Concerns for imprisoned leader heightened by leaked logs
Leaked prison logs from early 2024 have provided rare insight into the tightly controlled life of Aung San Suu Kyi, the ousted Myanmar leader, who is spending her fourth year in solitary confinement.
The logs detail her daily routine, including waking at 4.30am, over an hour of meditation and prayer, three modest meals, and several hours reading English and French novels.
Ms Suu Kyi was detained after the military overthrew her elected government in a 2021 coup and she was handed a 27-year prison sentence on charges widely condemned as politically motivated.
Concerns about her wellbeing are heightened by the logs, which indicate she receives only basic medical care and has faced room temperatures reaching 31C.
Ahead of her 80th birthday on 19 June, her son Kim Aris has launched a campaign to collect 80,000 messages for her.
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Reuters
31 minutes ago
- Reuters
Britain, under pressure on immigration, urges reform of European human rights framework
LONDON, June 18 (Reuters) - Britain called on Wednesday for reform of the European Convention on Human Rights, amid growing domestic criticism that it allows a foreign-based court to meddle in sensitive areas of policy such as immigration and deportation rulings. The convention, which dates back more than 70 years and aims to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe, must "evolve" to reflect changing political realities, justice minister Shabana Mahmood said. Britain's Labour government has criticised the way the convention is interpreted in immigration cases, where its provisions have been used to try to prevent the deportation of migrants - some of whom have been convicted of serious crimes. "It damages the public perception of human rights altogether," Mahmood told a meeting of the Committee of Ministers, the decision-making arm of the Council of Europe, which oversees implementation of the convention. The convention applies to the 46 member states of the Council of Europe and can be enforced by binding rulings from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), based in the French city of Strasbourg. While Britain has left the European Union, it remains a member of the Council of Europe and of the ECHR. Labour has already promised to clarify how the convention should be interpreted by domestic judges, but Mahmood used her speech to urge wider reform of the human rights framework. "The European Convention on Human Rights is one of the great achievements of post-war politics. It has endured because it has evolved. Now, it must do so again," she said. The Council of Europe did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mahmood's remarks. Britain is not alone in seeking reform. Nine European countries, spearheaded by Italy and Denmark, urged the Council last month to ease the process of expelling foreign criminals. Secretary General Alain Berset, the head of the Council, criticised that initiative, saying on May 24: "The court must not be weaponised — neither against governments, nor by them." Britain's nearly one-year-old Labour government has seen its popularity slide partly due to public concerns over immigration and needs to show it can deport foreign criminals and migrants who have arrived illegally. Labour is committed to remaining in the convention but Nigel Farage's Reform UK, a right-wing party now topping national opinion polls, has said it would immediately withdraw if it won power. The Conservative Party, the biggest opposition party in parliament, has said it is reviewing its policy on Britain's continued membership.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Labour plan to stop foreign criminals exploiting human rights laws to avoid deportation rejected by Eurocrats
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood was immediately rebuffed by Europe after calling for a shake-up of human rights laws. She used a speech in Strasbourg to set out how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) 'feels out of step with common sense' and needed to 'evolve'. But the head of the Council of Europe – the organisation which drew up the ECHR 75 years ago – said the treaty should not be used as a 'scapegoat' and insisted he did not support any moves to amend it. Ms Mahmood said: 'There is a growing perception – sometimes mistaken, sometimes grounded in reality – that human rights are no longer a shield for the vulnerable, but a tool for criminals to avoid responsibility. 'That the law too often protects those who break the rules, rather than those who follow them.' She added that post-war values of 'democracy, human rights and the rule of law' were now facing 'distortion, doubt, even hostility', as the public's confidence in them was 'fraying'. For example, she went on, the 'right to private and family life' under Article 8 of the ECHR has 'too often been used in ways that frustrate deportation'. Secretary general of the Council of Europe Alain Berset said he would not support any measures which would 'weaken' the human rights convention 'The ECHR is one of the great achievements of post-war politics. It has endured because it has evolved. Now, it must do so again,' she said. However, Council of Europe secretary general Alain Berset said he opposed changes to the convention. 'I am not calling for reform of the ECHR, nor do I support any effort that would weaken it,' he told the Politico website. 'It should never be used as a scapegoat in domestic political debates. 'When states face complex challenges, the answer is not to dismantle the legal guardrails they themselves helped build. 'The proper place for dialogue is through our institutions, not through pressure on the European Court of Human Rights or attempts to bypass the system.' It also emerged Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has launched a probe into how human rights laws are abused in extradition cases as part of a wider shake-up. She has ordered Home Office civil servants to conduct a review of the way Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights – which prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment – is being deployed in immigration cases, especially extraditions. She is thought to be concerned over cases in which foreign nationals facing extradition from the UK are able to successfully argue it would breach their human rights because of poor conditions in prisons overseas. There have been several examples of Brazilian nationals dodging extradition because of jail conditions in their home country, for example. Last month Ms Cooper pledged to tighten the law on Article 8 in an immigration White Paper. It said the Government will neuter the ability of immigration courts to allow human rights appeals, by strengthening the 'public interest test', making it easier to deport foreign criminals and others. Legal changes will also make clear that Parliament has the final say on immigration law, and not judges. Ms Cooper's new review could mean human rights claims are curtailed when foreign nationals attempt to avoid deportation under Article 3 as well as Article 8, it is thought. New laws curtailing the use of human rights laws in immigration cases are set to be unveiled after Labour party conference in September, the Daily Mail understands. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said a Tory government would leave the ECHR if necessary. Former Tory home secretaries Priti Patel and Suella Braverman have both called for the UK to leave the convention.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
