Category: Human Rights

WASHINGTON, The White House held an event Friday afternoon to mark the Senate confirmation of the first African American woman for the Supreme Court.

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris showed up at the South Lawn, alongside Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, in front of a cheering crowd.

Biden underlined in his remarks that Jackson “showed the incredible character and integrity” in the face of a contentious confirmation in the Senate.

“I knew the person I nominated would be put through a painful and difficult confirmation process,” the veteran Democrat continued. “What Judge Jackson was put through was well beyond that.”

Jackson, emotional at the event, said that “it is the greatest honor of my life.”

The Senate confirmed Jackson for the nation’s highest court in a 53 to 47 vote, which fell largely along party lines.

Republicans explained their opposition by casting doubt on Jackson’s judicial record, accusing her of leniency in cases, in attacks that Democrats have rejected.

Biden announced in late February the nomination of Jackson, 51, to succeed liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who is about to retire this summer.

It was one of Biden’s major promises to fill a potential Supreme Court vacancy with an African American woman, which arguably helped turn his 2020 campaign around and set him on a path to the White House.

Jackson, who has sat on the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit since June 2021, won’t be sworn in until after Breyer formally retires.

Born in Washington, D.C. but raised in Miami, Florida, Jackson received her law degree from Harvard University and graduated cum laude in 1996. Earlier in her legal career, she worked as an assistant federal public defender in D.C. and served as vice-chair of the US Sentencing Commission for four years.

Jackson also served more than eight years as a judge on the US District Court for the District of Columbia before being elevated to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Supreme Court is the final appellate court of the US judicial system, with the power to review and overturn lower court decisions, and is also generally the final interpreter of federal law, including the country’s constitution.

The justices have life tenure and can serve until they die, resign, retire, or are impeached and removed from office.

This year, the Supreme Court will rule on cases involving a series of major issues, including abortion, affirmative action, and guns.

Court watchers have argued Jackson is expected to vote very similarly to Breyer and her ascension won’t change the Supreme Court’s ideological balance, in which conservatives have a 6-3 majority over liberals.

Source: Nam News Network

The Rwandan man portrayed as a hero in the movie “Hotel Rwanda” should not have his 25-year sentence extended to life in prison, a Rwandan court ruled Monday.

Paul Rusesabagina was convicted in September on eight terrorism charges for his role in a group opposing President Paul Kagame.

Rusesabagina said that he was a leader in the Rwanda Movement for Democratic Change but had no role in the group’s armed wing, the National Liberation Front, which has carried out attacks.

He refused to take part in the September trial, calling it a sham, and was not present at Monday’s ruling.

Prosecutors called the 25-year sentence too lenient.

His family has lobbied for his release, saying he is ill.

Rusesabagina saved around 1,200 people by sheltering them in a hotel during the country’s 1994 genocide, which saw over 800,000 killed.

Source: Voice of America

The Pritzker Prize, architecture’s most prestigious award, was awarded Tuesday to Burkina Faso-born architect Diebedo Francis Kere, the first African to win the honor in its more than 40-year history.

Kere, 56, was hailed for his “pioneering” designs that are “sustainable to the earth and its inhabitants — in lands of extreme scarcity,” said Tom Pritzker, chairman of the Hyatt Foundation that sponsors the award, in a statement.

Kere, a dual citizen of Burkina Faso and Germany, said he was the “happiest man on this planet” to become the 51st recipient of the illustrious prize since it was first awarded in 1979.

“I have a feeling of an overwhelming honor but also a sense of responsibility,” he told AFP during an interview in his office in Berlin.

Kere is renowned for building schools, health facilities, housing, civic buildings and public spaces across Africa, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, Kenya, Mozambique, Togo and Sudan.

“He is equally architect and servant, improving upon the lives and experiences of countless citizens in a region of the world that is at times forgotten,” Pritzker said.

Kere won plaudits for his 2001 project for a primary school in Gando village, in Burkina Faso, where he was born.

Unlike traditional school buildings, which used concrete, Kere’s innovative design combined local clay, fortified with cement to form bricks that helped retain cooler air inside.

A wide, raised tin roof protects the building from rain while helping the air circulate, meaning natural ventilation without any need for air conditioning.

Kere engaged the local community during the design and building phase, and the number of students at the school increased from 120 to 700, the Hyatt Foundation said in its release.

The success of the project saw the creation of an extension, a library and teachers’ housing in later years.

Kere “empowers and transforms communities through the process of architecture,” designing buildings “where resources are fragile and fellowship is vital,” the Pritzker statement added.

