A top UN-appointed human rights expert on Thursday raised the issue of an alleged “double standard” in Poland and Belarus towards those forced to flee the war in Ukraine.
Mr. González Morales was referring to third country nationals who had been based in Ukraine at the outbreak of the war, particularly people of African descent and other racial and ethnic minorities, who he maintained had not found it so easy to integrate into Polish communities.
“Even for those that have fled the same war, although all were accepted for entry into Poland and have received assistance from the State, third country nationals are not protected under the same legal framework,” Mr. González Morales said, adding that “this double standard approach” had prompted a sense of discrimination among third country nationals.
“Those with specific vulnerabilities including the ones with irregular migratory status face heightened difficulties in obtaining residence permits and proper shelter.”
The Special Rapporteur’s comments came at the end of his official visit to Poland and to Belarus – including the border area between the two countries.
Weaponising the vulnerable
That was where tensions flared late last year when between 2,000 and 4,000 migrants – many from Syria, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East – were forced to camp out in freezing conditions, before the political dispute was resolved.
Mr. González Morales said that although the border area was “relatively calm compared to last winter”, some migrants who included new arrivals had remained stranded between Poland and Belraus, “and subject to violence and pushbacks from both sides”.
On the Belarusian side, migrants had been put in “de facto detention” at a closed Temporary Logistical Centre, where they were now sheltering.
Children and pregnant women shut in
On the Polish side of the border, the Special Rapporteur explained with concern that “migrant children and those with their families – and pregnant women – remain detained in closed immigration facilities”.
He insisted that children and other vulnerable individuals “should not be locked up” because of their migration status.
“Alternative reception and care options exist in Poland,” Mr Morales said, before urging the authorities “to immediately release unaccompanied children, children with their families, pregnant women and individuals with mental conditions into open facilities”.
The Polish government had provided “significant support to a huge number of refugees fleeing Ukraine”, the Special Rapporteur continued.
He added that this State assistance, combined with the “solidarity and generosity” of Polish people to Ukrainian people, had resulted in more than two million of them staying in Poland.
“This explains why I do not see refugee camps in Poland,” Mr. González Morales noted.
Mandeep Dhaliwal, the director of HIV and health at the UN Development Programme (UNDP) is concerned that the proliferation of such laws is hampering the UN’s response to the virus, which is also being hit by a host of interconnected global crises.
Mandeep Dhaliwal: It is a pivotal time and opportunity to galvanize people around getting the AIDS response back on track. For the UNDP, the HIV/AIDS response is all about reducing inequalities, improving governance, and building resilient and sustainable systems, and this is really where we need to step up action if we’re going to regain lost ground.
UNDP
UN News What are the links between HIV/AIDS and development?
Mandeep Dhaliwal: HIV and other health issues are drivers and indicators of human development. For example, the war in Ukraine is having a dramatic effect on the cost of living, and 71 million people in the developing world have fallen into poverty in just three months.
That has consequences on everything from the financing of HIV/AIDS programs, to access to services, prevention, and treatment.
We’re seeing widening inequalities within and between countries, and we know that, in these kinds of crises, the impact is disproportionately borne by the most vulnerable and marginalized in our communities.
We’re seeing the cascading effects of multiple overlapping crises: the COVID pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the financial crisis, the food and energy crisis, and the climate crisis.
All of these are contributing to backsliding on HIV, and a decline in the resources available to countries. There is an incredible strain on already fragile, weak, and often fragmented health systems, and COVID has just deepened that.
There are 100 million displaced people. It’s a global record, and they’re at increased risk of acquiring HIV. They face barriers to accessing HIV and health services and are often cut off from support networks.
Economic growth prospects are down. The World Bank projects that 52 countries will face a significant drop in their spending capacity through 2026.
These 52 countries are important because they’re home to 43 per cent of the people living with HIV worldwide. But now, the HIV response, especially in Africa, is in jeopardy.
UN News: Do you think we can eradicate AIDS?
Mandeep Dhaliwal:I think we can get to the end of AIDS as a public health threat, but that’s going to require an urgent scale up of efforts in the next five years, to really address some of the persistent challenges in the AIDS response, particularly around young and adolescent women in sub-Saharan Africa, and marginalized populations globally.
