Latest news with #HumanRightsWatch
Al Jazeera
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
What's behind the EU's lack of action against Israel over Gaza?
European Union summit fails to act on trade agreement despite findings of human rights abuses. A European Union (EU) summit in Brussels called for a ceasefire in Gaza, but not for sanctions against Israel. Germany has led member states in blocking action throughout the war, as others express anger. So what's behind the EU's position on Israel and Gaza? Presenter: Adrian Finighan Guests: Claudio Francavilla – Associate EU director at Human Rights Watch in Brussels Lynn Boylan – Sinn Fein member of the European Parliament and chair of the European Parliament's Delegation for relations with Palestine Giorgia Gusciglio – Europe coordinator of campaigns for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement promoting economic pressure against Israel
Sky News AU
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Caroline Marcus: Antoinette Lattouf's federal court win over the ABC 'hijacked and misrepresented by anti-Israel activists'
Sky News Senior Reporter Caroline Marcus has lashed the actions of anti-Israel activists who "hijacked and misrepresented" the federal court's judgement to award journalist Antoinette Lattouf $70,000 for her unlawful termination by ABC. The ABC suffered a major court defeat earlier in the week after the public broadcaster was found to have unfairly dismissed Ms Lattouf when she was sacked during her radio stint in December 2023. Reasons why she was sacked included her political opinion about the war in Gaza. On December 19 during her contract, Ms Lattouf re-shared an Instagram post by Human Rights Watch about the conflict in Gaza, which accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war. During her editorial while hosting Danica De Giorgio on Friday night, Marcus said the behaviour of anti-Israel activists, "including Lattouf herself", overshadowed what was ultimately a "judgement on workplace rights". Outside the court after the judgement, Ms Lattouf said "deliberately starving and killing children is a war crime. Today the court has found that punishing someone for sharing facts about these war crimes is illegal". Marcus took issue with the way Ms Lattouf "spun" the court decision, especially after the judge said the post she shared was "ill-advised and inconsiderate of her employer". "Sacked for sharing facts? The court did not find she was sacked for facts. In fact, the judge made no finding of the veracity of your disputed claim from a known anti-Israel organisation," Marcus said. "It was a claim she repeated when she shared her statement on social media to her more than 100,000 followers. As the Financial Review noted, outside court, pro-Palestinian activists waving placards and flags sought to portray (Justice Darryl) Rangiah's ruling as if it were a judgement on the morality of the Gaza conflict. "Rangiah ruled the primary reason Lattouf was sacked was because of her political opinion, whatever it may be, and that was illegal. The content of Lattouf's opinion was irrelevant." Lattouf has seized on the publicity this week to launch her new venture alongside journalist Jan Fran - a new independent website promising media literacy critique "that helps you get the real story." "But readers will clearly need to apply a fair amount of media literacy and critique to any other misrepresentations reported there," Marcus said. Marcus' live cross for Sky News following the court judgement on Wednesday had to be dramatically halted after a man saying "Israel kills a hundred people every day in Gaza" walked directly into the camera shot. She said it wasn't the only example of harassment she was subject to during her reporting. "Some anti-Israel activists outside court were so emboldened by this false narrative about the ruling being some kind of judgement on Israel itself, they harassed journalists there reporting the case, including me, accusing us of being complicit in genocide," she said. "Well, aside from that attempt to block me from just doing my reporting, other activists there subjected me to sexualised language and gestures that day I wouldn't even be able to repeat here. "Suffice to say, it appears only some female journalists, those that these activists consider to be on the right side of their cause, should be able to do their jobs free from interference."
