Critics of M-103 are worried that it would curtail freedom of speech [Chris Helgren/Reuters] Canadian politicians have passed a motion that condemns Islamophobia and requests that the government recognise the need to "quell the public climate of fear and hate". The non-binding motion, which condemns "Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination", passed on Thursday among a divided parliament. It asks a parliamentary committee to launch a study on how the government could address the issue, with recommendations due in mid-November. The study should look at how to "develop a whole-of-government approach to reducing or eliminating systemic racism and religious discrimination, including Islamophobia," the motion says. Liberal MP, Iqra Khalid introduced the motion, also referred to as M-103, last December, but it gained significance after the January attack on a Quebec mosque that left six Muslim men dead. "I think that we need to continue to build those bridges amongst Canadians, and this is just one way that we can do this," Khalid said after the vote in parliament. The motion garnered an online backlash, petitions against it and nationwide protests. According to local media, Khalid has also received death threats after introducing M-103. Critics worried that condemning Islamophobia barred them from criticising Islam, which could curtail the right to free speech. A poll from the Angus Reid Institute, published on Thursday, showed that 42 percent of respondents would have voted against the measure and only 29 percent would have approved it. Following the Quebec mosque attack, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government has come under pressure to denounce all forms of religious discrimination. In recent months, several mosques and synagogues have been vandalised in towns across Canada. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Al Jazeera Media Network

On a quiet morning in late February, a convoy of black SUVs and pickups tore through the outskirts of east Mosul, at times nudging 75 mph on the dusty roads. Packed inside, balaclava-wearing gunmen pulled nervously at slim cigarettes while martial music blasted over the radio. Three males, bound with strips of cloth, crouched in the back of one truck, their sweatshirts pulled over their heads to cover their faces. The youngest looked to be about 15. All three had been detained minutes earlier on suspicion of affiliation with the Islamic State, which had withdrawn to the west of Mosul in late January but left behind a network of sleeper cells. The convoy of the National Security Service (NSS), Iraq’s intelligence branch, continued to a second neighborhood. The NSS members ran down alleys to kick in doors at suspect houses. This time, though, a second convoy of tan Humvees stenciled with black Babylon lions pulled up and angry soldiers from the Iraqi Army’s 16th Division poured out, weapons in hand. “What are you doing? You didn’t coordinate with us,” an irate 16th Division officer shouted, gesticulating at the NSS men. “Hey! We’re just doing our job!” an NSS member replied. As the standoff brewed, 16th Division soldiers noticed us. “Don’t film us! We’ll take your cameras!” they screamed. With the convoy hemmed in by 16th Division Humvees, the NSS men were unable to leave. “You’re coming with us,” a 16th Division officer declared, and the soldiers then escorted them to a nearby checkpoint where the argument continued. It seemed as if a mission to apprehend Islamic State fighters might end instead with competing branches of the Iraqi security forces arresting one another. Scenes like this are common in liberated areas of Mosul today. The fighting continues for west Mosul, the last major urban bastion for the Islamic State in Iraq, but the military forces that drove the jihadi group out of the east are now competing for influence against one another, rather than cooperating to maintain order. The rivalry among these groups is coming at the expense of efforts to combat Islamic State sleeper cells, which have launched a campaign of suicide bombings in liberated areas. Months after east Mosul was declared liberated, there appears to be scant planning for restoring security, let alone reconciliation and reconstruction. “There is no plan in the government of Iraq after Mosul. I have not seen one,” former national security advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie told Foreign Policy. “The style of leading the country is fly by night.” Iraqi officials deny this claim, saying they are developing a strategy to restore security and services to the war-torn city. “Of course there is a plan,” said Waleed al-Bayati, an advisor to the governor of Ninewa province, who referred to a six-page document outlining initiatives for reconstruction and restoring economic life to the city. A senior security official, who requested anonymity, also outlined a plan for the central government in Baghdad to assume responsibility for security, while the local government handles daily administrative affairs “The vision is to have the governor and the local government back, but they will focus on services and civil affairs,” the official said. “The security will be the responsibility of the security apparatus there, and that means that for a certain period there will be a combination of federal and local forces there.” That combination of forces could complicate relations among already-fractious federal forces. Iraq’s many defense and intelligence agencies lack a unified command and answer to a bewildering array of political appointees in the Defense and Interior ministries, the National Security Council, or the prime minister’s office. “They are like fiefdoms, each competing for