This includes men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people, and people who use drugs, who’ve always been more vulnerable and at greater risk of acquiring HIV.
And that requires removing punitive and discriminatory laws which keep these people away from services, and away from accessing prevention. The data demonstrates that countries that have removed these kinds of laws do better in terms of HIV responses.
Unfortunately, that’s not the norm, and most of the countries with these laws are not on track to reforming their legal and policy environments.
So this conference is also an opportunity to bring attention to the historic targets which were adopted by Member States in the2021 political declaration on HIV[these targets involve major reductions in reducing HIV/AIDS related stigma, criminalization, gender inequality and violence]
If we can achieve that, we can get to the end of AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
UN News: When the theme for this conference – re engage and follow the science – was chosen, was that a message to those governments who put these laws in place?
Mandeep Dhaliwal: Yes. There’s a lot of science out there now which shows that decriminalization yields public health and HIV benefits. Prevention is more effective particularly in marginalized populations. It leads to better access to services and social support.
It is also a message to not forget about HIV. There’s still a job to be done, and we have to regain the ground we’ve lost over the last couple of years.
A family undergoes a HIV screening test at home in southwest Côte d’ivoire.
UN News: Against the backdrop of this very difficult international landscape, what do you think is the best-case, realistic outcome of this conference?
Mandeep Dhaliwal: One is a commitment to drive action on removing punitive and discriminatory laws, eliminating stigma and discrimination, and protecting people from violence.
The other is a commitment to follow the science. Science is moving at a pace that we’ve not seen before. For example, there is now a long acting anti-retroviral, which would be very good for prevention in key populations. But it needs to be priced at a point that makes it affordable and accessible in developing countries.
I’m hoping that the conference addresses this issue because it’s a theme that has run through the COVID pandemic, certainly around COVID vaccination, and it’s a theme that the HIV community is familiar with, especially when it comes to access to treatment.
We’ve had 40 years of the HIV pandemic and we were making progress, but you can’t take progress for granted.
We are entirely capable of dealing with multiple pandemics at the same time: HIV, TB, malaria, COVID, and now Monkeypox, which has been declared a public health issue of international concern.
We can do it, but it requires investment, action, and commitment. We should all be advocating for the full replenishment of theGlobal Fundto fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which will take place at the end of September in New York.
We really have to step up our investment, our action, and our commitment to finish the job on HIV because the best way to be better prepared for future pandemics is to deal with the ones that you’ve already facing.
LONDON — What is the role of journalists in promoting understanding and dialogue, especially in a media environment that is often driven by sensationalism?
This was among the questions explored by two experienced journalists in the United Kingdom—a former BBC reporter and a writer for The Guardian newspaper—along with members of the Bahá’í Office of Public Affairs of that country in a recent podcast produced by that Office titled In Good Faith: Truth and Standards in Media.
“Writers have to be free from prejudice, fair-minded, and be able to look at issues with a sense of justice,” said Carmel Kalani, of the Office of Public Affairs.
Ms. Kalani drew on an analogy from the Bahá’í teachings to describe the power of the media in raising public consciousness, stating: “Newspapers, social media, and other forms of media are like ‘the mirror of the world.’ They are ‘endowed with hearing, sight, and speech.’”
One of the implications of this, she said, is that articles and other forms of expression by journalists have the potential to inspire in all of us a sense of oneness with our fellow human beings.
“When journalists tell a story, they shape the world we live in, they shape what we see as possible,” said Ms. Kalani, explaining that the media can unlock the “immense capability of people to bring about unity and peace.”
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In recent years, the Office has brought together many journalists, representatives of civil society, and leaders of faith communities to examine different aspects of the media in light of spiritual principles, such as the oneness of humanity.
Despite this tremendous potential, certain practices place pressure on journalists to produce reports that are sensationalist, such as surprising people in distress for an interview.
“There’s something called the ‘door-knock’ in journalism, whereby you have to go and knock on somebody’s door, who’s in the middle of a story, usually through no fault of their own… and ask them for a comment on their doorstep,” said John McManus, former BBC reporter and head of communications for the Jesuits in Briton.
