Human Rights and Refugees

The World Humanitarian Data and Trends is an annual flagship report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) that presents global and country-level data and trend analysis about humanitarian crises and assistance. Its purpose is to consolidate this information and present it in an accessible way providing policy-makers researchers and humanitarian practitioners with an evidence base to support humanitarian policy decisions and provide context for operational decisions.

Freedom From Fear met the leader of Solidarnosc a few days from the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain marking the end of the Cold War during his visit in Italy to Torino Spiritualità to talk about 1989: the year that changed the world.

In recent years world leaders news media and experts have warned of the global security threat from chemical biological radiological and nuclear (CBRN) material and weapons. Last December a bipartisan U.S. commission cautioned that “unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013.” In parallel with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall it is interesting to highlight the Cold War origins of many modern-day CBRN challenges. At the same time this article explores how newer developments have been infusing additional complexity into the global CBRN threat landscape.

When the wall came down 20 years ago it was the end of a regime whose cruelty was vividly represented by images of the lengths to which it went to keep its citizens within its borders. Who can forget the images of cars being searched as they exited Checkpoint Charlie; border guards doing their utmost to find even the most ingeniously hidden escapee. How can we not remember the dark inventiveness with which a regime seemed to turn every technological advance against its own citizens? How happy one could feel to be a citizen of the free world: free to travel across our own borders with governments who respected our personal liberty not only in this context.

Few doubt that the fall of the Berlin Wall is the event that closed the Cold War era and brought in the twenty-first century. Like every event in history this one also has its founding myths.

Promoting the rule of law at national and international level is at the very heart of the global mission of the United Nations. The rule of law is fundamental to achieving a durable peace in the aftermath of conflict to the protection of human rights and to economic progress and development. The basic concept that drives our work is the principle that everyone – from the ordinary citizen to the State and its leaders – is accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated equally enforced and independently adjudicated and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. As a lawyer and a former professor of law I retain a deep personal interest in this area of UN engagement.

The financing of terrorism is often difficult to detect because it follows only few fixed patterns. For instance an investigation into the financial transactions of some high profile terrorists and hijackers showed that most of the individual transactions were not that unusual. The account holders appeared to be foreign students receiving money to fund their studies; in such a way the transactions then would not be flagged as suspicious transactions needing a special scrutiny by the financial institutions involved.

In 1947 and 1948 UNESCO conducted a worldwide survey of a diverse group of intellectuals political leaders theologians social activists and other personalities to gather their opinions on the philosophical foundations of human rights. A survey that was not widely publicized at the time but one that is surprisingly relevant today.

« L'homme doit s'acquitter de ses devoirs envers les autres plutôt que de revendiquer ses droits tel est le fondement moral des relations sociales et politiques en Chine. La notion d'obligations mutuelles constitue l'enseignement essentiel du confucianisme » affirme le philosophe chinois Lo Chung-Shu (1903-1985) dans son texte intitulé « Les droits humains dans la tradition chinoise » envoyé à l’UNESCO le 1er juin 1947 dont nous publions des extraits.

Le droit à l’éducation est souvent tenu pour acquis… jusqu’à ce qu’on nous le retire. Outil indispensable pour défendre la liberté et la dignité de tous les migrants l’éducation est une condition sine qua non pour qu’ils deviennent membres à part entière de la société qu’ils intègrent. Une aspiration légitime qui se heurte à des obstacles sur le terrain.

in Angola Mozambique Sierra Leone the Democratic Republic of Congo the Central African Republic Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire warlords and leaders of militias and rebel movements prospered from the pillaging of their nation’s natural wealth as much as financiers of crime rackets dishonest civil servants corrupt politicians or national and international corporations. This impromptu alliance of stakeholders in Africa’s wars and violence could be broken down only with tens of thousands of peacekeepers targeted sanctions against the most persistent looters and with billions of Dollars invested in rebuilding governmental capacities. Still many nations are far from safe. Too heavy is the toll of war violence and corruption to rebuild these countries in a few short years. With global demand for most commodities reaching record heights and while most of these resource rich states’ oversight and law enforcement institutions are still in shambles it is as easy as ever - and much more profitable - to gain access to natural resources. Adhering to legal standards continues to be a minor consideration. For warlords and leaders of militias who have successfully transformed themselves into elites by joining political parties or by becoming businessmen it’s business as usual. Sadly these elites are greatly assisted by the apparent disinterest or inability of leading global companies – the ultimate users of raw materials - to reign-in the continued illegal exploitation of the developing world’s natural resources. Just in the last few months several investigations have revealed once again how criminal behavior is still pervasive in the natural resource business and how it affects each consumer around the world in unexpected ways. For at least four years it has been known that thousands of artisan diggers are exploiting cassiterite deposits (a tin oxide) around Walikale in Eastern DRC. A report by Nicholas Garrett in the Financial Times (6th March 2008) confirmed again that these artisans are laboring under the dictate of the renegade 85th brigade of the Congolese army led by Colonel Samy Matumo. The production not only enriches these bands of soldiers and their commanders but for years the cassiterite has been bought and traded through Western metals exchanges and brokers. Eventually it is used for the production of electronic products made by largest companies in this sector.

