News Clips- July 22, 2016

Human Rights Defenders and Civil Society

• A car bomb in Kiev killed a journalist who was often critical of the government leaders in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. [The Guardian]

• Four Kenyan police officers were charged with the murder of human rights defender, Willie Kimani. [The Jurist]

• In the midst of anti-government demonstrations, several armed men have been holding policemen as hostages for four days in the Armenian capital to demand the release of opposition supporters and political prisoners. [The Guardian]

 

Conflicts and Humanitarian Crises

• UN Human Rights High Commissioner released a statement urging both sides of the conflict in Syria to ensure the safety of civilians. [UN News Centre]

• Peace talks continue in Yemen aimed at complete cessation of violence in light of an attack in early June that left 18 civilians dead. [UN News Centre]

• After UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recently supported an arms embargo in South Sudan, President Museveni of Uganda announced that he opposed the plan. [Al Jazeera]

• The UN Children’s Fund warned that children are starving in areas of north-eastern Nigeria that are under Boko Haram’s control. [UN News Centre]

• North Korea continues to test launch ballistic missiles claiming that they are rehearsing an attack on South Korean airports and ports. [Washington Post]

Human Rights Bodies’ Activities

• Morocco asked to rejoin the African Union after 32 years since it left the regional organization, refusing to support the membership of Western Sahara as a member of the AU. [Al Jazeera]

• The UN Human Rights Committee published its concluding observations on the political and civil rights records of Denmark, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Ghana, Ecuador, Burkina Faso, and Argentina. [OHCHR Press Release]

• The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that China is arbitrarily detaining an American citizen. [IJRC]

• Helen Clark, contender to take over Ban Ki-moon’s position as United Nations Secretary General, said the UN must do more to fight violent extremism. [The Guardian]

International & Domestic Courts

• Bangladeshi court charged 38 people with murder in the case of the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse that killed 1,135 people. [The Guardian]

• A Colombian court approved a referendum for a peace deal with leftist rebels. [Washington Post]

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• A Canadian man alleged a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights where he argued the Hague Convention was not appropriately applied by Polish authorities in a custody dispute, and the European Court of Human Rights awarded him 23,000€. [Human Rights Europe]

• The International People’s Tribunal in The Hague recently reported its findings that Indonesia is responsible for the genocide in 1965 during which about 400,000 civilians died. [Al Jazeera]

Migrants and Refugees

• A new Oxfam report found that the world’s six wealthiest countries host less than nine percent of refugees in the world. [Al Jazeera]

• In a dinghy off the coast of Libya that held hundreds of refugees, 22 people were found dead at the bottom. [Al Jazeera]

States’ International Commitments

• The UN special envoy on climate change criticized both the UK and Germany for not upholding the Paris climate deal due to subsidies provided to the fossil fuel industry. [The Guardian]

• A day after declaring a state of emergency, Turkey announced that it will temporarily suspend observation of its commitments under the European Convention on Human Rights. [abcnews]