Latest news with #internationalcrime
ABC News
16 hours ago
- Politics
- ABC News
United Nations-backed investigators allege systemic torture in Myanmar detention facilities by security forces
United Nations investigators say they have found evidence of systematic torture by Myanmar security forces and identified some of the most senior perpetrators. Warning: This story contains details of sexual offences which may distress some audience members. The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), formed in 2018 to analyse evidence of serious violations of international law, said victims were subject to beatings, electric shocks, gang rape, strangulation and other forms of torture such as the removal of fingernails with pliers. "We have uncovered significant evidence, including eyewitness testimony, showing systematic torture in Myanmar detention facilities," Nicholas Koumjian, head of the IIMM, said in a statement accompanying the 16-page report. The torture sometimes resulted in death, the report said. Children aged 2 to 17, who are often unlawfully detained as proxies for their missing parents, were among those tortured, it said. A spokesperson for Myanmar's military-backed government did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters. The government has not responded to over two dozen requests by the UN team for information about the alleged crimes and requests to access the country, the UN report said. The military has said it has a duty to ensure peace and security. It has denied atrocities have taken place and has blamed "terrorists" for causing unrest. The findings in the report, covering a one-year period through to June 30, were based on information from more than 1,300 sources, including hundreds of eyewitness testimonies as well as forensic evidence, documents and photographs. Perpetrators identified so far include high-level commanders, the report said, although names were withheld due to ongoing investigations and concerns about alerting the individuals. Investigators focused on torture partly because many victims were able to identify perpetrators individually, which Mr Koumjian, a former prosecutor, said could help with future convictions. "People often know the names or they certainly know the faces of those who torture them or who torture their friends," Mr Koumjian told reporters in Geneva. Myanmar has been in chaos since a 2021 military coup against an elected civilian government plunged the country into civil war. Tens of thousands of people have been detained since then, the United Nations says. Junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing ended a four-year state of emergency last month and announced the formation of a new government, with himself as acting president, ahead of a planned election. The IIMM is investigating abuses in Myanmar since 2011, including crimes committed against the mainly Muslim Rohingya minority in 2017 when hundreds of thousands were forced to flee a military crackdown, and those affecting all groups since the coup. The IIMM is supporting jurisdictions investigating the alleged crimes, such as Britain and the International Criminal Court. However, Mr Koumjian said UN budget cuts threatened its work. Donations for its research on sexual violence and crimes against children, as well as funding for witness security, are set to run out at the end of the year, he said. "All of this would have a very substantial effect on our ability to continue to document the crimes and provide evidence that will be useful to jurisdictions prosecuting these cases," he said. Reuters/ABC
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Police rescue 11 babies in major bust on international surrogacy ring exploiting Vietnamese women
Vietnamese police say they have dismantled a major international surrogacy network, rescuing 11 infants and arresting multiple individuals across several provinces. The Criminal Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security said on Friday that the ring was orchestrated by a Chinese national known only as Wang, and had systematically exploited women through encrypted communication, social media platforms, and false identities to remain undetected. Eleven infants, aged between nine days and three months, were rescued from the network. Surrogacy is legal in Vietnam, but only under tightly regulated conditions and strictly for humanitarian purposes. Commercial surrogacy remains illegal, with criminal penalties for organisers and brokers. Authorities first detected the scheme when the police began monitoring unusual activity on social media related to commercial surrogacy with international links. Investigators confirmed that financially vulnerable Vietnamese women were being recruited as surrogate mothers and transported to China or Cambodia for embryo implantations before returning to Vietnam to carry pregnancies to term. Under orders from deputy minister senior lieutenant‑general Nguyen Van Long, a coordinated operation took place on 15 July, resulting in multiple arrests. One of the suspects identified as Quach Thi Thuong was operating under the names Coca and Pepsi on the Vietnamese instant messaging multi-platform service Zalo. She was recruited by Wang in late 2021 to find women under 35 in good health for surrogacy, and also organised caregivers and managed birth registrations, DNA testing, paternity certificates, and travel documentation, according to a report in Vietnam News. Police said Thuong received $1,000 (£743) per month, while a former surrogate