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☆ Swiss Court Convicts Ex-Gambian Minister of Crimes Against Humanity
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-15 | by ( Nick Cumming-Bruce | Ruth Maclean | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A former interior minister and enforcer for a violent and autocratic Gambian president was convicted of crimes against humanity on Wednesday for the torture and executions of civilians and sentenced to 20 years in prison by Switzerland’s federal court. The verdict, which one plaintiff called a “milestone” for victims, came after a landmark trial that was followed closely by victims of the government’s repression. The former minister, Ousman Sonko, 55, was found guilty of multiple counts of intentional homicide, torture and false imprisonment that were committed, the court said, as “part of a systematic attack on the civilian population” of the West African country. His lawyer said he would appeal the verdict. The case was tried in Switzerland under the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows states to prosecute serious crimes regardless of where in the world they were committed.

Persons: Ousman Sonko, Sonko Locations: West, Switzerland, Geneva, Gambia

Israel welcomed a U.S. aid package signed by President Biden on Wednesday that will send about $15 billion in military aid to Israel, increasing American support for its closest Middle East ally despite strains in their relationship over Israel’s prosecution of the war in the Gaza Strip. “Our alliance is ironclad,” Israel Katz, the country’s foreign minister, said in a statement thanking Mr. Biden for signing the legislation. It was part of a long-stalled $95.3 billion in aid that had faced vehement opposition from some Republicans over its support for Ukraine, which is also part of the legislation, as is Taiwan. The aid for Israel includes more than $5 billion to replenish three of the country’s defense systems: Iron Dome, which intercepts rockets that fly in high arcs; David’s Sling, which shoots down drones, missiles and rockets; and Iron Beam, which was designed to use laser beams to destroy incoming projectiles. It also includes $1 billion to enhance the production and development of artillery and munitions and $2.4 billion for American military operations in the U.S. Central Command region, which includes the Middle East as well as parts of South Asia and East Africa.

Persons: Israel, Biden, ” Israel Katz, Mr Organizations: Ukraine, U.S . Central Command Locations: Israel, East, Gaza, Taiwan, South Asia, East Africa

The United Nations’ human rights office on Tuesday called for an independent investigation into two mass graves found after Israeli forces withdrew from hospitals in Gaza, including one discovered days ago over which Israeli and Palestinian authorities offered differing accounts. He accused Israeli forces of killing and burying them. It did not comment on the report of the mass grave at Al-Shifa. It also did not say how the bodies had been examined to determine if they were those of Israeli hostages. “Bodies examined, which did not belong to Israeli hostages, were returned to their place.”

Persons: Khan Younis, —, ” Organizations: United Nations, Palestinian Civil Defense, Nasser Hospital, Shifa, Palestinian Authority Locations: Gaza, Khan, Al, Gaza City, Mahmoud

☆ A U.N. panel says Israel is obstructing its investigation of the Oct. 7 attack.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-16 | by ( Nick Cumming-Bruce | More About Nick Cumming-Bruce | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Members of a United Nations commission said on Tuesday that Israel was obstructing their efforts to investigate possible human rights violations on Oct. 7 and in the ensuing war between Israel and Hamas. But they said the commission had still shared large amounts of evidence with the International Criminal Court. “We have faced not merely a lack of cooperation but active obstruction of our efforts to receive evidence from Israeli witnesses and victims” related to the Oct. 7 attack, Chris Sidoti, one of three members of the commission, told a briefing for diplomats in Geneva. The commission was formed in 2021 to investigate human rights violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Israel has accused the commission of bias, and has said it would not cooperate with what it described as “an anti-Israeli, antisemitic body.”It has not allowed the commission to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories, and in January it instructed Israeli medical personnel who treated released hostages and victims of the Oct. 7 attack not to cooperate with the panel, which is led by Navi Pillay, the former United Nations human rights chief.

Persons: Israel, Chris Sidoti Organizations: United Nations, International Criminal, Navi Pillay, United Locations: Israel, Geneva, Palestinian, United Nations

☆ U.K. Backsliding on Civil and Political Protections, U.N. Rights Body Says
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Nick Cumming-Bruce | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

An influential United Nations human rights body delivered a scathing assessment Thursday on the protection of civil rights in Britain, accusing the Conservative government of backsliding and urging the country to abandon its controversial legislation to allow asylum seekers to be sent to Rwanda. The criticisms from the U.N. Human Rights Committee came as it presented its conclusions from two days of meetings in Geneva this month with a delegation of 24 British officials to review the country’s compliance with an international treaty for the protection of civil and political rights. “We are witnessing a really regressive trend and trajectory” in Britain, Hélène Tigroudja, a committee member, said at a news conference in Geneva. She said that the trend was occurring “in many, many sectors when dealing with civil and political rights, and I hope our message will be heard by the U.K.”The 18-person U.N. committee addressed wide-ranging concerns over the two days. Britain is one of more than 170 countries that ratified the treaty — the International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights — and member states go through periods of review.

