Latest news with #humanrights
NHK
an hour ago
- Politics
- NHK
Returned Japanese detainee recalls painful ordeal in China
A Japanese man who returned home after being imprisoned for espionage in China for six years says one of the worst things was not knowing what was going on. Suzuki Hideji was detained in Beijing in 2016 on suspicion of endangering national security. He maintained his innocence during the ordeal. But a Chinese court ruled he had been involved in spying, handing down a six-year sentence. Suzuki said there was lack of transparency throughout the process. Suzuki says, "The reality is that you don't know when you will be taken into custody, or for what reason." He added that the process needs to be transparent during such an experience, and human rights need to be respected. He also said the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law should be promoted. Suzuki added that one of the most important things is for the Japanese government to get its citizens released quickly. Suzuki expressed the view that the foreign ministry should set up a special section to specialize in crisis management. He said, "It is important to give people a sense of security and trust by doing so. It is also important that the Japanese prime minister requests that China's President Xi Jinping release the detainees." Suzuki said the current system under Xi Jinping emphasizes national security, and that close monitoring of foreigners will continue.
LBCI
2 hours ago
- Politics
- LBCI
Death toll from south Syria violence rises to 203
At least 203 people have been killed in southern Syria's Sweida province, a war monitor said Tuesday, giving an updated toll after several days of clashes that triggered the deployment of government forces. The dead include 92 members of the Druze minority, 21 of them civilians "killed in summary executions by government forces," according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, as well as 93 security personnel and 18 Bedouins.
Arab News
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Arab News
US lawmaker warns of shrinking freedoms in Pakistan, cites Imran Khan's continued incarceration
ISLAMABAD: A senior US lawmaker on Tuesday voiced concern over the human rights situation in Pakistan, saying basic freedoms were in jeopardy under the current administration and expressing alarm over the continued incarceration of former prime minister Imran Khan in a high-security prison in Rawalpindi. The remarks by Rep. Chris Smith, Co-Chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, during a congressional hearing in Washington on 'political repression' in Pakistan. The bipartisan commission was established in 2008 by the US House of Representatives to promote and advocate for international human rights through hearings, investigations and policy recommendations. Its latest hearing focused on Pakistan and featured testimony from several witnesses, including Zulfi Bukhari, a close aide to ex-premier Khan and a senior figure in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. 'Life in Pakistan today is marked by rampant government violations of basic freedoms, particularly freedom of speech and media freedom, and the denial of free and fair elections,' Smith said in his opening remarks. 'Pakistan is a country of over 250 million people — the fifth-largest country in the world — so the human cost of this repression is immense in its scope as well its severity,' he added. Smith maintained Pakistan's democratic crisis was not new, though he asserted the government's human rights record had 'taken a sharp turn for the worse' in recent years. The American lawmaker pointed to the confrontation between the South Asian country's powerful military establishment and Khan's PTI, calling the former prime minister a 'genuinely popular leader' who had challenged public corruption and military interference before being ousted in what Smith described as a 'political coup' in 2022. Smith noted that last year's general elections were 'widely seen as unfree and unfair, including by the US government, marked as they were by a ban on the PTI party, harassment of PTI officials, bans on public gatherings, a national Internet shutdown, and massive voting irregularities.' In his testimony, Bukhari said that 'Imran Khan and his wife are in solitary confinement for over 23 hours a day,' describing their conditions as 'inhumane.' He also questioned the legality of the February 2024 elections, which PTI has repeatedly alleged were rigged, and criticized the military trials of civilians that he said led to the conviction of dozens of party members and supporters. 'This is a purge,' he said. 'It's not justice.' Toward the end of Bukhari's statement, Smith urged the US administration to sit up and take notice of the situation in Pakistan. He also urged the Trump administration to 'redouble its commitment to democracy and human rights' in the South Asian country.
