Human Rights – Page 16

Centre extends AFSPA in Arunachal Pradesh

April 8, 2015 by Nasheman

Photo: V. Sudershan, The Hindu

New Delhi: India has granted the Army shoot-to-kill powers to fight militants in a wide swathe of the far-flung state of Arunachal Pradesh.

The Army was already exercising “special powers” in other northeastern states, where various separatist, leftist and tribal rebels are waging insurgencies, but Arunachal Pradesh has been relatively peaceful until recently.

Last month, three soldiers were killed in an ambush in the state that the Army blamed on militants from the Naga tribe.

Rebel groups have set up camps across the state, the Home Ministry said in its “special powers” order, and use it as a base to launch attacks in the neighboring state of Assam, which has been hardest hit by an upsurge in militancy in the region.

The order, obtained by Reuters and dated March 27, extended the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to all districts of Arunchal Pradesh that border Assam – a measure that will affect most of the state`s 1.3 million people.

“We were compelled to expand the jurisdiction of AFSPA due to a drastic rise in violence in the north-east region. The separatist groups have been targeting the police and security officials,” said a senior home ministry official in New Delhi.

The northeastern states, are connected to the rest of the country by a thin sliver of land, and contain diverse ethnic groups, some with links to neighbouring Myanmar.

Militant activity surged in the states, known as “the Seven Sisters”, last year with 465 deaths reported, up from 252 a year earlier, according to the South Asian Terrorism Portal, a think-tank that tracks militancy.

In Assam, the death toll tripled to 305, making 2014 the state`s worst year since 2009. Only nine people were killed last year in Arunchal Pradesh.

The special powers for “disturbed areas” was first used in 1958 to control Naga separatists, and was subsequently extended to most of the north-east. It has been in force in the disputed region of Kashmir since 1990.

Human rights groups blame AFSPA for a host of extra-judicial killings and arbitrary detentions by security forces. On Wednesday, lawmakers in Kashmir called for it to be repealed.

Citizens from the rest of India require a permit to visit Arunchal Pradesh, which is the size of Austria, and heavily militarised along parts of border with China.

China has not responded to the new measure, but Beijing has become increasingly vocal in recent years about India`s control of the region it calls South Tibet.

(Reuters)

Chittoor encounter 'survivor' surfaces, cops come under fire

April 8, 2015 by Nasheman

Chittoor: A rights group said on Wednesday it has traced a “survivor” from a group of loggers shot dead by Andhra Pradesh police in an incident dubbed as a “massacre” of wood-cutters from neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

On Tuesday, Andhra Pradesh police had claimed to have shot dead 20 illegal red sandalwood smugglers in a forest close to the temple town of Tirupati, sparking violent protests in the neighbouring state which continued on Wednesday.

Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee member Kranthi Chaitanya, in the forefront of a demand for a judicial enquiry into the encounter, said the organisation has “managed to establish contact with the survivor through relatives of the deceased who have come here (Chittoor) from Tamil Nadu.

“He is being kept at a safe place. We will produce him before the National Human Rights Commission,” he added.

The NHRC has already taken suo moto cognizance of the incident and asked for reports from the Andhra Pradesh chief secretary and police chief.

Family-members of a few of the slain “smugglers” arrived at the government mortuary in Chittoor also said the “survivor” was among of 8 wood-cutters hired by red sanders smugglers in Andhra.

The identity of the “survivor”, said to be from Arjuna Puram village in Thiruvanamalai district of Tamil Nadu, was not given.

They quoted him as saying that seven of his group were pulled out of a bus on Monday by police during a search at Nagari on the inter-state border.

“They were traveling in a bus from Thiruvanamalai to Chitoor on Monday afternoon. The bus was stopped by police and seven of the eight men were arrested. He was sitting separately and managed to slip away quietly,” said Raja Babu (38), a relative of one of those killed in the encounter.

The survivor is said to have returned to village on Tuesday morning, around the time news of the encounter broke on TV.

Media reports said that right group Amnesty International has also called for a fair probe into the incident.

Meanwhile, protests continued in Tamil Nadu with incidents of stone-pelting on buses originating in Andhra.

Police said four persons have been arrested over the attacks on buses. Several outfits organised protests in some parts of Tamil Nadu condemning the incident.

Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam had written to the Andhra government, demanding a probe into what he called a massacre of innocent Tamils.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh also called up Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu over the incident.

