The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian premier, Vladimir Putin, for war crimes committed during his illegal invasion of Ukraine. The court focused on the charge of unlawful deportation of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, which amounts to a war crime. Whilst the Russian foreign ministry has dismissed the warrant as “legally and void”, it has acknowledged the transferring of 2,000 children. Ukrainian officials claim however that this figure stands at 16,000 cases. A warrant was issued for Russia’s commissioner for...
In a speech on 21 February, Tunisian President Kais Saied made racist remarks about Black African migrants inciting violent anti-Black mobs. In his speech at the National Security Council meeting, Saied stated "hordes of irregular migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa" had come to Tunisia "with all the violence, crime, and unacceptable practices that entails." He claimed that the Black immigrants would "turn Tunisia into just another African country that doesn't belong to the Arab and Islamic nations anymore." According to Amnesty International, after President Saied's xenophobic remarks, Tunisian...
60 people including 12 children have been killed after a wooden sailing boat carrying migrants to Europe crashed against rocks near the southern Italian coast according to authorities. The crash occured in the early hours of 25 February near Steccato di Cutro. The boat was sailing from Turkey and carried migrants from Afghanistan, Iran and several other countries. Speaking to Reuters, a provincial official stated that 81 people had survived the shipwreck. Twenty of those who survived were hospitalized with one person being in intensive care. According to Interior Minister, Matteo Piantedosi,...
Dozens of Australia’s leading social justice and civil society bodies are launching a new partnership to support the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum. The Fred Hollows Foundation, Oxfam Australia, the Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss) and First Nations advocacy organisation Antar will lead nearly 150 organisations in the Allies for Uluru Coalition, which will be launched in Melbourne on Tuesday. The group will campaign for a yes vote in the referendum and includes members from the health, justice, human rights, environment, youth and housing sectors, including Unicef and...
Uganda has stated that it will not be renewing the mandate of the United Nations human rights office, the Ugandan government argues that it has sufficient capacity to monitor rights compliance. On 3 February, the Ugandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The letter cites Uganda's progress regarding developing a domestic capacity for monitoring rights as the primary driver behind its decision not to renew the OHCHR mandate. The letter states that "the ministry wishes to convey the government's decision not to renew the mandate of...
Former president Jair Bolsonaro should be investigated for genocide, Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, has said, as she prepares an operation to drive illegal goldminers from the site of a humanitarian disaster on Indigenous land. The president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, recently declared an emergency after photos emerged of emaciated children and elderly people in the region and the Sumaúma news platform revealed 570 Yanomami infants died from preventable diseases during Bolsonaro’s term, an increase of 29% on the previous four years. In the coming days, armed police and...
Descendants of victims of the genocide in Namibia have called on Germany to “stop hiding” and discuss reparations with them directly, as they take their own government to court for making a deal without their approval. The Herero and Nama people have gone to Namibia’s high court, rejecting an apology made in 2021 after years of talks between Namibia and Germany, which they say falls short of atoning for the 1904 to 1908 genocide, the first of the 20th century. “We were not involved at any stage. The government set the agenda, it discussed what it discussed and never disclosed it until we saw...
The Indian government has invoked emergency laws to block a BBC documentary examining the role of the prime minister, Narendra Modi , during riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002. An adviser in India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Saturday said that Twitter and YouTube have been asked to block links sharing the BBC documentary, India: The Modi Question, which the government earlier labelled as a “propaganda piece“. On Monday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that ordering social media platforms to block the documentary constitutes “an attack on the free...
Officials say about 1,500 people have been arrested following the storming of the National Congress in Brasília. Supporters of the former president, Jair Bolsonaro, stormed Congress and other official buildings including the presidential palace and the Supreme Court on Sunday. Newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was not there when the invasion happened, but he has since flown back from visiting flood victims in Sao Paulo state to inspect the damage Invaders left a trail of destruction leaving windows broken, furniture overturned and flooded parts of the National Congress...
The National Liberation Army (ELN), says it is not part of a ceasefire with the goverment that had been announced by the Presidient last week. On New Year’s Eve, President Gustavo Petro made a bold pronouncement on Twitter: Five of the country’s illegal armed groups had agreed to a six-month ceasefire . “Total peace will be a reality,” Petro wrote, echoing his promises to bring the country’s decades-long armed conflict to an end. But on Tuesday, the ELN issued a statement refuting claims that it had agreed to the ceasefire. “The ELN Dialogue Delegation has not discussed any proposal for a...