Via Monsters and Critics, Egyptian police apparently opened fire on a gang of human traffickers helping Eritrean and Sudanese refugees escape to Israel through the Sinai Peninsula. What's the significance? In recent months there has been a marked up-tick in the number of Eritreans entering Egypt illegally and seeking asylum. Egypt, in turn, has come under criticism from the United Nations High Commission on Refugees for forcibly repatriating Eritreans, despite their asylum claims. Meanwhile, UNHCR is trying to interview Eritrean asylum seekers to assess their claims for refugee status, but so far UNHCR officials have not be given access to all detention facilities housing Eritreans.
With Egypt being such hostile territory for Eritrean asylum seekers, a growing number have sought refuge in Israel. Writing in Ha'aretz Nurit Wuhrgaft tells the story of one intrepid young asylum seeker who made it all the way from Eritrea to Be'er Sheva in southern Israel.
To mark the International Day In Support of Victims of Torture, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon called on all UN member states to accede to the Convention against Torture and the Optional Protocol, which allows international visits to places of detention. From the UN News Center:
"[t]he foundation of international human rights law strictly prohibits torture "under any and all circumstances. And yet, 60 years since the adoption of the Declaration, torture persists, devastating millions of victims and their families," he said, adding that the Day was "a call to speak out and take action on their behalf and against all those who commit torture and all forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment."Over at his new digs at FireDogLake, Spencer Ackerman marks the day with a video of Amnesty International's protest on the National Mall.
A few weeks ago, John flagged a Refugees International report on the plight of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia. (The two countries have been in a state of conflict for the past decade). However, it seems that Ethiopia is not the only place that displaced Eritreans are vulnerable. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees reports that in recent weeks large numbers of Eritreans have sought refuge in Egypt. Problematically, Egyptian authorities have begun to systematically deport them. From the UN News Center:
The top United Nations human rights official said she was "alarmed" by reports that Egypt has deported some 700 Eritrean-asylum seekers in the past few days, and called on authorities to halt any further forced returns. "People who could well be at risk in their home country should never be sent back before their asylum claims have been properly addressed," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said in a statement. "Egypt should respect its international obligations not to send home anyone who could face torture or other serious forms of ill treatment, as may well be the case with those who have apparently been deported in recent days," she added.In a somewhat related development, the European Union approved a common policy yesterday which allows EU members to hold undocumented migrants in detention centers for up to 18 months. Life just became a bit more difficult for the world's most vulnerable populations.
Speaking at the beginning of a major UN summit on HIV/AIDS, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon challenged national immigration laws that place travel and visa restrictions on people with HIV. He did not mince his words:
"I call for a change in laws that uphold stigma and discrimination, including restrictions on travel for people living with HIV... [60 years after the Universal Declaration on Human Rights] it is shocking that there should still be discrimination against those at high risk, such as men who have sex with men, or stigma attached to individuals living with HIV."Twelve countries -- Armenia, Colombia, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sudan, the United States and Yemen -- bar entry to people with HIV. For more on how this affects people wishing to visit the United States--and in some cases become American--read this important op-ed from Andrew Sullivan. I, for one, am glad that Ban added his voice to this critical, yet often overlooked, issue of basic human rights.
In this week's Economist, there is a curious 'Executive Focus' classified ad to recruit the next United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Canadian jurist Louise Arbour is resigning from the post she has held since 2004, and the United Nations is preparing to fill the spot. The ad, though is not being paid for, nor endorsed, by the United Nations. Rather, the non-profit advocacy group Avaaz bought the ad as part of its campaign to increase transparency in the selection of top officials at international institutions.
This corresponding blog, sponsored by Avaaz and run by the Financial Times UN correspondent Mark Turner, profiles the top candidates and offers running commentary on the selection process. Check it out.
Refugees International has released a new policy recommendation calling attention to the plight of Eritrean refugees, as well as Ethiopians of Eritrean origin, who have not been fully integrated into Ethiopian society and are often targeted as undesirable "foreigners." This problem underscores the tension of the countries' border dispute and the festering antagonism between the two governments that precipitated the recent withdrawal of UN peacekeepers from the region. As RI's briefing makes clear, the ones suffering are those caught in the middle:
Nearly everyone RI interviewed told a story of ongoing separation from loved ones, exacting a considerable personal and psychological toll. Travel between Eritrea and Ethiopia is prohibited, there is no interstate phone system, and Ethiopians have reportedly been jailed for communicating with persons in Eritrea via the internet. "Family separation is the problem," one man said. "I am a nation-less person. Eritrea does not consider me as Eritrean. Ethiopia does not consider me as Ethiopian. My brother tried to go to Sudan but was caught and jailed. My sister is in Kenya. I've had no news from her in 5 years."The full policy recommendation is worth reading. Neither Ethiopia nor Eritrea is innocent here, and both need to take steps to secure the rights and dignity of those driven to a condition of essential statelessness.