(Agencies)

UN says 2014 'devastating year' for Palestinians

March 27, 2015 by Nasheman

Annual Humanitarian Overview finds more Palestinian civilians were killed in 2014 than any year since the 1967 war.

‘Continued occupation undermines the ability of Palestinians to live normal lives,’ said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator. AFP / Abbas Momani

by Dalia Hatuqa, Al Jazeera

Occupied West Bank: The year 2014 claimed more Palestinian civilian lives than any year since the 1967 war, the United Nations has said in a report, with a senior member of the agency dubbing it a “devastating year” for the occupied territories.

The annual Humanitarian Overview, released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Thursday, said the crisis affecting Palestinians’ lives, liberties, security movement and access stemmed from the “prolonged [Israeli] occupation…, alongside a system of policies that undermine the ability of Palestinians to live normal, self-sustaining lives”.

The report, titled “Fragmented Lives” – which is based on data cross-referenced with other UN agencies, as well as government sources, international, Palestinian and Israeli NGOs – said that if these factors were removed, Palestinians would be self-sufficient and capable of developing their own institutions and economy without the need for any humanitarian assistance.

“2014 was a devastating year for Palestinians in the [occupied territories]” said James Rawley, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the territories.

“Continued occupation undermines the ability of Palestinians to live normal lives. Were these factors removed and related policies changed, international humanitarian assistance would not be necessary here.”

Fifty-eight Palestinians were killed in the West Bank last year – the highest number of Palestinian fatalities in incidents involving Israeli forces since 2007.

More than 6,000 were injured, the report said, dubbing it the highest number of Palestinian injuries since 2005, when the OCHA began collecting data.

“A record number of 1,215 Palestinians were displaced due to home demolitions by Israeli authorities,” Rawley added.

“Settlement and settler activity continued, in contravention of international law, and contributed to humanitarian vulnerability of affected Palestinian communities.”

Approximately 1,500 civilians (550 of them children) were killed in Gaza during the July-August war. Five Israeli civilians were killed during that time, including a child.

One hundred thousand people in the Gaza Strip are still internally displaced, living in collectives centres, with host families or in makeshift shelters. Some have chosen to stay in their heavily damaged homes.

According to the report’s findings: “In 2014, Gaza witnessed the highest rate of internal displacement since 1967… Almost 500,000 people, 28 percent of the population, were internally displaced.”

Since the summer, reconstruction in Gaza has been slowed, hampered by the Israeli blockade and dwindling funds, the report explained, but highlighted that the temporary Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism put into place after last summer’s war has enabled the import of some construction material.

In the West Bank, the number of people displaced in 2014 due to demolitions is the highest recorded in a single year since the OCHA began tracking this indicator in 2008, the report said.

While the number of structures demolished in Area C – the 60 percent of the West Bank under exclusive Israeli control – declined last year, there was a 20 percent increase in people displaced, because more residential structures were targeted.

The report called on all parties to exercise constraint and for Israel to take responsibility as an occupying power.

“All parties to the conflict … must fulfil their legal obligations to conduct hostilities in accordance with international law to ensure the protection of all civilians and to ensure accountability for acts committed,” it said.

US will not participate in UN human rights forum on Palestine

March 23, 2015 by Nasheman

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel sits next to President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, left, at the White House in Sept., 2010. (AFP/File)

The United States will not be be speaking at the UN’s annual human rights forum on violations in the Palestinian Territories, reports Reuters.

“The US delegation will not be speaking about Palestine today,” a US spokesman in Geneva told Reuters.

The unprecedented move could be a reflection of the US reassessing its relationship with Israel afterongoing tension with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Most recently, Obama denounced Netanyahu’s declaration that a two-state solution with Palestine would never happen so long as he is reelected. Netanyahu claims his comments were misinterpreted.

Netanyahu also recently vowed to stop the US from reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran.

Judge orders US government to stop suppressing evidence of torture and abuse

March 23, 2015 by Nasheman

Ruling on Friday is latest development in years-long legal battle, in which the ACLU has argued the photos ‘are crucial to the public record’

“Indefinite Detention” (Photo: Justin Norman/flickr/cc)

by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. government to release more than 2,000 photographs showing abuse and torture of people detained by the American military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The decision is the latest development in a more than 10-year-long legal battle, in which the American Civil Liberties Unions has argued that disclosure of the records is critical for public debate and government accountability.

