Latest news with #Accountability
Irish Times
28-05-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
Sligo-based doctor whose nine nieces and nephews were killed in Gaza: ‘I'm not seeking revenge, I just want this madness to end'
The uncle of nine girls and boys from one family who were killed in an Israeli air strike last week has called on Ireland to end Israeli 'impunity' and play its role in bringing 'accountability' to those responsible for death and destruction in Gaza . Dr Ali Al Najjar, a Palestinian doctor who works at Sligo University Hospital , said he hoped to see the Dáil pass the Occupied Territories Bill without delay and that he believed the legislation could prompt a domino effect in other countries. 'It worked with South Africa; maybe if we did the same with Israel and isolated Israel economically and politically,' Dr Al Najjar told RTÉ's Liveline programme. Last Friday, Dr Alaa al-Najjar, a paediatrician living and working in Khan Younis, lost nine of her 10 children in an Israeli air strike on the city. A few hours after the strike, the charred bodies of seven of the children were brought to the hospital where she worked, while two other bodies remain buried under the rubble. Just one of her children, 11-year-old Adan, and her husband, Hamdi, survived the attack. Both father and son were severely wounded. READ MORE The names of the children who died in the air strike were Yahya, Rakan, Eve, Jubran, Ruslan, Revan, Sayden, Luqman and Sidra. Sidra's twin Sidar died aged three months due to an infection and lack of medication, Dr Al Najjar said on Wednesday. 'The whole point of sharing my voice is I hope the tragedy Alaa had is going to be the last tragedy. If what happened, happened for a reason, and puts more pressure to end this war of injustice and end this nightmare, I will be satisfied. 'I'm not seeking revenge from anyone, I just want this madness to end. I wish no one else to go through what we are going through.' Dr Al Najjar, who is currently visiting family in Saudi Arabia, recalled how he spoke with his sister by phone three weeks before the air strike. She told him life in Gaza had become 'doomsday' and that when neighbours great each other, they say 'farewell'. She said, 'We don't know when we'll meet again. Anyone is expecting his moment at any time.' During this conversation, his sister said her children remained 'resilient'. Two of the children of the Al-Najjar family who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 24th. Photograph: Reuters/Hussam Al-Masri Eleven-year-old Adan, the only surviving child of doctor Dr Alaa al-Najjar, lies in a bed at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after an Israeli airstrike hit their home. Photograph: Hani Alshaer/Anadolu Last Friday, he learned about the deaths of his nieces and nephews through a mix of news reports, social media posts and sporadic messages in family WhatsApp groups, he said. Asked what Ireland can do in response to the ongoing war in Gaza, Dr Al Najjar said the international community should no longer 'tolerate' the Israeli government's calls 'for the erasure of Gaza openly'. 'They are very honest and they don't feel shame about publicly verbalising it. We need accountability; they feel they have impunity to do whatever they want.' Dr Al Najjar said his sister had three requests – that people pray for her surviving son and husband; that the bodies of her two children be retrieved from the rubble; and that the destruction of her family become a turning point that 'will hopefully end this mad war'. Nearly 54,000 Palestinians, including more than 16,500 children, have been killed across the territory since the war began, according to the Gaza health ministry. Isam Hammad, a former manager of a medical equipment company in Gaza who was reunited with his family in Ireland last year, recalled spending time in the Al Najjar household before the war began. [ 'We are dying of hunger': Palestinians storm aid centre in southern Gaza Opens in new window ] 'I met Hamdi in the house where they were bombed; this family used to have a medical clinic. It's a terrible story but this is going on every day. So many families have been wiped from the face of this earth. Even if she lost one child or two, it's the same, it's just killing.' Mr Hammad, who is still awaiting a residency permit for his family after more than a year in Ireland, agrees that sanctions should be taken against Israel without delay. 'When Russia invaded Ukraine sanctions were put in action in no time. But now, we're still thinking and talking about whether to impose sanctions or not. There's no point in talking about human rights any more, countries are not responding. Palestinian lives have no value.'
