Schlagwort: human rights

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing is the latest human rights expert to recognize that Israel is committing apartheid against Palestinians. At the UN General Assembly today, Special Rapporteur Balakrishnan Rajagopal presented a report on housing rights worldwide which states that the system of racial oppression and discrimination that has led to the destruction of Palestinian homes “is nothing short of apartheid”. 

Military incursions, closures, state-backed settler attacks, home demolitions, and destruction of property are all manifestations of Israel’s apartheid system

Heba Morayef, Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa

Amnesty International welcomed the Special Rapporteur’s report, which comes amid an escalation in attacks on Palestinians and their property across the occupied West Bank. In recent weeks Palestinian families participating in the annual olive harvest have been subjected to violent attacks by Israeli settlers, who have the direct backing of the Israeli military. Meanwhile the military has imposed a closure on the city of Nablus and surrounding villages since 12 October, severely disrupting the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The closure – ostensibly a response to several shooting attacks targeting Israeli soldiers – amounts to unlawful collective punishment.

“Israeli authorities’ domination and control of the Palestinian population, including through discriminatory land, planning and housing policies, is well documented, and extends to Palestinians wherever Israel has control over their rights,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.  

“There is growing recognition among human rights experts that Israel is committing apartheid, and the presentation of this report today could not be more timely. As well as the ongoing threat of forced eviction, demolition, and forcible transfer, there has recently been an alarming escalation in attacks on Palestinians in their homes and towns throughout the occupied West Bank. Military incursions, closures, state-backed settler attacks, home demolitions, and destruction of property are all manifestations of Israel’s apartheid system.” 

Living in constant fear 

In his report, the Special Rapporteur cites several examples of Israeli government laws and policies which are used to confiscate Palestinian land and property, such as the Absentee Property Law and land registration procedures.  

Israeli authorities also use the designation “firing zone” or “closed military zone” to confiscate Palestinian lands. Approximately 20% of the occupied West Bank has been designated as “firing zones”, and Palestinian presence is banned there without permission from the Israeli army. This affects more than 5,000 Palestinians from 38 communities, who are hit with eviction orders, threatened with displacement, or forced to leave their homes while the military conducts training exercises. In the community of Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank, more than 1,000 people are facing forcible eviction due to this policy.  

I watch the army jeeps drive up twice a day and I dread that they are coming to demolish again

Nitham Abu Kbash

On 13 October, Amnesty International researchers visited Palestinian shepherding communities in the northern Jordan Valley, including the hamlet of Humsa which is in a designated “firing zone”. Nitham Abu Kbash, a shepherd from the community, told Amnesty International how his home and animal pens were destroyed repeatedly by the Israeli army last year. 

Three families were made homeless, and had to move to another area that was also officially forbidden. Since then, the Israeli military has carried out regular patrols and confiscated humanitarian aid donated to make the families’ homes more stable. 

“I watch the army jeeps drive up twice a day and I dread that they are coming to demolish again,” said Nitham Abu Kbash. “Not even the European diplomats could protect us – the military confiscated the aid from under their noses.” 

In the nearby community of Makhul, Amnesty International spoke to two brothers who described their fear whenever settlers approach in tractors and 4-wheel-drive vehicles: 

“The children are terrified because these men shine strong lights into our homes at night, set their dogs on us and on the sheep, and they drive all over our yard,” said Yusef Bisharat. “Some of the ewes miscarried their lambs this season, from the stress.” 

The right to housing is also under attack inside Israel. On 24 October, Israeli forces demolished the Palestinian Bedouin village of Al-Araqeeb in the Negev/Naqab for the 208^th time. 

In Gaza, thousands of houses destroyed by Israeli air strikes in previous offensives have not been rebuilt because of the Israeli blockade and restrictions on entry of construction material.  

State-backed settler attacks

Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank have recently faced a surge of Israeli military incursions, restrictions on access to land and water, and the destruction of their crops by Israeli settlers in line with patterns documented in previous years during the annual olive harvest.  According to Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, a group of settlers last week attacked olive farmers in villages including Burin and Kisan in the northern West Bank.