resources and power,” said David M. Witty, a retired U.S. Army special forces colonel and an authority on the Iraqi armed forces. Some Iraqi officers seem to take a measure of pride in this lack of cooperation. “We don’t coordinate with anyone,” said Staff Lt. Col. Montaza al-Shamari of the Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) 2nd Battalion. “We get the most serious cases of terrorism, and we go in after them on our own.” During the recent raid, the senior NSS officer acted quickly to defuse the situation with the 16th Division soldiers. Isham Mahmoud, the deputy head of the NSS in Ninewa and a Mosul native, calmly made calls to higher-ranking officers to dampen the tension. After a tense standoff, a compromise was reached: One of the tan Humvees would escort the NSS for the rest of the raid. Mahmoud reclined in an easy chair following the raid, tired but elated by his team’s progress. “It’s a tough job, but we are making progress,” he said. “We have to build trust with civilians, and that trust needs to come full circle. They have to trust us, and we have to be able to trust them.” But first, the Iraqi security forces have to build trust among themselves. Not all disputes are resolved so peacefully. A similar argument between the NSS and ISOF on Feb. 6 resulted in a shootout that left an ISOF officer dead in east Mosul. Adding to the security challenges, there simply aren’t enough soldiers to secure the east of the city with so many focused on fighting in west Mosul. “There’s a curfew at 5:30 p.m., but checkpoints are abandoned at night,” said Faisal Jeber, a Mosul-born academic who returned from overseas to support a local Sunni militia. “They are afraid or lazy.” He was referring to the 16th Division, the main military force in east Mosul. The force was built up from the remnants of the 2nd Division, which fled Mosul without a fight in 2014 and has always been plagued by “ghost soldiers” — absent troops who remain on the payroll, but paid part or all of their salary to their officer in order to stay home. Before the fall of Mosul to the Islamic State, these harried soldiers from Iraq’s predominantly Shiite south staffed undermanned checkpoints in the city that were notorious among Moslawis for their hostility, and, relatedly, their constant targeting by insurgents for bombings and attacks. If competition among federal units complicates the restoration of security to Mosul, the entrance of a host of pro-government militias has added yet more armed actors to an already-volatile situation. Predominantly Sunni paramilitary units, including Jeber’s Mosul Gallant Force, have been assigned a large share of responsibility for Mosul’s day-to-day security, but lack the manpower to effectively police the city. Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), meanwhile, have established a presence in Mosul. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi initially said these Shiite militias would be excluded from the offensive to retake Mosul city. While the bulk of Shiite PMF are stationed in the desert west of Mosul to prevent Islamic State fighters from fleeing into Syria, a number of groups, including the Badr Organization, al-Abbas Forces, and Kata’ib Hezbollah, have opened offices in east Mosul. Ethnic Shabak militias operating in east Mosul are also believed to have been bolstered with members from Iranian-influenced Shiite militia groups. These militias, which were initially intended to defend Shabak villages outside the city, are a regular sight in the urban center. “Their patrols often enter Mosul city during the day with their colorful flags and signs, sometimes carrying loudspeakers chanting their Nasheed, which is usually about seeking revenge for the assassination of Imam Husayn,” Jeber said. The introduction of the Shiite PMF into east Mosul risks empowering actors who portray themselves as the authentic voice of the Sunni majority in Ninewa and their rivals as pawns of Iran. “Now in Baghdad, the Shia militia is more powerful than al-Abadi,” former Ninewa Gov. Atheel al-Nujaifi told Foreign Policy. Nujaifi lost his position after the fall of Mosul and fled to Erbil, where he raised a force of several thousand fighters with the approval of the Kurdistan Regional Government and support from Turkey. Today, he retains a measure of influence and opposes a return to the same federal control over Ninewa as before. “The people in Mosul will never agree to be just in the hand of the Shia or to follow the Shia politicians,” he said. Nujaifi’s Ninewa Guards have been kept out of Mosul by Baghdad, and an arrest warrant prevents him from returning. Nujaifi warns, however, that blocking Sunni leaders like himself from the political process risks repeating the mistakes of the past. “Most of these Sunni forces will work underground,” he said. His force continues to train in Kurdish territory north of Mosul in the expectation that the central government’s strategy to restore order in Mosul will fail. “I’m sure it will fail,” Nujaifi said. “Because inside the city now, there is no services, there is no administration, and the security forces are very weak.” But many in Baghdad see Nujaifi as a liability rather than a potential security partner. In May 2015, a majority of Iraqi members of parliament voted to dismiss him as governor for corruption and complicity in the fall of Mosul to the Islamic State. Internal documents from the group’s predecessor organization named him as having cooperated with it in the past. The anonymous senior security official, referring to Nujaifi, said, “He is part of the problem, not part of the solution.” The disorder is a gift to the Islamic State, which is trying to re-establish its reign of fear in