ABC News
21-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Releasing public sector pay gaps increases accountability, says WGEA CEO
Workplace Gender Equality Authority chief executive Mary Wooldridge says the new data places a spotlight on public sector employers and enhances transparency and accountability, which is a catalyst for further action. #ABCBusiness
Arab News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Pentagon chief orders review of US withdrawal from Afghanistan
A special review panel will 'thoroughly examine previous investigations,' Hegseth said in a memo'This team will ensure ACCOUNTABILITY to the American people'WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday ordered a Pentagon review of the chaotic 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has long been a target of Republican criticism.'I have concluded that we need to conduct a comprehensive review to ensure that accountability for this event is met and that the complete picture is provided to the American people,' Hegseth wrote in a memo.A special review panel will 'thoroughly examine previous investigations, to include but not limited to, findings of fact, sources, witnesses, and analyze the decision making that led to one of America's darkest and deadliest international moments,' the memo said.'This team will ensure ACCOUNTABILITY to the American people and the warfighters of our great Nation,' it US withdrawal saw Taliban fighters sweep aside Afghan forces, forcing the last American troops to mount an evacuation from Kabul's airport that got more than 120,000 people out of the country in a matter of August 26, 2021, a suicide bomber targeted crowds of people on the perimeter of Kabul airport who were desperate to get on a flight out of the country, killing more than 170 people, among them 13 American Biden, who was US president during the withdrawal, defended the decision to leave Afghanistan, which critics have said helped cause the catastrophic collapse of Afghan paved the way for the Taliban to return to power two decades after their first government was toppled by American forces in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
RTÉ News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- RTÉ News
Pope Leo XIV has mixed record on abuse, says campaigners
One of the most pressing issues facing Pope Leo XIV is tackling sexual abuse by clergy in the Catholic Church - and campaigners say he has a mixed record. Two victims' rights groups, SNAP and Bishop Accountability, issued statements following his election as the first pope from the US, questioning the 69-year-old's commitment to lifting the lid on the scourge. As head of the Augustinian order worldwide and then as bishop of the Peruvian diocese of Chiclayo between 2015 and 2023, "he released no names of abusers", Bishop Accountability's Anne Barrett Doyle alleged. The same was true of his two years as head of the powerful Dicastery for Bishops, a key Vatican department that advised Pope Francis on the appointment of bishops, she said. "Prevost oversaw cases filed... against bishops accused of sexual abuse and of cover-up. "He maintained the secrecy of that process, releasing no names and no data," Barrett Doyle added. "Under his watch, no complicit bishop was stripped of his title." "Most disturbing is an allegation from victims in his former diocese in Peru that he never opened a canonical case into alleged sexual abuse carried out by two priests," she added. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), for its part, said that when Pope Leo was bishop of Chiclayo, three victims reported their accusations to the diocese but nothing happened. The trio went to the civil authorities in 2022. "Victims have since claimed Prevost failed to open an investigation, sent inadequate information to Rome, and that the diocese allowed the priest to continue saying mass," the group said. As provincial head of the Augustinians in the Chicago area, SNAP added, the future pope also allowed a priest accused of abusing minors to live in an Augustinian friary near a school in the city in 2000. 'Opened the way' Yet Bishop Accountability also highlighted positive reports of Pope Leo's role in exposing the scandal of abuse and corruption against Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), an ultra-conservative lay congregation in Peru dissolved by the late Pope Francis this year. Survivor Pedro Salinas - a journalist who wrote an expose against the group - last month included him among five bishops who played an "extremely important role... on behalf of the victims". That case "gives us reasons to hope", Mr Salinas said, adding: "We pray we see more of this decisive action by Prevost when he is pope." Yesterday, the head of the Peruvian Bishop's Conference, Carlos Garcia Camader, also defended the new Pope's record. As bishop, he "opened the way here in Peru to listen to the victims, to organise the truth commission" in the SCV scandal, said Mr Camader. First accusations of abuse emerged in the early 2000s, but the case exploded in 2015 with a book citing victims that detailed "physical, psychological, and sexual abuse" carried out by the movement's leaders and founder, according to the Vatican's official news outlet. After a seven-year investigation, Pope Francis dissolved the group just weeks before he died, after expelling ten members. About 36 people, including 19 minors were abused, according to Vatican News. In January, Leo joined Francis in a meeting with Jose Enrique Escardo, one of the first victims to denounce the religious movement's abuses. "We reject the cover-up and secrecy, that does a lot of harm, because we have to help people who have suffered because of wrongdoing," Pope Leo told Peruvian daily La Republica in an interview in June 2019.
