Day: November 14, 2021

Human Rights Watch has urged the African Union to pledge its support for the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which opens a session Monday, the last meeting of the year.

Human Rights Watch, in a statement Sunday, also called for the AU to “urgently tackle the deepening human rights and democratic crises affecting the continent, including in Ethiopia,” at the Commission’s 69th ordinary session.

“In Ethiopia, in the face of intensifying and a widening field of fighting, with attendant abuses and impact beyond the Tigray region,” HRW said, “it is especially important for the AU to demonstrate a commitment to enforcing member states’ obligations under its strong human rights standards and norms.”

Carine Kaneza Nantulya, HRW’s African advocacy director, said, “The growing gap between the AU political organs and African human rights institutions is threatening to undo decades of developments in African human rights law.”

HRW also noted that the AU failed to consistently apply two of its legal instruments — the AU Constitutive Act and the Charter of Democracy, Elections and Governance when dealing with Sudan and Chad.

“This year, the AU promptly suspended Sudan after the October 25 military coup but did not take similar action after the Chadian military takeover in late April,” the statement said. “The ACHPR condemned Chadian security forces for using excessive force against peaceful protesters demanding a return to civilian rule and called for prompt, credible investigations, and accountability.”

Nantulya said in the statement, “In a context of intensifying crises, with wide-ranging regional human rights and humanitarian repercussions, AU member states should stop choosing politics over human rights and instead rally behind African-led conflict prevention and investigation mechanisms.”

Source: Voice of America

More than 600 migrants, many of them Egyptians, arrived in southern Italy over the past 24 hours, officials said on Sunday, defying stormy winter seas in search of a better life in Europe.

Italy has seen a sharp increase in boat migrants in recent weeks and the latest mass arrivals will put further pressure on Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government to secure an agreement with European Union partners over how to deal with the influx.

Coastguards rescued some 300 men and boys overnight who were packed on a fishing boat off the southern toe of Italy. The group, almost all Egyptians, were brought ashore to the nearby port of Roccella Jonica.

Hours later, some 212 mainly Egyptian and Syrian migrants were taken off a second boat and brought to Roccella Jonica.

Further to the south, 113 migrants, including at least eight women, reached the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa in two different landings. Local media said some of the newcomers were Tunisian.

As of Nov. 12, 57,833 migrants have reached Italy so far this year against 31,213 in the same period of 2020 and just 9,944 in 2019.

Right-wing parties have accused the Interior Ministry of not doing enough to stem the flow.

Speaking after a conference on Libya on Friday, Draghi urged greater coordination with Europe to resolve the problem.

“What is certain, however, is that these continuous landings in Italy are making the situation unsustainable,” he told reporters, standing alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Source: Voice of America

The Qatar-based satellite news network Al-Jazeera said Sunday its bureau chief in Sudan was detained by security forces, a day after mass protests across the country against last month’s military coup.

The network said on Twitter that Sudanese forces raided the home of El Musalmi El Kabbashi and detained him.

The development comes after security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas Saturday to disperse protesters denouncing the military’s tightening grip on the country.

The Sudan Doctors Committee said a 15-year-old protester died Sunday of gunshot wounds to his stomach and thigh, raising the death toll to six people.

In a later statement, Al-Jazeera said El Kabbashi had been arrested at his home in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. The broadcaster said it held the Sudanese military responsible for his safety.

“Al-Jazeera condemns in the strongest terms the reprehensible actions of the military and calls on the authorities to release El Kabbashi immediately and to allow its journalists to operate unhindered, free to practice their profession without fear or intimidation,” the channel said.

Sudanese officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets across Sudan on Saturday to rally against the military coup last month. The takeover has drawn international criticism and massive protests in the streets of the capital of Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.

The killings Saturday took place in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman. The dead included four people killed by gunshots and one who died from being hit by a tear gas canister. The 15-year-old who died of his wounds Sunday brought to six the number of fatalities, the doctors committee said. Several other protesters were wounded, including from gunshots, it said.

That brought the tally since the Oct. 26 coup to at least 21 protesters dead, according to the medical group.

Saturday’s rallies, called by the pro-democracy movement, came two days after coup leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan reappointed himself head of the Sovereign Council, Sudan’s interim governing body. Thursday’s move angered the pro-democracy alliance and frustrated the United States and other countries that have urged the generals to reverse their coup.

The newly appointed body held its first meeting, chaired by Gen. Burhan Sunday in Khartoum, the council said on its Facebook page.

The pro-democracy movement condemned “the excessive use of force” against the protesters Saturday. The Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change said their struggle to establish a full civilian government “will not stop” and called for mass demonstrations on Wednesday.

The Sudanese military seized power Oct. 25, dissolving the transitional government and arresting dozens of officials and politicians. The takeover upended a fragile planned transition to democratic rule, more than two years after a popular uprising forced the removal of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir and his Islamist government.

Source: Voice of America