“It [is] purely to fill time and a news story,” continued Mr. McManus, as he explained that this approach typically does not yield any new facts. Instead, it caters to the audience’s appetite for the dramatic and can distract attention from the real issues.
Mr. McManus added that many journalists are uncomfortable with practices in their field that lead to sensationalist news coverage and stressed the importance of empathy and preservation of human dignity when reporting. “At the heart of all these stories are human beings with feelings. … They’ve all got family. So I always try to remember that, [which] moderates my thinking and actions.”
Remona Aly, a reporter for The Guardian, stated: “You have this sense of responsibility to whoever you’re interviewing. … I really try hard to maintain that protection. I say [to the interviewee] ‘you can look over the article afterwards so that you’re comfortable with it.’”
Discussions also looked at how biases and false dichotomies can reduce multi-faceted issues to simplistic representations of reality that reinforce social, political, economic, and religious divides, leading to sensationalist news coverage.
Mr. McManus, speaking about the responsibility of journalists to maintain objectivity, stated: “Things are not black and white. You can hold two different points of view in your mind which are both correct, because we know that human life is infinitely varied and complex.”
Reflecting on this discussion, Nancy Warren, of the Bahá’í Office of Public Affairs, explains that this podcast series is part of the ongoing efforts of the Office to contribute to the discourse on the constructive role of media in society.
“People begin their journalistic career with very high ideals, but they eventually find it difficult to write in a way that is in line with their principles,” she says.
“The forums offered by the Office—be they podcasts, online discussions, or in-person gatherings—provide a space for journalists to explore prevalent issues in their field in light of spiritual principles that resonate with their moral convictions.”
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The podcast series “In Good Faith,” produced by the Bahá’í Office of Public Affairs in the UK, invites journalists to profound discussions on how the media can play a constructive role in society.
First, let me say it is always a particular pleasure to visit our neighbors at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Lise, thank you so much for hosting us. It’s wonderful to be here.
And Rina, to you, to our special envoy, to the team working with you, to the many others who are involved with today’s launch, I am grateful for all you’ve done to bring all of us together today, but for the work that’s being done every day that I’ll have a chance to talk about over the next few minutes. But to our colleagues across the entire U.S. Government, civil society, thank you as well for supporting equality, supporting opportunity, for women and girls across Afghanistan.
And a special thanks to the extraordinary panelists that we’ve had today. I’m really looking forward to getting a chance to speak with you directly shortly. But as you all know, they’ve served in Afghanistan in different ways, in different roles, but there is one thread that runs throughout their public service. Each has helped strengthen the rights of Afghan women and girls, as well as members of other vulnerable groups, for decades.
Today, they represent many others across Afghanistan and around the world who have dedicated their lives to this deeply vital and deeply honorable mission.
As the panelists made clear, we meet at a difficult time for Afghan women and girls.
Since the Taliban took over a year ago, they’ve reversed a great deal of the openness and progress that had been made over the previous decades. They’ve silenced civil society and journalists. In March, they banned independent international media like Voice of America and BBC from airing in Afghanistan. They continue to intimidate and censor Afghan media outlets. They stifled the free practice of religion for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Perhaps most notably, they failed to respect the human rights of women and girls. Instead, under the Taliban, women and girls have largely been erased from public life. As a report released yesterday by Amnesty International showed, the Taliban have systematically restricted women and girl’s rights to free movement, decimated the system supporting domestic violence victims, and contributed to surging rates of child, early, and forced marriage.
The Taliban’s decision to ban girls from attending secondary schools, a decision that happened while some girls were literally walking to school and others were already sitting at their desks, was a reversal of commitments they made to the Afghan people and to the world. For 314 days and counting, the girls of Afghanistan have sat at home while their brothers and cousins have been receiving educations. It’s a terrible, terrible waste.
It’s especially difficult to accept because we all remember how different it was not so very long ago. Prior to the Taliban’s takeover, thousands of women across Afghanistan held public office from the village level right up to the national level. Women entered professions previously closed to them. They started businesses. They were doctors, nurses, scientists, artists. And women didn’t just study in schools across Afghanistan; they ran them.