Persons: Hélène Organizations: United, Conservative, backsliding, Human Rights, U.K, Civil Locations: United Nations, Britain, Rwanda, Geneva

☆ ‘Welcome to Hell’: U.N. Panel Says Russian War Crimes Are Widespread
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Nick Cumming-Bruce | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, United Nations investigators say they have uncovered new evidence of systematic and widespread torture of Ukrainian prisoners held by Russian security forces. A United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Friday detailed a range of what it described as Russian war crimes, including summary executions, sexual violence and forced transfer of Ukrainian children into Russia. The commission paid special attention to “horrific” treatment of Ukrainian prisoners by Russian security services at detention centers in Russia and occupied Ukraine. The commission will deliver a report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva next week, detailing accounts of torture from four locations in Russia and seven in occupied Ukraine, strengthening previous findings that the use of torture had become widespread and systematic. “We are concerned at the scale, continuation and gravity of violations and crimes that the commission has investigated and the impact on victims,“ Erik Mose, chairman of the three-person panel, said in a statement.

Persons: Russia’s, “ Erik Mose Organizations: United Nations, United Nations Commission, Human Rights Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Geneva

☆ Iran’s 2022 Protest Crackdown Included Killings, Torture and Rape, U.N. Finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Nick Cumming-Bruce | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A U.N. fact-finding mission reporting to the Human Rights Council in Geneva cited as credible estimates that 551 people were killed by security forces, most of them by gunfire, as part of a widespread and systematic crackdown on the protests, which were mostly led by women. The casualties included at least 49 women and 68 children. The Human Rights Council will discuss the report next week. The use of lethal force during largely peaceful protests was unlawful and the deaths amounted to extrajudicial executions, the investigators said. But they also reported that the authorities had summarily executed at least nine young men after cursory trials on charges linked to the protests and that several people had died in custody as a result of torture.

Persons: Mahsa Amini Organizations: United Nations, Human Rights Locations: Kurdish, Geneva

☆ Atrocities Mount in Sudan as War Spirals, U.N. Says
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Nick Cumming-Bruce | Declan Walsh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Bombs that struck houses, markets, and bus stations across Sudan, often killing dozens of civilians at once. Ethnic rampages, accompanied by rape and looting, that killed thousands in the western region of Darfur. And a video clip, verified by United Nations officials, that shows Sudanese soldiers parading through the streets of a major city, triumphantly brandishing the decapitated heads of students who were killed on the basis of their ethnicity. The horrors of Sudan’s spiraling civil war are laid out in graphic detail in a new United Nations report that draws on photos, videos and interviews with over 300 victims and witnesses, to present the stark human toll from 10 months of fighting. Many probable war crimes have occurred as part of the grinding battle for control of Sudan, one of the largest countries in Africa, which started with clashes between the country’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023, the report by the U.N.’s human rights body found.

Organizations: United Nations, Rapid Support Forces Locations: Sudan, Darfur, Africa

☆ Middle East Crisis Egypt Is Building a Wall Near Gaza Border But Won’t Say Why
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Nada Rashwan | Christiaan Triebert | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

A wall is going up in the desert of Egypt near the border of the war-torn Gaza Strip, but no one is talking much about it. Image Construction of a wall along the Egyptian border with Rafah is seen in this satellite imagery. Credit... Maxar TechnologiesThe satellite imagery clearly shows newly graded land south of the Rafah border crossing. And many Palestinians suspect that Israel might not allow people who leave Gaza to come back when the war is over. One Gazan official in Rafah, Ahmed al-Soufi, estimated that there were over 100,000 displaced Palestinians in encampments pressed against the border.

Persons: Gazans, Ahmed al, Martin Griffiths, —, Hisham el, Gen Mohamed Shousha, Ahmed Ezzat, Nick Cumming, Bruce, Adam Rasgon Organizations: The New York Times, Maxar, The Times, Egyptian Army, United Locations: Egypt, Gaza, Rafah, Israel, North Sinai —, North Sinai, Maj, Geneva, Jerusalem

Israel’s defense minister has signaled that ground forces will advance toward the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, which has become a refuge for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians pushed from their homes by nearly 13 weeks of war. Rafah, which has also been a gateway for humanitarian aid, is a sprawl of tents and makeshift shelters crammed against the border with Egypt. About half of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents have piled into and around the city, where about 200,000 people lived before the war, the United Nations said on Friday. The city is one of the last in southern Gaza that Israeli ground forces, which have been fighting house-to-house battles in nearby Khan Younis, have not yet reached.

Persons: Khan Younis Organizations: United Nations Locations: Rafah, Gaza, Egypt, Khan

Many other hospitals were also reported to have come under attack on Monday, the third day of fighting in Sudan. Russia has also been trying to make inroads in Sudan, and members of the Kremlin-affiliated Wagner private military company are posted there. Leaders from around the world called for a cease-fire, but it was not clear who, if anyone, was in control of Sudan, Africa’s third-largest country, by area. “Everyone is afraid,” said Ahmed Abuhurira, a 28-year-old mechanical engineer who went out to try to charge his cellphone. “The humanitarian situation in Sudan was already precarious and is now catastrophic,” he said.

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