liberated areas. It has launched a campaign of suicide bombings in liberated east Mosul — at least a half dozen since December. Two days before the NSS raid, another Islamic State member blew himself up at a busy intersection. A week before that a suicide bomber had targeted a popular restaurant at the same intersection. The tenuous security situation has hindered the restoration of services. Most districts are still without running water, electricity, or adequate health care. Government offices did reopen briefly in east Mosul, and civil servants were bused in every day from Erbil, where many had been living. But the buses stopped several weeks later in mid-February. “No one wanted to go,” Jeber said of the Mosul Gallant Force, “because of the security situation.” For a policeman standing at the site of the most recent bombing, kicking at an unidentifiable body part, it seemed like the previous unsustainable status quo was making a comeback. “I’ve seen this kind of thing too many times before,” he said. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Forgine Policy

Thursday, Lieutenant General Máximo William Muñoz Delgado, Director of the Directorate General of Migration (DGM) revealed that his agency had expelled 8,383 foreigners in their respective country since the beginning of the year. He pointed out that foreigners in irregular migratory situations on the Dominican territory were arrested during 285 control operations in different regions of the country. Most of the citizens were from Haiti, Venezuela and Cuba, and to deport them the authorities coordinated with the embassies of their countries. There are also undocumented immigrants from Albania, Armenia, France, India, Iran, Panama, Puerto Rico and Peru. A report by the DGM indicates that between August and December 2016, 13,541 Haitians were repatriated by land via the Dominican-Haitian border, and 123 foreigners from Venezuela, Cuba from Albania, Armenia, France, India, Iran, Panama, Puerto Rico and Peru have been by Las Americas International Airport (AILA) in coordination with the embassies of these countries. What since August 2016 up to date represents a total of 22,047 foreign expulsions. It should be recalled that between June 2015 and July 2016, according to the information made available by the Dominican DGM in combination with those of human rights organizations monitoring the process at the border, more than 160,000 Haitians would have returned to Haiti expelled or voluntarily. Bringing the total with the 2017 figures to more than 180,000 the number of Haitians returning to the country. It should be noted that this figure is probably higher, since voluntary returns are only recorded at official border crossings and do not include Haitians who return to the country through the many informal crossings between the two countries... In addition, nearly 240,000 Haitians enrolled in the National Regularization Plan of Foreigners, whose deadline falls in July 2017 risk expulsion if they can not complete their file and do not have a compulsory passport, a document that Haiti does not cease promising them but never delivers them... For its part, the DGM reiterates that it will remain firm in its commitment to control the entry and exit of foreigners on Dominican territory "in order to harmonize the migration movement with the needs of national development." (c) Haiti Libre

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 24, 2017 Contact: Ninar Keyrouz Tel: (202) 624 7898 Email: press@indefenseofchristians.org IDC Commends Secretary Tillerson’s Plans for Safe Zones in Syria and Iraq Washington, DC– Speaking on Wednesday at the State Department conference of the 68-member coalition against the Islamic State, Secretary Tillerson said, “The United States will increase our pressure on ISIS and al Qaeda and will work to establish interim zones of stability through cease-fires to allow refugees to return home.” Wednesday’s summit—the first such gathering of anti-ISIS countries since President Trump took office—was aimed at devising a plan for the rebuilding and sta bilization of post-ISIS Syria and Iraq. Coalition officials reportedly said that the interim zones referred to territory recaptured from the Islamic State across vast swaths of Iraq and Syria that would be held by a yet-to-be determined mix of multi-national forces. “IDC applauds the Trump administration’s commitment to defeating ISIS and to ensuring the stabilization and reconstruction of the territory liberated by ISIS,” said IDC Executive Director Philippe Nassif. The establishment of interim zones of stability in Syria, where people would be protected from Bashar al-Assad’s regime and ISIS, would alleviate the suffering and displacement of millions of Sunni Syrian refugees across the Middle East, as well as address the immense pressure being placed on Jordan and Lebanon, the latter being in great danger of becoming destabilized. Similarly, an interim zone of stability in Iraq—which should include Tal Afar, Sinjar, and the Nineveh Plain—would protect the religious and ethnic minorities of the region who have suffered genocide, including Yazidis, Christians, and Turkmen. These communities yearn for local security, self-governance, and economic self-sufficiency, objectives that also advance U.S. national security interests in the region. IDC also commends the Trump administration for calling on financial support for the operation from the Gulf states and the anti-ISIS coalition. As IDC stated in January, “IDC further urges those states with the means, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, to contribute materially to the safe relocation of refugees from Lebanon, Jordan, and elsewhere into havens in Syria. Similar steps should be taken to help ISIS victims in northern Iraq. These nations should also take the lead in the funding the reconstruction of these communities.” ________________________________ In Defense of Christians (IDC) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to the preservation and protection of Christians in the Middle East. www.indefenseofchristians.org For media inquiries: press@indefenseofchristians.org For non-press inquiries: info@indefenseofchristians.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/indefenseofchristians Twitter account: @indefchristians YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyYzPUUFrDowd3Kb8I7V8lQ Support IDC: Help us help them. Donate: http://www.indefenseofchristians.org/donate/ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 In Defense of Christains

