Princess Rita and Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi at Villa Aurora - Marco Mancini, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
The villa houses the only known ceiling painting by the Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.
Texas-born Princess Rita Boncompani Ludovisi, the widow of Prince Nicolo Boncompani Ludovisi, has been evicted from a villa in Rome with a unique Caravaggio fresco over a long-running inheritance dispute, dpa and Reuters reported.
Italian carabinieri escorted Texas-born and raised Rita Boncompani Ludovisi, 73, from the villa that houses the only known ceiling painting by Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610). Half of the property is her property according to a will, and the other half – the late Prince Nicolo left to his sons from his first marriage. He died in 2018.
As part of the inheritance dispute, several failed attempts have been made to auction the historic building, called Aurora, for around €140 million, and now a court has ordered the villa to be vacated.
According to the sons of Prince Boncompani Ludovisi, the princess does not take care of the house properly and offers paid guided tours without permission.
One of the heirs of the late prince explained that the villa should be extensively renovated.
The villa was built in 1570 and has belonged to the Ludovizi family since the beginning of the 17th century. In 1597, Cardinal Del Monte, a diplomat and patron of the arts, commissioned Caravaggio, then in his early 20s, to paint the ceiling of a small room on the first floor, which he used as an alchemical laboratory. The 2.75 meter wide mural is painted in oil directly on the plaster and depicts an allegorical scene with the gods Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto representing the transmutation of lead into gold. Caravaggio painted his own face and body on each of the three figures.
The villa owes its name to a fresco by another Baroque artist, Guercino, which adorns the huge ceiling of the entrance hall and depicts Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, riding a chariot.
On the occasion of the mass murder of children by an underage classmate in a Belgrade primary school that took place this morning, Serbian Patriarch Porfiry made the following statement:
It is with unbearable pain that I listen to the news of a disaster, the like of which has never happened in our people and in our homeland, and today it happened in a Belgrade primary school. I pray to Christ the Savior for the injured children and for those working at the school. I pray to the Savior for their parents, brothers, sisters, loved ones and express my deepest condolences. The prayers and love of the Risen Lord and all our human care and attention are today with you, our dear children and teachers, who are today in Belgrade hospitals.
I ask everyone to pray to the Risen Lord for peace and mutual love. And I ask everyone to do everything in their power to stop and condemn any kind of violence and especially the promotion of violence in society.
Three days of national mourning have been declared in Serbia since Friday.
Source: Official Facebook page of Serbian Patriarch Porfiry
Illustration: Icon of the Crucifiction from Korsets Kloster – Sweden’s first Syrian Orthodox monastery located in Ålberga, Nyköping.
Dating of the icon: 13th century. Place where the icon was produced: Mardin
MEPs adopted its position on a new scheme to ensure the geographical indication of traditional crafts is protected in the EU and globally.
With 19 votes in favour, MEPs from the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) adopted unanimously on Tuesday a draft negotiating mandate on legislation introducing a geographical indication (GI) protecting the names of local craft and industrial products. It would close the gap between diverging national systems by protecting goods such as natural stones, jewellery, textiles, lace, cutlery, glass and porcelain both in Europe and internationally.
Assistance to SMEs and digital services
Building on the existing regulation protecting locally produced food in the EU, the proposed bill would set up a procedure to register GIs and their labelling. Producers’ applications would first be examined by national and local authorities, then the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) would decide on the registration. MEPs propose that those members states not willing to establish a national registration authority should be able to opt out and the registration be covered for them directly by the EUIPO.
To make the process smoother, MEPs suggested making use of electronic applications. They also proposed that national authorities assist micro, small and medium-sized enterprises with the administration for their application and ensure lower registration fees for them.
Checks and enforcement
EU countries would be required to designate a competent authority in charge of checking that a GI has been placed on the market in accordance with the product specification. MEPs want to make sure that the rules effectively apply also to goods placed on the electronic market and make obligatory the proposed establishment of a digital portal with details of certification bodies accessible to the public.
Quote
Following the committee vote, rapporteur Marion Walsmann (EPP, DE) said: “It is time to create an EU-wide mechanism to protect specific European local skills and traditions relating to craft and industrial products. We designed an efficient European mechanism with minimal administrative burden and made it particularly attractive for MSMEs, since they will benefit from an easier application process and lower fees. This new mechanism will not just help traditional products also from less-developed regions to become known, attract tourists and create jobs, but it will also make consumers more aware of them, ensure fair competition for producers and help them fight counterfeit products.”