These gains weren’t felt only by women and girls. As we’ve seen again and again throughout history from country to country, when equality and opportunity increase for one group of people, they tend to increase for other groups as well. As the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan were strengthened, we saw members of various ethnic and religious communities – Hazaras, Hindus, Sikhs, Sufis – take more prominent roles in Afghan public life. Afghans with disabilities did as well. The LGBTQI+ community found ways to build a community. So the changes in Afghanistan during the past year have been painful for so many.
We continue to urge the Taliban to reverse their decision on girls’ education, to make good on their commitment to the Afghan people, to allow girls to learn. The evidence is overwhelming. Investing in girls’ education, women’s political inclusion, it leads to stronger economies. It leads to healthier individuals and families. It leads to more stable, more resilient societies. These are the things that people of Afghanistan want for their futures. That’s why so many members of Afghan society – men and women, rural and urban dwellers, religious scholars, people across religions and cultural backgrounds – have all, all called for the Taliban to let women and girls go to school again.
The United States will continue to amplify these voices and do all that we can to support progress for Afghan women, girls, and other at-risk populations.
Earlier this year, we joined partners across the international community – including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, the European Union, and others – urging the Taliban to let girls go back to school.
Last month, we supported a Human Rights Council urgent debate that allowed us to hear directly from Afghan women leaders. We co-sponsored a resolution that will allow us to hear from them again this coming September. And as we help enable their voices to be heard, others will hear them as well.
Over the past year, we’ve continued our partnerships with Afghan civil society groups working on issues of equality, inclusion, opportunity for women, religious and ethnic communities, and other at-risk populations.
And critically, with today’s launch of the U.S.-Afghan Consultative Mechanism, we are taking these relationships to the next level. That’s why I’m so pleased about today.
It’s going to make it easier for Afghan civil society groups to communicate and collaborate with American policymakers across a whole range of shared priorities – from supporting income-generating activities for Afghan women, to strategizing ways to help Afghan human rights monitors safely document abuses, to devising new methods to promote religious freedom.
What we want to do is to make our partnerships with Afghan civil society more effective, more rigorous, more productive, more purposeful. And that’s what this new initiative is all about.
So let me simply share my profound appreciation for our American civil society partners, who do critical work to support women leaders and civil society organizations in Afghanistan, and for our Afghan partners for sharing your perspectives, for sharing your recommendations.
What’s remarkable to me and I think to so many of us is how, even in the face of threats, violence, intimidation, the women and girls of Afghanistan – and other vulnerable, targeted people – have simply refused to back down. These groups have never stopped believing in a brighter future for their country. They are determined to do all they can to make that future real.
The women who have taken to the streets to protest for their rights are one such group.
In December, when members of the Afghan National Security Forces were targeted despite the Taliban’s supposed amnesty, women protested. In January, when female public servants were dismissed from their jobs, women protested. In March, when the Taliban instituted an edict directing women to cover their faces in public and to only leave home when, quote, “necessary,” women protested.
Many of them have said they will never, never stop raising their voices.
The work we’ve done here today will ensure that we – and people around the world – continue to hear them, continue to listen to them, as we work together for a more stable, peaceful, prosperous, and free future for Afghanistan and for every Afghan man and woman.
Thank you very much. Thank you all for joining us today. (Applause.)
By Benedict Mayaki, SJ – Pope Francis, on Thursday evening – the fifth day of his Apostolic Journey to Canada – presided at Vespers with Bishops, clergy, consecrated persons, seminarians and pastoral workers at the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec.
During his homily at the event, the Holy Father highlighted the significance of meeting at the Cathedral of the Church, whose first bishop, St. François de Laval, opened the Seminary in 1663 and devoted his ministry to the formation of priests.
He pointed out that readings at the vespers speak about elders (presbyters), noting that St. Peter urged them to tend the flock of God willingly, and so, the Church’s pastors are invited “to show that same generosity in tending the flock, in order to manifest Jesus’ concern for everyone and his compassion for the wounds of each.”
Tending the flock, the Pope said, should be done “with devotion and tender love” – as St. Peter urges – guiding it and not allowing it to go astray, because “we are a sign of Christ.” Pastors should do this willingly, not as a duty, like professional religious personnel or sacred functionaries but “zealously and with the heart of a shepherd.”