The Diplomat
9 hours ago
- Politics
- The Diplomat
Afghanistan Has a Lot at Stake in the Iran Conflict
From a massive refugee population to a major trade partner, Iran is of crucial importance to the Taliban regime. The U.S. should pay attention to the growing relationship. Mahnoor Naimi recorded her latest vlog on June 22. She asked her viewers to pray for her, and to forgive her, if she didn't make it home. She said she was stuck in Iran. Speaking from the Sang-e Safid camp, near the border between Iran and Afghanistan, the Afghan YouTuber – likely in her mid-20s – appeared weary, but composed. In the video, posted on the same day the United States dropped bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities (and then reposted to her channel a few days later), Naimi said she just wanted to go home to Afghanistan. About a year ago, she left Afghanistan and went to Tehran looking for work. Since then, she has lived in various cities across Iran, trying to build a life. She has shared her journey through videos posted on YouTube. In one of her vlogs, she shared that she worked at a clothing factory, sewing garments. Back in 2021, as the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, reportedly more than a million Afghans fled to Iran for a variety of reasons. But as the war between Israel and Iran heated up, Naimi – and many others – decided it's time to come back. The bombings weren't the only factor. In recent months, Iranian authorities have been rounding up Afghan refugees, transferring them to deportation camps near the Iran-Afghanistan border. Human Rights Watch has described the camps as 'veritable prisons.' Reports of harassment, violence, and even torture at the hands of Iranian officials have continuously emerged from Afghans held in these sites. And that was before the war. Naimi, in her post on June 22, spoke carefully so as not to provoke Iranian audiences. She described the heartbreaking scenes around her: hungry children, frail men and women searching desperately for a piece of bread, and families living in misery. Weeping, she said that more than anything, she wants to return home. 'Whatever Afghanistan is, it is ours. It is our country,' she said in the video. Despite the war unfolding just across its western border, life in Afghanistan remained strikingly calm. One might have expected panic in Kabul, especially given the fragile state of its economy. Yet, remarkably, there has been little visible disruption. Contrary to widespread expectations, the Taliban have refrained from taking a strong public stance on the conflict. The leadership has avoided broad or inflammatory statements – neither issuing loud condemnations of Israel nor showing extraordinary support for Iran. Instead, they have adopted a calculated, restrained posture, one that appears aimed at avoiding entanglement in the broader regional conflict. Since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, the group has faced widespread international condemnation and diplomatic isolation. Amid widespread concerns over human rights abuses, particularly against women and minorities, no country has formally recognized the Taliban government. Economic sanctions, the freezing of Afghanistan's central bank assets, and restrictions on foreign aid have further strained the country's fragile economy. That may be why the Taliban appear to be proceeding with caution amid the backdrop of a highly volatile Middle East. The Taliban have previously expressed a desire to normalize relations with the international community, particularly the United States, even if primarily driven by their own interests. That may explain why, during the recent conflict between Israel and Iran, the de facto government demonstrated an unexpected level of restraint. A brief statement issued on June 21 – the day before the U.S. strikes on Iran – outlined a meeting between Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Iran's ambassador in Kabul. In the statement, Muttaqi condemned Israel's attacks on Iran, calling them a clear violation of international law, and expressed solidarity with the Iranian people. Yet there have been no mass protests in Afghanistan. No Israeli flags have been burned; no anti-American slogans have been heard. The Taliban's restrained response to the Israel-Iran conflict stands in contrast to the approach taken by some officials during the former U.S.