“Through his commitment to social justice and engagement, and intelligent use of local materials to connect and respond to the natural climate, he works in marginalized countries laden with constraints and adversity,” the organizers said.

In Kere’s native Burkina Faso, his accolade was hailed as a reminder that Burkina Faso should be known internationally for more than a violent jihadi insurgency that has gripped the country.

Groups affiliated to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have killed more than 2,000 people and displaced at least 1.7 million.

“In the current pain of the security crisis, our country must remember that it is also the nation of exceptional men like Francis Kere,” said Ra-Sablga Seydou Ouedraogo, of the non-profit Free Afrik.

Nebila Aristide Bazie, head of the Burkina Faso architects’ council, said the award “highlights the African architect and the people of Burkina Faso.”

In 2017, Kere designed the Serpentine pavilion in London’s Hyde Park, a prestigious assignment given to a world-famous architect every year.

He was also one of the architects behind Geneva’s International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum and has held solo museum shows in Munich and Philadelphia.

“I am totally convinced that everyone deserves quality,” he said in his office, where he celebrated his award with his team.

“I’m always thinking how can I get the best for my clients, for those who can afford but also for those who cannot afford.

“This is my way of doing things, of using my architecture to create structures to serve people, let’s say to serve humanity,” Kere added.

Source: Voice of America

The security of civilians in Mali has improved in recent years, but the country must remain vigilant, according to human rights experts.

Alioune Tine, who was appointed in 2018 by the United Nations Human Rights Council to assist the Malian government in protecting its citizens, visited the country February 8-17.

During a video press conference on Tuesday, Tine noted an improvement in security in central and northern parts of the country. However, he also voiced concern about the withdrawal of international partners from Mali after France announced February 17 that its troops would leave because of tensions with the military government.

Tine ended his remarks by calling for “more integrated security strategies focused on the protection of civilian populations and their fundamental human rights.”

The improved security situation coincides with a military offensive in the past few months by the Malian army. Some activists say that the offensive involved arbitrary arrests and disappearances among the Fulanis, an ethnic group that resides mostly in north and central Mali. Fulanis say they are often unfairly accused of being jihadists.

Ibrahim Diallo is a member of two Fulani cultural organizations, Tabital Pulaaku and Pinal. He said that during a recent offensive in Niono, in Mali’s Segou region, some Fulani youth fled when they saw the army, fearing they could be unfairly targeted. As they fled, Diallo said, they were fired upon.

Diallo said he knows two people who were shot and has heard that they died, but has not seen the bodies.

Aly Barry is a doctor from the Mopti region in central Mali and a member of a Fulani association. He said from Bamako via a messaging app that the Malian army’s successful advances are “undeniable,” but that actions have negatively impacted the human rights of civilians.

Barry said a few dozen people were arrested February 20 in Niono, but he doesn’t know if they are in prison or dead.

Aguibou Bouaré is president of the National Commission on Human Rights, a governmental organization that independently investigates human rights abuse accusations in Mali. Bouaré confirmed that the security situation in the center and north of the country has improved, but said the commission has concerns about human rights abuses during the past few months of “ramping up” by the Malian army.

He said his group is recording allegations of human rights violations that are attributed to the armed security forces during this period, and that the investigations are continuing.

VOA reached a Malian army spokesman by phone, but he refused to comment on the incidents in Niono or elsewhere in the country.

Source: Voice of America

The International Criminal Court will next week hear an appeal by Ugandan former Lord’s Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen against his conviction for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Ongwen, a former child soldier in the notorious rebel group led by the fugitive Joseph Kony in the early 2000s, was sentenced by the ICC in May last year to 25 years in jail for murder, rape and sexual enslavement.

Ongwen, whose nom de guerre was “White Ant,” had protested his innocence and cited his own history of being kidnapped while on his way to school by the LRA, and brutalized.

“The appeal brought against the conviction is the largest ever considered by the chamber, raising complex and novel issues,” the ICC said in a statement announcing the appeal hearings, which will run from Monday to Friday.

Ongwen’s lawyers have raised 90 grounds of appeal against the verdict and 11 against the sentence, alleging “legal, factual and procedural errors” by the court, the Hague-based ICC said.

The LRA was founded three decades ago by former Catholic altar boy and self-styled prophet Kony, who launched a bloody rebellion in northern Uganda against President Yoweri Museveni.

Its brutal campaign to set up a state based on the Bible’s Ten Commandments left more than 100,000 people dead and 60,000 children abducted, eventually spreading to Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

Ongwen handed himself in to the ICC in 2015 and was convicted of 61 charges. He was also the first person convicted by the ICC of the crime of forced pregnancy.