Al Arabiya
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
UN expert on Palestine says US sanctions ‘violation' of her immunity
The UN's unflinching expert on Palestinian affairs Francesca Albanese said Tuesday that Washington's sanctions following her criticism of the White House's stance on Gaza are a 'violation' of her immunity. The United Nations' Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories made the comments while visiting Bogota, nearly a week after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions, calling her work 'biased and malicious.' 'It's a very serious measure. It's unprecedented. And I take it very seriously,' Albanese told an audience in the Colombian capital. Albanese was in Bogota to attend an international summit initiated by leftist President Gustavo Petro to find solutions to the Gaza conflict. The Italian legal scholar and human rights expert has faced harsh criticism for her long-standing accusations that Israel is committing 'genocide' in Gaza. 'It's clear violation of the UN Convention on Privileges and Immunities that protect UN officials, including independent experts, from words and actions taken in the exercise of their functions,' Albanese said. Rubio on July 9 announced that Washington was sanctioning Albanese 'for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt (ICC) action against US and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.' The sanctions are 'a warning to anyone who dares to defend international law and human rights, justice and freedom,' Albanese said. On Thursday, the UN urged the United States to reverse the sanctions against Albanese, along with sanctions against judges of the International Criminal Court, with UN chief Antonio Guterres's spokesman calling the move 'a dangerous precedent.' On Friday, the European Union also spoke out against the sanctions facing Albanese, adding that it 'strongly supports the United Nations human rights system.' Albanese, who assumed her mandate in 2022, released a damning report this month denouncing companies – many of them American – that she said 'profited from the Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid, and now genocide' in the occupied Palestinian territories. The report provoked a furious Israeli response, while some of the companies also raised objections. Washington last month slapped sanctions on four ICC judges, in part over the court's arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, barring them from the United States. UN special rapporteurs like Albanese are independent experts who are appointed by the UN human rights council but do not speak on behalf of the United Nations. Israel has killed more than 58,479 Palestinians in Gaza, according to data from the Health Ministry in the territory, considered reliable by the UN. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence has surged in the territory since October 2023.
News.com.au
6 hours ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
David vs Goliath: Inside the legal battle to help Trump's deportees in El Salvador
A small group of overstretched and outmatched lawyers is fighting for the rights of men deported by the Trump administration and held in a notorious Salvadoran prison -- a David vs. Goliath battle that may end up in international courts. In a half-empty old schoolhouse outside San Salvador, lawyer Rene Valiente is trying to determine the fate of 252 Venezuelan migrants expelled from the United States in March without any kind of court hearing. He is the investigations coordinator for Cristosal, a human rights NGO that is challenging El Salvador's all-powerful president, Nayib Bukele, and his even more powerful US ally, President Donald Trump. For months, Valiente and his team have gone from jail to ministry to courthouse, trying to find out more about those being held at the tightly controlled CECOT facility, and to have the men's legal rights recognized. With both the Trump and Bukele administrations stonewalling, the lawyers have had little success. Valiente has no visitation rights, no proof the men are alive, and not even an official list of their names. "We've asked for information, but have repeatedly been rebuffed," Valiente told AFP. "They are in a kind of legal black hole." "We've filed 70 applications for habeas corpus. None have been resolved," he said, referring to prisoners' right to challenge their detention. On a laptop, Valiente shows a database of detainees that he and his colleagues have managed to cobble together despite the official silence. Some on the list were spotted by distraught family members in Hollywood-style images of chained and shorn deportees being bundled off planes and into jail. Others are like Jhoanna Sanguino, who saw her 24-year-old nephew's name on a list of detainees leaked to the media. "It's overwhelming to know nothing," she said. "Is he being fed? Does he get a sip of water? How is his health? - 'Crime against humanity'? - Trump has claimed the Venezuelans deported were "criminals" and "barbarians", mostly made up of gangsters, rapists, and murderers. But Cristosal's database tells a different story. The group has registered 152 individuals so far, and 90 percent of them have no criminal record. Cristosal's work appears to have earned the ire of Bukele -- who has consolidated power and packed the courts with allies since being elected in 2019. Valiente's colleague Ruth Lopez was abruptly detained in May and accused of illicit enrichment, a charge she denies. Days before her detention, she told AFP she had been working on documenting forced disappearances under Bukele's government. She is one of tens of thousands of people who have been detained under Bukele's state of emergency, often without court orders, the right to phone calls or even to see a lawyer. A further crackdown seems likely. Cristosal director Noah Bullock said that in Bukele's El Salvador "speaking out or asking something that is not aligned with the government entails the risk of being arrested." The lawyers are determined to help the Venezuelans, but expect little from a country where the president has near-absolute control. "We want to document these grave human rights violations, to leave a trace. For the moment we are exhausting all domestic legal channels" said Valiente. Ultimately, they may look to bodies like the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the International Criminal Court, whose treaty, the Rome Statute, was ratified by El Salvador in 2016. "The Salvadoran government is obligated to report on the condition of the prisoners," said Venezuelan former diplomat Walter Marquez, whose Amparo Foundation represents dozens of the detainees. "Failing to do so is a crime against humanity, according to the Rome Statute, and could lead to international prosecution." Salvador Rios, a Salvadoran lawyer hired by the government in Caracas to represent 30 deportees, similarly believes that "sooner or later" Bukele will face justice.