Next steps
Once the mandate to enter into negotiations with EU governments is confirmed by the Parliament as a whole, the talks on the final text of the legislation can start.
Background
Protecting geographical indication at EU level for agricultural products and foodstuffs has been in place for years. MEPs called for EU-wide protection of locally manufactured products already in 2015. In 2019, they reiterated their call following the EU accession to the Geneva Act, allowing for international recognition of local non-food products.
The largest factory for the production of wool in Europe will be built in Romania by local investors from the town of Olt, Fagetelu municipality, which received over 182 million lei (36.8 million pax per year). public aid, information from the Ministry of agriculture.
The products will be used for the factory for the production of wool and for wire and thermal insulation products from wool. In addition, this infection is also treated with topical products such as lanolin, organic fertilizers in the form of pellets or a woolen compost.
The investment includes a production hall of 12,500 sq.m and three lines for spinning raw wool. Cladding panels will also be mounted on the entire surface of the hall.
“The appraised and validated project will go to the loss of the factory, which will produce this valuable piece, in which we will receive the final of the exciting program. we have money that wants to invest in this data by creating mechanisms for harvesting wool from sheep farms in Romania, which are currently signing contracts for 15,000 tons of raw wool with the farmers’ associations,” said the minister of agriculture Petre Daea.
According to Economica.net, the investor is Kristian Merčioniu, the businessman who built the housing complex New Residence in Magupelé. It is reported that this is the integrated factory for the wool of the entrepreneur, which last December put into operation a similar plant in the city of Kostesti in Argesh.
On 3 May, the World Press Freedom Day, the European Parliament officially launched the call for submissions for entries to the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism.
The Prize rewards on a yearly basis outstanding journalism that promotes or defends the core principles and values of the European Union such as human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law, and human rights.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said: “The reality is that journalists investigating uncomfortable truths are being targeted for doing their job. While everything was done to silence Daphne, she will never be forgotten. Every year, the Prize bearing Daphne’s name honours her memory. It is a powerful reminder of the European Parliament’s commitment to safeguard press freedom and the safety of journalists”.
The Prize is open to professional journalists and teams of professional journalists of any nationality to submit in-depth pieces that have been published or broadcast by media based in one of the 27 European Union member states. The aim is to support and highlight the importance of professional journalism in safeguarding freedom, and equality.
An independent jury composed of representatives of the press and civil society from the 27 European member states and representatives of the main European Associations of Journalism will choose the winning entry. Each year, the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism is awarded at a ceremony in mid-October coinciding with the anniversary of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination to honor her memory.
The prize and the €20 000 prize money demonstrates the European Parliament’s strong support for investigative journalism and the importance of free press. Over the last few years, Parliament has warned about attempts both in the EU and beyond to undermine media pluralism.
MEPs have denounced the attacks on journalists, particularly from politicians, and called on the Commission to table legislation against abusive lawsuits. Last year, a proposal was presented to tackle malicious litigation against journalists and activists and this is currently being dealt with by the co-legislators.
Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese journalist, blogger and anti-corruption activist who reported extensively on corruption, money laundering, organised crime, sale of citizenship and the Maltese government’s links to the Panama Papers. Following harassment and threats, she was murdered in a car bomb explosion on 16 October 2017. The outcry over the authorities’ handling of her murder investigation ultimately prompted the resignation of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. Critical of failings in the investigation, in December 2019, MEPs called on the European Commission to take action.
There is one picture that always strikes with the desire for freedom and has become emblematic for all nations, regardless of the fact that its author is French – the artist Eugene Delacroix. We are talking about the painting “Liberty Leads the People”, which decorated postage stamps and banknotes in France, as well as the cover of a Coldplay album. The original itself is kept in the Louvre, where they often hold a retrospective of the great artist.
Delacroix’s painting has been placed on a par with Leonardo’s “Mona Lisa” in popularity. It was painted in 1830 and the main character – a woman with a bare chest, with a rifle and a flag in her hands, was always perceived as a symbol of Freedom and never disturbed the consciousness of normal people.