-backed Republic. In 2017, then-Deputy Chief Executive Mohammad Mohaqiq publicly praised and thanked Iranian General Qassem Soleimani – who was later killed in a U.S. airstrike – for his role in forming the Fatemiyoun Brigade, a militia composed of Afghan refugees recruited by Iran to fight in Syria. Mohaqiq's remarks, which also endorsed Iran's efforts to mobilize Afghan fighters, reflected the extent of Tehran's influence even within the leadership of a government established by the United States. The Taliban's current approach toward Iran takes place in a different context. Today, Iran – despite its own constrained circumstances – serves as a pivotal economic lifeline for Afghanistan. The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that nearly 4.5 million Afghan nationals live in Iran, 71 percent of whom are women and children. Other sources suggest the actual number may be even higher. In recent years, Iran has deported thousands of Afghans – a process that only intensified amid the escalating war with Israel. If Iran continues with mass deportations of Afghans, it will exacerbate Afghanistan's existing economic hardships. According to Naimi's vlog, Afghans she met in the camp 'are so vulnerable that it is hard to describe in words.' She noted that the Afghans would urgently need shelter, employment, and food upon arriving in Afghanistan. Yet food and jobs are precisely what Afghanistan cannot offer. The United Nations reported this week that the Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan has received only 18 percent of its required funding as of June 19, severely disrupting aid delivery to millions – including women, children, returnees, refugees, displaced communities, and other vulnerable groups. Reportedly, the Taliban have struggled even to pay their own rank and file. Creating new employment opportunities is hardly expected from an unrecognized regime ruling a landlocked country facing drought and burdened by heavy sanctions. Now, couple the refugee crisis with Afghanistan's heavy reliance on trade with Iran, and the fragility of the country's situation becomes even more apparent. Here, the potential fallout of regional war becomes impossible to ignore. In 2024, both Iranian and Afghan officials highlighted the growing economic ties between the two countries, with some claiming that annual trade had reached billions. According to Afghanistan's TOLO News, official figures from Afghanistan's Ministry of Industry and Commerce indicated that bilateral trade in the first nine months of 2024 totaled $2.2 billion – $2.2 billion in imports and only $38 million in exports. The bulk of Afghan imports from Iran consisted of diesel, petrol, and natural gas. Given the heavy international sanctions on Iran – particularly targeting its oil and gas sector – such exports to Afghanistan provide Tehran with a critical economic outlet and a rare source of foreign currency. Heavily sanctioned itself, Afghanistan has little choice but to rely on Iran's oil and gas – an uneasy dependence that forges ties born out of necessity rather than genuine alliance. After investing two decades of effort and resources, the United States now appears to be allowing Afghanistan to fall into the sphere of Iran, a regional rival and adversary. For now, the Taliban's relatively measured approach to the Iran-Israel conflict reflects their lingering hope to forge some level of ties with Washington. But if Taliban leaders eventually give up those efforts, a full-fledged embrace of Iran could follow. This is not merely about leaving Afghanistan trapped in the misery of sanctions – allowing Iran to gain influence represents a strategic setback for the United States after pouring blood and billions into the country. It raises urgent questions about the true cost of the United States' longest war and the enduring consequences of its withdrawal, if Afghanistan drifts further into the orbit of a heavily sanctioned regional adversary. The rights of millions of Afghan girls and women like Mahnoor Naimi – to work, to receive an education, and to live with dignity in their own country – should never be up for negotiation. Still, the tentative ceasefire with Iran – and the prospect of a weakened regime in Tehran – may offer the United States an opportunity to rethink its approach to Afghanistan and pursue a path of calculated, diplomatic engagement. Absent meaningful engagement, a destabilized Afghanistan – fraught with desperation, isolation, and volatility – risks becoming a nexus of renewed extremism and proxy conflicts that the United States and its allies cannot afford to disregard. This does not imply that the U.S. should endorsed the Taliban, nor empower a regime widely condemned for systemic gender-based oppression. Rather, it reflects a sober recognition of the complex and enduring realities on the ground: to forgo engagement with the de facto authorities is to abandon millions of Afghans like Naimi, who are caught in an intensifying humanitarian and political crisis. Persisting with sanctions in the absence of dialogue threatens only to exacerbate their suffering. Without urgent intervention, the lives of Naimi and millions of Afghan men, women, and children – who remain, by choice or circumstance, unable to flee – hang precariously by a thread.