The Pope pointed out that the pastors too are “tended” with Christ’s merciful love and feel the closeness of God. This, he affirmed, is “the source of the joy of ministry and above all the joy of faith.”
Christian joy
“Christian joy is about the experience of a peace that remains in our hearts, even when we are pelted by trials and afflictions,” the Pope said, “for then we know that we are not alone, but accompanied by a God who is not indifferent to our lot.”
He explained that this is not a “cheap joy” like the world sometimes proposes, or about wealth, comfort and security, rather, “it is a free gift, the certainty of knowing that we are loved, sustained and embraced by Christ in every situation in life.”
Threats to joy of faith
Reflecting on the joy of the Gospel in our communities, the Pope pointed at secularization as one of the factors that “threatens the joy of faith and thus risks diminishing it and compromising our lives as Christians.”
He laments that secularization has greatly affected the lifestyle of contemporary men and women, who relegate God to the background. “God seems to have disappeared from the horizon, and his word no longer seems a compass guiding our lives, our basic decisions, our human and social relationships,” the Pope said.
Considering the ambient culture, Pope Francis cautions against falling “prey to pessimism or resentment, passing immediately to negative judgments or a vain nostalgia.” He, rather elaborates two possible views of the world: the “negative view” and the “discerning view.”
Negative v. discerning views
The first view – the negative – is “often born of a faith that feels under attack and thinks of it as a kind of “armour”, defending us against the world,” the Pope said, adding that this view complains that “the world is evil, sin reigns” and risks clothing itself in a “crusading spirit.”
The Pope warns against this, as it is “not Christian” and “not the way of God.” He notes that God detests worldliness and has a positive view of the world, blesses our life and makes himself incarnate in historical situations to “give growth to the seed of the Kingdom in those places where darkness seems to triumph.”
We are called “to have a view similar to that of God, who discerns what is good and persistently seeks it, sees it and nurtures it. This is no naïve view, but a view that discerns reality,” Pope Francis insists.
Secularization and secularism
To refine our discernment of the secularized world, the Holy Father recommends drawing inspiration from Paul VI who saw secularization as “the effort, in itself just and legitimate and in no way incompatible with faith or religion” to discover the laws governing reality and human life implanted by the Creator. Paul VI also distinguished between secularization and secularism which generates subtle and diverse “new forms of atheism,” including consumer society, pleasure set up as a supreme value, a desire for power and domination, and discrimination of all kinds.
As Church and as shepherds of God’s People and pastoral workers, therefore, the Pope says it is up to us to “make these distinctions” and “make this discernment”, adding that if we yield to the negative view, we risk sending the wrong message – as though the criticism of secularization masks “the nostalgia for a sacralized world, a bygone society in which the Church and her ministers had greater power and social relevance.”
Secularization: a challenge for our pastoral imagination
Secularization, continued the Pope, “demands that we reflect on the changes in society that have influenced the way in which people think about and organize their lives” – not the diminished social relevance of the Church.
Consequently, “secularization represents a challenge for our pastoral imagination,” and “an occasion for restructuring the spiritual life in new forms and for new ways of existing.” Thus, a discerning view “motivates us to develop a new passion for evangelization, to look for new languages and forms of expression, to change certain pastoral priorities and to focus on the essentials.”
Communicating the joy of the faith
Pope Francis goes on to stress the importance of communicating the Gospel and the joy of faith to today’s men and women, insisting that it is a proclamation of “a witness abounding with gratuitous love” that should take shape in “in a personal and ecclesial lifestyle that can rekindle a desire for the Lord, instil hope and radiate trust and credibility.”
Indicating three challenges that can shape prayer and pastoral service, the Pope said that the first is “to make Jesus known,” and return to the initial proclamation, amid the spiritual deserts created by secularism and indifference. He added that we must find new ways to proclaim the Gospel to those who have not yet encountered Christ and this calls “for a pastoral creativity capable of reaching people where they are living, finding opportunities for listening, dialogue and encounter.”
An occasion for conversion
The second challenge -witness- said the Pope, requires us to be credible, as the Gospel is preached effectively “when life itself speaks and reveals the freedom that sets others free, the compassion that asks for nothing in return, the mercy that silently speaks of Christ.”
