-backed right-wing nationalist Ersin Tatar over incumbent Mustafa Akinci in Northern Cyprus’s elections in October 2020 exacerbated tensions between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Tatar stated in November 2020 that he would not stop “until every last square metre” of Varosha was reopened. Tatar’s pro-partition administration uses divisive Turkish nationalist rhetoric to polarize Cyprus. Genocide Watch considers the situation in Cyprus to be at Stage 6, Polarization. The presence of 43,000 Turkish troops in Northern Cyprus and Turkey’s alteration of the demographics of Northern Cyprus have made resolution of the Cyprus conflict unlikely. Turkey's military exercises in Northern Cyprus in September 2020 do not bode well for peace. Cyprus is also at Stage 2, Symbolization due to Turkey’s destruction of Greek Cypriot cultural heritage sites. Genocide Watch recommends: · The EU and US should maintain their unified position opposing Turkey’s illegal occupation of Northern Cyprus and favoring full Turkish military withdrawal from Northern Cyprus. · The EU should make reunification of Cyprus a pre-condition for Turkish EU membership.

AP News FILE - In this Oct. 25, 2013 file photo, jailed former President Alberto Fujimori attends his hearing at a police base on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. Fujimori is facing new charges on March 1, 2021, accused of being the mastermind of the sterilization against their will of more than 1 thousand Quechua Indigenous women during his administration. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File) LIMA, Peru (AP) — Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is on trial for his role in a 1990s government program in which many Indigenous women in poor communities say they were forcibly sterilized, and some died or suffered serious injuries because of infection. The judicial process led by Judge Rafael Martínez began Monday following years of demands by human rights activists as well as numerous obstacles, including prosecutors who shelved investigations of Fujimori in the past. The new prosecutor in the case, Pablo Espinoza, said sterilizations were carried out in unsanitary conditions and that some women died from infections. Fujimori has been implicated in the deaths of five women and the injuries of another 1,301 women who were allegedly sterilized against their will. Fujimori, 82, is serving a 25-year prison sentence for two killings by the military during his 1990-2000 administration. He has also been convicted of corruption and faces another trial for the murder of six farmers by a military death squad during his administration. Fujimori said through his lawyers that he should not be tried in the sterilization case because, when he was extradited from Chile in 2007, it was not included in the group of crimes for which he was going to be judged. Some other former members of Fujimori’s government are also accused in the sterilization case. As president, Fujimori announced at a congress in China in 1995 that his government would undertake a program to help poor Peruvian women decide the number of children they wanted to have. Later, there were growing complaints from women in poor communities in the Andes who said they had been sterilized without their knowledge. Officials of Fujimori’s government claimed any excesses were the fault of overzealous local medical authorities. But the program was so controversial that the U.S. Congress cut aid payments to Peru that had been used to fund the program. Fujimori had boasted that the sterilization program dropped Peru’s birth rate from 3.7 children per woman in 1990 to 2.7 children a decade later. See article here. © 2021 AP News

The ousted leader of Ethiopia's Tigray region has accused the federal government and its Eritrean allies of genocide and other crimes against humanity, calling on US President Joe Biden to dial up the pressure against "invader forces." In a rare and exclusive interview with CNN, President of the Tigray People's Liberation Front Debretsion Gebremichael called for an independent probe into alleged killings, rape and violence, including those revealed in a CNN investigation published on Friday last week. Eyewitnesses told CNN that a group of Eritrean soldiers opened fire in November on Maryam Dengelat church in Dengelat village, in Tigray's east, while hundreds of congregants were celebrating mass. Dozens of people died over three days of mayhem, with soldiers slaughtering local residents, displaced people and pilgrims, they said. Thousands of civilians are believed to have been killed since Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military operation against leaders in the Tigray region, sending in troops from the neighboring Amhara region. CNN has previously reported that soldiers from neighboring Eritrea have perpetrated many of the extrajudicial killings, assaults and human rights abuses in the Tigray region. After seizing control of Tigray's main cities in late November, Abiy declared victory and maintained that no civilians were harmed in the offensive. "They are killing our people in this country, they are killing children, all ages of the population and they are conducting rape," Debretsion told CNN in a phone interview from an undisclosed location. "All sorts of acts of genocide have been committed in Tigray. So, the most important thing is that an investigation must be conducted," he added. "We are calling for an investigation into the CNN findings on the ground in Tigray." Ethiopia's foreign ministry on Monday rejected a call from the United States for the Ethiopian federal government to pull forces out of Tigray, saying it was "regrettable" that the US had attempted "to make pronouncements on Ethiopia's internal affairs and specifically, the reference to the Amhara regional forces redeployment." "It should be clear that such matters are the sole responsibility of the Ethiopian government, which as a sovereign nation, is responsible to deploy the necessary security structures and means available in ensuring the rule of law within all corners of its borders," the ministry said in a statement. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday that the US was "gravely concerned by reported atrocities and the overall deteriorating situation," and called for Eritrean and Amhara regional forces to withdraw immediately. Blinken's statement came one day after CNN's investigation, as well as another by Amnesty International, both detailing eyewitness accounts of civilian massacres in two separate assaults in late 2020. Eritrea's government denied involvement in the atrocities reported by Amnesty, but has yet to respond to CNN's request for comment in relation to the Dengelat massacre. Debretsion said he was making an urgent call to the Biden administration to keep the pressure on the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments. "We want to have peace in this region, in this country so we want [the US] to continue to push [for the withdrawal] of invader forces from Tigray to stop the atrocities, genocide and destruction," he told CNN. "We need, you know, humanitarian assistance as well ... The whole Tigray is in social and economic crisis. Our people need assistance, they need humanitarian support. So, it's an urgent call. We need this push from the [US] President." Repeated denials of Eritrean involvement The Amnesty International report charged that Eritrean forces killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in the city of Axum, also in Tigray region, in November through indiscriminate shelling and shooting and extrajudicial killings, in what the human rights organization said could amount to a crime against humanity. The Ethiopian foreign ministry's statement Monday did not mention the presence of forces from neighboring Eritrea during the recent offensive. It added that it was "fully committed" to investigating any human rights violations. Prime Minister Abiy has also denied that soldiers from Eritrea crossed into Tigray to support Ethiopian forces. Blinken had called for a "full, independent international investigation into all reports of human rights violations, abuses and atrocities." "We strongly condemn the killings, forced removals and displacements, sexual assaults, and other extremely serious human rights violations and abuses by several parties that multiple organizations have reported in Tigray," he said. Blinken also acknowledged Abiy's stated commitment to allow humanitarian aid to the region, and said that the US Agency for International Development would send a disaster assistance response team to Ethiopia. On Monday, Ethiopia's foreign ministry said it was working to ensure unfettered access to Tigray for the delivery of humanitarian assistance. TPLF troops seized power in Ethiopia in 1991 with the backing of Eritrea, and the TPLF's Meles Zenawi became the nation's leader. Debretsion became deputy prime minister after Zenawi's death in 2012. The TPLF ruled until 2018, when members of the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups united against the party. Abiy was appointed prime minister in 2018 and won a Nobel prize last year for his peace deal with Eritrea. Violence flared in the region last year after Tigray went ahead with local elections that the Abiy government had banned because of the pandemic. © 2021 Cable News Network. A Warner Media Company. All Rights Reserved.