named Pham Thi Hoai Thu, who began handling hospital logistics, was paid $500 (£371). Other suspects arrested were identified as Phung Thi Nuong, Nguyen Thi Hang, Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, and Lo Thi Thanh, among others. They have been formally charged with organising surrogacy for commercial purposes. Each surrogate was reportedly paid between 300m and 400m Vietnamese dong (£8,500-£11,350) per pregnancy. Thuong allegedly arranged approximately 60 such cases, earning around 575m dong (£16,325), while Thu handled around 40, receiving about 345m dong (£9,795). Police said payments to surrogates were structured according to pregnancy milestones. Each woman received a 10m dong (£284) bonus following a successful embryo transfer, along with a monthly living stipend of 8m dong (£227) for the duration of the pregnancy, according to a Jiji Press report. Upon giving birth, they were paid up to 198m dong (£5,621). However, deductions were made in certain cases: women aged between 35 and 38 had 30m (£851) subtracted from their compensation, and if a preterm birth occurred before 32 weeks, a $1,000 (£743) deduction was imposed with no additional cash bonus provided. Some surrogates even continued in the scheme as nannies, earning up to 750,000 dong (£21) per day. To avoid detection, operatives lived in luxury apartments with high security and frequently changed locations. The investigation also led to the detention of three Chinese nationals who entered Vietnam in May intending to collect a baby from the ring. The rescued infants are now in the care of a shelter maintained by the Vietnam Women's Union's Centre for Women and Development, with support from the ministry of health's department for maternal and child health and the Vietnam Children's Protection Fund.
The Independent
3 days ago
- The Independent
Police rescue 11 babies in major bust on international surrogacy ring exploiting Vietnamese women
Vietnamese police say they have dismantled a major international surrogacy network, rescuing 11 infants and arresting multiple individuals across several provinces. The Criminal Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security said on Friday that the ring was orchestrated by a Chinese national known only as Wang, and had systematically exploited women through encrypted communication, social media platforms, and false identities to remain undetected. Eleven infants, aged between nine days and three months, were rescued from the network. Surrogacy is legal in Vietnam, but only under tightly regulated conditions and strictly for humanitarian purposes. Commercial surrogacy remains illegal, with criminal penalties for organisers and brokers. Authorities first detected the scheme when the police began monitoring unusual activity on social media related to commercial surrogacy with international links. Investigators confirmed that financially vulnerable Vietnamese women were being recruited as surrogate mothers and transported to China or Cambodia for embryo implantations before returning to Vietnam to carry pregnancies to term. Under orders from deputy minister senior lieutenant‑general Nguyen Van Long, a coordinated operation took place on 15 July, resulting in multiple arrests. One of the suspects identified as Quach Thi Thuong was operating under the names Coca and Pepsi on the Vietnamese instant messaging multi-platform service Zalo. She was recruited by Wang in late 2021 to find women under 35 in good health for surrogacy, and also organised caregivers and managed birth registrations, DNA testing, paternity certificates, and travel documentation, according to a report in Vietnam News. Police said Thuong received $1,000 (£743) per month, while a former surrogate named Pham Thi Hoai Thu, who began handling hospital logistics, was paid $500 (£371). Other suspects arrested were identified as Phung Thi Nuong, Nguyen Thi Hang, Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, and Lo Thi Thanh, among others. They have been formally charged with organising surrogacy for commercial purposes. Each surrogate was reportedly paid between 300m and 400m Vietnamese dong (£8,500-£11,350) per pregnancy. Thuong allegedly arranged approximately 60 such cases, earning around 575m dong (£16,325), while Thu handled around 40, receiving about 345m dong (£9,795). Police said payments to surrogates were structured according to pregnancy milestones. Each woman received a 10m dong (£284) bonus following a successful embryo transfer, along with a monthly living stipend of 8m dong (£227) for the duration of the pregnancy, according to a Jiji Press report. Upon giving birth, they were paid up to 198m dong (£5,621). However, deductions were made in certain cases: women aged between 35 and 38 had 30m (£851) subtracted from their compensation, and if a preterm birth occurred before 32 weeks, a $1,000 (£743) deduction was imposed with no additional cash bonus provided. Some surrogates even continued in the scheme as nannies, earning up to 750,000 dong (£21) per day. To avoid detection, operatives lived in luxury apartments with high security and frequently changed locations. The investigation also led to the detention of three Chinese nationals who entered Vietnam in May intending to collect a baby from the ring. The rescued infants are now in the care of a shelter maintained by the Vietnam Women's Union's Centre for Women and Development, with support from the ministry of health's department for maternal and child health and the Vietnam Children's Protection Fund.
