Category Archives: Human rights

Australia vows to keep raising human rights concerns with China despite ambassador’s warning

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Xiao Qian implies resumption of dialogue conditional on Australia taking a ‘constructive attitude’ and not ‘trying to smear China’

The Australian government has vowed to keep raising human rights concerns “at the highest levels” after Beijing’s ambassador urged the country to avoid “trying to smear China”.

After a thaw in the diplomatic relationship between the two countries, China has signalled its openness to resuming a dedicated human rights-focused dialogue for the first time in nine years.

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Iranian protesters sentenced to death were tortured, says Amnesty report

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Two teenagers and 31-year-old man were subjected to torture including rape and beatings and denied fair trial, says group

The alleged torture of three young Iranian men facing the death penalty has been detailed in a report by Amnesty International that raises deep concerns about the country’s judicial system.

One of the men, Mehdi Mohammadifard, was raped by prison guards and severely beaten, the rights group said. Amnesty said it had learned that Mohammadifard suffered anal injuries and rectal bleeding that required treatment in a hospital outside the prison where he was being held.

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Immigration detainee not given new food because maggots ‘just on the vegetables’, report finds

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Advocates say ombudsman’s findings lay bare ‘inhumane’ treatment in Australia’s detention centres

An immigration detainee served a contaminated meal was not offered an alternative because the maggots were “just on the vegetables”, a report by the federal watchdog has found.

The claims by the commonwealth ombudsman – which are denied by the Australian Border Force – come in a report into conditions inside federal detention centres as part of Australia’s obligations under a UN anti-torture treaty – the optional protocol to the convention against torture (Opcat).

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Jair Bolsonaro accused of acts of genocide against Amazonian group

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Brazilian president says predecessor emboldened wildcat miners which led to wrecked forests and disease and death among Indigenous people

Brazil’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has accused Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right administration of committing genocide against the Yanomami people of the Amazon, amid public outrage over a humanitarian catastrophe in the country’s largest Indigenous territory.

Lula visited the Amazon state of Roraima on Saturday to denounce the plight of the Yanomami, whose supposedly protected lands have been plunged into crisis by government neglect and the explosion of illegal mining.

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‘The Crocodile has not changed’: Zimbabwe opposition warns of election violence

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Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa urges world to keep ‘eyes on’ President Mnangagwa amid fears of repression this summer

The leader of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party has warned of violence and repression by the ruling Zanu-PF party to ensure victory in elections scheduled for later this year.

In an interview with the Observer, Nelson Chamisa, president of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), called on the international community to have “eyes on” the struggling southern African country despite other crises around the world and to “offer solidarity” to those fighting for change there.

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Iran: fears grow of security crackdown in Zahedan as anti-regime protests persist

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Checkpoints have sprung up and armed police flood the streets in the restive city where dozens of civilians were killed last year

Protesters say they fear Iran’s security services may be planning an assault in the city of Zahedan – the site of a deadly attack on civilians last year – as reports emerge that there are thousands of armed police on the streets.

Fifteen checkpoints have been put up in the past week across the city, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, and several people have been detained by security forces.

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Iran to execute mentally ill man for allegedly burning Qur’an during protest

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Rights groups say Javad Rouhi, who was sentenced on charges including apostasy, was tortured so badly he can no longer speak

A 35-year-old man from a small village in northern Iran has been sentenced to death on charges including apostasy for allegedly burning a Qur’an and “insulting holy things” during the early phase of the protests triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

Javad Rouhi has not been entitled to a lawyer of his choice in court and suffers from a severe mental illness. Human rights groups say he was tortured so terribly in a detention centre run by the feared Revolutionary Guards that he lost his ability to speak and walk, and became incontinent.

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Family of executed British-Iranian national ‘prevented from seeing body’

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Alireza Akbari’s sister and daughter went to cemetery to collect his remains but were told he had already been interred

The Tehran-based family of the executed British-Iranian dual national Alireza Akbari have been prevented from seeing his body or burying him in the grave in which he had asked to be laid to rest in Shiraz, his birthplace, family members have told the Guardian.

Akbari was executed for spying for M16, charges he vehemently denied and for which there is no substantive evidence, save a confession extracted under torture.

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UK looks clumsy and powerless in wake of Iran’s execution of Alireza Akbari

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Culturally insulting language used by Rishi Sunak and James Cleverly will increase tension between the two countries

Britain’s relationship with Iran has a fraught, unedifying history, dating back to the 18th-century imperial tussle between England, Napoleonic France, and tsarist Russia for control of Persia. Iranians have long memories. To this day, they blame the UK for many of their woes.

Britain invaded in 1941 to limit Nazi influence and protect the Anglo-Persian company’s oilfields. In 1953 it intervened again, mounting a coup, with US help, to overthrow a democratically elected government and bolster the rule of the autocratic, pro-western shah.

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Salvadoran environmental defenders detained for decades-old crimes

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Activists worry the arrests are a move by the cash-strapped government to open the country to now banned metals mining

Five prominent environmental defenders who played a crucial role in securing a historic mining ban in El Salvador have been detained accused of civil war era and gang-related crimes, in what rights groups fear is a ruse to restart mining.

Miguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, Pedro Antonio Rivas Laínez, Antonio Pacheco and Saúl Agustín Rivas Ortega were detained on Wednesday in Cabañas in northern El Salvador, accused of killing an alleged army informant more than 33 years ago during the brutal civil war that claimed 75,000 lives.

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George Pell wrote memo calling papacy of Pope Francis a ‘catastrophe’

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Journalist who published the anonymous memo criticising ‘politically correct’ decisions reveals cardinal was its author

Cardinal George Pell was the author of an anonymous memo condemning the papacy of Pope Francis as a “catastrophe” where political correctness held sway while global wrongs were ignored, says the journalist who published it.

Released last year under the pseudonym Demos, the document accuses the pope of silence on moral issues, including the German Catholic church’s openness to the LGBTQ community, female priests and communion for the divorced.

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Protesters gather at Iranian prison in attempt to stop ‘imminent executions’

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Alarm raised after two men found guilty of running over police officer are moved to solitary confinement

Protesters have gathered outside a prison near the Iranian capital in an attempt to prevent the rumoured imminent execution of two young detainees found guilty of running over a police officer in a car during protests in November.

Footage posted on social media showed the mother of one of the men, 22-year-old Mohammad Ghobadlou, pleading for her son outside Rajaei-Shahr prison in Karaj, a satellite city west of Tehran. She said it had been established that her son had not been at the scene when the police officer died.

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UN rights chief urges rapid inquiry after 28 die in Burkina Faso town

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Volker Türk says investigation launched by government into deaths in mainly Fulani and Muslim area should be rapid and open

The head of the United Nations human rights office has called for a prompt, transparent investigation into the deaths of at least 28 people whose bodies were found in north-west Burkina Faso last month.

Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said it was encouraging that authorities had announced an investigation into the incident in Nouna town, a predominately ethnic Fulani and Muslim community.

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Iran condemned for executing two men over alleged crimes during protests

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Campaigners call for greater global action after deaths of Mohammad Mahdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini

Iran drew international condemnation on Saturday after it executed two men for killing a paramilitary force member in November during protests sparked by the death in custody of a young woman.

The latest killings double the number executed so far in connection with the nationwide protests. Two men were put to death in December, sparking global outrage.

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UN envoy calls for release of jailed journalist on hunger strike in Senegal

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Concerns raised over health of Pape Alé Niang, detained since 20 December on charges of revealing confidential government information

Pressure is mounting on authorities in Senegal to release a journalist and human rights defender on hunger strike in detention, after reports of his deteriorating health.

Pape Alé Niang, director of the Dakar Matin news website, has refused food since he was imprisoned on 20 December and has been in hospital since 24 December. A request for his immediate conditional release was turned down on Tuesday.

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Harvard blocks role for former Human Rights Watch head over Israel criticism

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Kennedy School allegedly bowed to donors unhappy with organisation accusing Israel of apartheid in occupied territories

The dean of one the US’s leading schools of government blocked a position for the former head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) over his organisation’s criticism of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.

The Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy offered Kenneth Roth a position as a senior fellow shortly after he retired as director of HRW in April after 29 years. Roth is highly regarded within the human rights community for the part his organisation played in advances such as the creation of the international criminal court and the prosecution of major human rights abusers.

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Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti released from jail after family post bail

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Alidoosti was arrested for support of women’s movement in Iran, including posing on Instagram without hijab

The celebrated Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti has been released from prison by the authorities after her friends and family provided bail. Pictures of her outside jail with campaigners holding flowers and without a hijab were shown on Iranian social media.

She had been arrested for issuing statements of support for the women’s movement in Iran, including by posing on Instagram without a hijab, the compulsory hair covering in the country.

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MP urges Britons to leave Iran after arrest of ‘British linked’ suspects

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Foreign affairs committee chair says holding of men allegedly involved in protests part of ‘industrialised taking of hostages’

All British people still in Iran should leave immediately because of the “industrialised” level of people being taken state hostage, the chair of the foreign affairs select committee has said.

Alicia Kearns made her call after the Iranian government said it had arrested seven “British linked” suspects including some dual nationals allegedly involved in the country’s anti-government protests, which began 100 days ago.

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UN human rights chief says UK should rethink plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda

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Exclusive: Volker Türk critical of scheme he considers ethically problematic and believes government must look again at how to deal with people-smuggling gangs and the treatment of refugees

The new UN human rights chief has urged the British government to reconsider its plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, warning that in the past similar “offshoring” schemes had led to “deeply inhuman” treatment of refugees.

In his first public comments on the controversy since taking office two months ago, Volker Türk rejected prime minister Rishi Sunak’s description of the £140m deal as “common sense”, saying that as well as being legally and ethically problematic it was also “very costly” and unlikely to work.

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UAE to deport Egyptian-American activist who called for Cop27 protests

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Arrest of Sherif Osman while visiting family in Dubai raises fears for activists at Cop28 climate conference

The United Arab Emirates is preparing to deport an Egyptian-American citizen detained in Dubai who called for protests during the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt, sparking fears about the treatment of civil society during next year’s Cop28 in the Emirates.

Sherif Osman, a former Egyptian army officer who has lived in the US for decades, was detained at a restaurant in Dubai, where he had travelled with his fiancee to see family.

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