Judges said in their verdict that Ongwen personally ordered his soldiers to carry out massacres of more than 130 civilians at the Lukodi, Pajule, Odek and Abok refugee camps between 2002 and 2005.

Civilians were locked in their homes and burned to death or beaten during the massacres, while mothers were made to transport the LRA’s loot, forcing them to abandon their infant children by the roadside.

But the court held back from the maximum possible 30-year sentence for his crimes, saying that his traumatic past as a child soldier was a mitigating factor.

Source: Voice of America

Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

Ukraine defiant in face of Russian threat

Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador in Geneva said Friday that her country will not bow to threats of military action from Russia and is prepared to fight to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Ukraine Remains Defiant in Face of Russian Invasion Threat

Hunger spreading in Horn of Africa

UNICEF warned Wednesday that the Horn of Africa is facing a climate-induced emergency. As many as 20 million people in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia could need water and food assistance in the next six months due to severe recurring drought.

Horn of Africa Facing Climate-induced Emergency

Coups on the rise in Africa

Military coups have been on the rise in Africa over the last year-and-a-half, prompting U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to declare that there is an “epidemic” of them. Burkina Faso is the latest, and Guinea-Bissau averted one on February 2. VOA takes a deeper look at the factors fueling these power grabs.

By the Numbers: Coups in Africa

In brief

— Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. On the sidelines, he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. According to a readout, they discussed the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and world conflicts. The secretary-general also told the Chinese officials that he expects them to allow for a “credible visit” of his High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to China, including to Xinjiang, the province where the country’s oppressed Uyghur Muslim minority lives. China has been promising such a visit for several years, and recently said it is fine as long as Bachelet comes to have an exchange, not an investigation. Beijing denies it violates the rights of Uyghurs and says it is combating terrorism.

— Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed traveled to Addis Ababa for the African Union Summit last weekend. She then visited conflict zones in northern Ethiopia, going to Tigray where she met with the regional president, and to the neighboring provinces of Afar and Amhara, where fighting and its consequences have spilled over, as well as to the Somali region. The U.N. has been seeking a halt to the fighting in the north and expanded access for humanitarian workers.

— Tropical Cyclone Batsirai made landfall on the east coast of Madagascar on Saturday night, local time. The intense storm killed at least 21 people, including several children, and displaced more than 62,000 people. The U.N. said this week that it is working with its humanitarian partners and coordinating with the government. Surge teams have been deployed and a humanitarian air bridge set up. By Friday, the WFP had distributed 10,000 hot meals at shelters and distributed other food aid to displaced persons.

— UNESCO expressed concern on Thursday about journalists working in Myanmar. The U.N.’s cultural organization said that in the past year since the military seized power, at least 146 journalists have been arrested, while some 52 journalists, including 12 women, remain under detention. At least three reporters are known to have died in detention.

Some good news

After a year-long absence, the iconic tapestry of Pablo Picasso’s anti-war masterpiece “Guernica,” was returned to its place of honor outside the U.N. Security Council on Saturday.

Quote of note

“What we’re appealing for as humanitarian organizations on the ground, is that this military, political strategic chess game, involving Moscow and Minsk and Brussels and Washington and other capitals, that it is concentrating on helping people survive on the ground, protecting them, and avoiding a senseless conflict. Everybody would lose from the conflict, but first and foremost the two million people who live within 20 kilometers from the frontline.”

— Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, telling VOA in an interview on Monday about his visit last week to eastern Ukraine.

What we are watching next week

On February 17, the U.N. Security Council will hold its annual meeting on the implementation of the Minsk agreements, which lay out the path to a political settlement in eastern Ukraine between Kyiv and Russian-backed separatists. In February 2015, the Security Council endorsed Minsk II in a resolution. This year’s discussion takes place against the backdrop of the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Did you know?

The U.N. corridors and grounds are full of art, sculptures and unique objects donated by governments, foundations and individual donors, many of which can be seen on public tours of the complex. The Guernica tapestry, mentioned above, is a gift of the American Rockefeller family. (They also donated the land the U.N. complex is built on in New York.) There is also a section of the Berlin Wall on the compound’s north lawn and a fountain paid for by U.S. schoolchildren at the southern entrance to the complex. Among the objects on display in the corridors is a model of the ornate Royal Thai Barge “Suphannahong” carved from teak wood, and a black pot from 300 B.C. from Sudan. On the first floor, there is a painting of a white dove of peace by Macedonian painter Vasko Taskovski.

Source: Voice of America