The olive harvest is a time when Palestinian families should be celebrating[…] This year, once again, it has been violently disrupted by Israeli military closures and state-backed settler violence. 

Heba Morayef

On 19 October, a group of settlers attacked international and Israeli activists who had come to support the Palestinian farmers. According to the UN, 194 Palestinians have been injured as a result of settler attacks so far in 2022, and three Palestinians have been killed. The Israeli authorities have failed to bring those responsible to justice – for example, in August Israeli police dropped their investigation into the killing of Ali Hassan Harb, who was stabbed to death in his olive grove on 21 June 2022. 

Many Palestinian farming communities have come to expect such violence every harvesting season. The military’s evictions and the settlers’ violence take place in a culture of impunity and act in tandem to displace Palestinians to benefit illegal Israeli settlements.  

“Israeli authorities are violating Palestinians’ right to housing in every way imaginable – bulldozing homes, making it impossible for Palestinians to build on their own land, and protecting settlers who burn the ancestral olive groves of Palestinian families,” said Heba Morayef. 

“The olive harvest is a time when Palestinian families should be celebrating and reaping the fruits of their labour after carefully tending their crops for a year. But this year, once again, it has been violently disrupted by Israeli military closures and state-backed settler violence.” 

More than 175,000 people around the world have so far signed Amnesty International’s Demolish Apartheid Not Palestinian Homes petition, which calls on the Israeli government to immediately end home demolitions and forced evictions. 

Background 

In a research briefing released earlier this week, Amnesty International highlighted how 1,700 Palestinian homes were destroyed or damaged during Israel’s August 2022 offensive on Gaza, leading to the internal displacement of some 450 Palestinians. 

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Responding to media reports of escalating episodes of politically motivated violence and threats in the context of the elections in Brazil, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International, said:

“The news of escalating violence and threats against people exercising their civil and political rights is alarming. Among them, the exponential increase in reports of electoral harassment against working people who are under pressure to define or declare their vote, including threats of losing their jobs if they fail to do so, is very worrying.”  

“Electoral intimidation has been particularly prominent in religious centers and it has flooded social media, where more and more people, including public figures, assault and persecute those who express an opinion different from their own.”

The news of escalating violence and threats against people exercising their civil and political rights is alarming

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

“President Jair Bolsonaro and his administration must ensure that they disseminate reliable information, counter false statements and do everything in their power to prevent and condemn any attacks and intimidation in the days leading up to the presidential runoff vote.”

“It’s also imperative that all state institutions function properly and with complete respect for human rights, including the public security forces and the justice system, to guarantee that the Brazilian population can fully exercise their civil and political rights before, during and after the 30 October presidential elections.”

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UN member states should urgently support a halt on the sale, transfer and use of spyware to end the endemic unlawful surveillance of activists, journalists, lawyers, and political leaders, Amnesty International said today.

107, 273 people from 180 countries and territories signed the organization’s petition demanding UN member states support a global moratorium on surveillance technology until there is a proper regulatory framework that protects human rights.

“There is an urgent need for stronger human rights protections on the export of surveillance technology. 

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General

“We are witnessing a global spyware crisis in which activists, journalists and lawyers are targeted with invasive surveillance as a means to silence and intimidate them,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

“There is an urgent need for stronger human rights protections on the export of surveillance technology. UN member states must stop using, and stop tolerating, spyware as a tool of repression. And until this happens, states must step up and support a global moratorium on the export of spyware.”

Those who signed Amnesty’s petition join UN experts and civil society groups from across the globe in calling for a halt on the sale, export and transfer of spyware technology. Unlawful surveillance violates the right to privacy and can also violate the rights to freedom of expression, opinion, association, and peaceful assembly.

The voices of victims of spyware abuses will be heard at the heart of the UN in New York on Friday, as Amnesty and partners push UN member states to support a global moratorium.

Julia Gavarrete, a journalist from El Salvador, detailed the impact of spyware on her life: “Being targeted led me to change my way of communicating, the places I used to go, and also to think twice about the type of information I want to share with others — not only because of my own security, but to protect the integrity of those who communicate with me.  As a journalist, I have to guard my sources, but as a woman, I need to protect my family and friends.”