UPC fighters outside a kindergarten in Ngadja, Ouaka province. The fighters have used the building as a base since October 2014. © 2017 Edouard Dropsy for Human Rights Watch Armed groups in the Central African Republic have occupied, looted, and damaged school buildings, preventing children from getting an education, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 39-page report, “No Class: When Armed Groups Use Schools in the Central African Republic,” documents how armed groups, and even soldiers from the United Nations peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSCA, have used school buildings as bases or barracks, or based their forces near school grounds. The government and the peacekeeping mission should increase protection for students and schools in areas of the country affected by armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said. “Children have lost years of education in many parts of the Central African Republic because armed groups have failed to treat schools as places of learning and sanctuary for children,” said Lewis Mudge, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report. “The government and the UN can do more to ensure that fighters stay away from classrooms, and that children can safely go to school.” The report is released five days before the Second International Safe Schools Conference, hosted by the Argentine government in Buenos Aires. The conference will highlight the global problem of attacks on students, teachers, and schools, as well as the Safe Schools Declaration, an international political commitment endorsed by the Central African Republic and 59 other countries. Armed groups in the Central African Republic have occupied, looted, and damaged school buildings, preventing children from getting an education. Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 40 people for the report, including school-age children, parents, teachers, and armed group commanders in the provinces of Lobaye, Nana-Mambéré, Nana-Grébizi, Ouham-Pendé, Ouham, and Ouaka. “It is not normal for a child to lose this much time, it has blocked my future,” said an 18-year-old man in Ouaka province who had lost four years of schooling because fighters for the Seleka, an armed group in the country’s ongoing conflict, have occupied his school. “I wanted to be a doctor, but that is impossible without school.” The Central African Republic has been in crisis since late 2012, when the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels opened a military campaign against the government. The Seleka seized the capital, Bangui, in March 2013, in a period marked by widespread human rights abuse. In mid-2013, Christian and animist anti-balaka militia organized to fight the Seleka. The anti-balaka have also committed widespread abuse, especially in western parts of the country. Violence by armed groups and attacks on civilians have risen sharply since October 2016, particularly in the center of the country. Fighting between two Seleka factions in the Ouaka and Haute-Kotto provinces has led to increased attacks on civilians and displaced tens of thousands of people. The Seleka are responsible for eight of the cases documented in the report, but anti-balaka fighters have also occupied and damaged schools. In two cases, UN peacekeepers used a school as a base, in violation of UN regulations, but the forces left both schools after Human Rights Watch informed UN officials. All photos © 2017 Edouard Dropsy for Human Rights Watch The use of schools by armed forces deteriorates, damages, and destroys the country’s already insufficient and poor-quality education infrastructure. Fighters who occupy schools frequently burn furniture and books for cooking fuel. In one case Human Rights Watch documented, an anti-balaka fighter struck a teacher on the head with a knife when the teacher tried to stop him from burning a desk. Even after fighters have vacated a school, their proximity to school grounds can frighten students and teachers into staying away. “The Seleka are just next to the school and the parents are too scared to send their kids,” a teacher from Nana-Grébizi province said. “The Seleka think it is normal to be based in schools.” The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated in November 2016 that 2,336 schools across the country were operational but that at least 461 were not. The key reasons schools are closed, the UN said, are insecurity, a lack of teachers, displacement caused by fighting, the destruction of school property, or the occupation of schools by armed groups. The Central African Republic signed the Safe Schools Declaration in June 2015, committing itself to protect schools from attack and military use. This important step spurred MINUSCA to begin clearing schools that were occupied by militias. The UN mission made progress in 2016, but was undermined when peacekeeping forces themselves used schools as bases and barracks. “By endorsing the Safe Schools Declaration, the government demonstrated the value it places on education for the development and stability of the country,” Mudge said. “Armed groups and UN peacekeepers should respect the declaration’s call to protect schools and help children get the education they want and deserve.” ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Human Rights Watch