On this note, the Pope thought of the Church in Canada that has been set on a new path after being hurt by the evil perpetrated by some of its sons and daughters. The Holy Father also spoke of the scandals of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable people.
To defeat the culture of exclusion, Pope Francis advocates that bishops and priests start from themselves and should not feel themselves superior to our brothers and sisters. Likewise, pastoral workers should “understand service as power.”
Fraternity, the third challenge, means the Church will be “a credible witness to the Gospel the more its members embody communion, creating opportunities and situations that enable all those who approach the faith to encounter a welcoming community one capable of listening, entering into dialogue and promoting quality relationships.”
The UN health agency on Thursday recommended the use of a new long-acting “safe and highly effective” prevention option for people at “substantial risk” of HIV infection, known as cabotegravir (CAB-LA).
New World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines advise countries to use the new potentially game-changing drug which is not yet available for sale, as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV, and as part of a comprehensive approach to prevent the virus from spreading.
Those using most PrEP medications on the market, have to remember to take their medication daily, a greater challenge for what is a preventative medicine.
“Long-acting cabotegravir is a safe and highly effective HIV prevention tool, but isn’t yet available outside study settings,” said Meg Doherty, Director of WHO’s Global HIV, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections Programmes.
The drug was approved in the United States last December, and the United Kingdom the following month.
Key populations – including sex workers, men having sex with men, intravenous drug users, people in prisons, transgender individuals, and their sexual partners –accounted for 70 per cent of global HIV infections last year.
Moreover, 4,000 new infections that occurred every day in 2021, were within that group.
As HIV prevention efforts have stalled, the new guidelines were released ahead of the 24th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2022) – which officially begins on Friday – with 1.5 million new HIV infections last year, the same as in 2020.
“We hope these new guidelines will help accelerate country efforts to start to plan and deliver CAB-LA alongside other HIV prevention options, including oral PrEP and the dapivirine vaginal ring,” said the WHO official.
Game-changer drug
CAB-LA is an intramuscular injectable, long-acting form of PrEP.
The first two injections are administered four weeks apart, followed thereafter by an injection every eight weeks.
In randomized controlled trials, the antiretroviral was shown to be safe and highly effective among cisgender women, cisgender men who have sex with men, and transgender women who have sex with men.
Together, these landmark studies found that use of CAB-LA resulted in a 79 per cent relative reduction in HIV risk compared with oral PrEP, where adherence to taking daily oral medication was often a challenge, according to WHO.
Long-acting injectable products have also been found to be acceptable and sometimes preferred in studies examining community PrEP preferences.
A woman is tested for HIV in Uttar Pradesh, India.
Coalition force
The UN health agency also launched a new coalition to accelerate global access to the drug.
Convened by WHO, Unitaid, UNAIDS and The Global Fund, the coalition will identify interventions needed to advance near and long-term access to CAB-LA, establish financing and procurement for the drug, and issue policy guidance, among other activities.
“To achieve UN prevention goals, we must push for rapid, equitable access to all effective prevention tools, including long-acting PrEP,” said Rachel Baggaley, WHO’s Lead of the Testing, Prevention and Populations Team at Global HIV, Hepatitis and STI Programmes.
“That means overcoming critical barriers in low and middle-income countries, including implementation challenges and costs.”
Key actions
WHO will continue to support evidence-based strategies to increase PrEP access and uptake, such as through adopting and including CAB-LA in HIV prevention programmes.
It is also working with Unitaid and others to develop projects that answer outstanding safety issues and implementation challenges.
And the WHO Global PrEP Network will host webinars to provide up-to-date information on CAB-LA to increase awareness.
In April, it was added to WHO’s list of Expressions of Interest for prequalification evaluation by the health agency.
Prevention choices
Both oral PrEP and CAB-LA are highly effective.
The new CAB-LA guidelines are based on a public health approach that considers effectiveness, acceptability, feasibility and resource needs across a variety of settings.
They are designed to help CAB-LA delivery and the urgently needed operational research on address implementation and safety and will inform decisions on how to successfully provide and scale up CAB-LA.
The guidelines highlight critical research gaps, and also recognize that accessing current PrEP services are challenging for some.
“Communities must be involved in developing and delivering HIV prevention services that are effective, acceptable and support choice,” WHO spelled out.
