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Since 1999, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been home to the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission (known as Monusco). Its role is to protect civilians, but personnel have been accused of sexual violence against women and girls, including impregnating girls as young as 10. Potentially thousands of ‘peace or peacekeeping babies’ have been…
Continue reading UN Peacekeepers’ Abuse and Exploitation of Women and Girls
The Israeli Ministry of Defence announced a new procedure, effective from July, comprising a 97-page document to replace the previous four-page document. The procedure governs all entry by foreigners to the West Bank (excluding ‘mixed visits’ where visitors travel to both the West Bank and Israel) and sets criteria on the entry and stay of…
Continue reading Israel’s Restrictions on Foreigners Visiting the West Bank
Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled in favour of immunity to Israel for crimes perpetrated in Gaza. The ruling is in response to an appeal that Israel pay compensation for the paralysis caused to Attiya Nabaheen, who had just turned 15 when he was shot by Israeli forces in his family’s front yard in Gaza in…
Continue reading Israel’s Immunity from Crimes Committed by the Military in Gaza
Some of you may have signed the petition asking the government to review its foreign policy towards Israel, given the reports of Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and the UN Special Rapporteur. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office responded that it was aware of these reports but did not agree with the terminology they used. It…
Continue reading Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Response to Amnesty’s Report on Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has verified a total of 5,587 civilian deaths during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as of 14 August, but says real numbers are likely to be much higher. The UN reports at least 12 million people have fled their homes. Nearly 9,000 Ukrainian military have…
Continue reading Update on Ukraine and Ukrainian Refugees
Between April and July, researchers from Amnesty’s IS spent several weeks investigating Russian strikes in the Kharkiv, Donbas and Mykolaiv regions. They inspected strike sites, interviewed survivors, witnesses and relatives of victims and carried out weapons analysis. The subsequent press release, which can be read here https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/08/ukraine-ukrainian-fighting-tactics-endanger-civilians, has proved highly controversial. The researchers stated that…
Continue reading Controversial Press Release on Ukraine from Amnesty’s International Secretariat (IS)
This gripping BBC documentary told in two hour-long programmes focuses on the period from 9/11 to the final withdrawal of American troops in 2021. The story is primarily from the American point of view (though there are a few British talking heads, too) but the most powerful sections are the reactions of various Afghans to…
Continue reading Worth Watching – Afghanistan: Getting Out
Since the Taliban took power, life has deteriorated fast. Most international aid was suspended in August 2021 and government reserves were frozen. This has led to a near collapse of the economy and a humanitarian crisis, with almost 20 million people at risk of life-threatening hunger. Human rights have gone into reverse. Restrictions have been…
Continue reading Life in Afghanistan
According to the Panorama programme SAS Death Squads Exposed: A British War Crime? British Special Forces soldiers allegedly killed detainees and unarmed men in suspicious circumstances in Afghanistan. It alleged 54 such killings by one British SAS unit on a six-month tour in 2010-11. It also claimed that senior officers took no action. The former…
Continue reading Worth Watching
The role of the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) is to protect vulnerable and exploited workers. In a recent case investigated by the GLAA, they found Indian students who had stopped attending classes at Greenwich, Chester and Teesside universities shortly after arriving in the UK were working in exploitative conditions in the care sector…
Continue reading Universities and Modern Slavery