Arab News
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Community schools offer hope for Rohingya refugee children as US aid cuts hit education
DHAKA: As US aid cuts have forced the UN's children agency UNICEF to suspend thousands of learning centers for Rohingya refugee children sheltering in camps in Bangladesh, a small number of community-led schools have now become their only source of education. The Rohingya, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority, have fled from Myanmar's Rakhine State to neighboring Bangladesh for decades to escape persecution, with more than 700,000 arriving in 2017 following a military crackdown that the UN said was a textbook case of ethnic cleansing by Myanmar. Today, more than 1.3 million Rohingya on Bangladesh's southeast coast are cramped inside 33 camps in Cox's Bazar — the world's largest refugee settlement. The refugees, who are almost completely reliant on humanitarian aid, recently faced another blow, after the US suspended aid funding worldwide in January. Washington has been the largest donor, having contributed $300 million in 2024, or 55 percent of all foreign aid for the Rohingya. Those and other foreign aid cuts 'have worsened the already existing education crisis for 437,000 school-age children in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh,' Human Rights Watch said in a report published this week. It is only in schools established by the Rohingya community that some children are able to get their education now, the group said, after UNICEF-run learning centers were forced to shut due to a lack of funding. These schools offer a small glimmer of hope for many young children in the refugee camps. 'School is important for me because it gives me knowledge, enhances my life skills, makes me think for my community, makes me a better person and makes me hopeful for a better future. As a refugee, I don't have many opportunities, but education can open doors for me and help me build a better life,' Mohammed Shofik, a 15-year-old Rohingya boy enrolled at a community school in Cox's Bazar, told Arab News on Friday. His dream is to become a scientist or doctor. At school, he is learning how to experiment and use tools, as well as how to listen and observe carefully, which he thinks are helpful to achieve his goals. 'Education is the only way to reach my dream and help my community,' he said. But only a small number of Rohingya children are able to enroll in the community-led schools, as they do not receive any charitable support, Arif Salam, a teacher in one such school in the camps, told Arab News. 'Community schools are not funded by any donors and NGOs. Our only funding source is the tuition fees received from the parents of our students. But we can't provide services to all the children,' he said. 'Only a few students in the camps can afford the learning in the community schools. Most of the students are enrolled with the UNICEF-run learning centers. The children who are enrolled with UNICEF learning centers are now sitting idle as they have nothing to do. It will create an irreparable loss for their education.' There are about 150 community schools across the Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar. Each of the schools have about 10 to 15 teachers, who provide education for 150 to 400 students. Without government support or private donor funding, the schools charge parents monthly tuition fees ranging from around $0.50 for class one up to $6.50 for class 12, a fee that many cannot afford, as the Rohingya are not allowed to work. 'The closure of learning centers brought huge educational losses,' Salam said. 'For our Rohingya children, it's a hopeless situation.' While the Bangladeshi government has not encouraged any informal system of education, such initiatives should be considered to address the education crisis, said Asif Munir, a renowned Bangladeshi expert on migration and refugees. 'Some kind of education is required for them because otherwise there is a possibility that the younger children, as they grow up, not just uneducated, they might be getting involved in informal work or even sort of risky work as well,' Munir warned. 'With education they can still hope for some kind of proper work where they can use their education in their life. So, in that sense, at least, the government can consider this as a good sort of coping strategy.' HRW had also urged the Bangladeshi government to 'recognize and fund community-led schools to increase their capacity,' and highlighted that recognition could help encourage donor support. For the young Rohingya whose lives have been plagued with increasing uncertainties, going to school helps them chart a path for the future. 'My dream is to become a motivational speaker. In school, our teachers teach us good listening, delivering strong messages, storytelling, using body language, confidence-building techniques and leadership skills,' 10th-grader Rohul Amin told Arab News. 'I think with all these knowledge and skills, I can achieve my dream one day.' For Amin, school also helps him learn about his identity as a Rohingya. 'I especially focus on the history subject because history makes me understand our identity. As a Rohingya, I have no identity. I mostly try to remember our land and our identity.'
BBC News
12 hours ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Focus on Africa A rise in child abductions in Mozambique
Civil organisations in Mozambique say at least 120 children have been kidnapped by insurgents in the north of the country. The Human Rights Watch group warn of a rise in abductions in the country's troubled nothern province of Cabo Delgado. The children are reportedly being used by Al-Shabab, an insurgent group linked to the so-called Islamic State, to transport looted goods, cheap labour and in some cases as child soldiers. We'll hear from someone closely monitoring the kidnappings. Also, are there increased US bombings against targets in Somalia since Donald Trump became president? And we meet Cathy Dreyer, the first female ranger to head up the team at the Kruger National Park in South Africa! Presenter: Audrey Brown Producers: Alfonso Daniels and Nyasha Michelle Technical Producer: Jack Graysmark Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp Editors: Alice Muthengi and Andre Lombard