Asia is 8 months pregnant as she stands for a photo with her son in the Balu Kali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Jan. 17, 2017. Allison Joyce—Getty Images The U.N. Human Rights Council agreed Friday to create an international fact-finding mission into alleged rights violations in Myanmar, particularly against the country's Rohingya Muslims, a stateless minority that has suffered decades of persecution in the western state of Rakhine. A resolution adopted by consensus says the 47-member council has decided to "dispatch urgently an independent international fact-finding mission" to investigate allegations that may amount to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, "with a view to ensure full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims." The U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, had initially urged the council to establish a full commission of inquiry, the body's most powerful investigative tool, but members ultimately reached a compromise on a fact-finding mission that Myanmar and its neighbors would be more likely to agree to. While the resolution passed, Myanmar and several other nations, including the Philippines, "disassociated" themselves from the resolution in whole or in part. The mission will likely focus on events that unfolded since Oct. 9 of last year, when Myanmar's army and other state security forces began what they called "clearance operations" in the northern part of Rakhine state in response to a deadly attack on border patrols by suspected Rohingya insurgents. Tens of thousands of refugees poured over the border into Bangladesh in the weeks and months that followed, arriving with harrowing accounts of gang-rape, torture, arson and extrajudicial killing. A U.N. flash report published in early February, based on interviews with more than 200 victims, details the alleged atrocities, concluding the "likely commission of crimes against humanity." Amnesty International's Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Champa Patel, welcomed the "long overdue step" of establishing an international probe, urging the U.N. to "waste no time turning words into action" and to appoint gender-based violence and children's rights experts to the panel, given the high volume of violations alleged against women and children. "The people of Myanmar in general and the Rohingya community in particular have the right to know the full truth, as does the international community," Patel said in a statement to the media. The Myanmar government, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has largely denied the allegations, claiming that the international community is exaggerating the gravity of the events. The credibility and impartiality of domestic inquiries, including one headed by Vice President and former General Myint Swe, has been called into question by U.N. officials and rights groups. The resolution recognized, however, that the Myanmar government "notes the seriousness" of the contents of the flash report, acknowledged domestic efforts to investigate and called on the government to "consider assistance" to strengthen them. The resolution is the most serious intervention to date into the crisis in Rakhine, an impoverished state bordering Bangladesh where most of Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya live. The rapporteur warned last week that the government "may be trying to expel the Rohingya population from the country altogether.” An estimated 94,000 Rohingya have been displaced since October, most of them to Bangladesh. Violence between minority Muslims and the majority Rakhine Buddhists in the state capital Sittwe that began in 2012 displaced more than 100,000 Rohingya, most of whom still live in squalid displacement camps which they are not allowed to leave. Lee's initial request for an inquiry also called for a probe into the events leading up to the 2012 exodus, which remain a mystery. It is unclear whether the 2012 violence will fall within the scope of the newly established fact-finding mission. The Myanmar government has kept in place long-standing policies of state discrimination, such as a 1982 citizenship law linking political rights to ethnic identity; restrictions on family life; and excessive regulations governing access to healthcare, education and employment that appear to amount to apartheid. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Time

Between Terror and Repression: The Role of Human Rights in the Struggle Against Violent Extremist Violence Thursday, March 30, 2017 9:30 am to 11:00 am Freedom House 1850 M Street NW Washington D.C. 20036 Link to RSVP- http://org2.salsalabs.com/o/6580/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=85429 Description: Please join us for a discussion on how support for international human rights policies and programs can play a role in countering violent extremism. Extremist ideologies used to justify violence and terror explicitly reject the values that lie at the heart of the international human rights system. Around the world, violent extremist groups attempt to curtail free expression, religious liberty, gender equality, and other fundamental rights. At the same time, some governments have cited the global struggle against extremist violence to justify actions against