‘I've lost hope of overturning Uganda's brutal anti-LGBT+ law thanks to Trump's aid cuts'
One of Uganda's most prominent LGBT+ activists says he has 'lost hope' his country's extreme anti-homosexuality law being repealed – with Donald Trump's decision to slash US foreign aid funding removing one of the key pressure point on the government. Steven Kabuye was brutally attacked in 2024, in the wake of the law – which punishes consensual same-sex relationships with penalties up to life in prison – being passed the previous year. He had been receiving regular death threats when, on his way to work in January 2024, he was stabbed twice by two unknown men and left for dead. After the attack he was given asylum in Canada. 'I almost lost my life that day,' he explains. '[It] almost cost me my life and I'll continue doing this work until the day the gods decide this is my end'. Aid cuts and sanctions against Uganda introduced by Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as well as pressure from the World Bank, are thought to have played a role in overturning some limited aspects of the legislation. 'But with the Trump government coming into power in the US, everything went back', Kabuye says, and the milestones they had achieved, 'all withered away'. Kabuye fears it will be impossible to convince President Yoweri Museveni, Uganda's leader of almost 40 years, to 'remove some draconian laws without leverage'. 'How are you going to leverage him? By giving him aid,' he says. 'Without aid you have nothing on him'. Though the majority of the harsh law remains in force, a general obligation to report suspected 'acts of homosexuality' to the police has been revoked, thanks to US pressure. The provision had led to LGBT+ people being denied or too afraid to seek healthcare. 'Before all the sanctions that came from the US under the Biden administration,' Kabuye explains, the Ministry of Health in Uganda used to run workshops for medical workers telling them, 'how to report anyone who is suspected of being transgender'. Then, financial pressure from the US and beyond, 'at least pushed the Ugandan government,' Kabuye explains, to remove some articles of the law that were, 'very very severe and are very harmful' . It also pushed the health ministry to make sure LGBT+ people could access healthcare including HIV medication in specialist drop-in centres funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), he adds. Using aid as leverage has been controversial at times. When the British government threatened to cut aid to countries that persecuted gay people, a group of more than 50 African social justice organisations signed an open letter expressing concerns about, 'the use of aid conditionality' as an incentive to uphold LGBT+ rights , because of the 'real risk of a serious backlash' against the very people they are aiming to protect. 'Donor sanctions are by their nature coercive and reinforce the disproportionate power dynamics between donor countries and recipients,' the letter added. Two years on from halting new lending to Uganda saying its anti-gay law violated the bank's values, the World Bank reversed its decision at the start of June, saying it now believes measures put in place to prevent harm from the law were 'satisfactory'. 'They cannot afford these medications' On the ground in Uganda, US aid cuts have led to the closure of many such health centres, forcing people back into public hospitals where they may be discriminated against. Organisations supporting LGBT+ people living with HIV told The Independent they had also seen a rise in verbal attacks and denials of care in hospitals after Trump not only withdrew funding for those groups, but also mounted targeted attacks particularly on trans people in the US. A State Department spokesperson said that while the US had reprioritised foreign spending to, 'advance US prosperity, security and safety,' a review remained ongoing and in the meantime the US continued to fund 'significant lifesaving and humanitarian assistance' in Uganda. The United States has long stood for the protection of human rights and equal treatment under the law, the spokesperson added, and all authorities to challenge human rights violations and corrupt actors continued to be available to the US government. US sanctions against some Ugandan officials for rights violations remain in place. Since US aid-linked closures of HIV clinics in Uganda - as well as the loss of staff who used to deliver medicines to some patients' homes – Kabuye says people are now 'running back into the dark corners wondering when all this will stop'. Kabuye is now supporting three of his friends financially to help them to buy life-saving anti-retroviral medication which they were previously able to get for free. 'These are people that actually cannot work due to the limitations that are put in place by the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023. They cannot afford these medications. They cannot afford transportation to go to the main hospitals.' Beyond the fear and distress caused, cutting access to HIV prevention and treatment will lead to 'loss of lives and a lot of them,' Kabuye warns. The Ugandan government has denied this, saying: 'As a government, we uphold a non-discriminatory policy in service delivery, ensuring equal access to healthcare for all'. A spokesperson added: 'The legislation was passed and signed into law by the Ugandan government to safeguard the interests of Ugandans and future generations. Importantly, the law still upholds the right to seek health services without discrimination. All health facilities continue to provide care, including free services.' Watching the impact of US cuts play out from afar in his new home in Vancouver has been 'traumatic', Kabuye says. 'I feel like I have to do something, but I cannot. It makes me powerless, but then I have my voice. I can speak up. I can inform the world what is happening out there'. The experience of his attack - which he believes happened as a result of his activism - hasn't left him. "It will always come back in my memories when I sleep. When I watch TV, if I see a certain story that connects with my experience. If I see blood. When I look at my scars. 'I'll walk with it for the rest of my life. I just have to accept that it happened, and I survived".