In February 2018 UNESCO launched a major project to strengthen the resilience of people living in the Lake Chad basin who have been affected by a devastating drought for the last four decades.

Afghanistan is a male-dominated society. It is also a society where authority and power mean a lot. I think that the fact that I am a guest in their country a foreign woman representing the United Nations – a respected organization – works in my favour. Afghanistan is very different from my own home country Sweden but beyond the surface we are all surprisingly alike. Daily life in Kabul is not very comfortable; I lived in one room for more than a year before I found a small flat in a securitycleared compound. The security situation is very worrying and limits your personal life as well as the work of the United Nations. The suicide attack on a UN convoy in Kandahar province in the south of the country on 14 September which killed two WHO colleagues was a terrible blow to all of us. It is getting increasingly difficult and dangerous. Half of the country is at least partially out of reach for us because of lack of security. The costs of operations are going up because of the volatile situation.

How can individual rights be reconciled while respecting the cultural sensibilities of different human groups? For the American anthropologist Melville J. Herskovits (1895-1963) this is the main difficulty facing the formulation of a world declaration of human rights. He elaborates on this dilemma in this excerpt from the text with the title "Statement on Human Rights" which he sent to UNESCO in 1947.

“The same is true of the right to information as of all other rights: its legitimate content must be defined in terms of real needs” wrote the French philosopher René Maheu (1905-1975) adding: “Conditionally of course on the word 'needs' being understood to mean the needs of human development and not of self-interest or passion.” This is an excerpt of his contribution to UNESCO’s survey on the philosophical foundations of human rights which he submitted on 30 June 1947 under the title “Right to Information and to the Expression of Opinion”.

“The basic ethical concept of Chinese social political relations is the fulfilment of the duty to one’s neighbour rather than the claiming of rights. The idea of mutual obligations is regarded as the fundamental teaching of Confucianism.” This is what the Chinese philosopher Lo Chung-Shu (1903-1985) wrote in his text titled “Human Rights in the Chinese Tradition” sent to UNESCO on 1 June 1947. An excerpt follows.

“Mimetic analysis” is how Peruvian artist Fernando Bryce describes his work process. It involves using ink on paper and meticulously copying by hand texts and images taken from magazines political pamphlets posters and old newspapers. Using this technique he has captured moments from recent history like the Cuban revolution the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War in his work. In 2015 our magazine was the source of inspiration for a series of drawings called The Book of Needs to which a supplement of this issue of the Courier is dedicated. Let’s find out what it’s all about.

The year 2020 marks two important landmarks in gender equality achievement: the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action and the 20th year of implementing Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women Peace and Security. Unfortunately the Covid-19 pandemic caused cancellation and postponement of many important international meetings including a shortened version of the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women but it is also risking to heavily jeopardize the progress made over recent years.

Over the last century organized crime has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to rapidly adapt to mutated social political and economic conditions. While in some cases this adaptation was the result of a reactive response to improved legislation targeting their interests in many others it was ignited by the pursuit of new possibilities for economic profit. Examples in this sense include how quickly criminal groups adapted to new scenarios created for instance by geopolitical changes the integration of global markets or the generalized use of the world wide web as a marketplace for a variety of licit and illicit goods and services.

With inflated proportions of their neighbours in prison on parole or at risk the world’s native communities have another urgent problem to contend with. Statistics show that the percentage of indigenous people in conflict with the justice system is extreme and in many places those numbers may be on the rise.

Racial discrimination is widespread in the legal system of the United States. A recent example from Louisiana will help underscore the statistics that follow.

In discussing the issue of discrimination against indigenous peoples it is tempting to paraphrase a preambular paragraph of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and say that at all periods of history discrimination in its many forms has inflicted great losses on humanity.

At the end of my nine years as Director of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia—now the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights—I would like to share my experience in addressing racial discrimination. I want to focus on eight areas of needs and opportunities which remain largely unexplored and which I believe need to be tackled more thoroughly in political and public debates. I am deeply convinced that together we can find forward-looking solutions that will better enable our changing societies to face the future.