Al Jazeera
31-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Israeli settlers at Gaza border calling for settlements
NewsFeed Israeli settlers at Gaza border calling for settlements 'We are ready to move into Gaza right away' Israeli settlers gathered at the border on Wednesday demanding that Israel build settlements in Gaza and openly calling for the forced expulsion of Palestinians there. Ethnic cleansing is a crime under international law.
RNZ News
24-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Space, spies, stalking, and extra sittings
National MP Judith Collins speaking during the initial Privileges Committee debate regarding the Te Pāti Māori protest haka. Photo: VNP/Phil Smith The House took urgency on Tuesday evening which extended Tuesday's sitting until lunchtime Wednesday, then it returned on Thursday morning - that time as an extended sitting. As a result, most select committees are not meeting this week. Some have had to cancel their plans or squeeze some work in at lunchtime. With a few exceptions - and excepting bills that committees are given special permission to consider outside normal rules - Select Committees and the House cannot sit at the same time. Spare a thought for submitters and those who schedule them, who have had their plans upended again by urgency. The opposition did ask the Leader of the House last Thursday whether there would be urgency this week but was told to "wait and see". Last minute reveals of urgency are not unusual. Extended sittings (like Thursday morning) are signposted a week or two in advance, but usually little warning is given for urgency. Tuesday's urgency was aimed at two bills - one relating to space and the other about international crime cooperation. The Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Amendment Bill isn't so much about space as it is about the ground bases for satellites or other extra-terrestrial objects. The Minister for Space, Judith Collins was the bill's sponsor. "This bill introduces a new authorisation regime for ground-based space infrastructure. Until now, these activities have not been subject to a dedicated regulatory framework." The reason for the bill, revealed in the second reading debate, upped the interest. "During the past five years, there have been several deceptive efforts by foreign actors to establish and/or use ground-based space infrastructure in New Zealand to harm our national security. They have deliberately disguised their affiliations to foreign militaries and misrepresented their intentions. To date, these risks have been managed through non-regulatory measures, including relying on the goodwill of ground-based infrastructure operators. These measures are no longer enough." That sounds like the pitch for a thriller just begging to be written. This was a bill that the parties largely agreed on. They even agreed that urgency was reasonable, but opposition speakers complained about the push-push pace of urgency after the Committee Stage, as governing-party MPs worked to abbreviate what Labour's Rachel Brooking called "very civil, thoughtful debates." The pace really started to drag once the Budapest Convention and Related Matters Legislation Amendment Bill was the focus. Its sponsor, Minister of Justice, Paul Goldsmith said the bill "aligns New Zealand's laws with the requirements of the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, also known as the Budapest Convention. The Budapest Convention is the first binding international treaty on cyber-crime, and it aligns members' national laws relating to computer-related offences, improves investigative techniques, and streamlines evidence sharing." Labour supported the bill but played hardball in the Committee Stage, concerned about the possibility of the convention leading to New Zealand accidentally helping countries that don't share our values control their citizens. Duncan Webb put it like this. "We need to be vigilant that we are not being unwittingly used to further either political ends or to allow a foreign state to pursue a proceeding against something that might be a crime in a foreign nation, but it certainly isn't a crime in New Zealand and shouldn't be something for which criminal sanction follows." The opposition made the Committee Stage of the Budapest bill last through most of the rest of Wednesday. The government's original plan was to pass it through all remaining stages, but late on Wednesday evening, they abandoned it after the Committee Stage and moved on to their other priorities. The Budapest Convention Bill was left with just a third reading to complete. Those were not the only interesting bills under discussion this week. Three other bills are of particular interest, relating to Health, Secondary Legislation, and Stalking. Tuesday saw the first reading of the Healthy Futures (Pae Ora) Amendment Bill which will now be considered by the Health Select Committee. Among its measures, that bill enacts health targets, and also alters or removes Māori consultation and obligations from the health administration. The Minister of Health, Simeon Brown described his bill succinctly. "This bill is