Stoned to Death – On June 26 in Sudan, Maryam Alsyed Tiyrab was convicted and sentenced to execution by stoning on a charge of adultery, a violation of Islamic law.
Tiyrab, 20, a citizen of Sudan, was accused of adultery, a crime classified as Hudud in the Islamic law system. Hudud crimes include highway robbery, apostasy, illicit sexual intercourse and drinking alcohol, and may be punished by the amputation of hands and feet, flogging and even death. Although the last sentence of death by stoning in Sudan was overturned by the Sudanese High Court, the penalty is still permitted by law.
The African Center for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) stated, “The application of the death penalty by stoning for the crime of adultery is a grave violation of international law, including the right to life and the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.” Further, they report that Tiyrab was tried without representation of a lawyer, the trial was held without a formal complaint from the police and that her “confession” was illegally obtained.
Stoning is torture per the UN Convention Against Torture, which Sudan ratified August 10, 2021, but no legal reforms to remove stoning from the Sudanese criminal codes have been ratified. In July 2020, progress was made under a transitional government, including a repeal of flogging from the criminal codes. But the prime minister and other leaders at that time were removed by a military coup d’etat on October 25, 2021—the 2nd time in the past four years that Sudan’s head of state has been overthrown.
“The death by stoning case is a reminder that the criminal law reforms during the transition [government] were not complete, and that such harsh, archaic punishments are still officially on the books,” stated human rights lawyer and Human Rights Watch’s Sudan researcher Jehanne Henry.
The head of Sudan’s sovereign council, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, stated on July 4, 2022, that he intends to dissolve the sovereign council and allow for talks of civilian government to resume in Sudan. But when, and whether this will have an effect for Tiyrab, remains to be seen.
ACJPS, based in Uganda and formed in 2009, has a mission of creating a Sudan committed to all human rights, the rule of law, and peace, in which the rights and freedoms of the individual are honored and where all persons and groups are granted their rights to non-discrimination, equality and justice.
The former President of the Chamber and deputy Eduardo Cunha, had his mandate revoked in 2016, due to accusations of passive corruption and money laundering. A former militant of the MDB, Eduardo Cunha is now back in political life. He can now run for the 2022 elections as a member of PTB.
Eduardo Cunha was one of the most powerful and influential figures in Brazilian politics when he was President of the Chamber of Deputies. So powerful, in fact, that he was one of the main orchestrators of Dilma Roussef’s (PT) impeachment in August 2016. The process gave way to Michel Temer’s (MDB) presidency.
Shortly after the impeachment, however, in September, Eduardo Cunha had his mandate revoked, for the reasons already cited. The nullification was approved in the Chamber by 450 votes, which was considered a “major loss to Cunha” at the time. It was the longest process of its kind, lasting 11 months.
The formal accusation against Cunha was that he lied to the Investigative Parliamentary Commission (CPI) on Petrobras about having bank accounts in Switzerland. The former deputy was supposed to not be politically active until 2027.
However, the Regional Federal Court of the 1st Region (TRF-1) released Cunha from his sentence, making him eligible to contest elections. – “The change comes after an injunction granted by judge Carlos Augusto Pires Brandão (…), which suspends the legal effects of a resolution of the Chamber that determined the ineligibility of Cunha and the prohibition of holding federal positions. Although effective immediately, the determination is provisional and it will be up to the Court to evaluate the defense’s request. – According to PTB’s official site.
Cunha’s lawyer, Mr. Fábio Luiz Bragança Ferreira, said: “The injunction granted by TRF-1 recognizes something we have been advocating for some time: that the sanctioning action of any court, whether jurisdictional, administrative, or political, must be subject to the constitutional guarantees of due process of law and full defense. Adding to that is the proximity of elections, when the voter will have the opportunity to express himself as our democratic regime demands”.
It is not clear, however, if Cunha still has the amount of influence he had before the nullification of his mandate. And it is unknown whether he will be a viable candidate for PTB.
GENEVA/ADDIS ABABA (25 July 2022) – Members of the UN International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia are undertaking a visit to Ethiopia from 25 to 30 July 2022. This will be the Commission’s first visit to Ethiopia since it was established by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council on 17 December 2021.
