SAN FRANCISCO, USA, Jun 27 2023 (IPS)* – A recent Justice Department report concluded that “systemic” racial bias in the Minneapolis Police Department “made what happened to George Floyd possible.”
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Anti-racism protesters in Brooklyn, New York, demonstrate demanding justice for the killing of African American, George Floyd. Credit: UN News/Shirin Yaseen
During the three years since a white police officer brutally murdered Floyd, nationwide discussions of systemic racism have extended well beyond focusing on law enforcement to also assess a range of other government functions.
But such scrutiny comes to a halt at the water’s edge — stopping short of probing whether racism has been a factor in U.S. military interventions overseas.
(UN NEWS)* — The [United Nations] Secretary-General condemned on Wednesday [] Israel’s recent advancement of plans for over 5,500 housing units in settlements in the occupied West Bank. He also denounced the retroactive regularization of three outposts adjacent to the settlement of Eli.
File UNRWA | Israeli authorities demolished Bedouin homes in the vulnerable community of Abu Nwar, Area C, near East Jerusalem in the West Bank.
A strongly worded statement by the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General reiterates that settlements are a flagrant violation of international law and relevant UN resolutions. Antonio Guterres, it says, urged the Government of Israel to halt and reverse the expansion of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, to immediately and completely cease all settlements activities there and to respect its relevant legal obligations.
The statement refers to the Monday’s advancement of plans for over 5,500 housing units in Israeli settlements in Area C of the occupied West Bank, including the retroactive regularization, under Israeli law, of three settlement outposts adjacent to the settlement of Eli.
MADRID, Jun 27 2023 (IPS)* – How come that in a world where technology is -or is about to be- able to detect an ant in a jungle, the traffickers of death continue to carry out their lucrative criminal activities everywhere and in all fields, from weapons to prostitution, enslavement and drugs, to deadly fake medicines, through oil, gas and poisoned food.
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In the United States and Canada, overdose deaths, predominantly driven by an epidemic of the non-medical use of fentanyl, continue to break records. Credit: Shutterstock.
In the specific case of Asia, a specialised organisation reports the Asian ‘Golden Triangle’ is where historically opium was grown to produce heroin for export, but where, in recent years, the trade of “even deadlier and more profitable synthetic drugs have taken over.”
(UN NEWS)* — An independent UN-appointed climate expert on Tuesday [] called for full legal protection to be given to those displaced by the impacts of climate change, to guarantee their human rights.
“The effects of climate change are becoming more severe, and the number of people displaced across international borders is rapidly increasing,” said Ian Fry, independent human rights expert on climate change, who took up the new post last year.
“In 2020 alone, 30.7 million people were displaced from their homes due to weather-related events. Droughts were the main factor,” Mr. Fry said in his latest thematic report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. “We must take immediate steps to give legal protection to these people.”
(UN NEWS)* — Violations of international law regarding children and armed conflict continued to have a “devastating impact”, the UN’s top official on the issue said on Tuesday [], with a 112 per cent rise in the number of attacks on schools and hospitals.
Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba unveiled the Secretary-General’s latest annual report, for 2022, which showed there were 27,180 grave violations overall, an increase from the previous year.
The recorded violations only refer to verified information, with the likely toll much higher, and cover four categories: recruitment and use of children into armed groups or forces, killing and maiming, rape and sexual violence, and abduction.
By contrast, most U.S. news organizations have only paid sparing attention to the calamitous event, offering up just a tiny fraction of the coverage that they accord air disasters, or floods and earthquakes in wealthy countries.
23 June 2023 – Families of the dead and missing are trapped in limbo as their attempts to find out what happened to their loved ones and efforts to ensure justice, truth and reparation are being impeded in an apparent cover up by Spanish and Moroccan authorities, said Amnesty International on the eve of the first anniversary of the deadly events that took place on the border of Spain’s Melilla enclave.
At least 37 people died after around 2,000 Sub-Saharan African migrants and refugees attempted to cross from Morocco to Spain on 24 June 2022. At least 76 are still missing.
Authorities in Spain and Morocco have so far failed to conduct an effective independent investigation, leaving scores of grieving families in anguish.
.“Both Spain and Morocco have exonerated their security forces following flawed or insufficient investigations into the violence at the Melilla enclave border,” said Alice Autin, Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “And what happened to dozens of the people who attempted to cross on that day is still unknown.”.
MADRID, Jun 22 2023 (IPS)* – The abuse of human rights has sharply increased with the steady rise of the right and far-right parties in the wealthy industrialised countries, whose extremist ideology is now spreading faster than ever in Europe.
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Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s far-right Vox party. The party could soon be in government, after the 23 July 2023 general elections. Credit: Shutterstock
Indeed, most of the European Union 27 member countries are now either formally ruled by or strongly influenced and supported by extremists and populist parties, which publicly negate basic human rights, while masking their policies of suppressing public services like health, education, pensions, and protection of workers.
Geneva/Berlin/Cairo(IOM)* – Nearly 3,800 people died on migration routes within and from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region last year (January-December 2022), the highest number since 2017 when 4,255 deaths were recorded according to newly released data from the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Missing Migrants Project (MMP).The 3,789 deaths recorded in 2022 was 11 per cent higher than the previous year.
IOM’s Missing Migrants Project documented 441 migrant deaths in the Central Mediterranean in the first quarter of 2023. Photo: IOM 2022…
The MENA region accounted for more than half of the total 6,877 deaths recorded worldwide by the MMP, according to the new report.
On North African land routes, particularly during the perilous Sahara Desert crossing, 203 deaths were recorded, while an additional 825 deaths occurred on Middle Eastern land routes.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 