A couple of recently released UN reports reveal the lingering security and human rights concerns in Iraq.
In its human rights report, issued on Saturday, the UN mission in Iraq cautioned that, while violent attacks have decreased in Baghdad, the security situation in the rest of the country remains precarious.
In another report, a group of experts established in 2005 to investigate the use of mercenaries found that private military contractors (PMCs) often operate without sufficient accountability, posing yet another danger to human rights in countries like Iraq.
Presenting its report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the working group said that private security companies in such conflict-wracked countries as Iraq, Colombia and Afghanistan are recruiting former policemen and members of the military from developing countries as "security guards" in their operations. Once there, those guards in fact become "militarily armed private soldiers," which is essentially a new way to describe mercenaries, who are often responsible for serious human rights abuses, the working group stated.Even without mention of the name Blackwater, the implied subtext of this report remains the incident last September, in which 17 Iraqi civilians were killed by personnel of the infamous U.S. contractor. As voices from The Wall Street Journal to The New Republic have opened their arms to the possibility of using PMCs in places like Darfur, the working group's report serves as a reminder that contractors can often undermine the very security they are meant to ensure.
As reported by The Washington Post, UN humanitarian chief Louise Arbour is planning to leave her position this upcoming June. Arbour has clashed repeatedly with the Bush administration, criticizing some of its counterterrorism policies and being scolded in turn for her perceived silence to the more egregious human rights violations of "totalitarian and abusive governments." Working with both upstanding democracies and unsavory dictatorships, Arbour's travails illustrate the fine line that the UN must walk between idealism and practical operation:
Arbour acknowledged that she has taken a more diplomatic approach to promoting human rights in places such as China and Russia, saying she has chosen a strategy of private engagement "that is likely to yield some positive results" over one that "would make me and a lot of others feel good." She said that as a U.N. official she is constrained by the reality of the organization's power centers, including China, Russia and the Group of 77, a bloc of more than 130 developing countries. In that context, she said, "naming and shaming is a loser's game."Arbour's point reminds me of an inversion of a famous maxim of Theodore Roosevelt that Sudan analyst John Prendergast frequently uses to characterize the Bush administration's Darfur policy. By limiting its action to sharp rhetoric, Prendergast contends, the U.S. has effectively pursued a policy of "speaking loudly and carrying a toothpick." Vocal condemnation of countries' human rights policies, as deplorable as they may be, is not the only way to induce a change in behavior, and Arbour is simply articulating the necessity of working within the UN system. When faced with the alternatives of unilateralism or inaction, this remains a laudable goal, even if some aspects of the UN, such as the Human Rights Council -- over which, incidentally, Arbour's office exercises no control -- fall short of the ideal level of reform. Instead of merely pointing its fingers at the transparent violations of notorious human rights abusers, the U.S. should work with the UN to effectively address these issues -- and should focus on cleaning up its own act as well.
Since the outbreak of fighting in Darfur, the United Nations has undertaken one of the biggest humanitarian operations in the organization's history, feeding and providing medicine to millions of refugees and internally displaced people. Throughout the humanitarian operation, however, the government of Sudan has not always been cooperative. It is often accused by some in the NGO and advocacy community of using tactics like "bureaucratic obstructionism," to prevent the delivery of humanitarian aid.
That is a somewhat opaque phrase. This is what it looks like in action.
The South Darfur government has expelled Wael al-Haj-Ibrahim, the top official of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the state capital, Nyala. The office is responsible for coordinating international aid efforts in the state... U.N. spokeswoman Orla Clinton tells VOA the organization has not yet received a clear explanation of the government's actions. "He was forced to leave South Darfur. This is a directive from the state government. Today, we are having meetings with the government here in Khartoum on this," said Clinton. "The only indication we have been given was that he was not complying with the humanitarian acts. Now, we don't exactly know what that means and we are looking for clarifications on this. So, we are hoping to have those clarifications today."