Many contemporary artists have used the painting to advertise various events and performances. Director Jocelyn Fiorina also recently used Delacroix’s famous painting to promote his Paris theater production, Shots on the Rue Saint-Roch. Literally hours after the first advertisement of the show, he discovered that the social network Facebook had blocked the advertisement as a “violator of good morals”, because of the bare chest of… Freedom.
The misunderstanding sparked a scandalous backlash, followed by an apology from the network’s controllers: “Freedom Leads the People has its place on Facebook and does not violate advertising rules, but we review millions of ad images every week and sometimes make mistakes. We apologize for the error in question.”
However, let’s add that this “mistake” is not the only one, perceived as a pornographic photo and not as a work of art, and this raises the question of whether it is censorship or incompetence.
What is the history of one of the most famous paintings – “Freedom Leads the People”: It depicts the allegorical figure of Freedom among real participants in an uprising. The canvas is so influential that it has become a symbol of the fight for freedom of all peoples of the world. I.e. it is as concrete in its conception, relating to a historical event in French history, as it is universal in its impact and a masterpiece of fine art.
“Freedom Leads the People” is a work inspired by the revolution that overthrew King Charles X, but on the canvas itself this development of events is not yet clear. We see people ready to fight in the streets of Paris. We see the Notre Dame Cathedral – a symbol of monarchism and conservatism, but the flag of the revolutionaries flies on its roof. The rebels are piling up cobblestones and using them to build barricades.
The woman, the symbol of Freedom, is drawn in profile, according to the canons of antiquity. Behind her are two male figures – one without an outer garment – an allusion that he is a man of the lower classes, and the other – a well-dressed man is… Delacroix himself. The artist has placed himself among the rebels. This is a clear expression of his civic position as a creator.
Delacroix also boldly proclaimed the idea of a revolution of the whole people, without distinction between the poor and the rich, because it was a rebellion against the despotism of an authoritarian ruler.
At the right end of the canvas we see a student with two pistols. Few people know that this boy is the prototype of Gavroche in “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo.
Many dead people are also depicted on the canvas – an allusion to the high cost of any rebellion. Among those who volunteered for self-sacrifice as rebels, there are also innocent citizens. One of the dead is a man in a nightgown. He was killed in his sleep. Artistic accents such as a sock and bloodstained shirt heighten the sense of tragedy.
In general, we have before us an epoch-making work of art, which hides within itself a lot of philosophy about revolution as a means of changing power. The canvas recreates the pathos of the angry people, in its full variety.
But, about the author of the popular work himself: Eugène Delacroix (fr. Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix): He is one of the most significant representatives of romanticism worldwide.
He was born on April 26, 1798 in South-Eastern France, in the family of Charles Delacroix – a civil servant, ambassador to the Netherlands and Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, who died in 1805 as Prefect of Bordeaux. The mother is a lady from a prominent family of furniture makers who created the interiors in the homes of many French kings and aristocrats, and Eugene is the fourth child in the distinguished family.
His parents are educated and artistic people who raise their children with love, but little Eugene experiences several life-threatening accidents: As a baby, he almost dies in a fire after his nanny accidentally drops a burning candle in his crib. He gets away with scars on his body that remain with him for life. Another time one of the housemaids, assigned to take him to a ship, dropped him into the sea, and he was narrowly saved from drowning.
Delacroix’s parents gave him a good education and upbringing. His first painting teachers were Pierre Narcisse Guerin and Jacques-Louis David, but Eugene later chose his own idol for imitation – Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640). At a later stage, Theodore Géricault was also influenced by romanticism in painting. Among his close friends were Chopin and George Sand.
Delacroix debuted at the Paris Salon in 1822 with his painting “Dante and Virgil”, inspired by Dante’s “Divine Comedy”.
In 1824, again at the Salon, he exhibited another painting with a dramatic plot – “Massacre in Chios”, dedicated to the revolt of the Greeks from the island of Chios, suppressed by the Ottomans. On the canvas we see men, women and children huddled together, seeking mercy. Delacroix is a master of psychology – he knows how to recreate the state of mind of his characters.
These two Delacroix paintings look bleak and hopeless. From their names it is clear that Delacroix had an affinity for historical plots and often resorted to literary classics – to episodes described in the works of Shakespeare, Goethe, Byron, Walter Scott, etc.