political opposition, increasing abuse by security forces, and curtailing civil liberties of their citizens, which ultimately undermines democratic values and principles. Remarks by: Shamil Idriss President & CEO Search for Common Ground Discussion with: Shannon Green Director and Senior Fellow, Human Rights Initiative Center for Strategic and International Studies Linda Bishai Director of Research, Learning, and Evaluation BA Rule of Law Initiative Marjorie Rouse Senior Vice President for Programs Internews Moderator: Bobby Herman Vice President for International Programs, Emergency Assistance, and Multilateral Initiatives Freedom House Freedom House, the American Bar Association, Pact, Internews, and Search for Common Ground formed the “Protecting Global Rights through Sustainable Solutions” Consortium (PROGRESS) to implement USAID’s Democracy, Human Rights and Governance (DRG) Strategy objective #3: Protect and promote universally recognized human rights, through the Human Rights Support Mechanism. The HRSM Learning Forum is a series of discussions on specific issues in the field of democracy, human rights, and governance. This event was made possible with the generous support of the American People through USAID. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Freedom House

The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Friday that authorizes the use of criminal justice experts to devise legal strategies for eventual prosecutions of violations by North Korea. Approved on the final day of the 47-member council’s four-week session in Geneva, the resolution also authorizes the creation of a central repository for evidence to be used in such prosecutions. The resolution amounted to what human rights experts called a significant warning to North Korea, one of the world’s most repressive and isolated countries. They called it a step toward a judicial reckoning for North Korean officials and institutions implicated in human rights crimes. A 2014 report by a United Nations panel of inquiry on North Korea described “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations” that included a vast network of prison camps and punishments like starvation that it said constituted crimes against humanity. A letter by the panel sent to Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, warned him that he could face prosecution some day and said that the panel was recommending a referral of its findings to the International Criminal Court at The Hague. It remains unclear what court would undertake such a prosecution, should it ever proceed. While the International Criminal Court was partly created for this reason, approval for a case against North Korea would be necessary from the United Nations Security Council’s permanent members. They include China, which has long signaled its opposition to such a move. Other possibilities for prosecution have been raised, however, including the formation of an ad hoc tribunal like those that investigated crimes in the Balkans and Rwanda. Under the resolution adopted on Friday, the Seoul office of the United Nations high commissioner for human rights will be expanded to include criminal justice experts who can develop plans for eventual prosecution. The resolution also would establish a structure to collect evidence “with a view to developing possible strategies to be used in any future accountability process.” John Fisher, the Geneva director at Human Rights Watch, welcomed the resolution in a statement, saying the “Human Rights Council spoke with one voice today by condemning North Korea’s horrific rights abuses and supporting efforts to bring leading officials in Pyongyang to account,” referring to North Korea’s capital. He said support for the resolution “shows the resounding commitment of the international community to ensure that Kim Jong-un and North Korea’s rights-abusing authorities don’t escape justice.” North Korea has denounced all accusations of rights abuses as fabrications concocted by the country’s enemies, led by the United States, and says North Korean people are happy and free. The North Korean delegation to the Human Rights Council boycotted the debate on the country and said in a statement quoted by Reuters that it “categorically and totally rejects” the resolution. (C) 2017 The New York Times

Threatened with an imminent ban on their worship in Russia, Jehovah’s Witnesses are responding with a direct appeal to Kremlin and Supreme Court officials for relief through a global letter-writing campaign. The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses is inviting the over 8,000,000 Witnesses worldwide to participate. On March 15, 2017, Russia’s Ministry of Justice filed a claim with the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to label the Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia as extremist and liquidate it. The claim also seeks to ban the activities of the Administrative Center. If the Supreme Court upholds this claim, the Witnesses’ national headquarters near St. Petersburg will be shut down. Subsequently, some 400 registered Local Religious Organizations would be liquidated, outlawing the services of over 2,300 congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia. The branch property, as well as places of worship used by Witnesses throughout the country, could be seized by the State. Additionally, individual Jehovah’s Witnesses would become subject to criminal prosecution for merely carrying out their worship activities. