French President François Hollande has acknowledged that Algerian demonstrators were massacred during a pro-independence rally in Paris in 1961. The admission marks the first time a French leader has publicly accepted that the killings took place. "On 17 October 1961, Algerians who were protesting for independence were killed in a bloody repression. The Republic recognises these facts with lucidity," Hollande said in a statement on Wednesday. "I pay homage to victims 51 years later." Historians claim more than 200 people were killed, when police, under orders of former Nazi collaborator and...
Twitter blocked an account belonging to a banned neo-Nazi group on Thursday, preventing Germans receiving or viewing tweets from the account. The group Besseres Hannover, under the alias @hannoverticker now reveals only the following generic tweet: “Withheld account. @Hannover ticker’s account has been withheld in Germany.” The move is the first blanket censorship action taken by Twitter. “We announced the ability to withhold content back in Jan," tweeted Alex Macgillivray, Twitter’s general counsel. “We’re using it now for the first time re: a group deemed illegal in Germany.” In a fax sent...
The Philippines’ House of Representatives has ratified a bill which would criminalise enforced disappearances, which have been mostly sanctioned by the government. The new law will come into force Presdient Aquino signs the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012, which would make the Philippines the first Asian country to enact such a law. "The occurrence of enforced or involuntary disappearance and the impunity of offenders who are agents of the State are now finally consigned to the past," Representative Edcel Lagman said, according to Interaksyon . "The same obtained Congressional approval on 20 September 2012, a day before the 40th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law an era when enforced disappearance was an atrocious tool of the martial law regime to silence protesters and human rights madvocates," Lagman, one of the principal authors of the bill, said. Hundreds of Filipinos disappeared during the Martial Law period, with disappearances still occurring today. See below for some of the important features of the bill:
The UK’s Foreign Affairs Committee has criticised the British government, accusing them of being inconsistent on issues of human rights in other countries. The report particularly highlighted the case of Bahrain, criticising the decision to take no action over the Bahrain grand Prix, but boycott football matches in Ukraine for the Euro 2012 championships. UK ministers to boycott Euro 2012 football in Ukraine (07 June 2012) Former F1 Champion wants Bahrain Grand Prix rethink (05 April 2012) Richard Ottaway, the MP who chairs the committee, told the BBC , "What we're saying is, whichever side of the argument you're on here - and people in the human rights sector are on both sides of the argument - that there has to be some form of consistency." "We think perhaps the government should make clear what their approach is to international boycotts and sanctions before going one way in one case and another in another case." The report went on to state that Bahrain should be placed on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s list of "countries of concern". The list currently contains 28 countries which include North Korea, Sudan Iran and Sri Lanka amongst others. See here . A Foreign Office spokesman responded to the report, commenting, " Human rights are essential to and indivisible from our foreign policy objectives... They are part of our national DNA and are woven deeply into the decision-making processes of our foreign policy at every stage. We cannot achieve long-term security and prosperity unless we uphold our values.
European Union (EU) announced its most rigorous sanctions yet against Iran in an attempt to pressurise Tehran into negotiations over its nuclear program. Sanctions will target the financial sector, energy and shipping while imposing tighter measures on Central Bank of Iran. European Union will further restrict the exportation of graphite, metals and shipbuilding materials as well as importing gas to Europe. EU statement said, “The Iranian regime itself can act responsibly and bring these sanctions to an end. As long as it does not do so, the (EU) remains determined to increase, in close...
Human Rights Watch (HRW) have criticised an armed police raid on the offices of a prominent defence lawyer in the Bangladeshi war crimes trials, calling the raid ‘a grave affront to the basic tenets of fair trials.’ Asia Director at HRW, Brad Adams said: “A raid by armed intelligence officers on the offices of defence lawyers without a warrant and for no discernible reason marks a very dangerous turn in an already flawed process,” “The Bangladeshi government needs to publicly condemn this action or risk the appearance of being responsible for this egregious violation of fair trial standards...
British Prime Minister David Cameron has urged the international community to show “courage” and allow the sanctions, which have been imposed on Iran, to take effect. Speaking at a United Jewish Israel Appeal in London he said that this was not the time for Israel to take military action against Iran. "I have said to Prime Minister Netanyahu that now is not the time for Israel to resort to military action. "Beyond the unpredictable dangers inherent in any conflict, the other reason is this: at the very moment when the regime faces unprecedented pressure and the people are on the streets; and...
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic began his defence against charges of genocide at The Hague on Tuesday, telling the court that he should be rewarded for his actions during the Bosnian war. In his statement he told the court, "I should have been rewarded for all the good things that I've done because I did everything within human power to avoid the war and to reduce the human suffering, "Neither I nor anyone else that I know thought that there would be a genocide against those who were not Serbs." Dismissing the charges against him as "lies, propaganda and rumours", Karadzic continued to...
Satellite imagery and a video from the mobile phone of a Sudanese soldier shows that the Sudanese armed forces are continuing to commit crimes against humanity in the Nuba mountains, according to activist group the Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP). The video shows a teenager being tied up in a truck by Sudanese security forces while a village erupts in flames in the background. The SSP stated that the video shows Sudanese police, army and militia forces attacking the village of Gardud al Badry in South Kordofan. John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project, a partner in the SSP, stated...
Serbia President Tomislav Nikolic has once again denied that genocide took place in Srebrenica in comments made to an Italian newspaper. Nikolic told Corriere della Sera , "Genocide did not take place in Srebrenica... This is about individual guilt of members of the Serb people. The Serbian parliament condemned this crime, but did not say it was genocide. No Serb recognises that genocide took place in Srebrenica, and I am no different." Predrag Simic, professor at the Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences commented on Nikolic's statement, saying that the majority of Serbs still do not...