He was a virtuoso artist and illustrator and at the same time a brilliant critic with an analytical mind and rich culture.
There is another thing that writes his name in the history of fine art – Delacroix was one of the first artists to paint models of mixed race, because of the color of their skin, as he was tempted by the light and the play of shadows. After his trips to Algeria and Morocco, Delacroix painted a series of such paintings with exotic characters, such as “Algerian Women”, “Jewish Wedding in Morocco”, etc.
He often experimented with paint colors and let the light do the rest.
Many art critics call Delacroix’s work “a new step in the development of French painting”. The artist used color as an expression of emotion and in this regard attached great importance to complementary tones, color shadows and reflections. Many impressionists, post-impressionists and modernists of the 20th century followed his principles of “color decomposition”.
His pioneering techniques were followed by Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne.
Delacroix became very famous and valuable during his lifetime. His works are all over the world. The dimensions of his sails are also distinctive – some of them exceed 3 meters in width and are almost as tall. This makes it risky to transport them for exhibitions from one geographical point to a more distant destination. That is why one critic says that “his place is the Louvre and he had better not move from there”. He probably meant exactly this – the danger of possible damage to these masterpieces, valuable to the whole civilization.
The artist is also the author of many portraits of famous personalities such as Chopin and of many murals in the Bourbon Palace in Paris.
One of Delacroix’s lesser-known masterpieces is his painting “Orphan Girl in the Cemetery”, painted in 1824, before “Liberty Leads the People”. The girl in this canvas is looking up at the sky with eyes full of tears. One wonders if she is praying to God or blaming him for the loss of her loved ones?… The expression on her face shows intense pain. Delacroix is truly a master of psychologism and makes the viewers themselves immerse themselves in the emotions of his characters, as well as seek the answers to many exciting questions for themselves. His paintings are thought-provoking.
In addition to the author of pictorial masterpieces, Delacroix is a thinker with a great contribution, both to the theory of visual art and to the philosophical perception of life and relationships between people.
Eugene Delacroix – thoughts
Do not get close to people whose conscience is too flexible.
What a miracle – to admire in painting what you do not admire in reality!
You are never verbose if you say exactly what you mean.
Laziness, of course, is the greatest obstacle to the development of our abilities.
When you find a weakness in yourself, instead of hiding it, masking it and playing it over, correct it.
Illustration: “Liberty Leads the People”, 1830 by Eugene Delacroix
The 45-year-old Palestinian died in his prison cell on Tuesday morning following a nearly three-month hunger strike. He had been protesting Israel’s widespread policy of arbitrarily detaining Palestinians in “abhorrent conditions” and in violation of fair trial guarantees.
The call for greater accountability came from the independent expert, or Special Rapporteur, on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, and the Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng.
Mr. Adnan began his hunger strike protest shortly after being arrested – for the last time – on 5 February, facing terrorism-related charges.
Despite the serious deterioration of his health, Israeli authorities refused to release him, or transfer him to hospital, and continued to detain him in a prison hospital facility, reportedly without providing adequate healthcare, the experts said.
The Human Rights Council-appointed experts noted that Mr. Adnan had been arrested at least 12 times in the past, spending a total of around eight years in prison, mostly in administrative detention, and had been on hunger strike five times previously.
‘Tragic testament’
“The death of Khader Adnan is a tragic testament to Israel’s cruel and inhumane detention policy and practices, as well as the international community’s failure to hold Israel accountable in the face of callous illegalities perpetrated against Palestinian inmates,” the experts said.
Hundreds held without trial
The experts noted that Israel currently holds approximately 4,900 Palestinians in its prisons, including just over 1,000 administrative detainees who are held for an indefinite period without trial or charge, based on secret information.
The number of administrative detainees in Israeli detention facilities is at its highest since 2008, despite repeated condemnation from international human rights bodies and calls for Israel to immediately end the practice.
The UN rights office OHCHR said in its press release, that many Palestinian prisoners have resorted to hunger strikes to “protest the brutality of Israel’s detention practices”.
‘Colonial’ occupation
The experts said they could not separate Israel’s prison policies, “from the colonial nature of its occupation, intended to control and subjugate all Palestinians in the territory Israel wants to control”.
“The systematic practice of administrative detention, is tantamount to a war crime of wilfully depriving protected persons of the rights of fair and regular trial”, said the two experts.
