Archive for ‘Asia’

14/08/2024

India: Hate Speech Fueled Modi’s Election Campaign

Human Wrongs Watch

By Human Rights Watch*

Prime Minister, Ruling Party Targeted Muslims, Other At-Risk Groups

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks at a public rally ahead of polling in the national election in Hyderabad, India, May 10, 2024. © 2024 Mahesh Kumar A./AP Photo

(New York) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2024 electoral campaign frequently used hate speech against Muslims and other minorities, Human Rights Watch on 14 August 2024 said.

read more »

13/08/2024

Gaza: Clean Water Crisis Adds to New Displacement Misery, and “Sewage Water Is All Over the Streets”: UNICEF

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — Amid further evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military in Gaza, UN humanitarians delivered a fresh warning on Monday [12 August 2024] over the dire sanitary emergency there and the urgent need for a mass polio vaccination campaign in the embattled enclave. 
 
A person collects water in the midst of the ruins of Gaza.
© UNRWA | A person collects water in the midst of the ruins of Gaza.

UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, issued a statement from Deir al-Balah in Gaza’s central area, where untreated sewage run-off formed large pools on the road next to shelters for forcibly displaced people.

“Sewage water is all over the streets,” said UNICEF spokesperson Salim Oweis, who highlighted the destruction of Gaza’s water and sanitation network, and its sewage treatment plants, since war erupted on 7 October, after Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel.

read more »

12/08/2024

Let’s Abolish the Colonial IMF on Its 80th Birthday

By Arthur Larok*

From Kenya to Pakistan, protesters want the International Monetary Fund to stop exploiting countries in debt crisis

(OpenDemocracy)* 24 July 2024 — Mass protests rocking Kenya in the past month have once again laid bare the predatory lending practices of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). ​​Placards read “IMF keep your hands off Kenya,” and “We ain’t IMF bitches”, calling on President William Ruto to withdraw an IMF-driven finance bill set to ramp up austerity and regressive taxes. 

Kenyan protesters anger at new IMF measures | James Wakibia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

12/08/2024

Killings of Palestinian Journalists Continue –Aided by Uninterrupted Flow of US Arms

Human Wrongs Watch

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 2024 (IPS)* – The growing number of killings of Palestinian journalists in Gaza has triggered a demand for a cut-off in US arms supplies to Israel.
 

The journalists gather in front of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital to commemorate their friends, Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi, who lost their lives in Israeli army attack on a moving vehicle in the Al-Shati refugee camp, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on July 31, 2024. Source: Middle East Monitor. Credit: Ashraf Amra, Anadolu Agency

A letter addressed to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken—and signed by scores of reporters, news outlets and journalist unions— says Israel has killed more than 165 Palestinian journalists since October 7 last year.

read more »

11/08/2024

‘Another Day of Horror’: UN Human Rights Office Condemns Israeli Strikes at Gazan School

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — The UN Human Rights Office condemned on Saturday [] the increasing frequency of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) strikes on schools, where hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinians have sought shelter, with the latest attacks killing dozens at a Gaza City school.

An UNRWA-run school, which was converted into a shelter, was severely damaged by previous strikes. (file)

© UNRWA | An UNRWA-run school, which was converted into a shelter, was severely damaged by previous strikes. (file)

At around 4:30am during dawn prayer on Saturday, a mosque inside Al Tabaeen School was struck by the IDF “at least three times”, the UN rights office, OHCHR, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a statement, adding that the attacks were “conducted with apparent disregard for the high rate of civilian fatalities”.

10/08/2024

UN Human Rights Chief ‘Shocked and Appalled’ by Israeli Minister’s Comment on Starving Gazans to Death

(UN News)* — The UN human rights office, OHCHR, called on Friday [] for the Israeli authorities to monitor senior officials whose public statements on the Gaza conflict may promote war crimes.
.
Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, addresses a conference for youth human rights defenders at the UN in Vienna (file)..
UNIS Vienna | Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, addresses a conference for youth human rights defenders at the UN in Vienna (file).
09/08/2024

Gaza: Thousands on the Run again Following New Israeli Evacuation Order

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — Thousands of people in Gaza have been fleeing west toward Al Mawasi after the Israel military issued a new evacuation order on Thursday [], UN humanitarian partners on the ground have reported.

A family moves possessions amidst the rubble in Gaza (file).
© UNRWA | A family moves possessions amidst the rubble in Gaza (file).

The directive affects people located in parts of eastern and central Khan Younis as well as the Al Salqa area of Deir Al-Balah.

read more »

07/08/2024

The Demise of Democracy and Human Rights Violations in Bangladesh: International Financial Institutions’ Culpability

Human Wrongs Watch

SYDNEY, NEW YORK, WASHINGTON DC, Aug 6 2024 (IPS)* The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are complicit in the gross human rights violations and death of democracy in Bangladesh.

Anis Chowdhury

They continued to supply financial blood line to the regime, well-documented for its corruptions, human rights violations – such as forced disappearances and tortures in custody – and riggings of votes, including politicization of state institutions in its slide into autocracy.

This is despite their professed commitment to transparency, accountability and good governance (IMF, World Bank, ADB).

read more »

07/08/2024

New-Borns Are Being Sold for Up to $4,500 in Kazakhstan; the Government Is Cracking Down on Traffickers

Human Wrongs Watch

By Kulpash Konyrova, in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan tightens laws to combat trafficking of newborns

()* Babies are being sold for up to $4,500 in Kazakhstan, but the government is cracking down on traffickers with a new law adopted earlier this month.

A woman checks on her newborn as a nurse monitors the baby's condition at a perinatal centre in Astana, Kazakhstan.

© Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan | A woman checks on her newborn as a nurse monitors the baby’s condition at a perinatal centre in Astana, Kazakhstan.
 
To fight against trafficking newborns, the new legislation facilitates the criminal prosecution for such crimes as kidnapping, illegal deprivation of liberty, human trafficking, involvement in prostitution and more.
03/08/2024

“Systematic Dehumanisation of Civilians” in both Gaza and the West Bank: UN Humanitarian Chief

Human Wrongs Watch

Humanitarian efforts ‘nowhere near where they should be’ 300 days into Gaza war

Families in Gaza continue to search for the safest places to shelter.
© UNRWA | Families in Gaza continue to search for the safest places to shelter.

(UN News)* — Scaling up aid delivery remains a challenge in Gaza as the war reaches the 300-day mark, the head of the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said on Thursday [].

Andrea De Domenico was speaking from Jerusalem in his final briefing to journalists at UN Headquarters in New York as the Israeli authorities have not renewed his visa.

read more »