Many of the concealed photographs were taken by U.S. military service members and collected during more than 200 military investigations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some could be on par with, or worse than, those released from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

U.S. district judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled (pdf) that the government “is required to disclose each and all of the photographs” in response to a Freedom of Information Act Request from the ACLU. In the order, Hellerstein argued that the government did not adequately prove that “disclosure would endanger Americans.”

The decision gives the Solicitor General two months to decide whether to appeal.

The ACLU has pressed for the release of records relating to torture and extrajudicial killings of prisoners in U.S. custody around the world since 2003.

The administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama have vigorously fought to keep these photographs suppressed, and in 2009, the White House collaborated with Congress to secretly change FOIA law to enable the concealment of the images, arguing it is necessary to protect national security.

However, ACLU deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer argued in response to Friday’s ruling, “To allow the government to suppress any image that might provoke someone, somewhere, to violence would be to give the government sweeping power to suppress evidence of its own agents’ misconduct. Giving the government that kind of censorial power would have implications far beyond this specific context.”

“The photos are crucial to the public record,” Jaffer continued. “They’re the best evidence of what took place in the military’s detention centers, and their disclosure would help the public better understand the implications of some of the Bush administration’s policies. And the Obama administration’s rationale for suppressing the photos is both illegitimate and dangerous.”

Pakistan carries out mass executions

March 17, 2015 by Nasheman

At least 10 convicts hanged, marking highest number in a single day since lifting of moratorium on capital punishment.

Human rights group Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan has more than 8,000 prisoners on death row [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Pakistan has hanged at least 10 convicted murderers, the highest number in a single day after the government lifted a six-year-old moratorium on capital punishment, officials said.

Eight of the convicts were hanged in the Punjab province on Tuesday, while two others were hanged in the southern metropolis of Karachi, according to prison officials.

The latest hangings bring to 37 the number of convicts hanged since Pakistan resumed executions in December after Taliban fighters gunned down 154 people, most of them children, at a school in the restive northwest.

The partial lifting of the moratorium, which began in 2008, only applied to those convicted of terrorism offences, but was last week extended to all capital offences.

Only one person was executed during the period of the moratorium – a soldier convicted by a court martial and hanged in 2012.

Human rights group Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan has more than 8,000 prisoners on death row, most of whom have exhausted the appeals process.

Critical voices

Supporters of the death penalty in Pakistan argue that it is the only effective way to the deal with the scourge of rebel groups in the country.

But rights campaigners have been highly critical, citing problematic convictions in Pakistan’s criminal justice system, which they say is replete with rampant police torture and unfair trials.

“This shameful retreat to the gallows is no way to resolve Pakistan’s pressing security and law and order problems,” Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International’s deputy Asia-Pacific director, said last week.

European Union diplomats have also raised the issue of capital punishment – and the case of one man who was condemned to death as a teenager in particular – in meetings with Pakistani officials focused on trade and human rights.

The EU granted Pakistan the much coveted “GSP+” status in 2014, giving the country access to highly favourable trade tariffs, conditional on Pakistan enacting certain commitments on human rights.

ACLU targets Obama with new lawsuit over drone wars, 'Kill List'

March 16, 2015 by Nasheman

‘Public should know who the government is killing, and why it’s killing them,’ says legal director Jameel Jaffer

President Barack Obama working with senior staff on Air Force One in this file image. (AFP/File)

by Jon Queally, Common Dreams

The American Civil Liberties Union will file a new lawsuit against the Obama administration over continued secrecy surrounding its controversial use of armed drones to carry out lethal strikes and assassinations across the globe, the Guardian reports on Monday.

According to journalist Spencer Ackerman, who was given advance notice of the suit, the ACLU is seeking disclosure from the White House of legal documents and internal memos relating to Obama’s use of drones, with specific attention to how individuals end up on what has become known as the president’s “kill list.”

Though the ACLU has filed previous lawsuits and requests for disclosures regarding the administration’s drone program—operated largely by the CIA but also the military’s Joint Special Operations Command—the latest effort to obtain legal justification for the program follows continued secrecy and ongoing “stonewalling” by White House lawyers and other agencies.

“Over the last few years, the US government has used armed drones to kill thousands of people, including hundreds of civilians. The public should know who the government is killing, and why it’s killing them,” Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director for the ACLU, told the Guardian.

The new lawsuit, reports Ackerman, describes how numerous agencies under Obama’s authority—including the State and Justice Departments, the Pentagon, as well as the CIA—have been stonewalling the ACLU for nearly 18 months.