The United Nations has been concerned with the issue of racial discrimination since its inception. The UN General Assembly adopted on 19 November 1946 during its first session a resolution declaring that “it is in the higher interests of humanity to put an immediate end to religious and so-called racial persecution and discrimination” and calling on “Governments and responsible authorities to conform both to the letter and to the spirit of the Charter of the United Nations and to take the most prompt and energetic steps to that end”.

Industrialized countries in recent years have complained about being swamped by asylum-seekers and have adopted increasingly stricter policies designed to stem the tide of refugees and ensure border protection. Since 2002 the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been tracking a downward trend in asylum applications lodged in industrialized countries. Its latest report Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries 2006 shows a steady decline in 50 industrialized countries (44 European and 6 non-European). The 2006 level was the lowest in many years and in some cases even for decades. Germany and Denmark for instance recorded the lowest level since 1983 New Zealand since 1988 and the United Kingdom since 1989. In France the number of asylum applications submitted in 2006 was the lowest since 1998. The 25 countries of the European Union received 53 per cent fewer requests in 2006 compared to 2002 while Europe as a whole registered a 54-per cent decline. While some experts agree that stricter asylum policies are behind the declining trend others prefer to point out the growing feelings of intolerance and xenophobia fueling these policies.

Anti-racism campaigners have been busy over the last couple of months. Concerns over racism xenophobia and far-right activity in and around football stadiums have reached fever pitch. Even though the new football season 2007-2008 has barely started in Europe we have already witnessed a progression of serious incidences.

Currently in both the international system and the inter-American system for the protection of human rights there are instruments which emphasize the obligation of States to guarantee the observance of the rights of all human beings without distinction as to race gender religion or political stance. However although a considerable body of treaties declarations and conventions exists to safeguard such equality in law as yet there is no effective equality in practice. In our opinion poverty is inseparably linked to human rights acting as both cause and effect of human rights violations and must be tackled if de facto equality is to be achieved. Excluded groups and persons will then be able to claim their rights from States and obtain prompt and appropriate responses at a reasonable cost thereby ensuring that social well-being spreads to all parts of society.

31st January 2019 at the European Parliament in Brussels several officials experts researchers and journalists concerned with finding solutions to the rise of violent extremism in the Maghreb and Sahel region gathered to share insights on a 5 million euros European Union (EU) funded programme implemented by UNICRI.

Nairobi 5 February 2010 - The science of climate change has been on the defensive in recent weeks owing to an error that dramatically overstated the rate at which the Himalayan glaciers could disappear.

This is not the first time that I have been asked how we can succeed in advancing the values of the United Nations in the most critical situations. It is a good question. Even those who have served in peace missions for over thirty years cannot provide a single answer to this question.

Mentioning security policies young generations and globalization in the same breath might appear as an attempt to tar issues that are fundamentally different with the same brush. The reason these three issues have often been ‘lumped together’ is the underlying concern that young people might become the main actors in activities which could potentially pose a threat to security (defined as a peaceful community life) above all in urban areas such as cities.

Colombia 19th June 1991: Pablo Escobar turns himself in a few hours after a Constituent Assembly overturned the extradition of Colombian nationals. Seven years of terrorism and political murders perpetrated by the Medellin Cartel and “The Extraditables” whose motto was “we prefer a tomb in Colombia than a dungeon in the US” were over. That day Colombia knelt down to the narcos: with no extradition law no money laundering legislation no international judiciary cooperation and a level of corruption that had reached the highest instances of power.

Terrorism can hit anywhere at any time. They do not just strike critical infrastructure but wherever people travel congregate relax live or attend a major event. The bombings in Bali (2002) Madrid (2004) London (2005) and the latest in Mumbai (2008) are chilling reminders of this. Each of these incidents highlights the turmoil caused by terrorist attacks where the human financial and other costs are immeasurable for individuals and entire families businesses corporations communities and nations alike.

Founded in 2004 the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has striven to set up what they call an Islamic state within what is currently Syria and Iraq (Mirror 2014).

We remain fascinated by terrorist acts and how seemingly normal people transform into cold-blooded killers. We have certain preconceived notions about who becomes a terrorist and why. Much of the conventional wisdom and preconceived notions are more conventional wisdom that empirically based on reality and facts. Mohammed Emwazi previously known as ‘Jihad John’ an educated middle class British citizen who became notorious for beheading Western aid workers and journalists in Syria surprised many who saw an educated Westernized person with no history of radical views.2 The stereotypes about terrorists include faulty assumptions about sanity a history of anti social behavior poverty or drug and alcohol abuse.3 More often than not terrorist groups use these assumptions to their benefit. Among the many assumptions about level of education wealth and ethnic background inevitably has also been that of gender.