They added that it was ever more urgent for the international community to hold Israel accountable for its illegal acts in the occupied territory and stop the normalisation of war crimes.
“How many more lives will have to be lost, before an inch of justice can be delivered in the occupied Palestinian territory?” they concluded.
About the Rapporteurs
Independent human rights experts are all appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva, under its Special Procedures.
They are mandated to monitor and report on specific thematic issues or country situations. They are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work.
Ambassadors met to examine the Council’s efforts towards building trust that leads to sustainable peace, in light of current and emerging threats.
“Full compliance with human rights is the best antidote to the inequalities, unaddressed grievances and exclusion which are often at the root of instability and conflict,” said Mr. Türk, speaking via videolink from Nairobi.
“An unwavering human rights lens and strong human rights action – based on norms tried and tested – lead us away from chaos and conflict; advance development; and build trust,” he added.
Human rights are essential at every stage of the “peace continuum” spanning prevention, conflict and resolution, he said, citing examples such as the current crises in Haiti and Sudan.
At the same time, trust – which underpins both human relations and the social contract between people and State institutions – is the foundation of conflict prevention and lasting peace.
“It is, indeed, the comprehensive advancement of all human rights that builds trust,” he told the Council.
“I have experienced this time and time again when engaging with victims, with human rights defenders and refugees. It is their voices that human rights seek to amplify and bring to the table.”
Haiti ‘human rights emergency’
Mr. Türk outlined how a human rights perspective applies at all stages of the peace continuum, starting with early warning and preventive action to detect and address the drivers of conflict.
“In Haiti, early warning signals pointed persistently to the profoundly destructive impact of inequalities, corruption and exclusion on both trust and stability,” he said.
Last year, the Council established an arms embargo and targeted sanctions in response to the rampant armed gang violence gripping the country, but the human rights chief insisted that more action is urgently needed now.
“I visited the country in February. It is dangling over an abyss,” he said.
“The State’s lack of capacity to fulfill human rights has completely eroded people’s confidence. The social contract has collapsed. The current lawlessness is a human rights emergency that calls for a robust response.”
Building trust in Sudan
Meanwhile, when conflict has erupted, human rights monitoring puts focus on the impact on people, while also serving to counter misinformation that can feed hostility and fear.
Mr. Türk addressed the conflict in Sudan, where rival military forces have been battling for nearly three weeks, endangering hopes of a transition to civilian rule.
“We know that Sudan’s future depends on building trust between the Sudanese people and the institutions that are supposed to serve them,” he said.
“Human rights, an end to impunity, and participation by the population – particularly women and young people – must be the driving forces out of the current crisis, so that Sudan can stabilise at last.”
Participation and press freedom
Furthermore, the full range of human rights standards are also crucial in ending conflict and establishing sustainable peace, Mr. Türk said, referring to the principles of accountability, non-discrimination, and participation, especially by women and girls, minority groups and youth.
He noted how participation has been crucial to building trust in Colombia, following the signing of the 2016 peace deal that ended five decades of conflict between the authorities and the FARC-EP militia group.
The agreement also addresses deep-rooted structural issues around land reform, discrimination, and inequality.
“In Colombia, as elsewhere, human rights and justice will be the best guides on the longer road towards reconciliation and sustainable peace,” he said.
As the meeting was held on World Press Freedom Day, observed annually on 3 May, the UN rights chief also underscored the importance of press freedom and protection of journalists.
Roughly 258 million in 58 countries faced acute hunger at crisis levels or worse, and people in seven countries faced potential starvation, according to the latest Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC).
This is the highest number in the seven-year history of the report, although much of the growth reflects an increase in the population analysed.
“More than a quarter of a billion people are now facing acute levels of hunger, and some are on the brink of starvation. That’s unconscionable,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote in the foreword to the report.
He described this latest edition as “a stinging indictment of humanity’s failure to make progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 2 to end hunger and achieve food security and improved nutrition for all.”
More than 40 per cent of people at crisis or worse levels resided in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, parts of Nigeria, and Yemen.
Young lives threatened
People in seven countries faced starvation and destitution, at some point last year, with nearly 60 per cent in Somalia. The other countries were Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Sudan, Yemen and, for the first time, Haiti.
Furthermore, in 30 of the 42 major food crisis contexts analyzed in the report, more than 35 million children under five, are wasted or acutely malnourished.