While lawyers for the Obama administration have argued that national security prevents further disclosures and President Obama has said that internal changes have enhanced the safeguards surrounding the selection of targets and the execution of drone strikes, the ACLU argues the level of secrecy around a program of such profound importance is simply unacceptable in a representative democracy.

Jaffer told the Guardian there could be no “legitimate justification” for persistent official stonewalling on civilian casualties and the procedures by which people, including U.S. citizens, can find themselves on a secret government “kill list.”

“The categorical secrecy surrounding the drone program doesn’t serve any legitimate security interest,” Jaffer told the Guardian. “It serves only to skew public debate, to obscure the human costs of the program, and to shield decision-makers from accountability.”

Delhi HC quashes look out circular against Greenpeace campaigner Priya Pillai

March 12, 2015 by Nasheman

Priya Pillai, Campaigner Greenpeace India.

New Delhi: Exactly two months after Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai was stopped from boarding a flight to London to speak to British MPs, the Delhi High Court has asked the government to quash and set aside the lookout circular against her.

The court has also directed the government to expunge the passport entry where it has been stamped as “offload”.

The court told the government that democracy cannot be muzzled in a democracy and that citizens can have different opinions of development policies.

“I’m feeling very happy because this reposes our faith in the Indian judiciary. Big win for people who dare to have a different dream of development which may not coincide with the dream of the government… Big vindication of our work,” Ms Pillai said after the court order.

Ms Pillai, who was offloaded from the aircraft by immigration officials on January 11, was scheduled to visit London to make a presentation before British MPs regarding alleged human rights violation at Mahan in Madhya Pradesh where a proposed coal mining project was threatening to uproot the lives of the local communities.

Ms Pillai said her offloading was “illegal and arbitrary” and she had a valid business visa for six months to visit London where she was scheduled to address British parliamentarians on January 14.

Her name will now also be removed from any government database that prevents her from travelling abroad.

(Agencies)

NHRC issues notice to Kerala government on the arrest of human rights defenders

March 4, 2015 by Nasheman

New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognizance of a media report that the Kerala Government was targeting human rights defenders and rights activists by labeling them as ‘Maoists sympathizers’.

Human rights defenders and advocates Tushar Nirmal Sarathy and Jaison C. Cooper had been arrested under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in Kerala and were in jail since the 30th January, 2015. While Jaison was arrested from Cochin on the 29th January, 2015, Tushar was arrested after a press conference in Kozhikode on the same day.

The Commission has observed that the contents of the press report, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of human rights of human rights defenders. It has issued a notice to the Director General of Police, Kerala calling for a report within two weeks.

Reportedly, both Tushar and Jaison were actively engaged in peasants’ struggles against land acquisition, illegal rock quarrying, forcible evictions, and the violation of labour rights of migrant workers in Kerala as well as struggles against various polluting industries.

Palestine to lodge ICC case against Israel in April

March 3, 2015 by Nasheman

A Palestinian boy climbs through the rubble of a house after it was hit in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, Aug. 25, 2014. (Photo: Wissam Nassar / The New York Times)

by RT

Palestine’s first complaint against Israel’s alleged war crimes will be filed at the International Criminal Court in April, according to a senior Palestinian official. The issue will reportedly be related to the 2014 war in Gaza.

“One of the first important steps will be filing a complaint against Israel at the ICC on April 1 over the [2014] Gaza war and settlement activity,” Mohammed Shtayyeh, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) told AP on Monday.

The Palestinians will be able to take legal action at the court based in The Hague, Netherlands, after the nation moved to join the international authority formally in January. According to the court’s procedures, “the statute will enter into force for the State of Palestine on April 1.”

Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon expressed his country’s refusal to react to the declaration, describing it as“speculative and hypothetical,” as quoted by AP. The Israeli administration has for decades consistently opposed Palestine’s legal power to sue Israel for war crimes.

After Palestine’s move to join the ICC was confirmed by the UN in January, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country “will not let Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers and officers be dragged” to The Hague. Following the announcement in January, Israel froze the transfer of half a billion shekels ($125 million) in tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority.

The ICC, with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, announced a preliminary examination into Israel’s 2014 actions in Gaza. Around 2,200 Palestinians were killed in that conflict,with over 60 percent of the victims being civilians. Israel’s losses included 66 soldiers and 6 civilians, according to an investigation, carried out by AP earlier this month.

After Palestine officially joins the Court in April, it also plans to sue Israel over its policy of settlement building on land occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. Under international law, all Israeli construction on land seized during the war is considered illegal.