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the claim on April 5. “The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses wants to heighten attention to this critical situation,” states David A. Semonian, a spokesman at the Witnesses’ world headquarters. “Prosecuting non-violent, law-abiding citizens as if they were terrorists is clearly a misapplication of anti-extremist laws. Such prosecution is based on completely false grounds.” The Witnesses’ global campaign is not without precedent. Nearly 20 years ago, Witnesses wrote to defend their fellow worshippers in Russia in response to a smear campaign by some members of the government in power at the time. Additionally, Witnesses have initiated past letter-writing campaigns to motivate government officials to end persecution of Witnesses in other countries, including Jordan, Korea, and Malawi. “Reading the Bible, singing, and praying with fellow worshippers is clearly not criminal,” adds Mr. Semonian. “We hope that our global letter-writing campaign will motivate Russian officials to stop this unjustifiable action against our fellow worshippers.” Instructions for Letter-Writing Campaign In order to participate in the letter-writing campaign, please use the link below to download the instructions and mailing addresses. https://www.jw.org/download/?docid=702017108&output=html&fileformat=PDF&alllangs=1&track=1&langwritten=E&txtCMSLang=E&isBible=0 Comments of HRWF Jehovah’s Witnesses are not engaged politically and do not pose any security threat to society. They obey the law of the land and respect authorities. At the same time, like most religious traditions there are limits to that obedience. Jehovah’s Witnesses will practice civil disobedience when laws conflict with their conscience. This has resulted in harassment, fines and imprisonment in some countries. Jehovah’s Witnesses are against the use of violence. They have always refused to bear arms and to carry out military service. When the law does not provide for an alternative civilian service, they are usually sentenced to a prison term. This is still the case in Azerbaijan, Eritrea, Singapore, South Korea and Turkmenistan. Whatever one might think of the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the practice of their faith is clearly in accordance with international law and standards of human rights. HRWF calls on the Russian Federation not to ban Jehovah’s Witnesses the readers of this newsletter to press the Russian authorities not to ban Jehovah’s Witnesses by writing to the embassy of Russia in Brussels (amrusbel@skynet.be) or to the following institutions: * President of Russia Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin 23 Ilyinka Str., Moscow 103132, RUSSIAN FEDERATION * Minister of Justice Alexander Vladimirovich Konovalov Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation 14 Zhitnaya, Moscow GSP-1, 119991 RUSSIAN FEDERATION * Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation 32/34 Smolenskaya-Sennaya Square, Moscow 119200, RUSSIAN FEDERATION * Chairman of the Supreme Court Viacheslav Mikhailovich Lebedev Supreme Court of the Russian Federation 15 Povarskaya Str. Moscow 121069, RUSSIAN FEDERATION _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________- (c) 2017 Human Rights Without Frontiers International

The following is the resignation letter by ESWA Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf in response to the formal request by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that ESCWA withdraw the publication of a scholarly report (below) that found Israel guilty of apartheid. Dear Mr. Secretary-General, I have carefully considered your message conveyed through the Chef de Cabinet and assure you that at no point have I questioned your right to order the withdrawal of the report from our website or the fact that all of us working in the Secretariat are subject to the authority of its Secretary-General. Nor do I have any doubts regarding your commitment to human rights in general, or your firm position regarding the rights of the Palestinian people. I also understand the concerns that you have, particularly in these difficult times that leave you little choice. I am not oblivious to the vicious attacks and threats the UN and you personally were subjected to from powerful Member States as a result of the publication of the ESCWA report “Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid”. I do not find it surprising that such Member States, who now have governments with little regard for international norms and values of human rights, will resort to intimidation when they find it hard to defend their unlawful policies and practices. It is only normal for criminals to pressure and attack those who advocate the cause of their victims. I cannot submit to such pressure. Not by virtue of my being an international official, but simply by virtue of being a decent human being, I believe, like you, in the universal values and principles that have always been the driving force for good in human history, and on which this organization of ours, the United Nations is founded. Like you, I believe that discrimination against anyone due to their religion, skin color, sex or ethnic origin is unacceptable, and that such discrimination cannot be rendered acceptable by the calculations of political expediency or power politics. I also believe people should not only have the freedom to speak truth to power, but they have the duty to do so. In the space of two months you have instructed me to withdraw two reports produced by ESCWA, not due to any fault found in the reports and probably not because you disagreed with their content, but due to the political pressure by member states who gravely violate the rights of the people of the region. You have seen first hand that the people of this region are going through a period of suffering unparalleled in their modern history; and that the overwhelming flood of