The International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia is an independent body mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to, among other things, conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into allegations of violations and abuses of international human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law and international refugee law in Ethiopia committed since 3 November 2020 by all parties to the conflict.
The Commission’s three experts – Ms. Kaari Betty Murungi – Chair (Kenya), Mr. Steven Ratner (USA), and Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy (Sri Lanka) are supported by a Secretariat based in Entebbe, Uganda.
While in Ethiopia, the Commission will interact with a wide range of interlocutors. On 30 July, the experts will issue a communiqué on their visit.
Three independent publishers were allegedly rejected for books on 2019 protests
Three independent publishers were allegedly barred from the Hong Kong book fair for printing pro-democracy books on the 2019 protests. (Photo: Unsplash)
Published: July 25, 2022 06:30 AM GMT Updated: July 25, 2022 07:25 AM GMT
The organizers of Hong Kong’s annual book fair, dubbed one of Asia’s largest literary events, has barred three independent publishers allegedly for their pro-democracy stance, media reports say.
Organized by Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the 32nd edition of the book fair runs from July 20-26 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, reported Portuguese-language newspaper, Hoje Macau.
The theme of this year’s festival is “History and City Literature” with the tagline “Reading the World: Stories of Hong Kong.”
The previous fair was held in 2019 as it was suspended for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The event usually attracts about one million visitors.
This year, the organizer has faced criticism for rejecting attendance applications of three independent publishers — Hillway Culture, Humming Publishing, and One of a Kind — without citing any specific reason.
Raymond Yeung Tsz-Chun founder of Hillway Culture alleged that they have been banned for their “political” and “sensitive books.”
“As far as the book fair is concerned, we do not censor books in advance”
“Publishers like us, who put out political and so-called ‘sensitive’ books, are starting to be censored,” the UK’s Guardian newspaper quoted Yeung as saying.
Writers and publishers also alleged that independent publishing houses that show the political realities in Hong Kong are being censored and their voices muzzled.
Novelist Gabriel Tsang, who works with publisher Spicy Fish Cultural Production Limited said that writers and publishers might have to think about different approaches to expressing opinions under current circumstances.
“Many writers have their own intentions, and they must think a lot about whether they can have work published. They may use some allegory or use many rhetoric skills, rather than directly expressing what they wanted to express originally,” Tsang said
The council, however, dismissed allegations of censure and rejection of publishers for political reasons.
“As far as the book fair is concerned, we do not censor books in advance,” said the council’s deputy executive director, Sophia Chong.
“Media reports say writers and publishers have come under higher levels of scrutiny”
She noted that the authorities can decide on whether to allow or not
“Publications can be displayed at the book fair as long as they are lawful and classified as Class I articles,” said Chong.
Hoje Macau reported that during the last book fair the publishers exhibited books related to the pro-democracy protests that have swept the city since 2019.
Following the protests that crippled the former British colony, China’s communist regime has imposed draconian national security law in June 2020 to crush all forms of dissent in the semi-autonomous city once dubbed one of the world’s freest cities.
Dozens of pro-democracy politicians, activists and supporters have been arrested and jailed under the law, while pro-democracy and independent media outlets have been shuttered. Media reports say writers and publishers have come under higher levels of scrutiny and censorship.
Hillway Culture’s Raymond Yeung, was arrested in April and charged for allegedly taking part in illegal assemblies during the 2019 unrest. One of a Kind has published books about the city’s 2019 protests and Occupy Central, a large-scale civil disobedience movement in 2014.
“Government uses a series of laws against journalists including the national security law”
The crackdown on free speech has been extended to restrict the freedom of journalists and authors across Hong Kong.
The working environment for local and foreign journalists in Hong Kong has become increasingly difficult as the government uses a series of laws against journalists including the national security law, intimidation and police violence, mass sackings, intervention, and censorship of media outlets, it reported.
This led to the closure of Apple Daily, Stand News, and other media outlets.
RTHK, the local public broadcaster, lost its former editorial independence, resorting to spreading fear and alarming self-censorship across media outlets in the city.
Observers lamented that the barring of independent publishers has effectively damaged the spirit of inclusivity at Hong Kong’s book fair that it has long upheld and was lauded for.
