Archive for November 20th, 2015

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20/11/2015

European Border Restrictions Endanger Refugees, Migrants, Especially Children, UN Warns

Human Wrongs Watch

20 November 2015 – European restrictions on refugees and migrant movements after last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris, including national profiling, are endangering many, especially children, as the bite of winter takes hold, United Nations agencies warned today, calling on Governments to provide more reception centres and decent accommodation.

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A group of asylum-seekers break the trek to rest at Tovarnik train station in Croatia. Photo: UNHCR/I. Pavicevic 

“As long as this robust reception and screening capacity does not exist, the only ones who are in control of the situation are the smuggling networks whose unscrupulous activities have already cost the lives of nearly 3,500 people in the Mediterranean Sea this year,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a joint statement with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

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20/11/2015

Northern Ireland Still Faces Urgent Challenges Nearly 20 Years after Peace Accord – UN Expert

Human Wrongs Watch

20 November 2015 – While much has been achieved in Northern Ireland in the nearly 20 years since a peace accord ended decades of fighting between British forces and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the different communities, urgent issues persist, according to a United Nations expert on transitional justice.

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Special Rapporteur on transitional justice Pablo de Greiff. Photo: Jean-Marc Ferré / Source: UN

“Despite some significant initiatives, especially in the area of truth, justice, and institutional reforms, these have not been comprehensive and are characterized by fragmentation,” UN Special Rapporteur on transitional justice Pablo de Greiff told journalists in London at the end of a 10-day visit to the United Kingdom, as he called for a comprehensive redress and prevention policy.

“The legacies of the past in Northern Ireland continue to generate challenges and divisions that call for urgent and decisive attention.”

While praising important progress in relation to truth and justice, such as public inquiries and inquests, he noted that these focussed on specific events, leaving important dimensions to still be fully clarified.

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20/11/2015

Violence Is a Tragedy; Getting Distracted by It from the Road of Active Nonviolence Is a Double Tragedy

Human Wrongs Watch

By Silvia Swinden*

20 November 2015 (Pressenza) – The voices of peace and the voices of war all have something to say about Paris.

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(Image by Rafael Edwards on Flickr. Nonviolence day in Santiago. Nonviolence symbol, Plaza de Armas, the center of Santiago, Chile, marking Gandhi’s anniversary, 2nd October 2008.) | Source: Pressenza

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“Every time there’s a terrorist attack, Western leaders exploit that attack to do more wars,” Glenn Greenwald says.

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20/11/2015

For Every Child, a Fair Chance – #FightUnfair

Human Wrongs Watch

20 November 2015 (UNICEF)* – Unfair is…not knowing where your family is going to sleep tonight. Unfair is…that nearly half the people living in extreme poverty are children. Join us and #FightUnfair – to make the world a fairer place for all children. 

  • #FightUnfair

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20/11/2015

Cybersecurity Is the New Battleground for Human Rights

Human Wrongs Watch

By Andrew Puddephatt and Lea Kaspar*

18 November 2015 (openDemocracy)* 

Cybersecurity has become conflated with ‘national security’, with no consideration of what a ‘secure’ internet might mean for individual users. But, such a definition can be diametrically opposed to individual security. 

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**The Internet Messenger by Buky Schwartz in Holon. | Author: Dr. Avishai Teicher | Source: Dr. Avishai Teicher via the PikiWiki – Israel free image collection project | Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license. | Wikimedia Commons

Shutterstock/Gaudilab. Some rights reserved.In July 2015, UKTrade and Investment (UKTI) opened a new centre in London to showcase Britain’s ‘dynamic and innovative’ cybersecurity industry to global investors.

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20/11/2015

How Bad Is the Drought in Ethiopia?

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20/11/2015

Paris, the Refugees and Europe

Human Wrongs Watch

By Roberto Savio*

Rome, 20 November 2015

The focus on terrorism is obscuring the issues of refugees, and it is important to consider its impact on Europe, after the shock of Paris.

Roberto Savio

Of course, the impact of terrorism in the daily life of ordinary citizens is going to increase the culture of checks and controls in place since September 11, 2001.

Since the New York massacre, the 10,000 planes that take off daily carry citizens who go through vexing security checks, and cannot bring liquid on boards, etc.

Osama Bin Laden has changed totally our way of travelling. It is no small achievement, and Paris will increase that trend.

Let us not forget that we have ample literature from ISIS making it clear that its strategy is to get the West to react against the Muslim living in their countries, by erecting a wall of distrust and discrimination, so as to radicalise them as much as possible.

There are 44 million Muslims living in the West: if they felt shunned and discriminated against, they would be a formidable force, well beyond the 50,000 fighters who now carry the ISIS project of domination.

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20/11/2015

‘Paris, Beirut Terror Attacks Must Not Be Pretext for Slamming Shut Doors to Refugees’

Human Wrongs Watch

19 November 2015 – The United Nations General Assembly met today on tackling the global refugee crisis in the shadow of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris and Beirut, with top officials pleading that the door for genuine refuge not be slammed shut in the name of security.

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Migrants and refugees from several countries arrive by special train in Berlin, Germany. Photo: UNICEF/Ashley Gilbertson VII

“How are we to balance security needs and moral and legal obligations to protect refugees and others in need of protection?” Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson asked the informal meeting, which had been scheduled before last week’s attacks, to discuss ways to advance and finance a ‘Comprehensive Response to the Global Humanitarian and Refugee Crisis.’

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