AsiaOne
09-05-2025
- Politics
- AsiaOne
Prevost, first US pope, supported Francis and shunned spotlight, World News
VATICAN CITY — Robert Prevost, the choice of the world's Catholic cardinals to serve as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Church, is the first pope from the United States and a relative unknown on the global stage. Aged 69 and originally from Chicago, Prevost has spent most of his career as a missionary in Peru and became a cardinal only in 2023. He has given few media interviews. He takes the papal name Leo XIV, and succeeds Pope Francis, who had led the Church since 2013. Rev Mark Francis, a friend of Prevost since the 1970s, told Reuters the cardinal was a firm supporter of his predecessor's papacy, and especially of the late pontiff's commitment to social justice issues. "He was always friendly and warm and remained a voice of common sense and practical concerns for the Church's outreach to the poor," said Francis, who attended seminary with Prevost and later knew him when they both lived in Rome in the 2000s. "He has a wry sense of humour, but was not someone who sought the limelight," said Francis, who leads the US province of the Viatorian religious order. Prevost first served as a bishop in Chiclayo, in northwestern Peru, from 2015 to 2023, and became a Peruvian citizen in 2015, so he has dual nationalities. Pope Francis brought him to Rome that year to head the Vatican office in charge of choosing which priests should serve as Catholic bishops across the globe, meaning he has had a hand in selecting many of the world's bishops. The new pope's views on many issues are little known. During a 2023 Vatican press conference, he expressed scepticism about ordaining women as Catholic clergy, repeating a line Francis often used about the risk of "clericalising" women. Leo's record on sexual abuse cases, a key issue for the global Church, has not been thoroughly examined in public. Bishop Accountability, a group that tracks clergy sexual abuse, said in a statement after the new pope's election that he had a mixed record on the issue. The group praised his efforts to help one abuse victim in Peru, but raised questions about his handling of other allegations levelled against two priests. Jesus Leon Angeles, coordinator of a Catholic group in Chiclayo who has known Prevost since 2018, called Prevost a "very simple" person who would go out of his way to help others. Leon Angeles said Prevost had shown special concern for Venezuelan migrants in Peru, saying: "He is a person who likes to help." More than 1.5 million Venezuelans have moved to Peru in recent years, partly to escape their country's economic crisis. In a 2023 interview with the Vatican's news outlet, Prevost focused on the importance of evangelisation to help the Church grow. "We are often preoccupied with teaching doctrine ... but we risk forgetting that our first task is to teach what it means to know Jesus Christ," he said. Prevost said during a 2023 Vatican press conference: "Our work is to enlarge the tent and to let everyone know they are welcome inside the Church." 'He knows how to listen' Prevost was born in 1955 and is a member of the global Augustinian religious order, which includes about 2,500 priests and brothers, operates in 50 countries and has a special focus on a life of community and equality among its members. He has a bachelor's degree from Villanova University in the suburbs of Philadelphia, a master's from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and a doctorate in Church law from the Pontifical College of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome. Prevost first went to Peru as a missionary in 1985, returning to the United States in 1999 to take up a leadership role in his religious order. He later moved to Rome to serve two six-year terms as head of the Augustinians, visiting many of the order's communities across the world. He is known to speak English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese. Returning to Rome in 2023, Prevost generally did not take part in many of the social events that attract Vatican officials throughout the city. Leon Angeles said he is a person with leadership skills, "but at the same time, he knows how to listen. He has that virtue." "The cardinal has the courtesy to ask for an opinion, even if it's from the simplest or most humble person," she said. "He knows how to listen to everyone." [[nid:717838]]