catastrophes today is the result of a stream of injustices that were either ignored, plastered over, or openly endorsed by powerful governments inside and outside the region. Those same governments are the ones pressuring you to silence the voice of truth and the call for justice represented in these reports. Given the above, I cannot but stand by the findings of ESCWA’s report that Israel has established an apartheid regime that seeks the domination of one racial group over another. The evidence provided by this report drafted by renowned experts is overwhelming. Suffice it to say that none of those who attacked the report had a word to say about its content. I feel it my duty to shed light on the legally inadmissible and morally indefensible fact that an apartheid regime still exists in the 21st century rather than suppressing the evidence. In saying this I claim no moral superiority nor ownership of a more prescient vision. My position might be informed by a lifetime of experiencing the dire consequences of blocking peaceful channels to addressing people’s grievances in our region. After giving the matter due consideration, I realized that I too have little choice. I cannot withdraw yet another well-researched, well-documented UN work on grave violations of human rights, yet I know that clear instructions by the Secretary-General will have to be implemented promptly. A dilemma that can only be resolved by my stepping down to allow someone else to deliver what I am unable to deliver in good conscience. I know that I have only two more weeks to serve; my resignation is therefore not intended for political pressure. It is simply because I feel it my duty towards the people we serve, towards the UN and towards myself, not to withdraw an honest testimony about an ongoing crime that is at the root of so much human suffering. Therefore, I hereby submit to you my resignation from the United Nations. Respectfully Rima Khalaf __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 IsraelPalestineNews

April 20, 2017 National Press Club | Washington, D.C. 8:30 AM to 5:15 PM #RespondUCS Registration | Speakers & Panelists | Schedule | Logistics This one-day symposium will feature the launch of the report, In Response to Persecution, of the Under Caesar’s Sword Project. How do Christians respond to persecution and advance religious freedom for everyone? How can the rest of the world exercise solidarity with those especially persecuted? This day-long public symposium will propose concrete recommendations for action in response to these questions. It will feature globally prominent speakers on religious freedom and leading scholars of global Christianity. A highlight will be the launch of the report, In Response to Persecution, which conveys the results of the Under Caesar’s Sword project, the world’s first systematic global investigation of Christian responses to persecution, featuring findings from over 25 of the world’s most repressive countries. In attendance at the symposium will be government officials, business leaders, academics, and religious leaders, as well as representatives of non-governmental, human rights, and news organizations. The symposium is hosted by the Under Caesar's Sword project and its primary partners, the Religious Freedom Institute and the Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, in close collaboration with Aid to the Church in Need. Co-sponsoring the event are the Program on Church, State & Society at the University of Notre Dame, the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University, In Defense of Christians, and the Institute for Global Engagement. Want to get connected or to help us spread the word? Find the event on Facebook, use the hashtag #RespondUCS, and contact Kristi to learn more (khaas3@nd.edu). Copyright © 2017 University of Notre Dame Under Caesar's Sword1135 Flanner Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556

Country’s censorship board approves 13-plus rating after previously demanding Disney cut gay scene from live-action remake before release Dan Stevens and Emma Watson in Beauty and the Beast. Photograph: Moviestore/Rex/Shutterstock ​ Gwilym Mumford Tuesday 21 March 2017 11.09 EDT Beauty and the Beast will be screened in Malaysia without cuts, although censors have given the film a 13-plus age rating due to the film containing a “gay moment”. The Film Censorship Board of Malaysia had previously said the Disney movie would only be approved for release if four minutes of material were removed. The studio refused to make the cuts and appealed the board’s decision. Now the censors have apparently relented. “We are pleased to announce that Disney’s Beauty and the Beast has now been approved to be released in Malaysia with no cuts, with a P13 rating,” the studio said in a statement. The rating prohibits children under the age of 13 from seeing the film will unless accompanied by an adult. Earlier, the censorship board chairman had suggested that the film’s director, Bill Condon, had forced the board’s hand. “Maybe if Condon had not mentioned the gay element people wouldn’t be so curious, and we could let it go with a potentially minor cut,” Datuk Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid told Malaysia’s New Straits Times. “Malaysia does not recognise the LGBT ideology,” he added, “so we have to be extra-cautious in our work. We have our responsibilities to the country, the people and our constitution. If we let these scenes pass, people will wonder if Malaysia recognises LGBT.” The country has strict laws against homosexual behaviour, and films are only permitted to feature gay characters if they are portrayed in a negative light or show repentance for their sexuality.