News Clips- September 23, 2016

Refugees and Migrants

• The UN held the Summit for Refugees and Migrants on Monday and the United States President Barack Obama hosted the Leaders’ Summit on the Global Refugee Crisis on Tuesday. [IJRC; UN News Centre: Bold; UN News Centre: Integration]
• The International Justice Resource Center and the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies are hosting a training on the human rights of migrants at UC Hastings College of the Law on Friday September 23, and the training will also be webcast live. [IJRC]
• Six hundred migrants were on a boat outside of Egypt when it capsized this week, killing at least 43 people, and on Thursday, the Egyptian authorities announced the arrest of four crew members for trafficking and manslaughter. [Guardian; Al Jazeera]
• This week UN draft principles on human rights approaches to migration were unveiled as a follow up to the New York Declaration adopted this week on protecting the human rights of migrants. [UN News Centre]
• A report released this week from the University of Toronto found that between 2010 and 2014 Canada detained 242 children for immigration violations. [Guardian]
• A fire at a refugee camp in Greece forced thousands of migrants to flee. [Al Jazeera]

Civil Society

• Student protests over the cost of education in South Africa turned violent this week with both students and security guards throwing rocks at each other. [Al Jazeera]
• Two journalists in the Philippines have received several threats this week after reporting on the government’s anti-drug campaign. [Al Jazeera]
• Xia Lin, a human rights lawyer, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment this week and is one of many human rights attorneys recently sentenced in China in an ongoing crackdown. [Al Jazeera]
• Egypt froze the assets of five human rights defenders and three nongovernmental organizations while the government conducts investigations into criminal activity. [NYTimes]

Conflict and Violence

• The United Nations Secretary General condemned what appeared to be a purposeful attack on a UN aid convoy in Syria when Russian planes dropped bombs on UN food supplies. [Guardian]
• Fighting in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between police and protestors left between 17 and 50 dead on Monday. [Guardian]
• A police department in the United States released a video this week showing a police officer shooting and killing an unarmed black man, another death in a series of shootings of unarmed black civilians by police officers in the country. [Al Jazeera]

Environment

• On Wednesday of this week, over 30 countries ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change, making the total ratifications 60. [Guardian]
• The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes this week called on States and businesses to protect children from pollution. [OHCHR Press Release]
• The European Court of Justice held this week that a power plant in the United Kingdom has violated EU regulations on emissions limits. [Jurist]
• The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor announced that the ICC will give “particular consideration” to crimes that result in environmental destruction. [Washington Post]

Activities of Human Rights Bodies and Experts

• The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances examined hundreds of cases during its 110^th session this week. [OHCHR Press Release]
• The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders called on the authorities of Azerbaijan to stop harassing human rights defenders as a tactic to prevent peaceful assembly and other legitimate activities. [OHCHR Press Release]
• The United Nations Independent Investigation in Burundi released a report this week detailing evidence of gross human rights violations in the country. [OHCHR Press Release]
• The African Commission and Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights met this week to discuss the development of a legal aid fund among other topics. [AfCHPR Press Release]
• The UN announced this week that 40 percent of Somalis now suffer from a lack of food, a number that has increased in the last year due to conflict, drought, and returning refugees. [Al Jazeera]