Terrorism is a global threat. It can affect anyone anywhere at any time. Countering terrorism requires global coordination and global solutions. It is for this reason that Member States brought terrorism to the agenda of the United Nations more than three decades ago. The terrorist attacks of September 11th brought a new sense of urgency to the work already underway. Within weeks the Security Council adopted a comprehensive resolution which outlined a wide-range of counterterrorism measures to be taken by all Member States. These were legally binding for all states under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. The United Nations system in turn augmented its operational support to Member States in order to assist them in meeting these new commitments.

Managing today’s volatile and uncertain international security environment has become an increasingly important and complicated challenge. This new and radically different international security environment means that in addition to traditional threats to States there are new and more insidious ones brought by non-State actors that pose real dangers to an increasingly interlinked and interdependent society. National governments and international organisations are urgently examining the significance of this new situation. They recognise that no State can stand alone to face these challenges. What is required are collective strategies collective institutions and a collective responsibility. Of equal importance security now directly involves a broad cross-section of civil society the private sector economic development and human freedom.

Last November a group of extremists attacked the historic Taj Mahal hotel located downtown in one of the most symbolic Indian city Mumbai. The final official count put death toll at 171 bodies: a level of carnage that again raises questions surrounding the necessity of facing these kinds of threats and whether it is concretely possible to prevent such random killings in our cities.

Nur is a common name but it is just as likely that it is not his real name; he has been living for some time on the coast of Kenya near Lamu one of the last standing examples of Islamic architecture not far from the Somali border. He is a little over forty years old he speaks broken English and is constantly chewing on “khat” leaves from a plant that grows in some areas of Kenya and Ethiopia which cause a mild state of euphoria and are commonly used in Somalia. Although he was initially diffident and almost scared of my questions he overcame his hesitation in front of a few banknotes and accepted my invitation to tell his story and his experience as a pirate.

Somalia became independent in the 1960s when the two protectorates Great Britain’s in the South and Italy’s in the North were unified. A military coup headed by Mohamed Siad Barre in 1969 brought the country into a military regime that very soon shifted into an authoritarian rule which somehow managed to generate a certain degree of balance. After having experienced such ‘stability’ the country precipitated into a civil chaos in 1991 after Siad Barre was overthrown by opposing clans. Since then Somalia whose territory occupies a strategic and crucial position in the Horn of Africa has been living in full anarchy. Shortly after Barre’s capitulation the northern region of Somalia self-declared the independent Republic of Somaliland a country never recognized by other states which however has been preserving a stable existence: the Republic includes today eight administrative districts and it keeps its effort to guarantee democratic representation holding elections at all levels local and parliamentary.

It is true that “green criminology” should be grounded in the principles of environmental justice and help with the production of relevant legislative tools for the defence of the earth. However there are conducts which violate even the limited and inconsistent existing norms. A variety of such conducts can be detected in the “rubbish crisis” experienced in Naples two years ago.

The right to education is often taken for granted – until it is taken away. An indispensable tool to protect the freedom and dignity of all migrants education allows them to fully integrate into their new societies. This legitimate aspiration however faces obstacles on the ground.

Slavery has a history dating back thousands of years. It existed in prehistoric hunting societies and has persisted throughout the history of the mankind as a universal institution. Even though slaves have always been subject to physical and sexual exploitation the discussion of human trafficking from the point of view of exploitation has a much shorter history.

What do the following news stories have in common? The Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme responsible for the biggest corporate securities fraud in history the Austrian rape and murder case of Josef Fritzi whose daughter was enslaved for 24 years and the Irish Republican Army shooting two British soldiers and injuring four others in March 2009 breaking the peace outside Belfast? The answer is that we will probably never know what steps have been taken to provide a form of reparation to the victims or their families in ways that allow them to live their lives in peace. Victims-driven restorative justice is happening all around the globe. It is challenging the traditional criminal justice system by providing a new vision for systemic justice reform. The crime victims and those who recognize their unmet needs are the ones who are increasingly leading the effort to make this transition. However despite thorough evidence and numerous restorative justice evaluations the victims’ appeals for restoration are rarely heard.

In its efforts to raise awareness against the coronavirus the association “The voice of the students of Timbuktu” has just trained around thirty young people in respect of measures to stop the contagion. The training can be recognized as a means to strengthen the prevention of COVID-19 in Timbuktu where nothing seems to worry the population.