Some 9.2 million of these boys and girls suffer from severe wasting, the most life-threatening form of undernutrition and a major contributor to increased child mortality.
Innovation and coordination
While conflicts and extreme weather events continue to drive acute food insecurity and malnutrition, economic fallout from the СOVID-19 pandemic and the ripple effects of the war in Ukraine have also become major factors, particularly in the world’s poorest countries.
The report noted that the international community has called for a paradigm shift towards addressing root causes of food crises, rather than responding to their impacts when they occur.
This will require innovative approaches and greater coordination by international organizations, governments, the private sector, regional organizations, civil society and communities.
The annual report, produced by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN), was launched on Wednesday by the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC).
The international alliance consists of the UN, the European Union, and governmental and non-governmental agencies.
“Despite being charged with terrorism, they were reportedly arrested for resisting forced evictions in the name of the NEOM project and the construction of a 170km linear city called The Line,” the UN experts said.
NEOM is a futuristic urban development project backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
Shadly Ahmad Mahmoud Abou Taqiqa al-Huwaiti, Mr Ibrahim Salih Ahmad Abou Khalil al-Huwaiti and Mr Atallah Moussa Mohammed al-Huwaiti were sentenced to death on 5 August last year, and their sentences were backed by Saudi Arabia’s Specialised Criminal Court of Appeal, on 23 January.
Three other members of the Howeitat tribe were sentenced to “severe prison terms” said a press release issued on behalf of the experts: Abdelnasser Ahmad Mahmoud Abou Taqiqa al-Huwaiti received a 27 year sentence; Mahmoud Ahmad Mahmoud Abou Taqiqa al-Huwaiti, 35 years; and Abdullah Dakhilallah al-Huwaiti was sentenced to 50 years in jail.
“Under international law, States that have not yet abolished the death penalty may only impose it for the ‘most serious crimes’, involving intentional killing,” the experts said. “We do not believe the actions in question meet this threshold.”
Investigate allegations
The UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts urged the Saudi authorities to investigate allegations of torture and other mistreatment involving the men, promptly and impartially.
They also asked authorities to review the sentences imposed, and, if appropriate, to retry them according with the norms and standards of due process. “Any statement that is proven to have been made as a result of torture is inadmissible in any proceedings,” the human rights experts said.
‘Vague’ anti-terror law
“All six individuals have been charged under the overly vague 2017 Saudi law on combating crimes of terrorism and its financing,” the experts said, warning that this law does not appear to be in line with international law, as raised several times by Special Procedures.
They expressed serious concern that some of the detainees had allegedly been subjected to torture and ill-treatment to extract confessions of guilt, and that due process safeguards had not been followed to ensure their right to a fair trial.
Tribal rights
The authorities have reportedly made several moves to evict members of the Howeitat tribe from their homes and traditional lands, in three villages, all related to the NOEM project development, since January 2020.
Despite promises that they would be involved in the process and receive fair compensation, many have allegedly been evicted and their homes demolished without suitable compensation, the experts said.
During the initial protests, one member of the tribe was reportedly killed in his own home by members of the Saudi Special Forces.
“Given the circumstances, we cannot consider that the requirements of consultation and free, prior and informed consent of the Howeitat people of the three villages have been met,” the experts said.
“On the contrary, these actions would certainly amount to forced evictions, which are prohibited under international law as a violation of the right to adequate housing. The actions also constitute flagrant violations of the rights to freedom of expression and access to information.”
Plea to foreign investors
“We urge all companies involved, including foreign investors, to ensure that they are not causing or contributing to, and are not directly linked to serious human rights abuses,” the human rights experts said.
The experts reminded Saudi Arabia of its obligations under the UN Convention against Torture. They urged the authorities to recognise core international human rights instruments, including the two International Covenants, as soon as possible, to establish an official moratorium on all executions with a view to the complete abolition of the death penalty, and to allow external scrutiny, including by accepting pending country visit requests from the Council-mandated Special Procedures section.
The experts have already contacted the Government, the Saudi Public Investment Fund and the Neom Company, as well as 18 foreign companies and the States where they are domiciled, to raise concerns over the issue.
Independent human rights experts are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva. They are mandated to monitor and report on specific thematic issues or country situations. They are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work.