about cutting through bureaucracy, restoring accountability, and most importantly, putting patients first." Opposition MPs had numerous gripes including this one from Dr. Tracey McLellan, regarding bringing Health New Zealand under the public service obligation for staff neutrality. "That is a chilling thing to do. Frontline health workers who have a professional obligation, an ethical and a legal obligation to call out things that they see in their professional practice. It is not political, it is professional, and they should not, in any way, shape, or form, have this hanging over them, this concept of-the misuse of-public service neutrality." Also on Tuesday, the Legislation Amendment Bill had a first reading and now heads to the Justice Committee for public feedback. The Legislation Amendment Bill has been in development for a few years, and among its aims are making secondary legislation (e.g. regulations) more easily accessible and more likely to be pruned once obsolete. Secondary legislation includes all of the various kinds of laws that don't come directly from a piece of legislation but from power that legislation delegates to ministers, ministries, agencies, councils etc. There is much more secondary legislation than primary legislation but it isn't as easy to search or access. Primary legislation is all stored on a legislation website managed by the Parliamentary Counsel Office (PCO); currently secondary legislation is not. In debate, Labour's Camilla Belich observed that, "the main big change will be the single point of access that it will allow to secondary legislation. The point of the work that we do is to try and make sure that when either primary legislation or secondary legislation has an impact on people's lives, they have access to that. It shouldn't be something which is hidden away and it shouldn't be something which is difficult to find." Don't confuse the Legislation Amendment Bill with ACT's Regulatory Standards Bill which is also going through parliament and which appears to be trying to do something rather different. The Regulatory Standards Bill has influenced the shape of the Legislation Amendment Bill though, which Opposition MPs were unhappy with in debate, despite supporting the wider effort. The Crimes Legislation (Stalking and Harassment) Amendment Bill had its second reading late on Wednesday. It creates a new offence specific to stalking and harassment and the myriad forms that these can take. It includes indirect harassment like undermining reputation, opportunities or relationships. The bill itself is a fascinating read as an example of how much cleverness is required to effectively draft law for crime that is, by definition, quite nebulous. Policy staff at Justice and legal drafters at PCO may have taken to heart the idiom 'to catch a criminal, you have to think like one'. National minister Erica Stanford outlined changes made to the bill as a result of public feedback to the Select Committee. "To be convicted of the new offence, the prosecution will need to prove the person engaged in a pattern of behaviour towards their victim. The committee recommended a broader definition for the pattern of behaviour. The offence will now require two specified acts within two years, rather than three specified acts within one year. This broadens the pattern of behaviour by capturing fewer acts across a longer time frame. I agree that this change will better address strategies such as anniversary-based stalking..." "A further recommendation made by the committee was to add doxing to the list of "specified act". Doxing is the publication of personal information such as addresses or contact details, including whether a stalker claims to be their victim. It encourages third parties to contact, threaten, and intimidate the victim…" "The committee also added two further important amendments to the bill. Firstly, to allow the courts to order the destruction of intimate visual to allow a court to make restraining [orders], firearm prohibition [orders], and Harmful Digital Communications Act orders, where a defendant is discharged without convictions." There are other bills of note on the Order Paper that the government would have hoped to progress, but progress this week has been slow. Opposition MPs have taken their time working through bills in the committee of the whole House, whether they support them or not. This will likely annoy the government, but thoroughly testing bills is the job of all MPs in the House. That sluggish pace meant the second reading of the Parliament Bill also slipped down the Order Paper (along with the third reading of the Budapest Convention Bill). One bill the House may reach is worth noting. The Crimes (Countering Foreign Interference) Amendment Bill would be a second espionage-related bill for the week. This one hopes to plug gaps in the law around things like treason, espionage and even incitement to mutiny. *RNZ's The House, with insights into Parliament, legislation and issues, is made with funding from Parliament's Office of the Clerk. Enjoy our articles or podcast at RNZ. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