Amnesty International

Companies continue to profit from the sale of spyware used for unlawful surveillance. Every month, new cases are confirmed of people being unlawfully targeted with spyware. The past year has seen cases in El Salvador, Greece, Spain, Egypt, Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories, Morocco-Western Sahara, Poland and Thailand. The unregulated and opaque nature of the spyware industry means that we may never know the full extent of similar abuses involving other actors.

States are obligated under international law not only to respect human rights, but also to protect people from abuses by third parties, including private companies.

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Responding to the unlawful killings of at least eight people since last night by Iran’s security forces as they again opened fire on mourners and protesters in at least four provinces and building on growing international calls for a UN mechanism on Iran, Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said:

“The Iranian authorities’ reckless and unlawful use of firearms against protesters, including live ammunition, reveals yet again the tragically high cost of international inaction. All member states of the UN Human Rights Council must take decisive action now and immediately convene a special session on Iran in order to prevent further loss of life. Failure to act decisively will only embolden the Iranian authorities to further crackdown against mourners and protesters set to gather in the coming days during commemorations marking 40 days since the first deaths of protesters after the deadly repression began in mid-September. ”

 Failure to act decisively will only embolden the Iranian authorities to further crackdown against mourners and protesters

Heba Morayef, Amnesty International

“The UN Human Rights Council must make clear to the Iranian authorities that their crimes under international law will not go uninvestigated — or unpunished — by establishing an independent reporting and accountability mechanism on Iran. The ongoing failure to enact such mechanism, despite widespread unlawful killings of protesters since the nationwide protests of December 2017-January 2018 is indicative of how such brutal tragedies in Iran have seemingly become normalized. It is long overdue for the international community to hear the cries of victims’ families and human rights defenders for justice.”

Background

On 26 and 27 October 2022, Iran’s security forces intensified their use of unlawful force — including by shooting firearms with live ammunition, metal pellets and teargas — against protesters and mourners who had gathered in Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan, Kermanshah and Lorestan provinces.

On 26 October, thousands of people gathered in Saqqez, Kurdistan province, to mark the 40^thday after Mahsa (Zhina) Amini’s death in custody on 16 September. Security forces fired metal pellets and teargas to disperse the crowds, injuring several people.

Iran’s security forces also unlawfully used firearms against demonstrators today in Mahabad, Western Azerbaijan province, where thousands had gathered to protest the killing of Esmail Moloudi, a protester who was shot dead in the city by security forces on 27 October 2022. As a result, a woman, Kobra Sheikheh, and two men Zaniar Aboubekri and Shahou Khezri were killed.

In the evening of 26 October 2022, security forces killed Mohammad Shariati and Afshin Asham in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, and Ghasreshirin, Kermanshah province, respectively, during protests.

At least one protester was also killed today in Baneh, Kurdistan province. Amnesty International is seeking to verify his name.

Yesterday, UN experts, including the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, called on the Human Rights Council to urgently take action, including by establishing an international mechanism on Iran during a special session. The German minister of foreign affairs also spoke out in support of an independent UN mechanism on Iran.

The post Iran: UN must act urgently after authorities unlawfully kill eight protesters in less than 24 hours appeared first on Amnesty International.

Reacting to news that Professor Şebnem Korur Fincancı, President of the Union of Turkish Medical Associations, has been arbitrarily placed in pre-trial detention on accusations of “making propaganda for a terrorist organization” after she called for an independent investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Esther Major, Amnesty International’s Senior Research Advisor for Europe, said:

“Jailing this leading human rights defender simply for calling for an independent investigation into the alleged use of banned weapons is an appalling abuse of power. Arbitrarily imprisoning Şebnem Korur Fincancı has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with silencing her and sending a chilling message to others.

“Detaining Prof Fincancı contradicts Turkey’s obligations to protect human rights defenders in the course of their vital work. Instead of harassing and persecuting her, the Turkish authorities should instead take steps to ensure she can conduct her work free from fear and intimidation.

“Şebnem Korur Fincancı must be immediately and unconditionally released, and all charges against her must be urgently dropped.”

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